This is another one of the Final Fantasy games that everyone will always
remember. Even if all of the latest Final Fantasy games are usually instant
classics but FF7 is special. Not only because of the game itself, but also
because of the amount of attention this one received with all the advertising,
T shirts etc. But, FF7 did deserve the hype all the way. But why didn’t other
FF’s get this much attention? Well, FF7 was something new and exciting. It was
Square’s first game on the Playstation and it spread across three cds. The FMVs
were breath taking and people were expecting a lot from this one. But hyping
FF7 too much also gave a few bad results. With all of this commotion and
advertising, Square raised everyone’s expectations. FF7 gets the job done, but
not for all gamers. If you’re a fan of the the FF series, you’ll have to think
about something. FF7 is not the same as the others. It's a big leap from Final
Fantasy 6 only in certain areas of course. And you have to ask yourself if you
are ready to take that leap. Well at first I wasn't for sure. But with a little
preparation, I went for it, and enjoyed every moment of it.
Final Fantasy 7 succeeds in creating a lighthearted, fun kind of feel when it is
needed. This fun feel definitely made the game much more enjoyable. It’s nice
to be able to stop for a minute, catch your breath and take a break by
snowboarding or helping moogles fly. This fun feel is what I missed in FF8. I
have heard many complain that FF8 was just too serious. Mini games are a nice
little break and/or reward for working oh so hard to get to where you are.
There’ll be plenty of mini games everywhere you look from a motorcycle race to
a rock paper scissors type of fighting game. But the real place to party is the
big 'Chuck E. Cheese's' Golden Saucer, in other words mini game heaven. While
playing the game you’ll encounter several mini games. You'll be raising or
racing chocobos, avoiding Elena's punches, snowboarding and much, much
more.
And besides a fun feel, there is a lot of emotion here. There are
moments in the game that you'll remember for the rest of your gaming life,
which I can not reveal without spoiling something. But you'll know what I mean
when you hit them. You'll know, because you'll feel it unless you’re an
emotionless robot of some sort. Whether it be your hands shaking, your eyes
burning up with fury or that lump in your throat that makes you want to cry FF7
has it all. If you just devote your time and some money to FF7 it'll give back
way more. It’ll give you an incredible experience, one that you’ll never
forget. It will go down in your gaming history book along with all the other
special gaming moments that you’ve experienced.
The storyline I found
somewhat confusing at first, but after I've read about it and re-read some
dialogue, I now have a full understanding. Don't be surprised if at one time or
another you stop, think and say ''huh?'' You may not understand it at first,
but just remember that you will soon. The story is fantastic, with plenty of
surprises, sad moments, happy moments, and extremely funny ones (haha look at
Cloud in that dress!) that'll have you begging for more. It starts off
relatively simple. Cloud is a mercenary who used to work for Soldier, an elite
group of soldiers. He was hired by Avalanche, a group who wants to stop the
evil Shinra Co. from destroying the planet by sucking up all the ‘mako’ power.
But it becomes a lot more then that; you'll see. Cloud's reason for staying
with Avalanche starts to change from just money. He begins to see things from a
different point of view.
The characters are all thought-out, have their
own personalities. They all have their own stories – some intertwine with each
other’s but in the end, all get a lot of development in their story (some more
then others – hehe.) Below I’ll give a short intro on some of the characters –
if you wish not to risk spoiling any small detail, I suggest you scroll down
until you see this symbol - **
The main character, Cloud really is quite
an interesting person. He has a strange and mysterious past and supposedly grew
up with Tifa. From there off it gets much more complicated and gets kind of
confusing as well. I can’t reveal too much about his story though. In the
beginning, he doesn’t care about the world, just the money he can make. He’s a
natural fighter with a large sword called a ‘Buster Sword’ which is very
dangerous. The only friend he really has is Tifa in the beginning of the game,
but a lot happens. And you’ll see how Cloud changes throughout the
game.
The evil villain in FF7 is Sephiroth - the best villain I've ever
seen in an RPG or any game, period. Once you've seen him (especially in FMV)
you'll forget about any other ‘bad guy’ and start to wonder “how the hell am I
gonna beat him??!” Sephiroth is the ultimate enemy. He starts off normal,
working with Cloud. But he's a confused and destructive monster of a human
being (not even..) And his words flow out of his mouth as if he had it all
planned already - as if he knew what was going happen so he'd have the perfect
thing to say. Sephiroth himself is a major part of the FF7 story. You’ll find
out sooner or later that Sephiroth isn’t your only enemy, but he sure is the
main one. He's dangerous, he looks awesome, he has a deadly and long sword
called the ‘masamune’ and he's not willing to give up no matter what. He'll be
walking in a direction and if something gets in his way, he’ll simply keep
walking forward and move his obstacles out of the way, just because he has the
power and ability to do it. Sure, there are villains who come close to pure
evil, but Sephiroth really has it all. Everything you can name that you like
about villains – you’ll find in Sephiroth.
