20 Essential Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

5. Final Fantasy VII

While the argument over which Final Fantasy is the best rages on decades after some of them were released, it's not unreasonable to say that the seventh instalment in the series is the most iconic.

Making the series' first leaps into 3D graphics, the game not only sparked huge sales of the Playstation console, but brought RPGs out of Japan and introduced them to the rest of the world. There's been no looking back since. Even if it's become visually dated, the game's blockbuster storyline is still the source of much debate and nostalgia even today, and first plays are still capable of reducing grown men to tears.

Taking elements of environmental disaster, megalomania, genetic manipulation, gods, and the universe, the game's plot twists and turns wonderfully through its 3 disc running time, and benefitted from a staggeringly beautiful combat and magic system.