This game will be remembered for all time. If it were a Sundae, it would be Cookie Dough flavor with caramel and stuff.
INTRO
This was the first game that let a lot of people know that video games weren't just killing simulators. It was the first 3D rpg. The first FF on the playstation. It did a lot of things for the first time that the gaming world hadn't seen before. Truthfully, they couldn't have done a better job. Instead of making just another rpg, they innovated. They made a revolutionary fighting system, a story that you wish you lived in, and an enemy that instead of wanting to destroy or take over, he would become life itself. If this doesn't sound like a recipe for success, nothing does.
At the beginning of the game, you don't know anything. You just a soldier with a big sword. This main character doesn't care about anything. He's just a mercenary looking to make a living. Some several hours later, after you've made a connection with the characters, you get the backstory. This connects you to why Cloud, the main character, is the way he is, and why he chases Sephiroth. I'll get to Sehpiroth later. Anyway, the real point the games combat is the materia system.
MATERIA
Materia is the Lifestream of the Earth, condensed into a solid that can be used like magic. This materia can be equipped to weapons and armor. Depending on which you equip it to, it will have a different effect, doubly so depending on if you have any of a number of other materia connected to it. Equiping a magic materia like Fire will increase magic damage, increase mp, and decrease strength if you equip it to a weapon. Equip to armor and mp and magic defense will go up but strength will go down. If you equip Elemental to the slot connected to Fire on a weapon, you will get the weapon materia bonuses plus fire damage in your attacks, while an armor attachment of the same kind will increase fire resistance. This system has limitless potential, giving you the ability to equip any character to a particular task. Obviously certain characters are better in certain areas, but the effect of the materia system still works the same for every character. There are several kinds of materia the enable different things. Your basic materia like Fire(magic) or Shiva(summon) are easy to understand. Moves like Deathblow will do more damage, but have less accuracy. Enemy skill will let you learn and use enemies attacks, and Manipulate will allow you to take control of your opponent. These are just a couple examples. In the game, the materia is color coded. Green is magic, Red is summon, Blue is special effect, Yellow is special materia, and Purple is buffing materia. There are a great deal of each color, and a crap ton of combinations you can make for them, which is explained 2 paragraphs down.
There's more to the materia system. Each materia has its own exp. When it gets enough, it will level up allowing for a new spell or make the materia more effective. Leveling up Fire will grant Fire 2, Destruction will go from DeBarrier to Gravity to Death. Every materia has this system that allows the materia to get better with use. The materia All ( when you connect it to a spell, it attacks ALL enemies) becomes master, it will always hit all enemies as opposed to only sometimes or usually working. When a piece of materia hits its level cap is becomes a MASTER materia. Also, it makes a copy of itself. This way, more than one person can have unique materia. Or, this effect can be used to make your one character's power incredible. Limitless potential lies in the materia system.
Weapons and armor are unique for 2 aspects. 1. Both weapons and armor have normal, double, triple, and nothing growth speeds. A weapon with double will make materia level up faster that is attached to it, but it won't have as many slots or connections. The rest are self explantory now. 2. They have Slots. Slots are spots to attach materia to. Some slots are connected and others are not. If you connect materia to a single slot, it will just work as is. It just does what that materia is assigned to do. If you put materia in a slot with a connection to another, you can put certain kinds of materia in the other slot for special effects. The spell Quake acts alone regularly, but when I put it in a connected slot and put the materia All next in the connected slot, it will cause Quake to hit all enemies. If it's a weapon, and instead of all you put Poison next to Added Effect, it will poison into your attacks. If you did this to your armor it would make you resist poison. The system allows complete leeway to the player. You can make a character anything you want, building from there permaneant stats they get from leveling up.
CONCEPT and STORY. NOT SPOILER FREE. Skip to the next spaced set of text called GRAPHICS.
The concept of this game lies in 2 things. 1. Stop Shinra from sucking away the life of the world. 2.Stop Sephiroth Both of these things need explaining .
1.Starting from the top, you are Cloud, the ex-SOLDIER who isn't attached to anyone and cares about nothing but money. You come across a rebel group called Avalanche. As it turns out, Avalanche is rebeling against Shinra, the super company that has their roots into everything across the globe. The rebel because they know the truth about the energy form called Mako. Mako is main energy source of most things. Shinra produces Mako by sucking up the Lifestream, the lifeforce of the world, and using it as an incredibly efficient form of energy. However, using Mako makes it so that the Lifestream isn't returned to the world. So, the planet is dying as a result of Shinra's greed. Avalanche is rebeling by destroying Mako Reactors to stop the making of Mako. This is the basis of the game until you learn about Sephiroth. After that, it becomes an extra objective that must get done after Sephiroth is gone.
