Walkthroughs & Tips

Review by: Jake Delfeir

Reviewers Score: 10 / 10

Posted: May 17, 2006

Final Fantasy 7
System: Playstation
Genre: RPG
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Score: 10/10

Okay, come on now. If you're reading this, I can assume that you've been on Nerologic for a while. And even without that, you would be into games enough to know of the Final Fantasy series. Well, this is claimed to be the very best in the series. In fact, it has been declared on numerous occasions to be the very best video game. EVER. So stepping up to the plate nearly a decade after its release, I had heard much of it but never experienced it much for myself. Now that I finally have, I'm here to deliver my opinion on the most famous video game ever.

Graphics (10/10)

10/10?! Wow, you must be thinking that the Delfeir has flipped. Nope, definitely not. See, I base my judgement on the context of the game, not the present day. So this game doesn't have to compete with the likes of Oblivion. Back in 1997, this was the very first 3D RPG. The first of its kind in so many ways. And it was good. The settings and scenery was drawn very nicely and suited what was happening perfectly. The CG animations and video sequences were still very new, but also very well done and were of high quality. Perhaps the only complaints some people might have are the character models... at first, they're just a mess of polygons with spanner-like arms. However, after a couple of areas have passed, you don't even notice them. And a couple more after that, I actually found them to be really endearing. Somehow... they just felt RIGHT. I don't really know how to describe, but now I don't think I could play it with them looking any different. Even if they were boosted to the quality of the movie sequel. So, perfect score on the graphical side of things.

Sounds (10/10)

This section gets a perfect score as well. Nobuo Uematsu, the now semi-retired composer of Squaresoft, is just as highly acclaimed as this game. And the music in this game is some of his best work. All of the songs suit the situation perfectly, support what is happening in the storyline, and help immerse the game in this world. And of course, there is One-Winged Angel... the most famous video game song ever made, and also the very first to have lyrics, a trait which has become much more common since then. Come on, let's face it... everyone knows One-Winged Angel. To top it all off, the sound effects are numerous and generally sound pretty good. Once again, this merits full points.

Storyline (10/10)

Let it be known that this only just scraped a 10... I'll explain further in a moment. Simply put, the storyline of this game is amazing. From the very start, you're swept up in an epic adventure which is rivalled only by the fact that you are constantly questioning just what is happening. The game starts off as a group of terrorists jump off a train and rush towards the nearby Mako Reactor, in the sprawling and modern city of Midgar. One of these terrorists, Cloud Strife, immediately shows himself to be the main character. The group proceeds to the aforementioned reactor, where a burly black man with a gun for an arm named Barret explains that this reactor belongs to the Shinra company. And the Shinra company are evil, since the reactor sucks the life out of the planet to power everything. Cloud displays overwhelming apathy, and immediately sets his character... for the time being. It ultimately sets the bad guys up, too, since the Shinra company is very evil and gets in your way throughout the game. As events continue, Cloud is separated from the group after a mission but is saved by a flower girl called Aeris... a very abnormal flower girl, as the case would be. And this sparks even more problems with Shinra, since their agents the Turks are out to kidnap Aeris. So, Cloud becomes her bodyguard, which sets off the remainder of the game... and a very good storyline which simply cannot be summarised in the space that I have here. Suffice to say, it is very good, with innumberable twists and constant situations where you're just dying to know what is happening.

However, it's not completely perfect. A big part of the storyline comes from the character personalities, and this feels somewhat lacking in FF7. Cloud, the main character, is an extremely cold and somewhat dull character during the early stages of the game, and the other characters are all fairly interesting but could stand a little more development. Later on as the storyline progresses, though, the characters began to... mature, shall we say, and improve considerably. Cloud changes and becomes a lot more human, and all the characters seem to grow in their own way. So they get off to a slow start but come around by the end of it, which is the only reason I didn't remove points. Otherwise, the storyline is wonderful.

Gameplay (10/10)

The Final Fantasy series is well known for its battle system, but is also known for the fact that each one bears some difference to the others in the series. FF7 is no exception. The battle system is the typical Active Time Battle of Final Fantasy fame, which means that a bar fills up according to the character's speed, and they may perform an action when the bar fills up. One noticable difference, however, is that previous FF games allowed 4 characters to partake in each battle. FF7 only has 3. However, because of the Materia system - more on that in a moment - each character has the versatility to accomplish any role they wish. This means that your party doesn't feel so limited - you basically just choose the characters you like, not the characters you need. Aside from some slight statistical differences, and the individual Limit Break of each character, you're not restrained in any way. Each character has Hit Points and Magic Points, as is the norm for RPGs, and these rise as they gain experience and level up. They also have their Limit Gauge. As a character takes damage, this gauge increases a little bit depending on how much damage is dealt. When it is completely full, the character can unleash a Limit Break. These are typically very powerful attacks, but some serve other functions. Aeris has a healing Limit Break, for example. New Limit Breaks are acquired by using older ones and eventually developing new ones. Each character has 7 of them, 2 for each level with the 4th level being obtained in a specific place, usually through a sidequest. These serve to offer a little extra muscle when dealing with more powerful enemies.

