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Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)

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Life, Love, Adventure And Final Fantasy

Nov 4th, 2001

Advantages:
See opinion

Disadvantages:
Linearity, some parts are really strange, longer battles can be dull

Recommendable Yes:

Detailed rating:

Gameplay/Playability

Value for Money

Longevity

Garret

Garret

About me:

I would just like to make it clear that I will not be held liable for any cracks that appear on your...

Member since:19.10.2001

Reviews:12

Members who trust:4

As things stand, the long-running Final Fantasy series of video games is in its tenth incarantion (With number 11 currently in development). As the groan-worthy pun goes "It's not very Final is it?"

Well I'm thankful that the series has come this far. Each game entirely unique in terms of plot and characters, yet with enduring themes that anybody can spot after a while. But, in a similar way to R.E.M my interest was only piqued just over halfway through the exhaustive list of releases. Final Fantasy 7 was where my interest started.

Plot

The life energy of the planet is being used as a finite fuel supply by a monoplistic corporation known as Shinra Inc (And we all thought Microsoft were bad). The city in which their headquarters are situated is a place known as Midgar. A place of neo-apocalyptic overtones; the underclasses struggle under a landscape of almost permanent darkness whilst the rich dominate the horizons above. The planet is in a fragile state because of the malevolent use of its energy. A small resistance group known as 'Avalanche' are attempting to destroy the power stations that drain this energy (Known as Mako). The group leader Barret, has taken on a renegade known as Cloud, and the game starts at the beginning of a mission to bomb one of these power stations.

However, additional to this, a long thought-dead warrior named Sephiroth has resurfaced. Bent on becoming more powerful, Sephiroth's threat to an already fragile planet makes the situation much more dire.

And so we have a plot that has the potential for a lot of twists and turns. In this respect, Squaresoft do not dissapoint. The game starts in Midgar and feels big enough in itself, however after a while you venture out into the world map. At the first place you stop at, Kalm, Cloud talks about his past and you suddennly realise that the game is about to open up siginificantly. There are eight main characters in all. they range from Barret, a man with a gun for an arm to Cloud, who utilises a 10000000000ft sword and has such spikey hair that I'm sure he would account for 99% of worldwide sales for hair gell. Coming from Japan such oddities are semi-expected but don't get in the way of some good character development. After a while you will become attached, and there is one particular character-based event which I consider to be surprisingly mature for a videogame (Although I won't say exactly what happens, it concerns the father of a character, known only as Red XIII). Overall the main protagonists evoke the same sort of fascination I had with the weirder Japanese manga animations.

==
Gameplay
========
Linearity, linearity and ...... linearity. Unlike many PC role-playing games Final Fantasy 7 is relatively speaking, quite straight-forward. Strangely enough, this doesn't bother me because there is enough here to make the game quite immersive.

For the purposes of battles the main characters are all quite similar, although some are better at magic than others etc. The battles are turn-based (I.e you make a decision to attack the enemy or heal your fellow battlers) so they aren't particularly frenetic. This is especially true because of the spells, which are extremely elaborate and time consuming. In drawn-out battles this can annoy. When on the world map, travelling between locations, the battles can also occur at random; good for character development but bad if you're already struggling. Battles might not sound very enticing in this game but become tolerable after a while.

The magic system is based on glowing orbs known as Materia. Each piece of Materia bestows a certain magic ability upon its user (e.g fire, ice and lightning). The power (And awe inducing eye candy) of magic spells can be improved through battles, which earn you AP points. The weapons and armour that the Main characters carry have 'Materia Slots'. The better the weapon, the more slots and so on. So there is a certain amount of resource management to do, and whilst it's not integral to progression it makes life easier in the long run.

The dialogue with non-player characters has fallen victim to slightly shoddy translation from Japanese into English (Particularly where the developer wants to convey a certain idea that doesn't translate well into English). Therefore you do get some strange things being said. The dialogue is slightly repetitive. But, considering the lack of power of the Playstation its very good in context.

Despite the linearity of FF7 there are a lot of subgames and extras to pursue. The ever present chocobos (Large, yellow birds) can be caught and put in races. Chocobos can be bred you can gain better ones that can reach hidden locations. The game also has a small snowboarding section and a theme park (Which somehow is included within the plot) with playable games. So even when you finish the game there may still be things to discover. But as a result, a lot of people have claimed up to 70 hours of playing is required just to find everything. Epic doesn't begin to describe the longevity of this game.
*****************************=
Graphics
=======
Awwww they're so cute and tin........... diminuitive. The limitations of the Playstation 1 are quite obvious here. In normal play everybody looks they're 2 feet tall with large heads. Over time though, they'll become endearing. There's a certain charm that seems stereotypically Japanese to me.

The backgrounds are all pre-rendered which means Squaresoft have put in a good amount of detail. They look slightly out of place with the character graphics but imagine how bad the backgrounds would look otherwise (Probably not a pretty sight given the lack of power of the Playstation One).

The battle graphics, are quite different to normal play. The human characters are all in proportion and the monsters are varied. You have to fight some weird looking enemies but at least they won't cause you to snigger because of their height and cuteness.

Then there are the FMV cut scenes. On the whole, these look absolutely amazing. They integrate seemlessly with the normal in-game graphics extremely well. Inconsistencies do exist between their style but this doesn't detract from what is draw-dropping eye candy of the highest degree (Only surpassed in my opinion by Final Fantasy 8 of all games).

*****************************====
Music / Sound
==========
I absolutely love the music. Ever since the original Final Fantasy was released, a Japanese composer named Nobuo Uematsu has composed the musical scores for every game in the series. Again, despite the limitations of the Playstation he has done an admirable job. Some pieces such as Anxious Heart or Life Stream set the tone extremely well. It's no surprise that a CD is available with the tracks from this game. Some are even adapted for orchestras which really does justice to their quality. The sound effects are nothing special, but are all present and correct as we would expect.

==
Overall

==
Overall, Final Fantasy 7 is a great game. It's beginning to show it's age but the prospect of a graphical update for the Playstation 2 seems promising. Flaws are present but there is something about this game that makes me want to play it again and again. I'm not sure what that something is but if you give this game a chance in the same way I did you might understand what I mean.

You don't need to be a completely avid gamer to fully appreciate FF7 (Indeed taking a casual approach can make it last for several months which is good value). As long as you're not put off by the age of the game, the odd flaw and the Japanese idiosyncracies, you'll have a lot of fun.

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Comments about this review »

CharliesDevil 01.05.2006 19:58

Me i completed this game in about 53 hours and 42 minutes in total before i completed it so i guess im really good. You have done a great review on this game and it is really cleverly set out, i like how you split it into sections. Personally i am a fan of Final Fantasy VIII but i throughly enjoyed Final Fantasy VII. You have done a brilliant review that encourages people to buy the game congratulations.

TheGuru 22.10.2002 20:23

Who said anything about 70 hours? i've got a way to go yet and im on 90 hours already! Still, this op is excellent. Well done!

Pauley123 06.11.2001 13:29

What a spot on op Garrett! Great writing. I'm a huge FF fan, and I got into it from no 7 too. The demos I've seen of FFX look fantastic.

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