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Final Fantasy 7

Genre RPG
Style Active Time Battle
Maker Squaresoft
System PSX

 

Info

Squaresoft's first game for a non-nintendo system. It was the first 3D RPG they made, also. It has been released on the computer, and was a 3 CD game on the PSX.
Starting Out

This game begins in Midgar, a metropolis where ShinRa is sucking the life out of the planet to make it into an energy source like electricity. Cloud has joined a group called Avalanch, to help with his fighting skills as they sabotage (blow up) reactors, to save the planet. Soon, however, the journey leaves Midgar and you go all over the world, searching for Sephiroth.

The Cast:

Character Name Description Specific Information
Cloud Schitzofrenic Hero with a big sword that fights guys with guns. Ex-first class something or other, or maybe not... He's strong, he's almost always on your team, and he's got strong limit breaks.
Barret Ebonics speaking Mr.T with a gun arm. He's adopted the daughter of his best friend, and he started the group known as Avalanch. He's useful from the back row, keeping full strength, and getting hit very little.
Tifa A street fighter, who likes to kick, punch, and use wrestling moves on enemies. She's in love with Cloud. She's not very strong with her normal attack, but her limit breaks can really wipe out enemies quick. For a short time, she is a lead character.
Aeris Last of the Ancients, Aeris is the last hope for the planet, when Meteor is called. She's a weakling in normal attacks, but she can heal with her level 1 limit break. That is her only redeeming feature. I didn't like her, and I was glad when she...
RedXIII An experiment in Hojo's lab, he's the last of his kind, protectors of Cosmo Canyon. His father was a powerful warrior, and his mother was killed in an attack by the Gi tribe. Red is an "ok" fighter, but he never grew on me, and never made it into my permanent team.
Cait Sith Reeve's alter-ego, spy, and silly body, is by far the worst character in FF7. He didn't come in handy at all, in fact, without many limit breaks, his damage was predictably low. I didn't like him at all. Might as well have left him in the Temple of the Ancients, and not gotten a replacement.
Cid A dragoon/engineer. His dream has always been to go into outerspace. He's got a mouth as dirty as a toilet, and a smoking habit to match. He's a dragoon, so his limit breaks have him jumping into the air, and doing evil things to them when he lands. For a time, he is a lead character.
Yuffie A young ninja, daughter of Godo, Emperor of Wutai. She's very enthusiastic, and has a way of being comedic in many instances. She was a good character to have in the back row, and when she had the Conformer, she could morph anything, in 1 hit, thus gaining stat-increasing items was a breeze. It was just her personality that got on everyone's nerves.
Vincent An ex-member of the Turks, Vincent was in love with Lucretia, Sephiroth's mother. Vinvent blames himself for letting Lucretia be used by Hojo in the experiment. He's another backrow kind of guy. His attacks aren't all that powerful, unless you use his ultimate weapon, with tons of kills on it, or a 255 accuracy gun, and the Deathblow materia. Thus, he'll get criticals every time.
The Story

The story was original, as the focus was primarily on the characters, however, the goals players had to accomplish were not exciting. They pulled you along from place to place, "searching" for Sephiroth. This inevitably lead into Cloud's past with Sephiroth, and the many false memories that you had to sort through. It felt like the story would have been better told as a movie, rather than an interactive game.

This game did feature the real death of a main character who fought on your team. Although this did get a powerful response from players, it was annoying to have built that character up for so long, just to lose all that work. At least with General Leo, you didn't really use him long...
Gameplay

Battle
Everyone in FF7 could have been used equally well. True, Cait Sith wasn't quite as good, due to his Limit breaks.. the only really defining characteristic they had different.

Changing armor to only be a bracelet really wasn't practical. This was probably a design feature, so people didn't keep asking for the character's appearance to change, as you would expect, when changing your armor from "leather vest" to "Crystal Armor". These FF7 bracelets were supposed to change your entire body's defense. I found this point most disappointing.

Battles were the same as before, waiting your turn to attack, in active time battle, selecting the most powerful attack you have (usually normally attacking). There were many options made available through Materia, allowing you to steal, morph, deathblow, etc... which made things a little more interesting. (but it really didn't change the dynamics of gameplay)

Limit breaks were a new point in FF games. Taking enough damage allowed you to unleash a powerful attack. This, however, wasn't exactly new at the time. (Lufia 2 had something similar, damage you took would be added to an Item Point meter, when you had enough IP, you could use the item's attack)

Materia attached to armor and weapons, either linked or stand-alone, created most of the changes in armor and weaponry. You were able to have fire resistance, and a weapon that could inflict multiple status ailments.

Accessories were rarely useful, except in certain situations (like fighting frogs, the white cape was essential) Of course, by the end of the game, you all had Ribbons. Some accessories increased your Vitality, thus, HP raises were higher. However, this made juggling your accessories burdensome, if you wanted to keep your backup people all equipped correctly for gaining levels.

Advancement
You gain levels from Experience. Even the people in your in-active party are gaining Experience. This is a BAD THING, especially when you want to optimize your group for the best levelup stats possible, altering their equipment. In the beginning this is the hardest thing. You only have access to 1 protect vest, and very few cover/throw materia. Therefore, they punish you for gaining levels, until you can fully equip your entire team, or raise their Vitality to 255 with Guard Sources.

Since I don't care about magic, I didn't care about magic power, or MP scores, but this would apply as well.

Exploration
Exploring the 3D overworld was new, if you used the "see where you're going" view. This was a neat idea, only available since it was in 3D.
Exploring the pre-rendered backgrounds could get very annoying, especially Sector 7(?) (the one you had to fight through) This was because of how hard it was to understand where you could walk, and where you couldn't. Another annoyance, was when you were really really tiny on the map, and you moved extremely slowly. To compound this problem, there were high encounter rates for the distance you moved on screen in these instances, because you moved so "far."
What do you DO?

Basically, you fight for a long time, gaining levels, and fighting monsters. You go from one story point to another, where you are further brought through the story, giving you new goals and reasons to be fighting the monsters.

However, there was actually a LOT of stuff to "do" in this game. You did more than just fight. There were many mini-games, like the motorcycle battle thing, the submarine, the snowboarding, chocobo breeding, Materia raising... still, these didn't make the required parts of the game less boring as a whole.

Points of note:

The graphics of this FF game far surpassed any before it, however, pretty graphics does not a good game make. This was the first FF game to allow breeding of Chocobos, which was a novel idea that also opened up secrets places to visit in the world. Limit breaks were neat, but they did not make up for a lack of individuality in what each character could do. Everyone was a cookie-cutter warrior with a different personality... which is what it all comes down to. They were movie characters who you just happened to be able to use in battles.