First thing to say is tha among the whole Final Fantasy series this is for many fans, the greatest of them all.
User Rating: 9.1 | Final Fantasy VII PS
Perhaps remembered as the title that gave end to an era and begun another, this game was reckoned as Square’s masterpiece back then when it was released in 1997, and up to this date, it is one of the dearest for the fans of this series, which do not have to be exactly from the old school to appreciate this one. The game is most likely remembered for featuring one of the greatest storylines ever conceived, excellent gameplay and unique and memorable characters and villains, not to say, a great level of challenge included only on the main quest itself, not to talk about the almost unlimited side-quests and other things to discover the game has. This is the tale of Cloud, mysterious young warrior with an even more uncertain past that joins Avalanche, a revolutionary group that seeks to stop the Shinra corporation, who makes itself rich by making wars and controlling the word’s main source of energy, the mako, which comes from the living core of the planet itself, which is dying because it being drained of its energies, and as a reaction to this, a mighty evil from ages past is to be awaken and unleashed over the world that if it not stoped it will bring forth the world’s demise. The battle system here is pure turn based RPG style, based upon a materia skill learning system, for here, the abilities are not learn directly by the characters, but infused temporally into equipped materias that are the ones that actually evolve and improve the tech they carry, this is one of the most convenient skill learning system ever made since this materias can be transferred to any character providing it with the skills required by the circumstances, of course, the number of materia that can be equipped depends on the equipment the character is carrying which count with a limited amount of sockets for the materia to be inserted, by forming proper materia combination additional positive effects can be obtained, as for the skills contained in the materias, this range from white and black magic, to supportive and summon spells, all of this of course, are just a few features that the battle system has. It takes considerable amount of time to beat this game, the main quest itself is long, as the storyline unfolds itself into a chain of events that are most likely totally unexpected for the player, as mentioned before, this game is well know for its magnificent storyline, apart from the main quest, there a lot of side-quests that are a very important complement to the main quest itself, this all together makes the game a quite rich masterpiece that offers the player a lot of things to do and limitless challenge for a large amount of time that can extend itself for more than 60 hours, and yet, even if long this game posses a unique replay value. As for the graphics, this in fact are the ones that may discredit the game if compared to the graphics of the newest titles of the series, but its better to consider that when this game was released, the graphics it had, were the ultimate technology as well as very innovative, and its based on this game, that the others were conceived, so its better to judge the graphics for what represent instead of for what they currently are. Regarding sound, the soundtrack on this game is considered a masterpiece, yet some sound effects tend not to accomplish the quality the player might be expecting, but this is just a minimal set back. After more than 7 years of its original release this game continues to amuse the players that are newly introduced into it, and it represents the true essence of the Final Fantasy series, holding great value for the player and the fan.
