Final Fantasy VII

The Good
In all my gaming and role-playing years I've rarely been so deeply and profoundly shocked as when Sephiroth dropped upon Aeris, like a silent black hawk on an unsuspecting white dove. Storytelling and imaginative, over-the-top battles at their best. Lovable characters, a truly memorable villain, bizarre monsters, a cartoony-anime look that often mocks itself and a frequent change of pace with mini-games and plot twists made this game what it is: the masterpiece of a quirky, but unique and intriguing genre. It somehow manages to combine childlike innocence with countless battles and an epic, world-breaking tale. Powerful warriors who look like kids with over-sized heads and weapons. And that is magic...

The Bad
You either love it or hate it. But one should definitely give it some time if one is not familiar with the odd, cutesy look of most japanese role-playing games. FFVII was grossly underrated by die-hard PC gamers who really didn't give it the attention it deserved. Unfortunately, the usual problems with console ports didn't help much. Don't expect complex character development or any real choices concerning the plot, since this is not the way Japanese developers approach the genre. Being a hardcore RPG gamer, I believe that these two factors are key to games of this kind. However it cannot be denied that this different approach has its merits. Whether one likes it or not is another matter entirely.

The Bottom Line
Final Fantasy does not have the depth, strategy and freedom of great role-playing games such as Baldur's Gate but its strengths lie elsewhere. It is a true masterpiece of its kind and it offers a truly unique experience. And whenever I listen to its music it still gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling.

The Good
I can simplify the good aspects of the game into one word, everything. Final Fantasy introduces you to a world with a desperate future. A corporate superpower known as Shinra has a monopoly on Mako, the best source of energy on the planet. Shinra's generators suck Mako out of the planet at an incredible rate, despite the fact that Mako is the life energy of the planet and without it, everything will die. A small group of terrorist known as "AVALANCHE" hires an ex-soldier (shinra) mercenary to help them in their first foray against the evil corporation. After the successful bombing of a shinra reactor, things get much more dangerous, and the mercenary, Cloud Strife realizes that he has been draw into a conflict that will determine the future of the planet. Even more mysterious is a shadow of the past that may have been working in the present all the while.

      Final Fantasy VII's story is its strongest point, is weaves an amazing tale throughout the entire game and will keep you interested until you finish it.  The music of FF7, although in midi format, does a great job of representing the moods of the characters and sets the tone of the game.  The graphics are well done and the battle scenes are much better on the pc than a play station.

The Bad
Some of the dialog was shaky and seemed poorly written (or prehaps poorly translated) during a few scenes.

The Bottom Line
If you have any intrest in the Final Fantasy series of Japanese RPGs, buy it.

The Good
Still a great game, no matter what. This version is for the computer, so things are less pixelated and a little extra customization. Everything about this game is supreme. The story line is just so deep and enthralling. It pulls you in and doesn't let you go. You'll fall in love with some characters, hate some others, and have your heart broken a couple of times. This game is purely, purely the best. One thing that really, really kills it though...

The Bad
The sounds/music. Midi is just crappy compared to the real instrumental music you get on the PS1. The sounds stink, and unless you get a gamepad, it's a little difficult at times to control. The entire game is good, but the inconvenience of finding actual FFVII for the PS1's music and importing it yourself, and possibly high-resolution characters can be rather annoying at first, but definitely worth it. You also need a Windows XP patch if using it, but that's an easy find.

The Bottom Line
Greatest game ever still, but if you have a choice between the PS1 and PC version, go PS. It's way better than nothing, though. Buy it, now. You wont find the PC version in stores, but online is a definite. Get the PS1 version if possible, if not, GET IT, no matter what.

The Good
From start to finish Final Fantasy's intricate plot pulls you in and never lets you go. It will make you angry it will make you cry and laugh. It will grab you like no gaming world ever has before. With Gorgeous graphics and a soundtrack you will never forget, Final Fantasy is an adventure everyone should go on. 70 hours plus of pure heart.

The Bad
erm... maybe speech instead of text may have helped

The Bottom Line
The Shinra Corporation is draining the world of life. Enter Avalanche a group of rebels intent on stopping their plans. Enter Cloud Strife a rogue Vigilante. What starts as a mission to stop the plans of the Government soon turns into a quest to save the world from the dark forces of Meteo and the evil knight Sephiroth.

The Good
This is by far the best game I have ever played. I love the fact that it is so long. Usually I hate that in a game but this game just takes you, so the longer the better. I also like the fact that it has curses and all that and it's rated teen.

The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY GOOD GAME, NOT TO MENTION: AWESOME BEYOND YOUR DREAMS.

