Final Fantasy 7
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Final Fantasy VII may in fact be one of the greatest games
of all time. I remember back to the time when I first heard
about this game coming out on Playstation. My first thought
was like most Americans, 'there is 7 of them?' Because
people in the US only got 3 true Final Fantasy's prior to
this one. Everyone at the time was saying that it would be
the best game of all time, total 3D graphics, a great story
and other great innovations. As the 'Fantasy Finally' went
to the next step 32-bit. Final Fantasy upon first glance
looked outstanding, great Full Motion Video, and interesting
characters. This is only in the opening sequences, the story
started out great and that could have supported an entire
game. Then I went on to looking at the characters blocky and
super deformed but still better than all other RPG's at the time.
I think this game set the standard for all other PSX RPG's
and for other modern systems, because before this RPG's
weren't exactly the target market for most video game
makers. Because before this we had small characters a story
of dragons' castle and princess's and basically only geeks
played RPG's . After this game people mind got changed
quickly it was a large and growing market. This made many
people jump on the bandwagon and they grabbed up every new
RPG that went out of the floodgates after the success of
this. Almost every company had to make an RPG to get herself
a piece of this market. This game was a huge success and
sold millions and is still selling today. Not many people of
have experienced the likes of this great game could deny how
wrapped up you get into the story. This is game I found
quite hard to put down and no recent RPGs could do this to me.
Although some would say a few RPG's have come close to the
greatness of this one but none had the sure quality many
have mimicked it's style even the later games in this series
but none lived up to it and took it like this one. Yes some
have better graphics, better sound and even a longer game
with a more detailed story. But they are just not Final
Fantasy VII. This game is the true king and start to the
entire new wave RPG era. Which isn't exactly a good thing...
Story 10/10
This story is epic. The main character is Cloud Strife, a 21
year old ex SOLDIER. The story begins as he embarks on a
mission for Avalanche. Avalanche is a small rebel group, who
is for saving the planet. The evil corporation Shinra, is
taking all the planets Mako energy with out it the planet
would cease to exist. Avalanche hires Cloud, to help them
take out one of the reactors. After a while though Cloud
adjust to life and the way things are going and your overall
opinion of him may change through the different courses of
the game. Pay very close attention to what happens in the
story then you will figure it out. Cloud goes through so
many changes and so many things go around him you have to
watch his character. The characters around him are also very
fun to watch and they all have unique stories of their own.
This game is that so epic in story and so book like it will
really make you think after you are done beating it. Anyone
with any knowledge will tell you that this is one of the
best stories ever made and it had absolutely perfectly timed
Plot Twist some modern games throw them in too late or too
early. This one catches you when you less expects which is
always a better thing than when you know when it 's about to
happen. Some don't figure it out during their first play
through I guess Square wanted speculation around this game.
The characters Cloud meets are:
Barett, leader of Avalanche, A huge guy who is missing his
right arm which is replace with a machine gun type, even
before the arm he was tough and this made it even worst for
him. He really cares for the planet and heads up your first mission.
Tifa: A bar hostess who's bar Tifa's 7th Heaven is the
secret base of Avalanche. She also grew up with Cloud. She
would never admit her feeling for Cloud, but she has them
but her tough out core makes it hard for her.
Aeris: A flower peddler from the slums. She has strange
powers, no one knows where they came from and she likes to
talk of the future.
Cid Highwind: Possibly the best Pilot air or sea. He was
suppose to be the first man in space but his dreams were
shattered, a while ago he is still bitter about and when you
first meet this potty mouth pilot you might think he's a jerk.
Cait Sith: A small spunky little cat who sits on top of a
huge Moogle. He can tell fortunes, but his true intentions
for Cloud & company are unclear.
Vincent Valente: A mysterious man found in a coffin of the
old Shinra Mansion. How did he get there? What is his
connection with Shinra? You must find out.
Yuffie: A mischievous young girl. Her ultimate quest is to
have all the materia in the world, for her own greedy purposes.
