The longest OBJECTIVE Final Fantasy VII gamer review in GameSpot...
THANK YOU FOR THE VERY GOOD RESPONSE. THIS REVIEW IS THE MOST RECOMMENDED GS FFVII USER REVIEW!
It’s been 7 years since the game’s release, but the urge to play this game still haunts me… There are a lot of games that got a special place in my heart, but this one’s the big thing. (Be noted that this game is not my first Final Fantasy, and definitely not my first RPG.)
I always wanted to review this game, but I always thought if I will be unbiased and impartial with regard to it… I think I will be able to give a fair review for this game. So, bear with me in my long review and make your own judgment of this game. ---
In 1996, a conflict between Squaresoft and Nintendo, that changed the face of the RPG genre forever, erupted when the “Big N” chose to stick with its cartridge-based system that led to Squaresoft’s defection to Sony, who is willing to give-in into Squaresoft’s clamor for a CD-based system. Well, the defection was worth the gamble. Free from the storage capacity limitations of the cartridge format, and with the increased processing power of the Playstation console, the Final Fantasy Series’ future is very bright.
In 1997, Squaresoft, still fresh from the break-up with the "Big N", decided to unleash its most precious gem in Sony's Playstation console... it's "Lucky 7th”, FINAL FANTASY VII.
It's been seven (7) years since this game changed our lives. Seven (7) years of providing us gamers with a gaming experience like no other. Seven (7) years of giving us something to talk about in the gaming boards. Seven (7) years of drawing more gamers to the RPG world. Seven (7) years of being number 1 in many gamer's heart. Seven (7) years and still counting...
(Btw, this review contains some statements from some GameSpot articles that I read before---
STORY: 9/10 (Complex plot coupled with memorable characters and places made up the epic story.)
The self-serving, mega-conglomerate Shinra Corporation is sucking the Mako energy, Earth’s life force, from the lifestream, which if not stopped will disrupt the cycle in the circle of life. For this reason, a resistance group in the name of AVALANCHE was formed under the leadership of the tough-talkin’ brute, Barret. To help trample the enemy, the group hired Cloud, a mercenary with a mysterious personality. Together, they will try to stop Shinra’s evil deeds… only to discover that a much greater force is threatening the planet… the great Sephiroth. Believed to be dead for 5 years, he made a re-appearance. Then, Shinra and the gang pursued him for purposes only themselves know. One thing’s for sure, the planet is not safe with him lurking just around the corner…
That’s just the first half of the excellent plot of this game. As you play through the game, you’ll encounter some of the videogame industry’s most memorable characters. Heroes? Villains? Name it. Our lead hero Cloud, undergoing an emotional and identity crisis, is one of the most, if not the most, well-crafted character in any RPG to date. He’s torn between two lovers and he got quite amazing stories in his mind. Can he overcome these challenges and face his fears? Much of the game’s story will revolve around unlocking his true identity. If you find it too simplistic, it’s not. With him are 8 more heroes joining his fights. Many criticize that they lack character development, but that’s too biased. Each of them has their own stories for you to know. Each has their distinctive personality. Each of them has their own fighting style and moves that reflects their personality at some levels. We got a bar hostess, a flower seller, a thief ninja, an endangered feline, a stuffed moogle and more! Where can you find a party like that!? Final Fantasy VII’s villains are not that ruthless compared to most RPG’s. Sephiroth, the main bad guy is too good as a villain. I don’t know why, but he got some special charm making gamers feel that, “It’s not his fault why he became like that”, and even consider him as one of the best villain in the videogame world. The JENOVA thing adds some intriguing mystery. If you think that’s the only catch, you’re forgetting the Shinra troupe! Some of them are even “more developed than the heroes of many other games”. Who’ll ever forget about the Turks, who made gamers feel that being a villain is cool? There are bunches more of them and you’ll find out that not all of them are really bad.
Many critics felt that the story was great during the first and second discs, but becomes bad during the third. The first two discs contain all the most important things and events necessary for the understanding of the plot of the game. The third disc, on the other hand, merely contains the final dungeon…along with it is the complete freedom given on the part of the gamer to do whatever things you wanted to do before engaging with the final boss. In short, the first two discs are specifically for understanding the story and the last disc is especially made for pure gameplay purposes. That’s the reason I consider the third disc as merely an optional disc if we disregard the fact that it contains the last boss and finally… the ending. We should look into the story as a whole… not by the disc.
