Today is the day of my Final Fantasy VII, and soon my VIII review so that I can catch up for last week. This review will be for Final Fantasy VII.
Final Fantasy VII is an RPG developed and published by Squaresoft, (Who has merged with Enix to create SquareEnix). Lets go over the different points of the game:
Plot: Final Fantasy VII is a game about a young man from S.O.L.D.I.E.R doing some mercenary work for a local rebellion against a big energy company. What they don't know, is that they will go on a hunt to chase someone once believed as dead. The plot twists are very sophisticated and are well placed to make a story that doesn't feel outdated in the mix of the rest of the RPG market. Early on, the plot seems quite dull until it spikes with content and new exploration options.
Characters: Each of the characters are so unique in themselves that all of them will stick with you whenever you even think about this game. Their personalities conflict each other to create interesting scenarios and problems that most of the time doesn't go anywhere big, but sometimes does. Cloud is the moody mercenary with a confused history. Barret is the man with a massive gun arm and a hot temper. Tifa is the fighter with a brave heart and strong fists. Aerith is the powerful healer and the last of her kind. Red XIII is the lab specimen from Cosmo Canyon with a past in need of closure. Cid is the pilot with a crushed dream and no family. Vincent is the emo vampire with a sad love story and the ability to morph into monsters. Yuffie is the petty thief in need of materia for her dying hometown. Cait Sith is a puppet of Shinra (Literally) with loyalty problems. This rag tag group of characters build the amazing adventure that you play here. Sometimes the characters have low moments where they seem so generic, which is disappointing because everyone's speech is very different. I could tell who is talking just by seeing the dialogue.
Battle mechanics: Because this is a traditional RPG, the battles needed to be different so that it stood out from the others. They brought back the Active Time Battle system (Better known as ATB) which gives characters a bar to fill up so that they can get their turn. For example: In the old Final Fantasy games, Haste made your turn come quicker and gave you more turns. In this game, it makes your bar fill up faster. Each character has certain traits that fit them into a certain class. Cloud and Cid are warriors because of their melee weapon-play and well rounded stats. Barret is a ranger because of his focus on range attacks. Red XII and Vincent are Red Mages because of their stronger magic stats than their physical attack stats. Aeris is a white mage because she is entirely focused on healing magic. Yuffie fits into a thief/assassin (Same class, different names depending on game) because of her speed/evasion and her medium overall stats otherwise. Tifa is a fighter/monk (Whatever era of FF you have played) because of her pure attack strength and her hand to hand combat. Cait Sith is a beastmaster because of her strong ability to manipulate enemies. The middle of the game has the best fights (Not boss-wise) and the beginning and end feel somewhat like a drag whenever you get into a random encounter.
Bosses: The bosses in this game are phenomenal. Every boss is memorable, and they only get better and better as you head through the game. They all have different ways to approach them, and even extremely challenging optional bosses, which leads into the final part of this review.
Content: When you start a JRPG, you need to understand that you are diving headfirst into a long journey. This game is no exception. As one of the longer Final Fantasy games, ranging around 40-100 hours depending on playstyle, this game has so much to do in its world. There are not only many towns to visit, but also hidden items and even notorious optional bosses to face in the later parts of the game that are known for their degree of difficulty.
Final Rating:
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