The Good
There's great graphics (well, apart of the very non-detailed 3D characters in the actual game...), good animations (some rather cool combat animations that aren't easy to grow tired about), Not at all bad music, a decent playability, a plot that doesn't have too many apparent dead ends.

It's hard to describe, but this game is just simply fun.

The Bad
As a big fan of "western" CRPGs, there's a whole lot to grumble about. I don't think I'll even bother much - let's just say that the game system and mechanics are antiquated to the extreme. Combat system is pre-stone age. Dialogue trees have been invented too, but the Japanese obviously haven't heard about them yet. Random encounters are completely infuriating. I sort of did like the magic system though.

The dialogue is rather perplexing. Either it's decent, or it's annoying, or just pathetic. There are more JRPG plot or character cliches in this thing than you can count - and sometimes they turn out to be quite boring. (Luckily, not always!) And as many Cloud fans there are, I just have to say that I just couldn't identify with him. I found most of the other party members quite interesting though.

And save points suck. I want to save games immediately, not after getting hit by million little monsters.

I'm not a terribly big fan of the minigames in FF7 either - for some reason, I've never found them very inspiring in any game.

The Bottom Line
(For what it's worth: I've played through the first CD and quite a chunk of the second too.)

Final Fantasy VII has some great fun. I have played quite a many addicting RPGs, but I think this is one has that sinister, evil kind of pull that gently tugs me deeper to the madness, madness that is the heart of this game. For other RPGs I can explain it - for example, I couldn't stop playing Ultima VII because I simply loved the world and loved the dialogues. But FF7 is different - I'm unable to stop playing, and the only reason I can say is "I'm having fun".

It's certainly not the story. Plot has been seen before. I like games with subtle messages, and this game just shouts at me "mega-corporations are evil and nature is cool" and all that. I found myself Yawning Terribly at the plot things. It's not the characters either. I found Cloud mostly uninteresting, though other characters were rather fascinating in their own ways. It's not the game system. Idiotically simple controls that thankfully still offer quite complex playability.

I don't know why I liked all this stuff. Maybe it's just the look of the game. Maybe it's just the right kind of environments, overall pleasantness of the game and the people in it, some rather interesting surprises in spite of the awful load of cliches there are. (Or maybe I just found the cliches themselves funny. Yes, that's got to be a factor).

I might be even recommending this game as one of the essential RPGs anyone needs to play to understand the genre, but I might be overstating. I would recommend it to people who have never seen a RPG and would like to start the hobby in a fun and fashionable way without getting thwacked by too many people. Just play it, it rules - and even if you don't like it, there are probably still a plenty of RPGs you probably do like.

The Good
FF7 starts as a pretty addicting experience. I was hooked on my computer for many many hours as I started playing it. The musics were great (best part about the game), character types were alright and the atmosphere of the futuristic world was lovable. Graphics weren't very good (compared to later Square PS games such as Chrono Cross), but they weren't bad either. Especially the character models left some room for imagination so I was content with it.

The Bad
THIS PART CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS

After some 30 hours of playing, the game started getting very repetitive. This happens with most Japanese RPGs for me though. You have to fight random fights every once in a while with long battle animations. The fights required no planning, no reflexes, no any kind of skill and no luck as it was so easy. You simply had to watch the roughly same animation about 1000 times. It boggles my mind how so many people can stomach it, even enjoy it. I wouldn't have complained about the fighting system's simplicity if the fights had only played a small part in the game. Alas, you had to fight a lot.

The story was artificially fabricated to be way longer than necessary, so the characters ended up wandering from place to place in an illogical sequence. Yes, sequence -- that's the other part I hated. Almost nowhere was I presented any choices to make, so I don't know if this would really count as playing a role. During the latter part of the game there were several places you could visit in any order, and there were some voluntary quests you could take on, but that's it.

The characters seemed interesting at first, but they didn't develop. They didn't interact. They just followed my lead. In some rare occasions they talked to each other, hooray.. The setting was just perfect for some drama or a love triangle, but almost nothing happened.

Overall the game had such a mind-boggling amount of completely artificial new characters, illogical route planning, illogical puzzles and a main plot that was grossly exaggerated, that I was only left with my mouth open: "This is the game that was praised by so many?"

The Bottom Line
Too many pointless, easy fights, artificially over-lenghtened plot and no character development. If you're a fan of other Jap RPGs, you'll like this, but then again, you've probably already played this. If you're new to the genre, you'd have to try it to know if you like it, because I can't imagine what general group of people would find this game an enjoyable overall experience.

The Good
Back in the day this game must have been a technical masterpiece. The background renderings are very well made, are overflowing with interesting detail and allow fascinating viewpoints. The quality of the special effects and FMV are outstanding and especially the almost seamless transitions between game graphics and cutscenes is still impressing.