If there are many critics for the lack of story of the last discs, much more are not satisfied with the ending of the game. They feel that the ending should have been better if what happened is like this… like that. I’m leaving up the judgment to you, but for me… it’s great and the extra movie after the credits roll is very satisfying.
Story Quality after 7 years: Until now, it is one of the most unforgettable and treasured stories left in many gamers’ heart and mind. Still capable of going toe-to-toe- with other epic stories like Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy X. Complex and somewhat hard to grasp, but still able to draw attention, curiosity and interest.
Overall, the Story is great! I admit it is very complex, especially for younger players that you will even need to play the game a couple of times before you can fully grasp the wholeness of the story. With great plot and excellent character development, Final Fantasy VII is like an addictive book. Once you start, you can’t stop!
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AUDIO: 9/10 (One of the finest moment in Final Fantasy Music history)
Background Music
Final Fantasy VII continued the tradition of excellence in sounds and music of the Final Fantasy Series. No RPG enthusiast will fail to recognize the much-loved Final Fantasy “Victory Music”… and the cranky “Chocobo Tune”.
When you start the game, you’ll be welcomed in the game with a bang! The intro is unlike other games I’ve played because of the background music. Just in timing with the appearance of the title “Final Fantasy VII” is a “BANG!” sound, which gives a perception that this game provides something big for you. The “World Map” song sets the feeling of freedom and opening of a whole new world for your party. Unfortunately, this song becomes a dead, stagnant and boring tune in the mid-later part of the game, but it helps for building up of a feeling of a dark and unsure future of the planet if you will not do anything. In-battles, there’s this standard battle music. Unlike installments like Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy IX, this music is not the energetic-type. Instead, it is the suave-type… there’s no feeling of rushing… just enjoy the battle. I find it good, but others find it boring after some time. The boss battle music on the other hand provides for an action-packed sound. During my first play through the game, the boss music gave me the excitement, along with the feeling of necessity to act fast. In my succeeding games, the boss music became a good once in a blue moon alternative for the standard battle music. If you’re not satisfied with the boss music, don’t worry. During the final battle, there’s this music called “One-Winged Angel”. It’s so great that many Final Fantasy VII enthusiasts bought the soundtrack CD mainly because of it. The song is complimentary for the last boss’ majestic role as a near-god being. The song is even capable of bringing you the, “This is it… the final boss… gotta be ready” feel… but don’t be deceived :P
Sound Effects
I can say that 90% of the audio aspect of Final Fantasy VII is attributed to its magnificent melodies and hymns, the sound effects also made some good additions. This is most obvious during battles. Let’s take the regular attack sound for example. Sword attacks sounds different from punch hits. Barret’s and Vincent’s weapon sounds different, even though they are both using guns, signifying that they are using different types of guns. It gives some kind of realism in the fighting scene. If you got a critical hit, you will easily know it because your attack will give a more vigorous, more powerful and more realistic sound.
During spell casting, the effort in providing specific sound for each spell type is good. Even if your eyes are covered, you can have a good chance to guess what spell is being used. Ice spells provides for a crackling sound. Fire spells have a boom-type sound. For the surroundings: doors and cabinets sounds like wood, when climbing a ladder/rope there’s this “twitch” sound, moving in the surface of water provides for a little splash, your little buggy has the “broom” sound, Chocobos have their traditional “Wark!” and many others. Not all the sounds are realistic, but those are enough to give life to the surroundings and the interactive environment (although only in selected environments) offered by this game.
Audio Quality after 7 years: Still has one of the best background music for any RPG… or any game for that matter… but having a true “Theme Song” that can be easily associated to the game should have been a very good addition. Final Fantasy VII, also, cannot hide the fact that gamers are looking for a more realistic feeling in terms of sounds like more natural sound effects. The application of voice acting is also indispensable nowadays to ensure a MORE appreciated gaming experience… I hope in the future remake of the game, Square will consider these aspects.
Overall, the Audio is, no doubt, a Nobuo Uematsu product… a quality that is second to nothing in the industry.
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VIDEO: 8/10 (Great graphics that is outdated by time, but unique in its own presentation.)
During the Playstation (PS One) Era, Final Fantasy VII has one of the best video aspects in any game. Taking advantage of the increased processing power and storage capacity of the Playstation and the CD format, Final Fantasy VII ensured the success of the first 32-bit Final Fantasy in terms of video quality. “Final Fantasy VII was a lavish spectacle of computer graphics and animation the likes of which the world had never seen before”.
