Final Fantasy VII Review

Formats: Playstation, PC
Release date: 1997
Players: 1
Genre: RPG

To many, including myself this is considered the greatest game of all time. It's hard to argue against that, as this game had a huge impact on the gaming industry, and for us european audiences, a first at seeing anything like it. It was the first Final Fantasy released in Europe, and spanning three discs. I remember the first time seeing it in action, I only had a Sega Megadrive at the time, and visitng my cousins, seeing FFVII in action, I remember being blown away, by the graphics at the time, and the addictiveness of the gameplay. The storyline, whilst often confusing and suffering from a poor translation, is still very gripping. with some great characters and most probably, the most famous bad guy in gaming history at it's centre. The story itself centre's around Cloud Strife, a former SOLDIER turned mercenary, joining a group of eco fighters but soon escalades as Cloud's memories blur badly, causing a simple start to change into a very complicated story. Sephiroth, the game's bad guy, is pure evil given form, and he is made even better by the fact you don't see him much in the game, but yet you always feel his presence around. 
Audio wise, the game is great, though a few more sound effects would have been appreciated. The games music is very strong, from the calm music of quiet villages to the adreniline filled battle themes, and the now famous One Winged Angel boss music. Most of the music in the game will stick in your head, and I personally have some of it on my mp3 player. 
Gameplay is where it really starts to shine though. You take control of Cloud, and other characters at certain parts of the game, wandering around pre rendered 3D landscapes, which considering the age of the game, have dated pretty well and have a certain charm, talking to NPC's gathering items and clues of what your suppossed to be doing. The locations you wander around are pretty memorable, especially places like the Honey Bee Inn located at Wall street Market (a brothel if you must know) and the city of Junon which is very military like. There's hardly any backtracking too, so you'll feel like your rarely seeing the same place twice. 
Now, wandering around talking is all well and good, but this is an RPG, and wouldn't be one without some sort of battle system. FFVII doesn't dissapoint in any way here. As you wander around the world you'll be attacked by random enemies. Admittedly, this can get annoying, especially if your in a rush to get to places, but they are always worth fighting for expierience, money and items, all of which you need to progress through the game. 
The battle system uses a turn based system where your characters have to wait for a time bar to fill. Once it fills, you select a move from a menu and then your character uses it. Seems simple, but it's not in any way, more so than when you get to equip Materia. Materia are special gem like items which you can buy from shops or find in the field. You equip these to your weapons or armour and they allow you to use magic. Like your characters they can also be levelled up by fighting, allowing for more powerful spells. They vary greatly in type too, some will allow you to use basic spells like fire or healing, whilst others allow you to summon powerful creatures to harm your opponents. Not that your opponents will give you an easy fight, they too have their own set of spells and attacks, and will give no mercy. The gameplay is extremely addctive, and I've spent hours just levelling up my characters on there, purely because the battle system is that enjoyable. There are a lot of mini games here too which will keep you occupied, like snow boarding, betting on the chocobo races and the most famous one, the motorcycle game. Here cloud is riding a motorbike on a highway and he must protect the truck in front of him by attacking with his sword, its simple stuff but addictive, and seeing as it can be played any time once you get to the Gold Saucer, the amusement park, you'll constantly be trying to beat your high score. 
Graphically, the game has dated well, though for PS1, there are better looking games. In the field, all the characters, NPC's and yourselves are as basic as you can get, blocky in design and not very detailed. In the battles this does change as they get fully detailed and textured, as do the enemies, but outside battle, more detail would have been better. The backgrounds are pretty good, detailed and colourful, it's a pity though this detail didn't get to the world map, which isn't detailed much at all. The spells and summons look great and special mention must go to the cutscenes, which for the time, still look impressive. I remember my jaw dropping first time i saw the opening of the game, which shows the city of Midgar fully, right before it zooms in and then your playing it.
Even though it is my personal favourite game of all time, I'm not baised. It does have it's flaws. As I mentioned above, the translation isn't that good. It suffers a lot from some confusing text, which doesnt help as the plot can get pretty confusing at times. Some words are mis-spelled, and others make no sense at all. The fighting, whisly great, can get repeptitive, espeacilly if your grinding for expeirience or money. The sound effects, whilst good, aren't very varied and it would have been nice to have some more. Sometimes it can also get confusing on where your supossed to be going or what you are suppossed to be doing (the key of the ancients part especailly), and its not helped again by the translation. However, these things do get forgotten as the rest of the game makes you forget them, it's a very balanced game in terms of fighting, and you nevr stay stuck in one place for long, and it's immensely satisfying when you beat that boss you've been stuck on, or find that treasure you've gone out of your way for.
In short, Final Fantasy VII is that all to rare game, a perfect blend of figting and exploring, with a strong story thrown in for good measure. Great characters that will stay with you forever, and a game that will never be forgotten, and for me, a cherished memory and one that I will never stop playing, even when I'm old.

Summary

Graphics: 7/10
Detailed backgrounds and not so detailed characters in the field, good for PS1, but they have dated.

Audio: 9/10
Amazing score and some great effects, though a bit more variety would have been appreciated

Gameplay: 10/10
Insanely addictive battle system and tons of hidden things

Lifespan 10/10
Lots of things to do and find, a huge game spanning 3 discs

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