2.Sephiroth is the games main antagonist. He is not a normal human. Jenova, otherwise known as The Calamity from the Skies, landed on Earth. A doctor put jenova's cells into the unborn baby of Elena. This baby became Sephiroth. He was better than the rest. Smarter, stronger, wiser, better. He was the perfect human. Instead of making a giant super warrior as an antagonist, Sephiroth is a normally proportioned human looking person with silver hair, black robes, and a 7 foot long katana. Once he learned of his past, he went insane. Now he seeks to make a wound in the Earth so massive, it would have to focus most of it's Lifestream in one spot. He does this with the black materia made by the ancients, Meteor. When the Meteor hits the world, he will go straight to the center of the wound, deep inside the Earth, and become a part of the Lifestream, essentially fusing himself to all life, giving him true immortality and control. The rest of the game after you learn about Sephiroth is to find him, learn about him, and kill him.
COMBAT
Few games have better combat than this one. Smooth, detailed, wonderful animations, and fun battles. All you attack options depend on materia. I already talked about it, so it'll be at a lesser detail. You can add materia that will give you new commands. These commands can be anything from Magic to Summoning to DeathBlow to Enemy Skill. There is a good deal of commands and possible strategy that goes with being able to give these commands to any character. There are a variety of effects to be afflicted with. These include poison, confuse, sleep, stone, petrify, curse, small, frog, stop, slow, haste, regen, barrier, protect, sadness, and fury. Every single one will alter battle in it's own way, some in ways you didn't expect.
The Limit Break attack is a special move only useably after a character has taken enough damage to fill their Limit Meter. This special move is different in effect for every character. Some are simple, like Braver. Cloud runs, jumps, and cleaves the enemy. His secondary for level 1 is Cross Slash, which attacks and stuns. Another one is Blade Beam, which shoots a beam from Cloud's sword that hits one foe, and then spreads for lesser damage to hit the others. Another will attack all enemies, while yet another will attack the group of enemies repeatedly, if not simultaneously. A Limit Break can do something different for each character. One Aerith's is Healing Wind, which heals the whole party, while RedXIII has Lunatic Moon, which makes him hasted and berserked. One character even transforms for his Limit Break.
The enemies are sometime hard and sometimes mediocre, but only easy if you're over level. Each enemy also has their own weaknesses, strengths, and special moves. Most enemies don't really have an AI, they simply randomly attack. Sometimes you'll encounter one with a strategy, which will challenge you're ability, considering most of the time enemies can be swept away without too much difficulty.
GRAPHICS
The non-combat graphics aren't actually very good. To be specific, they are blocky, but charming. The environments usually have a good deal of detail when you're in a house or town, but any other area isn't pretty. It does have a good framerate though. Never choppy. The combat graphics are impressive. Fast, beautiful, and smooth all perfectly fit the combat. The story scenes with enhanced graphics are excellent. They don't come around very often, but when they do, they are a real treat.
SOUND
The game sound is great. Not only does the music fit, but it resonates inside your head even after it has went away. It isn't boring or uninspired at all. The sounds for actions are always satisfying too. Whether it be the sound of Cid's spear piercing through the enemies heart, or the charming dings and pings of the menus and occasional special action, like opening a door or activating a save point, will always make you feel welcome to play the game more.
REPLAY
Maybe you did something that you wonder you have gotten something else for had you done it right, maybe you want to try out some more strategies, or even find everything you missed, you will never have a problem with playing the game again. There are a large amount of extra things to do besides following the main storyline. Collect the hidden materia, fight all the semi hidden WEAPON bosses, breed yourself a White Chocobo or race some you raise yourself, the list is big. All of the hidden things will proably require a lot of time to totally complete, so it's easy to spend several hours on the game even if you can already beat it with ease.
OVERALL
The total elements of Final Fantasy 7 come together to form a golden disc of holiness among any gamer. This is the RPG people look back to to compare new ones and say "It isn't quite as good as..." or "... a far cry from..." to make a point about a game. It gets approved on every timeline. The general setting seems to switch near constantly from Future, Past, Present, and Fantasy without anything to do with the actual timeflow, but the setting of what's around you. It also hits home multicultural. Carnivals, cities, farms, caves, icelands, ancient civilizations, carnivals, museums, pyramids, where you are is always a new aspect of the game as a whole, in both play and storyline. During no point will you think " I don't like this part", because it all rocks with a tasty groove, hence the 10. A must have for any generation or type of player. 10 out of 10 is the only score that could possibly fit. When you have a 10 game, you know. Everything just seems to work and fall into place. This game does it know one else probably ever will or has. 10 out of 10.