Final Fantasy VII reviewed

I remember back in late 1997 or even early 1998 I was at my aunt and uncle's house.  My cousin had a Playstation and he had this demo disk of what Square was up to circa 1996.  My brother popped it in and he chose the Final Fantasy VII demo while I watched since I was just starting to get into RPG's due to Super Mario RPG.  Needless to say my mind was blown from the music to the huge Buster Sword to the black guy with a gun for an arm to blowing something up.  I was utterly obsessed with it and I even read the strategy guide from front to back wanting to know more about the story.  And then I actually played it but I got a bit overwhelmed at the third disc and quit.  That was years ago but today I have re-played Final Fantasy VII and I beaten it.

You start as Cloud Strife, uncaring mercenary for AVALANCHE who is attempting to take down the evil Shinra corporation from stealing the planet's life-force through their Mako Reactors.  On his journey is Barret and childhood friend Tifa but due to some WACKY hijinks, they get separated and he bumps into a flower girl named Aeris...or Aerith, the last surviving ancient.  And one thing leads to another and you raid Shinra HQ but wouldn't you know it, someone already killed the President Shinra.  That someone is the real Big Bad, Sephiroth who was once a great solider who went insane and then went missing but presumed dead.  Turns out, he was just trapped in the Lifestream and is now summoning Meteor to hit the planet so the planet will use the Lifestream to heal himself right into Sephiroth so he can be a new God, damn.  Oh and Aeris/Aerith dies.

The first thing that really surprised me is how well the CG graphics in this still holds up.  Now by that I mean the backgrounds and the buildings.  They're still highly realistic and almost indistinguishable from photos of those places, if those places actually existed and there were actual photographs of them.  The point is that those are very good then and very good now.  The FMV's are also look pretty good, not in the same level as the backgrounds but they get the job done and I wouldn't laugh them off in this current era of gaming but the fact that when they talk, it's in subtitles which is weird.  But then again I remember Final Fantasy's first foray into voice acting with X and I shudder.  Of course, there's the field sprites where everyone has these big forearms and these teeny tiny biceps that can be laughed at.  It's those kinds of sprites where nobody has a mouth most of the time and when they do it just looks weird.  But you get used to the Lego spirtes.

The battle system is your standard Final Fantasy ATB system which I was never a huge fan of but I do admit when it's done well.  Here, it's done as well as it can possibly be.  The speed of the battles is reasonably paced and you don't have the feeling that the enemy is being cheap.  But it's not that that'll kill ya, it's the over-long attack animations, especially the summons.  Most of them last a minute but then there's a couple that last a couple minutes which is enough for a quick trip to the bathroom.  It looks pretty but it gets to be a too bit much.  The Materia system is a decent idea where anyone can do anything with the right materia but the strategy isn't too important, but it's fun.

However, I do think that the game takes a step down once you leave Midgar. Before you have this great cyberpunk environment and you have a great sense of purpose for doing what you're doing.  Granted, you're doing terrorist acts and you're mileage WILL vary on that but you're swept up in this self-contained story that you want to see what happens next.  But once the game opens up, I didn't get that swept up feeling that I did.  I'm not saying that it's bad but let's face it, Sephiroth isn't as interesting as Shinra despite Sephiroth's best efforts like killing Aeris(th) or that fire walk in Nibelhelm.  I don't know, all the best moments after leaving Midgar usually involves Rufus Shinra.

Final Fantasy VII has been near or on top of the lists of greatest games of all time and it's easy to see why.  It is basically the Star Wars for RPG's.  It was innovative, it was candy for the eyes and it is extremely entertaining.  It's true that this game is over-worshiped to a sickeningly degree, the plot gets a bit too complex and the translation isn't perfect with such gems like "This guy are sick" and "To the settling of everything!" but I think it does deserve its reputation.  It is a great game and without it, RPG's wouldn't be where they are now.  Just remember that.

9/10