Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Horror Games Review

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Title: Final Fantasy 7 (VII)
Format: Video Game
Score:
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Square Enix
Hits: 532

Review of Final Fantasy 7 (VII)

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Comments for Final Fantasy 7 (VII)

• Posted on 2009-11-17
  Masterpiece!
  
  Final Fantasy games alone have a reputation of having an excellent storyline, game play, high replay, and excellent graphics (despite the first FF games). I have owned a copy of this game since it's release. A friend from school recommended that I try it out and I've been hooked ever since! If you have NEVER played this game, play it ASAP!
  
  Final Fantasy VII is a well-known masterpiece in the gaming world. It combines an excellent storyline, a superb soundtrack that you will most likely remember for ages, fun game play, excellent graphics (granted, it was the first PSOne FF game and PSOne graphics back in the day ruled!), and much more! It's three discs long so it will keep you pretty occupied. It has a bunch of side-quests and mini-games. The storyline is quite captivating with themes of love, friendship, comedy, betrayal, and of course ACTION! The storyline expands from a rebellion against a big corporation, Shinra, that is sucking the life out of the planet to settling an old score and saving the world. The main character you play is Cloud Strife, an ex-soldier mercenary whom in the beginning of the game works for AVALANCHE.
  
  You can purchase new, stronger weapons and accessories in the game as you progress. In addition, there are materia that contain magic properties to cast spells, summons, enable skills, and to support your character's statistics. There's a traditional leveling system, the more you fight, the faster your characters' levels and skills increase. In addition to that leveling system, your materia levels up with you all the way to master level. It has the traditional battle system, turn by turn (I forgot the name for that).
  
  I guarantee you will love the story, the gameplay, and of course the graphics and cgi scenes within the game. The game is a masterpiece overall and not just in my opinion but in most (if not all) gaming websites/magazines rate this the best RPG of all time. If you love RPGs, you will LOVE THIS GAME. If you are new to the RPG scene (like me when this came out), then this will be the PERFECT game to start you off. Not only that, but you will want to play the rest of the games of the Final Fantasy series.
  
  If you like this game, I recommend buying the rest of the games for the Final Fantasy VII series. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (for the PS2), Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (for the PSP), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (DVD or Blu-Ray).
  If you would like to play this series in chronological order, then play it in this order:
  Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
  Final Fantasy VII
  Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
  Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
  
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• Posted on 2009-11-11
  Overrated? I no longer think so!
  
  Final Fantasy 6, a.k.a. Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES, was a great success. Many magazines like GamePro and EGM have praised it for its rich plot and complex scenarios. Nintendo Power even called it "the RPG hit of the decade." Fans of the Super Nintendo and RPGs rejoiced over how great this game was, and with a slew of other RPGs on the system like Chrono Trigger, ActRaiser, and Nintendo's A Link to the Past, a lot of fans---myself included---generally regard this period as one of the best video game production times of our generation, if not THE best.
  
  Along comes the Sony PlayStation. For some, this marks the end of the Golden Age of classic video games. I don't entirely agree, as that system was the home of a handful classics; Castlevania: Symphony of the Night revitalized the Castlevania series and outranked many of the 3-D games that cropped up at the time. Metal Gear Solid redefined stealth action and brought Solid Snake into the mainstream. Mega Man X4 continued the saga of Mega Man X and combined the old-school flavor of Mega Man with arcade-style, frenetic action.
  
  Now, we get into Final Fantasy 7. The first game, besides the original, to be correctly numbered. If you've read my FF6 review, I said that that game was the end of the magic era and the introduction of industrial technology. FF7 takes that further into a dystopian technological atmosphere; its bleak, dark outlook is not dissimilar to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. This was a stark contrast to the previous games that were about grandiose medieval adventure. No more dragons, colorful highlands, and sorcery. No more saving the princess from mortal doom. No more four crystals and light warriors.
  
  When I first played this game back in 1997, my first thought was "This isn't Final Fantasy! I mean, they curse in the game, too! How dare they change my Final Fantasy?! How dare they take away what I loved about it?!" Yet, many of my friends loved it, and still love it for its nostalgic factor. Heck, it's sold over ten million copies worldwide, making it the highest-selling Final Fantasy of ALL time.
  
  Coming from that stubborn mold, I didn't give the game an objective eye and realized years later that I initally rejected it under a false pretense. Is it my favorite Final Fantasy game of all time? Well, no, but I am giving it its credit now, and there are many aspects of the game that help make it the top-selling Final Fantasy game.
  
  The story centers on a former SOLDIER named Cloud Strife, who joins the AVALANCHE group in trying to take down Shinra, Inc., a megolomaniacal corporation that's draining the planet's life force. He's a bit less colorful than some of the main characters of past Final Fantasies (even further games), but through the course of the game, he has a very interesting backstory. He is joined by Barrett, the leader of AVALANCHE and the closest video game character akin to Mr. T; Tifa Lockhart, a sexy martial artist and friend of Cloud's; Aeris, a flower merchant who turns out to be a "Cetra," the previous owners of the planet; Red XIII, a cat creature that was experimented on by Shinra; Cid Highwind, a pilot with Dragoon Knight characteristics (and ironically, shares the same last name as Kain from Final Fantasy 4! What delight!); Vincent, an immortal that previously worked with Shinra before his "death"...and Yuffie, a young thief who plays tricks on the party. Oh, and then there's Cait Sith, but let's move on...
  