Final Fantasy VII does everything in its power to not bore its players: there is a big variety of tasks, the difficulty is low and it has a fast pacing. There are no dungeons which overstay their welcome (even the final dungeon doesn't take long to beat) and the game quickly sends the party to new places with different background scenarios. This creates a game which is hard to abandon because it lays enough obstacles in the player's way to stay interesting without becoming actually hard.

The Bad
The story devolves into esoteric mumbo jumbo after the initial Midgard part, but it is basically fine. However, the dialogue - or at least the English translation - is terrible. It is stilted, unnatural and not even two consecutive dialogue boxes are guaranteed to match each other. I can't overstate how much this hurts the playing experience, especially because there are many too long sequences of endless talking.

I praised the rendered backgrounds, but they also come with a huge setback: they are often confusing to navigate. The character design is all over the place: during gameplay, the characters are crude figures while the battles show relatively realistic models - and the cutscenes freely switch between the two. I don't have a problem with both approaches, but they should have chosen one and stuck with it - as it is now, the clash ruins the immersion.

FFVII has a lot of mini-games of varying importance. Some are just simple reaction tests during the story while others have deep mechanics behind them. However, there is one aspect which connects all of them: they are unfun shit with bad controls. I neither have any appreciation for the people who designed this filth nor for all the people which let them get away with it. Kudos to everyone who has the patience to actually figure out Chocobo breeding, but seriously, the one awful mandatory race during the story should drive away every sane person.

The 2013 Steam version is a technical nightmare. The game crashed and freezed all the time (sometimes it even crashed Windows) and the controller support is nonexistent. It is only thanks to some community configurations that this game can be actually played, despite the inconvenient implementation into Steam.

The Bottom Line
Thanks to its graphical bombast and its status as first Final Fantasy for the 3D generation, FFVII has become one of the most treasured playing experiences of many gamers. This and its influence can't be denied, but unfortunately the quality of the game does not hold up to its legacy.

In the end, FFVII is a crude mix of competing concepts which never manages to form a cohesive experience. The game can't decide if it wants to be a goofy morning cartoon or a gritty afternoon serial. Everything it does right is marred by various drawbacks. Because of all these problems it is weaker than its SNES predecessors (with the exception of FFV) and I can't recommend it.

The Good
Now, the more that goes under this section, the more I like such games, hehe. Duh, ain't it obvious? :) Well, let's start by checking everything that's great in this game...

The Story: now, my first FF game was the 8th sequel, so this one was the second for me, actually. Still, both of games have really long and complex story with great characters and both, action and dramatic scenes. Unfortunately, this one isn't made to have a happy ending... unless your main character, Cloud, is okay to stick with Tifa as a final. The story upgrades quickly, and will probably give you many hours of play, and that is if we don't count other substories aside that can increase amount of time maybe to double or more. So, as a conclusion, the story rules, and has all the qualities to join love and action into fantasy science fiction genre.

The Action: oh, I specially like this part. Comparing to Final Fantasy VIII, fights seem kinda much easier in this sequel. As I'm not for hard nor high level of playing, I prefer when I'm able to pass my enemies with better strategy or stealth tactic instead of fighting over 10 mins with a single enemy. The battle system is real-time turn-based mixture, which means, you have to wait for a certain time to be able to strike or use a spell, same as your enemy, but still, when your timeline is ready, you can act whenever you want to. Also, the great part in this squel (over FF8) is that you can pick up weapons and use them instead. Of course, in Final Fantasy VIII you could only have a weapon that you start with, and your were able to upgrade that certain weapon piece, but I never figured how to do that, so never mind that issue. As for the spells and materia (GF in FF8), you are pretty much able to buy that anywhere around, and the higher level between certain character and assigned materia is, the more effective magic or summoned creature is.

The Music: hmm, now that is a masterpiece. I mean, just a few months ago, I never listened to any SquareSoft music, but it's all changed now, hehe. All Final Fantasy game tracks are great in general, and this sure is no exception. It sure helpt to build the atmosphere in every point, adventuring or battling.

The Graphic: now this part was great, hey, check the 'against' section so you don't think I like all the graphics in this game, as I find some parts pretty crappy. However, since this is a PC version, I ask you again, why the heck do these consoles even exist? This sure has great graphic and runs pretty fast on even slower machines as well. Background art is really something, as well as all the animations that does not consist of human characters.

Well, what else is left to say... oh, yeah, the navigation. Well, that is great, either on the global map, simulating a craft, or running with a chocobo, hehe. Yeah, those are the bird I wouldn't like to ride twice, LOL! Naaw, seriously, the game is great, except for one thing...