Red XIII: A fire red dog creature. He is believed to be the
last of his species. He was giving the name Red XIII, from
the evil Dr. Hojo.
Sephiroth: Elite Legendary Soldier, the best of the best
Sephiroth consider the best fighter in the world and he's
the game main bad guy besides the Shinra Corp, he is very
mysterious and one of the best video game villains ever.
In my opinion this is the best story line in the entire
series. This game has a lot of different plot twists, and
character changes. It does become difficult to understand at
times, but it is less difficult to follow than its sequel.
This story was open to interpretation and there is still
speculation around the events to this. Some people have
everything figured others don't even know yet what was going
on. This story line seems very realistic, and it was just
overall great.
Visuals 10/10
For the time this game had truly outstanding visuals some of
the best in Video game RPG history if not the best. The
character size like I mentioned above was super deformed the
characters had no mouth and cinderblocks for hands. This
game featured new graphic features not normally associated
with RPG's like a 3D world Map, scaling size characters and
a cool looking 3D-battle screen. So in essence the entire
game was in 3D. There was the little things added to make
the graphics even better small minute details added to
everything. Like cupboards that had little things on top of
them, and rustic looking houses, and the broken down look of
the Slums. All these things under early inspection looked
pretty insignificant you had to grab the full detail of the
game to fully enjoy it on all levels.
Then you had the Full Motion Videos, there were a lot of
them scattered all over the game. But not nearly as many as
it's predecessor's . Although many would say that a lot of
FMV made the game long and tedious I happen to beg the
differ. Because the game did have the Cinema Scenes at the
proper time at the proper events, events where the regular
field graphics wouldn't of done the scene and justice. All
the FMV's were done great they had beautiful graphics and a
lot of colors and some of the best cinema graphics seen at
the time on Playstation. Besides the FMV's I think some of
the other games graphics were truly stand out.
Especially during the battle sequences, which are more like
the FMV graphics. Although the characters still look
deformed they are a little bit taller and a little more
normal looking. You also have spells with a lot of 3D effect
added to them. And how could I forget the summons! Before
when we got a summon it was just a quick animation on the
screen now they have at least 10-20 second animation of them
coming from the ground the sky or wherever. Charging up
their moves then blasting the enemies. These look very cool
but there is indeed a downside to these. After you seen them
three to five times you get a little bored with them. They
are cool to watch I'm not saying that but they never change
it's always the same.
This is always a problem on a long drawn out boss fight that
would of taken 10 minutes now takes 20 cause you want to use
a Summon. Plus a lot of times games with 3D graphics
especially RPG's where you had to see something or find
something it was harder to find. Because the game gave you a
new camera angle every new screen. So an essence it was like
playing a game like Resident Evil. But because some of the
character angles got in the way of the screen it made the
game more difficult to play. Then because there was so much
going on in the screen you really couldn't tell that there
was a treasure chest on the ground of if it were part of the
background. This in my opinion proved to be a problem.
Because you had to try and find a lot of stuff because the
game is really big.
And then if you saw something and couldn't make it out this
really ruined the game in a sense. So I think even though
the game had great graphics there were downfalls to the
graphics as well. Then going back to the FMV's they to be a
problem. Although great watching them again well tended to
be quite boring. I didn't like to watch the same Full Motion
Video more than twice they are always cool the first time,
then each consecutive time they get longer and more boring.
I think there should have been a way to skip over long
boring FMV's and long boring Summon Cinema. But then some
would argue that if you accidentally skipped over a very
important FMV then you wouldn't know what happen. Well I
think they should have added an are you sure you want to
skip? Just incase you happen to be pressing X a lot.
Overall though the graphics on this game were outstanding,
although they have small flaw as I mentioned above from the
average gamer stand point these minor flaw really wouldn't
be much of a problem. Although at key moments these
insignificant flaws tended to be a problem but in an overall
stand point they really didn't hurt the game all that much.
All though one may argue if it isn't perfect they could have
made it better not I, I think that it was although a sign of
sloppiness the overall look is great. Overall I think the
graphics on this game was great and you couldn't ask for
better from Square.