The spectacular visual was attributed to the gorgeous 3D and pre-rendered graphics. The RPG world saw more life in their characters and the surrounding environments. The use of anime-style character design (spikey hairstyle, big eyes, no mouth, and cute characters) is a welcome feature as well. The use of these deformed characters looked nice for those who can appreciate. The “World Map” is a very big departure from the traditional flat presentation in earlier games in the series. This time we can see mountains with their enormous peaks, deserts with their true sandy walks, rivers are flowing and leaves move when you walk in the forests. The world was given true heights and depths. The rotating field camera will allow you to view your surroundings in different perspective (top, front, side… no first person, though).
With regard to the battle graphics, it’s very sharp and really looked good. I think it’s even sharper than Final Fantasy VIII’s and IX’s. The introduction of auto camera in battles is a great addition. It allowed the camera to view the battle in different cuts and angles. This is especially great in viewing the spells and Limit Breaks. It’s even applicable to enemy moves! For your characters, it’s very obvious now that the changes in weapons are shown when you do change it. It adds for a more realistic feel in the game.
The use of high quality full motion computer-generated movies is where the game’s video really shined. Gorgeous, fully animated cut-scenes where integrated throughout the game, and not merely a starting and ending decoration. These movies were injected in the games most critical parts to help gamers move along with the story. With the introduction of the effective use of FMV’s, Final Fantasy VII is probably the first “interactive movie” released for gamers to truly enjoy.
First in the series, Final Fantasy VII delivered our favorite Summon monsters in full animation. Gone are the days of Summon artworks merely popping out of the screen and then the damage is dealt. Now, you can see the Summons flowing with life and their attacks in their true devastating show-off!
Despite the great things mentioned about the games graphics, it also has its share with regard to graphical lacking and flaws. True to that is the lack of more realistic world feel. No weather change, oceans lack true waves, and stiff hair!
Battle presentation also has its flaws. When enemies are quite big, some moves and attacks tend to be blocked in the camera. This is most notable when fighting the optional Emerald Weapon boss and you use the summon Phoenix. Gotta hate that view! Some special moves also fall victim of the graphical flaw. Using Cloud’s ‘Climhazzard’ Limit will look very funny if the enemies’ bodies do not fit the blade he’s using. You will clearly see that his sword was jabbed in an open space and even deals great damage! Another thing, although the weapon are obviously changing when you changed it, it was not implemented in the use of armors and accessories. The presentation of defeated enemies is also not appealing. Organic enemies (humans, animals, plants, etc.) turn red and disappear while mechanical enemies break into pieces of polygons and disappear. These are minor details, but could have made the graphic presentation a little better.
Video Quality after 7 years: Undeniably, only a selected few were able to match or beat its video quality in the Pre-Playstation and Playstation era, but no matter how great, no one can hide the fact that the once spectacular graphics of Final Fantasy VII has reached it’s reign over the graphics department. The powerful processing power of newer consoles and the much increased storage capacity of the DVD format allowed developers for more possibilities in terms of graphics developments. True, Final Fantasy VII’s graphics is many years outdated, but the legacy it left for graphical excellence will always be remembered.
Overall, the Video quality is great considering the fact that this is a transition game for the series. There are flaws, but I think those are just minor details and are easily offset by the graphical holiness introduced by the game.
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GAMEPLAY: 9/10 (Easy and comfortable gameplay experience provides for a hassle-free gaming experience.)
Controls
Great controls! Even with the lack of Dual Shock Analog Controller compatibility (Final Fantasy VII was made before the Dual Shock Analog Controller was introduced), the game did a great job in making a great and easy control for all of the game’s menu and field explorations. The basic confirm and cancel buttons are even made simpler to memorize. “O” button for Okay and “X” for Cancel.
Menu operations were very simple and easy to master. Even the should be cumbersome and time consuming Materia Menu was made simple with the addition of the ‘Exchange’ option in the US Version of the game. Managing your enormous Item inventory was also made easier with the much-improved ‘Arrange’ option and the useful L1 & R1 for browsing it.
Explorations were also made simpler. Just push to the direction you want and you’ll go there. When there are places where you need to jump or climb, all you need is either to push your directional pad to that direction or go near it and push the confirm button. Nothing hard once you get used to it… It is very easy.
If you’re not satisfied, the Button Configurations of your controller can be modified totally in favor of your preference.
If there is a remake even just for the sake of Dual Shock Analog Controller compatibility, the controls and the experience could have been more memorable, but without it, it’s still great.
