ON THIS DAY IN 1997: Square Soft (aka Square Enix) released Final Fantasy VII in Japan. It would hit American shores by Sept, and become one of the best-selling, most-love JRPGs of all time.

GameCrate illustrates how incredibly prescient Final Fantasy VII was for the time. The themes that set it apart from competing RPGs of the day, foresaw social ills we face now, 22 years later.