1. Final Fantasy 7
There's been an awful lot said about this title in the past decade. So much so, in fact, there are websites and blogs dedicated to pages and pages of random comments and theories, designs and ideas, about this game. A lot of people are wholly convinced they know more about FF7 then those who developed it. Before this game came along, I was a different person, since all gaming ever represented to me was getting from level to level, powering up, and finishing the quest. When I look back at my time spent with Final Fantasy 7, the original time spent on my PSOne in 1997, it's hard to imagine that I'm the same gamer or even person I was then so influential and impacting is this software's effect on me. Characters are instantly recognizable, unique and lovable, with Tifa (Cloud's best friend) and Aerith (a flower girl from the Slums and so much more) complementing the more hard fought like Barrett (the leader of Avalanche with a secret in his past), Red 13 (the last of his kind, wise and yet not infallible), Cid (an airship pilot who dreams of going to Space) and Yuffie (a young girl with the heart of a Ninja). There are also the more stupid characters, like Cat Sith, which I've always retained a soft spot for even if he was a Shinra Spy. In fact, so compelling are some of the stories for FF7 (such as Red XIII discovering what really happened to his father) they've been copied, years later. Also, the Materia (or Spirit Magic) system is quite frankly genius, and allows you to pick and choose what attacks to best use with what character. For example, should Aerith be the group healer, should Cid hold the power of Thunder, and so forth. It's a basic concept that applied to all kinds of online role playing games these days as well, such as World of Warcraft and Warhammer. Of course, to play devils advocate, there are a lot of legitimate reasons why people would hate FF7 not because of what it is but what it did to gaming culture in general. Before 7, virtually nobody in Europe had ever heard the term, and few people in North America had legitimately purchased Final Fantasy. VII created a vacuum in time and space that needed to be filled with everything FF including remakes, spin offs, development titles and ports. In fact, since 1997, we've had 110 Final Fantasy games released across 15+ different platforms. And in this case, due to the phenomenal success of FF7, this is mostly all down to Cloud and his friends. In short, play it now, and find the Promised Land. Did we miss any key PSOne titles that changed the way you played games completely? Share your own picks below in the comments thread.