Audio 10/10
You got to love this game music. Every piece of music was
equally enjoyable and everything about it was done so
perfectly it was indeed music to the ears. Not one song
really stands out above the rest but in fact it was a
perfectly harmonized calibration of sounds and perfectly
blended music that made this game what it was. Some many
memorable musical notes were together in this one it was
really was an outstanding treat, nothing ever got tedious or
boring. In fact the music on this game was better than any
of its predecessors, who both tried to mimic the sounds and
songs of this one. Songs that do have to stick out are the
airship theme the battle theme the boss theme, most of the
songs from the slums and the world map music.
All of these songs were outstanding and any of them would be
good listening to on there own without any support of
actually playing the game. Some of these songs were very key
to the overall appeal to the game and they really made this
game worth playing again and again. All the classic songs
made it to this version which I found quite great most of
these were remixes and synthesized to actually sound like
music, and not like midi's like the SNES little brothers.
Then there was the sound although like every Final Fantasy
there weren't any voices in the game you had such a wide
range of realistic sounds like Dragons breathing fire, and
swords slashing into a meaty monster. Then there were
explosions and gunshots, all of which sounded very good and
clear on a stereo system.
The overall music on this game was great. The sounds and the
music combined equally to make this game a treat. None of
the songs the new ones or the remixes were bad they all
sounded very good and they all came out loud and clear. Even
though this game is so amazing it's hard to even focus in on
the sound. It's always there and you never get that 'turn
off this music' feeling when you get stuck in the
game. The music plotted along perfectly with the game and it
did the game justice when you were listening to it. Bottom
line this game was outstanding in the Audio department and I
couldn't believe the music on this game was done this well.
Game Play 10/10
The system in this game was probably the easiest since
original FF1 it was called the Materia System. You had to
collect Materia through out the game, and unlike other's
where you had to buy more Materia. For instance if you got a
fire materia it leveled up by Ability Points, so when you
hit the next level it turned into Fire 2. Then it would
Level up to Fire 3, but this took a while unless you wanted
to level it early and fight hordes of monsters, but you get
more AP in the later part of the game so it wasn't worth it.
Just like the other Final Fantasy's there were Summon
Monsters, you summoned them during battle to take huge
points if damage off of your enemies. You equip your
Materia, to your weapon or armor, some have more slots than
others and some don't give you AP. There are certain weapon
that you find throughout the game that boost your AP by
double or Triple whatever Materia is attached.
Some gain experience faster than others while some don't get
any higher at all or don't gain any ability. There are 4
types of Materia you should be familiar with, they are;
Purple, Individual Materia this gives you boost like Exp
Hp--Mp exchange Chocobo locator and more. Blue Materia,
Helper Materia this helps Green and Red Materia, and only
can be used when linked not by itself. Red Materia this is
for summon monsters. Green Materia Magic Materia lets you
use magic on your opponents. When you start the game you
will be in the slums, but eventually you get out of the
slums and go other and better places like Kalm, Rocket Town,
Wu-Tai, Nibelhelm, and plenty of others. You also like the
other Final Fantasy you get Chocobo's . Chocobo's can get you
places like they did in FF6 but you don't buy them in
stables you catch them because they usually hang with
monsters.
In the beginning of the game you will catch them for fun to
get you some where when you don't have access to a vehicle.
Then later on you will have to breed them if you want to get
special chocobo, this is a lot of fun and its worth your
time and effort In the long run. The 4 types of Chocobo's
you will get are Blue, Green, Black and Gold. There are
rumor Chocobo's like Red White Silver Purple but these
aren't confirmed. Each Chocobo will have a different
ability, green ones climb mountains, blue ones can go across
lakes, and black ones do both mountains and lakes. Gold ones
can go across mountains lakes and Oceans plus if you train
them at the golden Saucer they can make you get you some
items you will not find anywhere else in the game. The
Golden Saucer is a place where you can play some fun mini
games, like Moogle House, where you have to be a moogle and
your job is to feed the moogle some Kupo nuts until its able to fly.