  The villain that everyone talks about from this game is Sephiroth. In my FF6 review, I thought Kefka was the best Final Fantasy villain ever. I still believe that, but Sephiroth is still one of the greatest villains in any RPG. Sephiroth does have some interesting motives; he is originally Cloud's friend, even a mentor, and the best member of SOLDIER for a time. However, upon learning what appeared to be his real past (not quite real, but no spoilers here!), he progressively goes insane and is hell bent on bringing back the "Promised Land," which basically means wounding the planet and sucking its life force. While he's not your typical, heartless villain (not saying Kefka is typical, but you feel from the first hour of that game that he is downright evil.), he is a mentally distraught, horribly twisted person, and that progression of madness that worsens throughout the game is actually very well transitioned. Plus, he is responsible for murdering Aeris, scarring the mind of my RPG generation forever.
  
  While the battle system only allows three people, the Materia system and the Limit Breaks add fun to the game. While I adore Final Fantasy 9, 7's Limit Breaks worked better, and they also level up. The Materia system is based on your weapons and items' slots, allowing you to interchange materia like ice, fire, lightning, restore, and other things. They also do things differently depending on how they're linked to other materia and ALSO if they're attached to your weapon or your accessory. This adds some fun to the battle, and you can even interchange materia without disrupting the level of the particular materia slot you're using.
  
  The story is as epic as any great Final Fantasy should be, although I do admit that the ending is a bit lax...still, it was followed up by sequels, so at least the story did continue. Most of the characters are interesting, even colorful (Cid and Barrett's constant swearing definitely added flavor to this FF entry!). Cloud's complex relationships with Aeris and Tifa are among the story's highlights, and of course, the culmination of Cloud facing his former friend and idol.
  
  The music is once again composed by Nobou Uematsu, and he delivers once again. My ONLY complaint is not with his compositions itself, but with the sound quality. The Sony PlayStation had a superior sound chip system in comparison to the Super NES, yet the sound quality of games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3 (er, 6!) blasted you with superb sound quality. I don't hold this against the game to any large degree, but I did find that kind of odd...especially if you hear Michiru Yamane's score for Symphony of the Night or Toshihiko Horiyama's score for Mega Man X4.
  
  Overall, my final opinion of the game. I've grown to like this game despite my love for the more medieval-styled Final Fantasies of the past. This one was a departure from the past, adding more mature elements into the game (colorful language, sexual references, etc. etc.). Definitely your big brother's kind of RPG. While some may dispute its "overrated" longevity, its success on the Sony PlayStation became a part of that system's legacy and it also brought RPGs to the mainstream audience.
  
  Yes, it's insanely popular, but give the game its due. It's worthy of the qualities that have made it the best-selling Final Fantasy, and while it may not be my personal favorite, it kicks major amounts of awesome nonetheless.
  
  Other Recommendations:
  Final Fantasy 6 (in my opinion, perfectly accompanies this game)
  Chrono Trigger (SNES)
  Breath of Fires 2 and 3 (SNES,PSX)
  Xenogears (PSX)
  Castlevania Symphony of the Night (PSX)
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-26
  Bad graphics doesn't always mean bad game
  
  I'm on my dad's account and I'm 13 and I found this game under my tv and started to play it. to my surprize it was fun and mostly easy. i had just beat kingdom hearts 2 (also a very good game) it is made by the same person who made final fantasy 7 and I think it was the best horrible graphic game i have ever played. yes i know that the game was made a long time ago so im not going to judge it by that. but i really liked the game. if u don't mind bad graphics and sometimes haveing to figure it out then im sure you will love this game like i did. (maybe you should try to play kindom hearts also, best game ever)
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-20
  A MUST HAVE!!! SERIOUSLY!!!
  
  Words alone can't express my love and passion for this game! There is so much at work here. I can't think of ANY other game... past, present or future, that has had so much of an emotional and profound impact on me then FFVII! The only characters I didn't like were Cait Sith and Yuffie (The Materia stealer.) I sometimes wonder how the story would have turned out if Aeris HADN'T died. If only Cloud had pushed her out of the path of Sephiroth's masamune (that LOOOOOOONG sword of his.) Oh, well. She's in a better place now alongside her first love interest Zack.
  This games replay value is EXTREMELY high. The Materia system is ingenious, and there are so many side quests, optional bosses (Ultima, Emerald and Ruby Weapon. All of them HARD as HELL), level 4 limit breaks and master weapons for ALL characters, that it will keep you occupied for at LEAST a month! I had to play and beat the game several times just to fully understand and comprehend the extremely complicated storyline. In my opinion, I think people should play and beat the game a few times BEFORE watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Just so they get a general understanding of what's going on before Meteor nearly wiped out all human existence. Not everyone survived, but if it hadn't been for the "interfering" Lifestream, NO one would have! So count your blessings and be especially grateful to Aeris! She watches over all of us (in a metaphorical sense of coarse.)
  
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• Posted on 2009-10-11
  Final Fantasy VII
  
  This game is very fun. Though this game does have graphics that aren't nearly as good as, say, Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy XII, it is still an extremely fun and addicting game. I would suggest this game to any one who likes video games and owns a playstation.
  
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