Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

Yes, I can imagine there are millions of people around the world, who are much more versed in the Final Fantasy series than my humble self, but maybe there are a few who do not really know this game. And as they say in my country - Amongst the blind, a one-eyed is a king.

So, FF7 was the first of the series that actually made it to the PC platform in 1998 - quite a while ago. It was developed by Square [I guess it is Square Enix now] Of course, being originally for other platforms, and being a Japanese game, there is also a version from PlayStation. FF6 an beyond were playable only on SNES as far I know.

FF7 is an RPG with a unique game-style. Your characters will gain XP, and will level up to LvL 80 somewhat like in other Role paying games. You can have 3 characters participating in your group at a time, including the main character - Cloud Strife. They will also receive new fighting abilities as they advance, called "Limit"-s.

The battles are not real-time. They are a sort of turn-based fights. I have once read that it is called Active Time Battle. For those who have played FF6 or FF5 it should be familiar already. You can think of your next move, but nor for long, as the time is ticking and your enemies will attack if you think too long on what you should do next - and this gives a little charge and speed to the gameplay.

There are not too much things in the game that are not good, or even great. On thing - the graphics. The cutscenes and the movie parts were ok at that time, but the graphic design of the characters were... well - ugly even at that time: a bunch of color vectors running around in the game. But as soon as you could get over that, the game was brilliant.

The music is astonishing. Maybe the best I have heard in games so far - in this the PS version was even better, as the PC worked from midi-s at that time.

The story would be far too complex and long to summarize in this short review - and that is not what I would like to do, and I do not want to be a spoiler. I have alrady tried a little summary and it ended up with 10 lines, just before I deleted it.

Anyway, the story is interesting, thrilling, and unlike any other game I have played - a genuine masterpiece.

I've played the game from start to finish 5 times on the PS and twice on my PC and just could not stop. And this is the only game ever I have played more than 3 times.

This is the most famous, and maybe the best Final Fantasy episode. Everyone, even the ones who did not play the game have heard names like Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, Barret or Sepiroth - and if you are one of these, take a deep breath and start the game. It will be much more than you did expect - and if you do not play it, there will be something you're missing out on.

This game ranks amongst the top 3 games of my life.

The game also sold over 10 million copies, which I can tell you, is not just because of the marketing department of the developer company.

Anyway... If you like long, interesting games that sometimes make you laugh and sometimes stomp you to the ground and leave you to your tears, you have to give this game a shot.