Then there is a submarine game this is a lot of fun and you
have to go different missions to make points. Then there was
this 3D fighter game where you played, and it was like Rock
Paper Scissors, meaning that one move canceled the other in
a loop. You also had the battle arena where you can get
battle points and earn some cool prizes namely some good
Materia that you can't buy or find anywhere. When you were
lost in the game and couldn't figure out what to do or what
how to beat a boss the Golden Saucer was an excellent place
to go for fun. The other side quest you had was the Weapon
side quest. Through out the game you will hear about a
legendary beast called Weapon, which the Shinra military
can't stop, you have chances to fight Weapon variations
throughout the game. The first and hardest would be the
Emerald Weapon, you will find him after you get the
submarine, I would advise you to actually look for him until
you have gained to level 90 and above and have powerful
weapons and magic.
If you beat this beast you can find the Ruby Weapon, which
is equally hard but in my opinion once you figure out what
to do he can go down easily as well. This maybe the hardest
part of the game and certainly all the hidden weapons are
the most difficult enemies you will encounter. I suggest
going for this side quest after you beat the game. Overall I
enjoyed this game to a high extent. I mean everything about
the game was so fun and everything was very interesting. The
game had a hard difficulty and since this game was obviously
geared towards a beginner it was extra hard. The game took
one block of memory to save.
Overall 10 out of 10
This game is very fun to play as well as challenging.
Although it did have its problem they are very small
problems but most of them were difficult. Some of these
problems like the fact that the magic system was clearly
geared towards beginner. Although I like the fact that it
wasn't too complicated it gives the more experienced RPG
players, something to possibly lust after. I mean The
Materia system although a good system was just to babyish
too basic. Then the game makes everything too strait
forward. I mean the game might as well tell you where to go
the only real challenge were some of the bosses in the later
parts of the game. I rarely got lost in the game only at
certain later points of the game did I actually get lost.
This in my opinion was the fact that Square knew that not
only hard core RPG players would be into but the rest of the
market a new people would jump on the bandwagon once this dropped.
The fun factor in this gamed actually varied although I
don't say that much. Some points of this game I really
enjoyed but on the flip side others weren't all that fun or
enjoyable it was all a point of opinion on how much fun you
actually have playing RPGs.. RPGs were never meant to be fun
they were meant to tell you a story it is suppose to be like
playing a book, so the fun thing really didn't apply here.
Although Chocobo Raising and Racing were both very fun it
was always fun racing the chocobos for a little bit of extra
Gils or to get some items or because you had nothing else
better to do.
The Replay Value on this is pretty much Medium. I don't
believe RPGs were made to be replayed a lot and this one
applies. I mean you may replay it just to pursue the side
quest or you didn't get either hidden character and now you
want them to see how the game turns out. This is pretty much
up to the individual if he wants to replay the game because
the game is although worth replaying. But you don't
necessarily have to replay the game because once you beat it
I'm pretty sure there isn't much else left for you to do. So
you may want to replay it but I doubt you will play it more
than one or two times.
Overall everything about this game was just excellent the
graphics sound music the game play it was just an overall
excellent adventure. This game really left an impact on me
but then it made an impact on the entire video game
industry. Because it wasn't about telling stories any more
after this it was about having the best graphics and that
sort of loss the essence of why die hard RPG fans play RPGs.
We play to be totally wrapped up in the game and to
speculate about the story and the people in it. We don't
play too luck at the longest and best FMV's or the best
graphics ever. These ideas may seem foreign to must but in
my case I would have rather had RPG's resemble that.
Although I am glad that this game brought RPG's to main
stream but I would have rather had more modern RPGs tell the
stories like the old ones use to. And not try and supply the
best graphics and longest Full Motion Videos. Overall
despite all this Final Fantasy 7 may be unique and may be
one of the last later RPG's to actually supply a good story
behind it's flashy graphics 3D effects and fantastic magic
effects. So overall as a gamer I really loved this game and
it one of my favorites of all time.
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