In a land far away from Star Wars space battles, the quest for Middle-Earth, a future of cyborgs and computer generated reigns the series called Final Fantasy. The series started out on the late Nintendo consoles and at the moment I don't really care too much for the earlier ones (some graphics can really be just too outdated), Final Fantasy VI is a great play though on the Playstation ported over from the SNES. Come 1997 and Final Fantasy VII is released for the Sony Playstation (it feels much older than it is). I guess the reason for the switchover is because there's a lot of high quality video featured in the game and only the capacity of CDs could take it all, the nearest rival, the Nintendo 64 still had cartridges, which is good for load times but they get made and sold expensively with only limited capacities.
Final Fantasy 7 has a lot of plot, character development and fantastical worlds to explore alongside epic in-game videos and musical compositions. I feel a much more personal involvement in Final Fantasy VII in the sense that it doesn't show a glossy hype and that I'm in the game under my control as opposed to big movies and even books.
The game opens with a credits screen which plays a new memorable version of the Final Fantasy theme and is probably the part of the game I've spent longest watching. Press an action button and you are taken to a simplistic two choice menu allowing you start a new game or continue from a save, there is also a massive sword highlighted here in the darkness pre-empting the game. Enter the intro movie where we see a young woman staring into a generator which is processing what is called "mako", which is the life force of the planet,
zoom out to reveal a large industrial complex ("Shinra Corporation") along with soaring music reaching a high when the game's title is displayed. This never fails to give me that fuzzy feeling as a result of "epic amazement". Zoom in on to a train station where members of a resistance group called "Avalanche" leap off a train just screeching to a halt and take out Shinra guards. The team includes "Barret", a big guy who looks exactly like Mr. T and tough guy "Cloud", hired hand for Avalanche but doesn't really care much about anything (till a bit of character development). Cloud is your main character and you'll start off helping Barret and his team destroy one of several massive mako reactors which suck up the lifeforce of the planet and convert it into everyday fuels. But Shinra is only the start of your troubles, each main character has a background with issues to confront and usually involve a confrontation with a key enemy.
Upon starting up you'll notice the exceptional score by longtime Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu upping the ante with the CD quality sound channels open to him, the high level of detail in the movies and 2D backgrounds and the seamless integration between them both. Then you'll notice the really bad lego characters that you'll be playing with throughout the game, they look mechanic, hands like solid black bricks, though their animation is actually better than how you might think they'd move. They don't fit against the well detailed backgrounds which there are thousands of in the game, this is made even more surprising when you enter battle mode in which much better rendered characters populate a full 3D field! This is really a small problem though, you get used to them being this way when your engrossed by the story.
The sound effects much like the design of the lego characters, are simplistic, rather like the sounds of Megadrives and Final Fantasies of the past, but sword swipes and explosions work fine and some ambience is put in some places such as the sound of a moving train.
Most of the actual gameplay relies on the battle mode, across hostile environments you will encounter random battles with all sorts of mean monsters (some of them plain weird - a tiny house that shoots cannonballs anyone?). There are many weapon upgrades to find, status items and health items to use and limit breaks to learn. Limit breaks are when one of your characters gets upset from the beating they're taking from an enemy allowing you to perform a fancy special effects show to obliterate opponents. Whilst it can be fun taking turns to hack and slash enemies with Cloud's massive "buster" sword and getting points to level up your fighting party to make them more competitive against later harder monsters, these random battles just keep coming taking time to load up, fight, get new stats. So you have something repetitive getting in the way of the story especially when your characters have brilliant levels anyway and old sappy monsters are giving you 1 experience point atop 800,000,000. If only they had longer time gaps between them and an option to turn them off. At least you get that opportunity in the next instalment. This would really appeal more to card game owners who fight by statistics. This game would be perfect in my view if it had action like Resident Evil within those 2D screens.