Tifa is a bartender at her
very own bar – 7th heaven. She’s also a key member of Avalanche. She’s had a
thing for Cloud for a long time, but never found the right moment to reveal her
feelings. She’s a strong fighter, born and raised in Nibelheim (or is it
Nivelheim?) who uses her fists as weapons. She always tries to be sensitive and
caring, especially when it has something to do with Cloud or someone else she
cares about. Her limit breaks are very deadly and she’s definitely not your
typical female healer.
And then there’s Aerith/Aeris. The one who screws
it all up for Tifa [lol], the one whom most people like so much. She’s spunky,
happy, peaceful, caring, and kind. You first meet her selling flowers near the
start of the game… you won’t think she’s too important at the moment, but
you’ll see how much she really accomplishes. She’s not too much of a fighter,
but she still comes in handy. You can either spend all your time levelling her
up and getting new limit breaks(which will be VERY useful in tough battles), or
you can set her aside thinking that you won’t need her because.. argh can’t
finish that sentence. Anyways, it’s up to you.
Barret, the crazy and
energetic tough guy. He has a gun planted on his right arm (I think..?) and
there’s a story for that dealing with his home town and his friend, Dyne. He
likes a argue with people, but Cloud the most - all the time even. He has a
daughter (well kind of) named Marlene, who comes first when Barret makes
important decisions. He’s the leader of Avalanche and is always ready to
sacrifice to make things better for others. Oh and his hometown isn’t too fond
of him.
Red XIII or Nanaki is a tiger/dog type of beast. He comes from
Cosmo Canyon and has a long story to reveal dealing with his father and mother.
His grandfather, Bugenhagen will help you on your quest. Nanaki is very
powerful and wise. He’s usually very quiet but has a good idea of what’s going
on, and his species live for over hundreds of years.
Cait Sith, the
return of the moogle! I can’t say too much without giving out some spoilers..
but it’s pretty much like this : Cait sith is a cat riding on a big stuffed
moogle. He uses a mega phone to attack, and has some crazy limit breaks. Cait
Sith is strong, and ready to fight at all times. That is all.
Yuffie is
kind of a ‘secret’ character, and you’ll have to do some work to get her to
join you. The ending won’t be different if you have her or not (same with
Vincent) but she’s still worth getting. Her limit breaks are very powerful. She
uses a big shuriken type thing for a weapon, and can never seem to keep her
mouth shut. She likes to talk and steal – so you better keep an eye on your
materia… : ).
Cid Highwind, the most memorable character of all. He’s
constantly angry and swearing at everyone and smokes a cigarette. He had always
wanted to go to space, but he had some bad luck and it never happened. Cid uses
a spear type weapon and strong limit breaks. He’s always ready to give a smart
remark to whatever someone says, such as when Cloud says “Let’s Mosey” in the
game. The Cids will be here forever!
Vincent - another one of my
favourite characters from FF7. He's mysterious, his past is unknown and you'll
have to work extra hard to get him in your party. It starts in the
Nibelheim/Nivelheim mansion. You’ll need to follow the clues to find a code to
the safe. You have to enter the code in very little time, and then you have to
face one big bad enemy. And AFTER that, you’ll have to go down open the door to
Vincent and say the right lines to get him to join you. Vincent has unique
limit breaks, in which he transforms into a powerful monster and you lose
control of him whatsoever. He’s almost a zombie.. or a vampire if you will. He
has the speech of a poet, confusing words and concepts that not all will
understand. But then you start to unravel his past.... and you can see how sad
and unfortunate it really was. That's why I took him to fight Hojo... so he
could get his revenge >: ) Ahem, but I can’t say too much about
that.
That covers the main characters.. **
The music is some of
the best in the series. From Jenova's theme, to that song you here when
Sephiroth walks away into the flames... it'll tug at your mind telling you how
to feel even if you don’t understand why. You'll understand what I mean when
you hear it for yourself.. a good piece of the tracks are inspiring
masterpieces which were carefully constructed by the musical genius, Nobuo
Uematsu. These are the songs you'll remember along with the other classics.
