Final Fantasy VII, the game that instantly is hailed as the best or one of the best game ever, Or easily targeted as an overated game and for some a not very good one. But why?
The reason is simple, some people will hate a game just because they want to show they are "hardcore" and like the old school game. Others will say it is what made them like rpgs. Regardless of the extremes I will try to review the game as fairly as possible.
GAMPLAY: The most important part of a game. Great battle engine, not too long and slow, not to overly story/passively driven (ie. xenosaga and thier 45 min cutscenes). The argument is whether this game did a good job of separating the characters. Answer is Yes and NO. Clearly Final Fantasy 9, and 10 did a much better job of giving you very specific characters and in a way i like that better. BUT Final Fantasy VII, and to a lessor extent FFVI did such a good job of customization that it made me forget that the characters were like empty shells and up to you to decide if they should be magic users, brutes and such. The materia system provided with probably thousands of combinations and i like that, it made my character be how like like him to be. For example, if say I really liked LULU from FFX but I wanted to get her to reflect the type of characters I like (physical over magic) I really couldn't do that with great success) I may really hate the look and sound of say Tidus but I'm force to use him or ones like him because they are the type of fighters I like.
2. Story- the second most important aspect to an RPG. At the time I played this game, it had the single best story in a video game and had the single best feeling of i want to find out what happens next that I've ever had. For example Chrono Trigger was a good game but I never really got into that story. FFVI was a good game but Kefca isn't someone I even had serious liking too. action games had no story, platformers had no story, so this was the king. Now that title goes to Xenogears though as best story but FFVII still has the "i can't wait to see what happens next: type of feeling that I've ever had. The game revolves around Cloud, and his gang as they initially try to save the planet from the power hungry company, Shinra but is then turned into aspects of cloning, alien, ancient civilization and more. obviously i don't want to give spoiler though it is an old game but Till this day people are arguing over how the story really went and that is a testament of how good it was. Square finally gave in to Fans request and now have tons of sequals/prequals coming in the form of games and movies. I wish they would just release an updated FFVII though now I believe that if they are going to, they would rather wait for the next generation of systems and really Wow us with its presentation.
GRAPHICS: Contraversial because well graphics don't mean a good game, but time and time again its proven that we humans are visual creatures and that beautiful things matter to us. In fact just yesterday i read something that even babies respond better to a beautiful face over an ugly one. Now with final fantasy you get a game that well isn't that best of that generation but the most important thing though is that how did it compare to games at the time of it's release. Clearly games that come out for PS2 now looks better than the ones that came out 4 years ago. Just take Madden 2001 and compare it to 2005 and you'll see the difference. So in FF's case you get a game that had The best graphics at the time of it's release. The best cinematics at the time of it's release so graphics not a negative to FFVII. Another way to look at is, did it age very well. Clearly a ton of PS1 games didn't age well because they no longer had the wonderfully drawn background and sprites and instead had the early 3D look which now seems really ugly. But even going back to playing FFVII it age very well in my opinion, that game is not in the league of say Tekken 1 in uglyness or other games in that genre. Plus it's an rpg and really doesn't rely on graphics to much.
SOUND: Sometimes i flipflop with which Square game had the best song, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, or FFX. FFX had some really memorable songs but overall it may not be first. FFVIII had what I considered to be a great overall feeling in of appropriateness of the songs as it relates to the game. BUT still sometimes i think too many tracks are only ok. FFVII had some really good tracks, great setting for example Sephiroths Bells, aeris song was sweet and sephiroth's one winged angel was nice to in that at the time few games had a last boss song that was of any good or memorable. FFVI also had an incredible soundtrack but even that game had it's moments of weakness. Tina, Decisive battle were amazing thoguh. in the end i tend to lean to individual songs and see which is the best out of the bunch, tina in VI, aerith's in 7, Fithos Lusec, wecos Vinosec and eyes on me in 8, melodies of life in 9 and zanarkand in 10. i definitely play Tina's the most but overall Great soundtrack in all of them.
Longevity- being an rpg there is always longevity. all it takes is to not play the game for a while then play it and use different cast and you instantly got yourself another 30-50 hours of gameplay. You may want to replay to get a different view on the story, or catch little things you miss. The only thing that would make it better would be if the choices you make really changes aspects of the actual game, maybe different endings, but it did a good job. If anything go back and get vincent, when I first played it, i missed him. Oh and FFVII still hovers near the top 10 on gamefaqs and at times like during this past summer gets around 6th or 7th. No other game is that old but still gets people visiting it, not even Ocarina of time. So clearly the mass likes final fantasy VII despite an active anti FFVII lesion trying desparately to denounce that game.
So what did FFVII do bad. well 1. the story coudl have been a bit clearer, and the US version could have had a bit better localization. A bit better differentiation of the characters, a bit better choice/affect type of gameplay, there were a good amount of sidequest but I wish there were more. Some characters you get a bit too late, Vincent you don't get till like 50% or more of the game is already done with. maybe closer with 2/3rd of the game and in a way I like it when you immediately get to chose your favorite characters and get to run through the game with them. Finally, The game and all new age rpgs tends to be too easy. I just wish they would have a hard version of the game after you beat the normal. Really working to be Diamond weapon would be nice, instead of a few good slashes, maybe 1 omnislash and he's toast. I would like to work hard, like I do with Ruby Weapon on bosses, Sephiroth shouldn't be a pushover. For casuals you can keep the normal version but having a hard mode will instantly get an automatic replay value.
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