Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII arrived on mobile phones in 2015 as a direct port of the game that fundamentally changed Western perceptions of the JRPG genre on the original PlayStation in 1997, bringing millions of new players to it. The story of the mercenary Cloud Strife, who joins an eco-terrorist group fighting the megacorporation Shinra as it drains the planet's life energy, and his later confrontation with the former hero Sephiroth, ranks among the most famous video game plots of all time - largely thanks to the cinematic pre-rendered backgrounds and dramatic moments that players still remember decades later.

The mobile version retains the original graphics and the Materia system, which lets players build spells and abilities by slotting colored orbs into weapons and armor, but the controls were reworked into virtual buttons and touch-operated menus, which can feel clumsy and less precise than the original controller when moving through three-dimensional space over pre-rendered backgrounds. Random battle encounters and turn-based combat, on the other hand, work fine on touch without major issues and remain easy to follow, as does the menu for equipping Materia and reviewing character abilities.

This is a game today's players will appreciate more as a historical milestone and a piece of gaming history than as a technically flawless experience - the graphics, camera, and movement pace show their age, even though the story and music hold up well.

Why play it: For fans of JRPG history who want to experience Cloud and Sephiroth's original story in pocket form, while accepting that touch movement controls are less precise than a physical controller.