Navigation
Unlike the funny presentation of Final Fantasy VIII of a follow-the-leader exploration, Final Fantasy VII follows the tradition of the series of using a character as the field icon representing your party. For most part of the game, you’ll be controlling Cloud, but at some important points, you will have a chance of controlling your other partymates as lead characters. This presentation avoids the annoying view of having 2 or 3 characters in the field standing on exactly the same ground (overlapping each others body and faces) or the extremely awkward “my head is directly touching your ***” instances when climbing a ladder. Although the dungeons in final Fantasy VII are not as enormous as the other installments in the series, some of it can be quite puzzling for those new to the games. The ‘Teleport’ and ‘Warp’ spells are completely removed now, so no instant dungeon exits for you! Instead, you got the “finger” (and the red & green pointers) to guide you in your exploration. The “finger” pointer shows the location of your character. The red and green fingers where added in the US Version to help point the entrances and exits in an area… useful for non-obvious passages.
Exploring the World Map provides for a manual control over the camera, but when inside towns and dungeons, camera angles are fixed, which is very great for some spectacular view.
Translation
“Off course!” and “This guy are sick.” are the most famous examples of the flaws in the translation of US version from Japanese. I will not contradict the fact that the game had some bad translations, but I know majority of us did not even notice it the first time around. One, two or even a hundred wrong translations are not enough to corrupt to millions of good translations made in the game. Anyway, a tip for those who are TOO cautious about the bad translations in the game, I always regarded it as part of the personality of the characters… Let’s take Aeris’ “This guy are sick.” as an example… I always regarded it as part of the fact that Aeris did not finish schooling that is why she is not too good in grammar… Well, that worked for me :)
(Just a note, Square exerted their efforts to eradicate the mistranslations in the PC version of the game)
Power-Up System
Final Fantasy VII offers a variety of power ups to enhance your characters’ fighting powers: “Materia” System, Equipment, Accessories, Level Up, Limit Breaks and Stat Augmentation.
“Materia System”, you are prompted to equip/de-equip different colored crystals into your weapons/armors to allow you to access the wide array or skills and spells. These crystals are classified into five types: (1) Magic materia, which allows you to use magic; (2) Summon materia, which allows you to cast our favorite Final Fantasy spell; (3) Command materia, which provides for non-spell abilities like Steal; (4) Independent materia, which provides for passive skills, like Counterattack, and temporary stat boosts; and (5) Support materia, which are useless in its own, but are very nasty when combined with some Magic, Summon and Command materia. To equip materia, your weapons/armors should contain a space for equipping materia, which is called “Slot”. Some weapons have “Linked” slots, which is necessary to make a “Materia Combo”. To make a materia combo, you need the following: Magic, Summon or some Command materia, a Support materia and a weapon/armor with linked slots. Materia combos works like this: i.e. if you want your weapon to deal a fire-elemental attack, take a weapon with linked slots and put a Fire Magic materia and a Elemental Support materia in the linked slot; if you want to be able to cast a Cure spell on all your allies at the same time, have a linked slot in and put a Restore Magic materia and All Support materia in a linked slot. There are lots of materia combo possibilities and some complex combos are so great that many “HARDCORE” gamers think that the Materia System is a cheat. However, some materia has a side effect. Packing a lot of Magic or Summon materia decreases your total HP, Strength and Defense… not good for physical attackers but great for magic casters as because it increases your total MP, Intelligence and Magic Defense… so be minded. If there’s a thing that is very nice with this system, it is the endless customization possibilities it allows. If you want to make a mage character, pack him with Magic materia. Want a Thief? Give him the Steal Command materia and perhaps Speed Plus and Gil plus Independent Materia. Everything is possible. Well, that’s the essence of a Role-Playing Game… To allow gamers to play the role they want… and I believe, that Final Fantasy VII, through its “Materia System”, takes two thumbs up in that department.
Your regular equipment is still here, classified as: Weapons, Armors and Accessories. Weapons are only used for physical attacks, and for its materia slots. Armors, though only in the form or bangles and armlets (like Lulu of FFX), are your main source of defense in the game. Accessories are small pieces of equipment, which provides for many different effects… It could be a stat-augmenting, attack absorbing, or provide some automatic skills like auto-haste.
The traditional way of power up is still here. During battles, your characters gain Experience (EXP) and ability Points (AP). EXP accrues to the benefit of your characters while AP goes to your materia. Earning enough EXP and AP results into level up, this gives better stats for characters and better spells/abilities for materia.
