Final Fantasy VII a legendary PlayStation Classic that needs no introduction has made its way to modern gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4 and later the XBox One, iOS devices and the Nintendo Switch. It is an idea that it helps to bring the classic gem to more modern consoles and also to allow those who originally stuck with Nintendo, XBox Consoles or for mobile devices. Announced during the PlayStation Experience in 2014 it was a modern port that apparently nobody wanted because long time fans wanted a full remake of the PlayStation Classic but we would see an announcement of that in 2015. Trust me the PlayStation Experience 2014 trailer for Final Fantasy VII video got a ridiculous amount of dislikes and when they decided to base the port on the flawed PC version you know something is wrong.
First up let's discuss what Final Fantasy VII is and what it is about, it is a turn based RPG that originally came out for the PlayStation in 1997 and it tells the story of Ex-Soldier turned mercenary named Cloud Strife siding for the resistance group known as Avalanche against the Shinra Corporation whilst also dealing with memories that have happened involving a superhuman named Sephiroth. The storyline in this original version holds up well despite the rough English translation and all of the characters like Cloud himself, Barret, Tifa and Aerith (Who is translated as Aeris) are all memorable, even the main villain Sephiroth is incredible and well delivered in his role of wanting to become one with the planet while also dealing with Cloud and his allies.
The battle system is still enjoyable years later and can hold its own against any of the newer games. You have different commands for attacking, using magic spells for healing, supporting and offensive, using items to heal up and also other abilities that are useable by equipping Materia to your party members. The battles are turn based but with the use of the Active Time Battle system where enemies do not wait to attack while you input commands as quickly as you can but you have the option to put the battles to Wait so that you have them play out in classic turn based form. The difficulty is well balanced out for the majority of the game as long as you are balancing out grinding times and also equipping the right Materia for some bosses but the bosses at the end of the game will really test your skill and patience. There are a couple of minigames thrown in as well with the favourite being the Motorcycle minigame where you got to attack the Shinra guardbikes while protecting the truck.
Final Fantasy VII's gameplay is still enjoyable and still hold up fine in the current year as of reviewing it but however the port suffers from a list of issues. Firstly no real effort was made to bring it to 1080p standards like with these updated HD Ports and remasters that we have been getting. The screen isn't in 16:9 and you have to put up with the game in a small box, the graphics are of much better quality allowing you to see the character model's mouth and eyes with much more detail but let's face it those polygon character models are very blocky and are a mess especially on Cait Sith who has a ton of polygon meshes sticking out and it looks horrible but at least in battles the graphics look better. Shame also that they didn't get the game to run at 60 FPS for next gen platforms especially in battles and they are just unsmooth to look at. At least the soundtrack has got the PSOne original versions of the tracks and not the horrible mini tracks that pledged the PC version and also the Steam version. The game has all of the FMV cutscenes but however the quality hasn't been altered for HD and looks very low quality and yes I get it, it was a PSOne game released in 1997 but however the cutscenes just look all washed out horribly.
This version of the game does include some handy new features to try and make the game for modern players. First up is the 3x speed function which makes the game go fast and it is handy for grinding sessions and allows you to level up your characters really fast. Another handy feature is being able to turn off encounters like you could do in Bravely Default, if you are constantly being forced into encounters and you just want to casually stroll through the dungeons without any kind of fuss than you can enable that feature anytime. These features are pretty neat and can be activated with a click of a button plus they are worthwhile if you are either doing lengthy grinding sessions or you dare to tackle the game with low level characters.
The most stupid and pointless one out of all of them however is God Mode, when you activate God Mode the Limit Break Meter refills every time you use a Limit Break and everyone is at max health and it and it refills instantly after taking damage provided that a character doesn't take damage that is above their current HP levels. That system can easily be used with a click of a button to actually break the game and removes all challenge that you would have normally have. I know some people don't have patience with RPGs and just want an easy excuse to beat one of them without any form of stress but like I said Final Fantasy VII isn't really that hard of a an RPG to begin with till the later boss battles where you have to manage your party members Levels and Materia to stand a chance against some of the more difficult bosses. Having a God Mode feature is just cheating and it ruins the fun plus also the challenge which is the point of a video game let alone a Final Fantasy game. I would not mind this if it was however an unlockable feature that you get after beating through the game but having it as an easy to access cheat that you can access with a click of a button is insulting that any newbie player is going to exploit.
The nostalgia of the PlayStation is mostly kept intact, it has engaging turn based combat that is easy enough to get the hang of, enjoyable and very likeable characters and a storyline that has fantastic moments but however the poor porting effort, inclusion of easy to access cheats with a click of a button and also dated visuals that aren't fitting for being upscaled to 1080p resolution really makes this a very lazy port. If you already have an old physical PSOne disc copy of Final Fantasy VII laying around in your unused room then there is little reason as to waste extra money on the digital version for the PS4 especially when there is digital version for the PS3 which is just a straight up emulation of the PSOne game plus it costs very cheaply to download it for PS3 as opposed to getting it for the PS4. Sure now you can get it for iOS, the Xbox One or the Nintendo Switch if you do not have access to a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 console let alone the PSOne but otherwise it's better to stick to the original PlayStation version and avoid touching the lazy and lousy ports that came out after especially the PC version. At least it hasn't got any kind of terrible levelling mechanics nor does it relay on sphere grids or gambits to play the game nor does it have any kind of DRM requirements or any kind of microtransactions. It at the very least provides the look and gameplay feel of the original Final Fantasy VII and how it should be played before everything got changed and ruined for the worse with the recently released remake of Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation 4. With me going through the original Final Fantasy VII game and refreshing my mind on the storyline and Platinum-ing the game I am then going to spend the next couple of days tackling the Final Fantasy VII Remake and PS4 and expressing full honest thoughts on it.
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Game Score: 6.8/10
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Game Title: Final Fantasy VII (Classic)
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 5th December 2015
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The Good Points:
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Enjoyable storyline and characters
Enjoyable Turn Based Battles
Gameplay that holds up well and the minigames are enjoyable
The Bad Points:
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God Mode kills the challenge, fun and enjoyment
The character models are blocky and messy
Low Resolution Quality FMVs that aren't up to 1080p standards
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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