Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997 for Playstation and took the world by storm. It was an instant success due to its great cinematics, amazing storyline, and great gameplay. It has sold millions of copies and is a Greatest Hits title for Playstation. Final Fantasy VII has a huge world map that has dozens of towns, a huge city, and a few secrets too! Final Fantasy VII is unlike any RPG for Magic use. Instead of learning spells or using Espers/Summons like previous games, you equip little gems called "Materia" and level up the gems to make massive spells. The battle mode is the same as any other Final Fantasy game. A new feature is the "Limit Break". Once one of your party members has taken a huge amount of damage, their Limit Break will build up and they will be able to use an amazing attack that does damage enough to kill almost anything!
The game starts out when Cloud, the main character, and a group of "Terrorists" called AVALANCHE jump off a train into the number 7 MAKO reactor of Midgar. The group destroyd the reactor and flee to their hideout, where the story begins to unfold, and the group goes from destroying MAKO reactors to saving the world from great evils. One of AVALANCHE's members, Aeris, almost the main character of the game, is kidnapped because she is an Ancient, a blood line that carries unknown powers, and she is taken to SHINRA headquarters to be tested on. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret bust in to save her. Once they are allied with a new friend, Red XIII, they go off to fight President Shinra only to see that he is dead, and sticking out of his body is the sword of Sephiroth, suspected to be dead. Cloud and his friends set out to kill Sephiroth for what he did, destroying Cloud's hometown and destroying everything he lived for.
The main characters are...
Cloud Strife: Cloud is 21 years old and born in Nibelheim. He is an Ex-member of soldier, a group of officers from Shinra. Cloud has set out to save the world by destroying Sephiroth and settling the score for destroying his hometown. Cloud is both strong and a good magic user. Aside from some parts, he must always stay in your party.
Aeris Gainsborough: Aeris is 22 and her birthplace is unknown. She is a flower girl living in Midgar. She is brought into the game when Cloud falls in on the roof of her church and she hires him for protection. As the story unfolds she is assigned a much bigger role as the last surving Ancient. She possesses unmatched magical ability and should not be taken lightly.
Tifa Lockheart: Tifa is 20 years old and born in Nibelheim. She has been Cloud's friend since they were just kids. She works as a bar hostess and is a member of AVALANCHE. She has deep feelings about Cloud but keeps them bottled up inside of her. She uses swift punches and kicks as she attacks and is a good magic user as well.
Barret Wallace: Barret is 35 and was born in Corel Village. He is missing one of his hands as it was shot when he returned to his village to see Shinra destroying it. He is the leader of AVALANCHE and a trash talking strong and important member of the team. Hehas strong attacks but is not to good with magic attacks.
Red XIII: Red XIII is 48 years old and from Cosmo Canyon. He is a strong and a wolf like beast. He is very smart and can speak better English than most of the party. He lived with his grandfather until he was apparently captured by SHINRA and used as a specimen. He is a balanced character with good magic and attack power.
Cid Highwind: Cid is a 32 years old and his birthplace is unknown. He is a pilot and he pilots the Highwind, the party's airship. Cid was supposed to be the first man in space but gave it up to save his wife from being killed. He curses almost as much as Barret, maybe more. He is strong and not that great of a magic user.
Cait Sith: Cait Sith is a robot. He
is piloted by a member of SHINRA and although not starting out on the right
foot, he stops helping SHINRA and begins to help the group. He looks like
a cat riding a large Mog. He is
pretty balanced, but not that good
of a character.
Yuffie Kisaragi: Yuffie is 16 years old and from Wutai. She makes a living hunting for Materia. She is a secret character and his pretty hard to find. She uses some pretty good attacks and is an ok magic user.
Vincent Valentine: Vincent is 27 years old and his birthplace is unknown. He was formally a member of the Turks, a sort of mafia for SHINRA. He is also a secret character. He has spent many years of his life locked in the basement of the SHINRA Mansion, sleeping in a coffin. He possesses the power to turn into a beast to destroy his enemies. He is a balanced character.
Sephiroth: Sephiroth is the main enemy in the game. His age and birthplace are unknown. He is known as the greatest member of Soldier ever. He believes that his mother is JENOVA, a creation of Hojo, his real father. He was said to be killed, but he appeared and killed President Shinra and is now looking for the "Promised Land". He is the last boss of the game and is very strong.
President Rufus Shinra: Rufus is the son of President Shinra and because his father died he is now the new president. He wants to stop Sephiroth as well, but only to have the Promised Land all to himself.
Scoring Note: This game will be graded on a scale of 7, not because it is Final Fantasy VII, that's just the way I grade ;)
Graphics: 6
Although the graphics do look like shapes, they are surprisingly good. The cinematics make up for the graphics though. The graphics don't look like they are at the capacity of Playstation, but they are still good.
Storyline: 7
Final Fantasy VII had what is still said to be the best storyline ever. The way the game unfolds is completely amazing and the storyline never quits. I would rate this game'ss storyline the best ever.
Sound: 7
The music was amazing, the sound effects were cool. This game could have had about ten soundtracks with all the songs. It had the best music in a video game ever in my opinion.
Control: 6
You can move almost anywhere on the screen, but it sometimes gets annoying when you can't get somewhere when you need to. The control probably could have been better, but good enough!
Characters: 7
The way the characters come into the game is great, their personality is great, everything about the characters is great! Not to mention the amount of characters, bosses, ect.
Length: 7
Completing this game took me well into 100 hours, but I don't know exactly how long it was, because the timer stops at 99 :)
Environments: 7
The backgrounds were completely amazing and the world map was good too, but the world map did not look to scale at all. I mean, come on, there's know way Cloud can be as tall as Midgar, can he?
Battle Mode: 5
The battle mode was very standard, but the images in the battle were amazing! The battles resemble those of SMRPG. I think the images in battle get a 7, but the mode itself is dull.
Difficulty: 7
This game was very hard. Beating bosses, solving puzzles, and beating the two secret bosses was very hard and you always had to have a battle strategy. Also breeding a Gold Chocobo was hard too, I almost needed help until I figured it out by accident :P
Items: 7
Thousands of weapons, armor, and items to use. What's great is that your inventory can never be filled. No character could use the same weapons in the game either.
Fun Factor!: 7
Very fun to play, and if you get bored of the game there are tons of mini-games to choose from, or you could always bet or race Chocobos too!
Overall: 7
Probably the greatest game ever.
Recommendation:
You should buy this game if you can.
It's cheap, provides over 100 hours of entertainment, and was very hard
to beat. I think it was one of the hardest games I have ever played, and
probably the longest too!