Final Fantasy VII

Review by Bob Kilok

Story

I ate up the first disc. I could not get enough of it. I wanted to know everything about everyone I had in my party. I was appeased for the most part except for Cloud, but I had enough small clues and specualtion to severly want to know. I was on the point of tears when (spoiler dont look!) Aries was killed, then dropped to the depths by Cloud's hands. The second disc was wierdness factor. Things were looking mighty down. Cloud's story was made clear, but I was anticipating that so much that when he was out of my party I didn't pay much attention to the other characters. It wasn't as good a focus on the other characters that the world of ruin was in Final Fantasy VI. The third disc was scant on story except for the Seperoth battle. The story was all on him there. Throughout the whole game I was put on an exhilirating, anticipating edge by Jenova and her misleadings. I wish they had made Jenova a character. As the game stood it did a great job with her at a distance, though.

Score 9/10

Characters

The characters were all spectacular. Even the one I severly disliked (Cait sith) was because of what he did, not that he was underdeveloped. I especially liked Seperoth and Aeris. I like the idea that a character of yours can be the complete oposite of the main enemy you're opposing (Aeris vs. Jenova). I also like the idea of pawns as 'apparent' main characters. Cloud (once he was fully for the cause) was pushed along at every turn by the memory of Aeris. Seperoth was the mind controlled pawn of Jenova. Even though the final battle is between these two, they are just representitives of the real forces. (I know I mixing categories here, but Characters and story are pretty intertwined) (spoiler again, don't look) There were 4 stages to the final battle in Final Fantasy VII, each one Jenova was less of a factor. The first battle was Cloud (with Aeris' memory giving him power) vs. Jenova. The next was Cloud (again with memory) vs. Seperoth (with Jenova distorting his body and controlling his mind for power). Then Cloud (still with memory) vs. Seperoth (this time with less of a Jenova body influence, but still the mind control plus one awsome spell) again. Then Cloud (with the memory of Aeris so strong he begins with an omnislash whether you've gotten it in the actual game of not!) vs. Seperoth (without any added power, no Jenova, just a regular guy) and Cloud beats the snot out of him. It's what I call a finale folks. All with hidden forces at work that bring the 4 main characters together. I loved it. Perfect.

Score 10/10

Sound

I can't really rate this area. My computer wouldn't play the music correctly so I just turned it off. I listened to the nightmare song, Aeris song, and others after downloading them, but I do not know how well they work in conjuntion with the game.

Score N/A

Graphics

All the graphics were well done, especially the FMV's. They kept you interested, and properly dazzled in battle. I have a major compliant, though. There were 4 different drawing types for the characters. The walking outside type, the battle type, the FMV type, and then a few movies had the walking outside type in an FMV, all round and stuff. It got on my nerves. All in all the graphics did what they were supposed to, though. Cloud appeared confident, Barret dominating, Red XIII exotic, Tifa tantilizing, Aeris lovable, Vicent dark, and Yuffie cheery. I liked being able to read facial expressions, that will be the future of RPG character and story telling. Speaking without words with close-ups of the fighter's/lover's/child's face will tell the player exactically how they feel at that moment, especially if the characters are as well developed as a Final Fantasy game.

Score 8/10

Gameplay

The Materia system is great, and I spent hours re-arranging for the fun of it when I got new materia. The sad thing is - the game was easy enough that only the most basic materia was needed. You could have gone though this game by just attacking, maybe summoning on a few of the harder bosses, and healing when nessisary. I fought seperoth after defeating the weapons and literally killed him in 2 attacks (mime circle Knight of the Round). You were always given the nessisary materia to suceed, and the few that were difficult to find were powerfull enough to slap around whichever boss was next. I did like the battle arena, though. Battle in general isn't boring, and the game does a much better than average job in explaining the whole deal.

Score 7/10

Extras/Replay

There are quite a few extras to the game. If you have a save point anywhere, you can get most of them, though. The main reason one would replay this game would be Aeris. I tried to replay it, (one of 2 games good enough that I did so) but after the tragity of disk one I literally didn't have the heart to play the rest. It was just as heart-wrenching the second time. Oh, you might go back to get Vincent's last limit break (only avalible in the second disk) or get all the materia you missed to get master materia, but the pull isn't strong enough for me.

Score 5/10

Overall

I fell in love with this game. It's a great game to introduce a newcomer to the RPG gerne, but they might be overcritical to others they play by comparison *grin*. If you're looking for a great story that puts your mind in a little box and keeps it there till the final battle you've got the right game. If you're looking for a hard challenge with mind numbing puzzles and near-impossiple bosses unless you fight the weapons then you'll not be pleased. Personally, I enjoy the story more than the game bulk most of the time. The bulk is to keep me interested inbetween plots in my opinion. Taking that into account my score is easy to understand.

Most heart-felt moment: Cloud releasing Aeris' dead body to the deep

Most enraged moments:
When Seperoth runs Aeris through
When Seporoth burn the town
When Seporoth runs Tifa through (mean bastard, huh?)

Hardest moment: The Red Weapon

Easiest moment: the rest of the game