Even after eight years, this game remains the greatest RPG ever made.
User Rating: 10 | Final Fantasy VII PS
Final Fantasy VII is an example of video games at their finest. From its unique battle system to its amazing FMV scenes that some games still have yet to surpass to its soundtrack, this game will invade all of your thoughts. Most games in the 21st century so far have been short and only a couple of games have used more than one disk. This game is so long and so immersive, it requires three disks, each with a standard PS2 game length. Some might think this is too long, but it is just right, for this is the greatest story ever told in a videogame. You are Cloud Strife, an ex-member of SOLDIER, a military group of Shinra, a company whose main goal is to use the world's vital energy for profit. You have decided to become a mercenary, and your first job is to attack one of the energy sucking reactors of Shinra in the town of Midgar, the "ideal" city, where country boys wish to go, in hopes of making it big. The reality of this city, however, is that it is a big slum, where people who work in the reactors can live. In this city, you meet up with your childhood friend Tifa Lockheart, who now works for AVALANCHE, an pro-planet life organization. They are the people that hired you. Their members include Barret Wallace, who has a gun arm, Biggs, and Wedge. Now this is the storyline for about an eighth of the first disk. If I told you anymore, you would hate me later. But besides a story, this game also has an incredibly in-depth battle system, which has you learning spells from Materia, which are round shaped orbs that fit in slots in your weapons. You can level up the Materia you get to power you spells even more. For example, if you level up your Fire Materia enough, you obtain Fire 2, which is a doubly powerful version of fire. You can also learn other spells by leveling up materia. For example, if you level up your Barrier Materia, you can obtain Mbarrier, Wall, and Reflect. The neat thing about Materia is that anyone can use Materia, even after you level it up. The turns in which you can use your various spells or select the physical attack command take place in a virtual time-based system called ATB (Active Battle System). A meter fills depending on the character's agility, and when it is full you can attack. Each character has a different agility, and for that matter, each character has different attributes. The ninja Yuffie specializes in agility and suffers in defense, while Cloud is well-rounded and has a little bit of an advantage in strength. So as you can see, this game's battle system is about as in-depth as it gets. Leveling up is fun, and that's an achievement few games can say that they have made that happen. But Squaresoft figured that a game needs more than just good gameplay and a terrific story, so it decided to throw in some beautiful graphics too. The people at Squaresoft are smart people, as you can see. This game is simply gorgeous, and it is close to being as good as some Dreamcast games. The overworld graphics are mainly just a background and characters whose polygons you can distinguish, but while in battle, the characters are in full 3-D and are very detailed. Characters are not as blocky as you may think, and the people and monsters just look flat-out gorgeous and it far surpasses other PS1 games. But, the most beautiful thing in this game is the FMVs. This game consists of over 60 segments that are done with graphics that surpass PS2 games. That is simply astounding, considering the technology back then in 1997. For me they were rewards for getting somewhere or doing something. Getting somewhere or doing something can be harder than you think, though. This game's world is massive, and the world map takes probably 3 minutes to traverse completly in the rocket/airship. There are over 30 locations to visit, and usually there are several sidequests to be had in them. The sidequests alone will probably take you about 30 hours to complete, about the average time it takes to complete a PS2 game. You are rewarded for completing these sidequests, by getting either a weapon, armor, Materia, item, or key item. There are thousands of items to be had, and the item menu takes 2 minutes to completely scroll down at high speed. So all-in-all, this game is a must play. Even in 2005, this game remains as fun and addictive as ever, as I have just completed it for the fourth time. From its story to its graphics to its battle system to its item system, you need to go out and buy this game and complete it before anyone finds out. If you haven't done this in a day, I will come to your house and hand you this game. So for your own good, go out and play it. Don't make me come over there!