The main feature of FF7 is the Materia system. Materia is a naturally occurring substance that is formed when Mako energy comes to the surface and solidifies. The resulting Materia is charged with magical power, and this can be drawn upon for a number of different effects. You'll get Materia from the very start, and afterwards it can be equipped to your weapons and armour to let you use it. Your equipment also determines how much Materia each character can have. Early equipment will only have two spots for Materia, but the best stuff in the game has around 7 or 8. Additionally, some special pieces of equipment have double growth rate, or no growth rate at all. Growth rate determines how quickly each chunk of Materia goes up in level. Each Materia has a number of different levels, and the more AP you earn (which is earned after battles with experience), the higher they'll get. Usually for every level you get, a new ability is unlocked to be drawn from that Materia chunk, or the abilities are increased depending on which particular one you're using. When you master the Materia - that is, get it to max level, which usually takes quite a long time - then it'll spawn another Materia of that type, meaning that with a lot of time every character could be using the most powerful spells in the game. Materia comes in all different varieties - some provide stat boosts, others grant you spells or summons to use. Still others actually link with other Materia to grant an additional effect, since some equipment has two linking slots which allow them to work together in some cases. For example, equipping a Fire Materia with an All Materia will let you cast a Fire spell that hits all the enemies, rather than just one. Some common Materia can be purchased at shops, so some useful ones can be acquired in groups such as Recover, while others are unique and are scattered throughout various dungeons. To balance out the destructive power of the Materia, however, each one affects your stats somehow. The average spell Materia increases your Max MP and Magic power, but lowers your Strength and Max HP. This means you may need to balance out your general power with your versatility. As you can see, there's plenty to the Materia system, but it's all fairly intuitive and comes fairly quickly. It's a fairly good system, but makes it somewhat... easy... to become ridiculously powerful.

Apart from this large facet of the game, the rest of the game is fairly typical RPG fare. You traverse through cities and dungeons to accomplish your mission and advance the storyline, and these are usually fairly straight-forward with the occasional puzzle thrown in for good measure. Most are fairly simple and won't keep you there for ages, but it's better than just marching through bland dungeons, so it's a good thing. The locales are also fairly varied, too, which means you won't always be that bored with the scenery. All in all, though, it's fairly standard in its execution, but put together well.

Additionally, there's also a fair swath of various mini-games thrown in for good measure. These mini-games are usually required to get through, but doing particularly well can net you with some very nice treasures and items. Thus, it pays to try your hardest in these. They can vary from snowboarding down a huge hill, to shooting down an enemy sub, to matching your moves with a prompt in order to please a crowd. These are always a fairly nice break, and in this game are actually pretty enjoyable on their own. One particular mini-game, where you ride along on a motorbike and protect a van from assaults by other motorbikes, is a big favourite of mine. Good stuff. There are even a couple of much larger ones, like the Chocobos. Early on, you can catch Chocobos and raise them for a while, eventually getting them to breed and spawn more Chocobos. If you do this right, you can get Chocobos of various colours. Later on in the game, you can take this Chocobo with you over certain terrains that your vehicle can't access. If you follow this right up to the breeding of the Golden Chocobo, you can get a special Materia which gives you THE most unfair attack in any video game, ever. Certainly a fun attack, though, so at least they're rewarding you well with all your efforts.

Lastly, there are sidequests. There aren't heaps and heaps of them in Final Fantasy 7 like there are in some open-ended games, but there are enough for those of you adventurous - or bold - to take them. Some can be accessed almost as a small offshoot of the main story, like investigating the Shinra Manshion, while others exist to be completed right at the end of the game. I'm talking about confronting the Weapons - three optional bosses, two of which rank up as some of the hardest video game confrontations in history. Defeating them takes a lot of effort, and in most cases you need to complete the Chocobo sidequest in order to have the powerful attacks needed to wipe them out. Beating them is more of a bragging right rather than any real necessity though, so it's up to you.

So yeah, that's pretty much it to the gameplay. You go in, you traverse a dungeon, you battle enemies and you play mini-games. Fairly standard RPG fare, as I've said, but it's all done excellently and is incredibly fun to do.

Replayability (6/10)

FF7 may be good, but it's still just an RPG... and it suffers from the typical RPG trait of having little longevity. The first playthrough can take the average player around 40 or 50 hours to complete, but afterwards there is very little to encourage another playthrough. Sidequests exist, but they're not that numerous and don't add that much to it. Aside from perhaps the hidden super-bosses, nothing is left to do once the final battle rolls in. But I will add points for one thing... FF7 is constructed so superbly that one playthrough doesn't really seem enough. If I had more time and less games to play, then I would almost certainly go through it again in the near future. Thus, my score is bolstered ever so slightly.

Overall (10/10)

Despite how extremely exaggerated (and annoying) some of the fanboy claims are, there's no denying that Final Fantasy 7 is definitely a very good game. Entertaining, engaging, and alluring, it's one of those few games that I was just called back to. Personally, I don't think it's the very best game of all time... but I can assure you that it's one of the best there is, at least. If you're a gamer but you haven't played this, you owe it to yourself to do so. It won't disappoint any RPG lover, guaranteed.