I was amazed at the scale of this game, the world is vast, it took me over sixty hours just to walk through the main storyline (there is an in-game counter). Amazingly game saves only take one block up on your Playstation memory card as well, not bad considering it remembers every item & statistic you have and every choice you made and there are a lot of each!
There are thousands of characters in the game, mostly they would give you their thoughts but some present you with questions which you usually get two options to respond with to get different answers. The path of the storyline is pretty linear and nothing you can do changes anything and there are occasions you wish you could, so on repeat playings you shouldn't expect any surprises. However the game has many sub plots involving other characters that join your party and have their own past that they need to deal with, plus chocobo breeding and racing. Chocobos are big yellow birds that are rather like a cross between Big Bird from Sesame Street and an ostrich and have been present in past Final Fantasies along with pals - the moogles, which are cute little pink animals with wings.
Big bad guys here include the old boss of Shinra, his son Rufus, an old acquaintance of Cloud's called "Sephiroth" with a mysterious link to Cloud that slowly gets revealed throughout the game and enemies called "Weapons". These "weapons" are big nasty monsters which are much like Transformers, you only need to defeat one of them in the storyline though, the other two remain hidden and are much nastier, hard to beat and tear your brains out frustrating if you haven't levelled up your characters well and gone on quests to get a certain powerful summon spell to help defeat them.
I highly recommend Final Fantasy VII for its story that makes up for what it lacks in real gameplay and definitely good value for £9 and a cd wallet I gave a mate for it. The RRP for it would be £19.99 in the Playstation Platinum range.
Final Fantasy VIII and IX also make worthy purchases in the series although Final Fantasy VIII suffers from less-so engaging college students and a repetitive "drawing" system in battle where you have to spend loads of time drawing spells from enemies to boost your statistics. I have yet to play Final Fantasy X, but I'm sure getting a PS2 isn't too far away now.
Thanks for reading!
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BradyGames' Final Fantasy VII Official Guide features a complete walkthrough and all the ... more
maps to help you navigate the game. It includes character descriptions complete lists of items monsters and magic and the revelation of secrets. It provides 350 full-colour maps and details of ultimate weapons extreme breaks complete bestiary and boss strategies.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
The Shinra Company is rapidly increasing its influence through its monopoly on mako ... more
energy. When a high-ranking member of Soldier, Shinra's elite fighting force, disappears with his contingent, a young Soldier 2nd Class named Zack is sent to investigate. Along with his mentor, Angeal, and Soldier legend Sephiroth, Zack is about to become embroiled in a cruel and fateful struggle that will shake the very foundation of the world...Discover what really happened seven years prior to Final Fantasy VII!Witness stunning graphics and gorgeous CG cutscenes in 16:9 widescreen.Enjoy action-packed real-time battles with the innovative Digital Mind Wave system.Gain many extras through 300 exciting side missions to test your Soldier skills!
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:Out of stock
Continuing the storyline based on the hit PlayStation game FINAL FANTASY VII, two years ... more
have passed since the ruins of Midgar stand as a testament to the sacrifices made in order to bring peace. However, the world will soon face a new menace. A mysterious illness is spreading fast. Old enemies are astir. And Cloud, who walked away from the life of a hero to live in solitude, must step forward yet again...
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is the much anticipated sequel to the top selling game ... more
Final Fantasy VII: a full blown CGI movie!After Cloud saved the world from Sephiroth, the citizens of the planet begin suffering from a strange sickness called Geo-Stigma. Meanwhile, Cloud has secluded himself, and is being haunted by demons from his past...
Advantages: Cool character designs, strong soundtrack, flexible battle system Disadvantages: Minor control issues, polygon clipping in graphics, translation not great
Advantages: This game provides emotions for everyone - romance, action, you name it, FF7 has got it! Disadvantages: The graphics and random battles are annoying, but don't worry too much
Advantages: Astonishing scale, fantastic visuals, grand soundtrack, absorbing plot, massively rewarding Disadvantages: Random battles make for some slow-moving sections
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