The Bad
I know that this is intentionally made that way, but I'm really sick of how characters are poorly animated and made in general. I mean, elbows seem like every character is heaving some 50 pounds weight and all just came out of GYM. I mean, get serious, this is a fantasy world, but not for human kind, just for others around, LOL! Anyway, after like 30 hours of playing, I got used to that, still not completely, but okay. But I wouldn't like to experience such a graphical crap in my future anymore. I mean, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy VIII & X those are the greatest SquareSoft games with amazingly made graphic characters, no matter some of them does not lok real, they look NICE, and that's that counts. I spit on all FF7 graphic characters!

The Bottom Line
I was wondering for a long time what made americans love Final Fantasy VII so much, even though it doesn't have a speech included. Well, after playing Final Fantasy VIII, I became a definite FF fan(atic), but it kinda almost splashed when I got to play this game I'm reviewing. Well, as long as sequels remain better, I'm on for it, and I sure wouldn't like to miss "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" movie that's supposed to hit the theaters this summer. Look, many folks find this game better than FF8, but I wouldn't recommend you this one if you care at least a bit on how CGI looks alike in it. Otherwise, story, music, art (not characters - that sucks), everything's in place, and really great experience for any adventure/RPG admirer.

The Good
The play engine is much improved over Final Fantasy III on the SNES, and I had a great time getting into it quickly. The graphics in DirectX hardware rendering mode are something to awe at, especially in the beginning and at the end of the game. The music is terrific, but not in the same vein as Final Fantasy III on the SNES. What's really nice is how I can slam this copy into a laptop, using Virtual Drive 8 to not carry the discs around, and play it anywhere.

The Bad
Since 70 million Windows 98 users are supposed to be ignored, I'm going to give my experience on Windows XP in installation. Note, though, that my XP is SP2. Now, thank you Square for using Sega CD looking .AVI video for the cinema scenes. Would it have been too much to ask for using a different codec (.AVI can do Cinepak, MPEG-4's early version, and some other really swell codecs) or use the STANDARD called MPEG!! (I always found it weird that both Apple and Microsoft ran away from the royality-free MPEG formats till they both got into consumer hardware like the iPod and Xbox). That would've cleaned up the terrible video that is intercut throughout the entire game! The music is good, so no complaints. Now, this is all after installation, which I had to find an XP patch for the game and sit through a long installation. Anyways, sorry for the bad writing structure, but I did configure the game to use a GravisPad Pro USB, so that's a real lifesaver, since I played this game to death and back on PlayStation.

But as far game goes, and I did notice this with its first release on PlayStation, but this is so typical for adventure games from Japan:

Teenage boy meets teenage girl and they save the world with an airship and a team, with a few cute characters, from a megalomaniac.

If I want story, I'll read a book, watch a movie. I want action, and after seeing the same graphics and moves again and again, that swell rendering gets real old, real quick.

And I can go on again about the Sega CD looking video clips.

What I don't like is the cyberpunk look. Final Fantasy is supposed to just thank, and I also don't care for the homosexual chic is clothesing fashion (not a rude term, it's what the fashion mags use as the actual term for what Cloud is wearing, I'm sorry that it's called that). I also found Tifa (which is actually a boy's name in all of Oceania, Asia and Africa) too butch for me (I like my women to look like Terra from the prequel). Also, that whole Negative Utopia thing brings me down. It's like Orwell's 1984, except a corporation would never become like it has in the game (name one corporation that's even close to these cyberpunk corporations in power and not in a RoboCop movie). Also, I hate subplots, flashbacks and stuff like that. I want to in the "moment" when I'm playing the game.

Lastly, I hate "anime". I used to like Japanimation (it's real term before a bunch of . . . never mind, anyways . . .) and I don't find the characters at all designed well because of it. The movie really does the characters well, but not here, being more Matrix than Japanimated so, nope, no "anime" for me.

Lastly, no dragons, demons, moggles, chocobos or anything. What's up with that? And the Marxo-Environmentalist message? Sorry, that's not my belief or religion, and I feel that a game would do best to just be a game and not "enlighten" me, because I want to get away from the world and battle, not take on the problems of another world and their beliefs.

I guess you can tell I don't use myspace.com or Second Life, either.

The Bottom Line
You want to play this game on a computer? I suggest finding either bleem! with it's update patch and a nice Windows 98 SE computer with LOTS of power or an IBM clone or Macintosh with System 8.x using the Virtual Game Station. These are the best ways to play this game. However, somebody, today, would look at this game and wonder what's the big deal.

My suggestion?

Watch the movie.