Some are catchy, others will amaze you.. and the rest will make you smile,
laugh or cry. I love this music, and so will you.. if you know good music when
it hits you.
Now the main difference you'll notice in FF7 from FF6 is
well, it's in 3-D. Yep, you can now fully explore towns in 3-D. I like the 2-D
effect a lot but 3-D is nice I guess. All the characters are polygonal and are
on the blocky side (With big cubes for hands as well) but trust me you won't
notice while you play – you’ll be distracted by the great gameplay, music, and
story. The environments, world map and cities are all detailed and are very
colourful. During battle, the characters aren’t too impressive, but they look
OK. The limit breaks all look fantastic… especially ones like highwind and
omnislash. The FMVs are absolutely breathtaking, but when you see what FMVs FF8
has to offer - you'll forget all of these.. except maybe the one with Sephiroth
and Aerith/Aeris.... oops.
The oh-so lovable MP system of FF6 is gone
(*sob*) and in place of it is the Materia system. Materia look like little
marbles and they fit right into your character's weapons. As you go along and
battle more and more your Materia will also gain levels. As your materia
advance you'll gain more and more spells to do.. until it becomes a master
materia in which it's at its most powerful and can give ''birth'' to new
materia of the same type. Certain master materia allow little special things
that you'll see : ) There are different types of materia - Magic, Skill, Summon
and .. err.. I forgot what the name of those other ones are called. In magic
you'll be able to cast spells with different types of materia: there's fire,
ice, tornado, meteor etc. Skill materia allow you to use a certain skill during
battle. For example Sense allows you to see the enemy's weaknesses, HP, level
etc. Summons are like GFs in FF8 and the Espers in FF6. A monster/beast will
come to aid you in battle. You can also combine materia, to create your own
custom combos. If you bind an elemental and fire materia on your weapon, your
weapon will have a fire edge. This way, you can prepare for enemies that are
weak against fire! Get it now? There are and endless amount of combinations so
you have a lot of choice. These combos basically do what Junctioning does in
FF8. I like the materia system, but so far FF6's mp/magicite system is my
favourite.
Limit breaks are special techniques that can be pulled off
when your character has taken enough damage to really get them angry. These are
really cool - and there are hidden limit breaks for every character that'll do
A LOT of damage, and look great at the same time. Some of the limit breaks
include : Cloud’s Braver, Barret’s Big shot, Cid’s highwind, Yuffie’s Greased
lightening and more. Limit breaks can be the deciding factor to the result of a
battle. For example: you’re facing a boss. You forgot to save at the last save
point and it was a long journey to the boss. You’ve been battling for a long
time, you feel the boss is extremely weak – but only one of your characters is
left.. and he or she has a limit break ready. What do you do? Do you risk it
all and launch the ever powerful limit break? Or do you play it safe and heal
yourself or revive your companions? Your hands will be sweating… what should
you do?
The chocobo raising aspect of the game is one that'll take skill,
time and money. You have to be really devoted to FF7 if you plan on getting
your very own Golden Chocobo. It's a long process that'll have you waiting,
working and sweating even. You’ll have to catch the perfect chocobo that meets
the standards. You'll have to race your chocobos against some of the best
racers out there, all with the help of Esther of course. You’ll need to breed
your chocobos, to get new chocobos (you go from blue, green, white and so on)
and take care of your chocobos to get a golden one but trust me the rewards
you get for it are worth it. The Golden chocobo can go anywhere – absolutely
anywhere. You want to walk on the ocean? The gold chocobo can do it. They are
the ultimate exploring tool.
There are plenty of hidden things and
secrets to find in FF7. After you're done with Sephiroth there'll still be
plenty of do. You can find all of the hidden best weapons for each character,
raise your chocobos, fight the difficult Ruby, Emerald or Ultimate weapons, and
buy all those prizes at the golden saucer. There's lots to do - you won't be
done with this one for months. And after a long while you might want to play it
again. To relive the experience, to finally get Tifa's last limit break, to buy
omni slash, to laugh at Cid's lines and to see if there's any possible way to
keep Aeris (Don't ask) You'll enjoy this one from beginning to end, unless
you're one of those people who just aren't ready for new technology. You can
sit and wait, but when you're ready, promise me you'll play FF7. It's a wild
ride of fun and emotion.
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