Final Fantasy VII improved the “Trance-type” power up of Final Fantasy VI, which becomes available whenever a character’s HP becomes critical. In Final Fantasy VI, this power up is not obvious and is not really that useful because it is randomly done. This time, this power up took the form of “Limit Breaks”. These are special moves that become available when a character receives too much damage from the enemies (as shown in the filling of the Limit Bar). The Fight command is temporarily disabled and is changed by the Limit command. When you use a Limit Break, it is given a priority status, meaning it is executed with priority despite the fact that there are other commands that were confirmed earlier. Lastly, there is this stat augmentation. If you want to increase a specific stat at will, you can use the rare “Source” items. If used, it will increase a particular stat by 1. It is like Final Fantasy VIII’s “Up” items and Final Fantasy X’s “Stat Sphere”.
Battle System
The Active Time Battle (ATB) System of Final Fantasy that was introduced in Final Fantasy IV is back! Although nothing new was made to improve the system, it was still implemented beautifully.
Each character has his/her own ATB bar, which must be filled first before he can make a move. Once the ATB bar is filled, a battle command menu will appear. In that menu, you will choose the action you want to do [i.e. Fight, Defend, Change (Row), Magic, Item, etc.]. Once you’ve confirmed the action you want, the command will be immediately executed (provided no other character/enemy has confirmed their move earlier than you) and your ATB bar will start to be filled again for the next command. The speed of filling your ATB bar depends on the speed of your character and his speed status (i.e. Haste, Slow, Stop).
The only new in this ATB System the availability of 3 modes: Active, Recommended and Wait. To use the “Active” mode is to allow enemies attack your party even if you’re still choosing your command. Unfortunately, the “Active” mode is not yet 100% active. For a fully active mode, not only does enemies are allowed to attack you even when you’re still choosing your next move, but also to allow your other characters’ ATB bar to be filled and your positive and negative status working (like Regen, consuming your Barrier time, HP loss when poisoned, confused characters attack)… it’s not present here. The “Wait” mode is not 100% either. When a character fills his ATB bar, everyone else’s ATB bar stops until the character that has a full ATB bar confirms his chosen move. However, this is true ONLY if the character is choosing his move within sub-menus (i.e. choosing a specific magic, summon or item) and during the execution of spells. The “Recommended” mode is new to the ATB System. Using this, the battles will go on like the Active mode, but the ATB bars stop during the execution of some spells and abilities.
Miscellaneous
Many old-timers feel that some non-FMV cut-scenes and spells (especially Summons) are too long. Square did not expect that this game will encourage lots of replay value considering it is an RPG and did not see the need to allow cutting short these issues. Even though it was not implemented in this game, some succeeding installments incorporated the “Shortcut” feature (FFIX and X has summon shortcut and FFX-2 included a movie and cut-scene shortcut) to lessen the boring moments in repeatedly seeing exactly the same scenes when replaying their RPGs.
The ever-famous ‘L1+L2+R1+R2+Select+Start’ soft reset was first implemented in this game to make our lives easier, especially when doing the “Chocobo Breeding” optional quest… add it the fact that it consumes only one block in the memory card to play. Final Fantasy VII provides for a very convenient gameplay.
Gameplay Quality after 7 years: Just like how old Final Fantasy VI enthusiasts cherished Final Fantasy VI for its great gameplay experience, Final Fantasy VII will also be remembered for its almost incomparable gameplay. For some mysterious reasons, the 7 years of its existence did not diminish its appeal to the gaming public. Who could ever forget the frustrations we had experienced in breeding our first Gold Chocobo, or our amazement after our first execution of the first fully animated summon spell, or the shock of watching Aeris *** at the hands of Sephiroth? None. The experience is still as magical is it was back in 1997.
Overall, the Gameplay is excellent for new timers, and may become a little tiring for the veterans who have been playing this game for 7 years.
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FUN FACTOR: 9/10 (True entertainment that will force you to play the game 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times or more!)
Game Progression
Like a good bedtime story, the game follows a straightforward storyline. As the game goes on, you fill have to brave some interactive flashbacks. These removes the tendency of gamers to have a “What’s gonna happen next?” attitude. Through these flashbacks, story progression becomes more dramatic and allows for more appreciation of the game’s story because you will understand more the reason why certain characters react in certain ways. Also, along the way, you can do some sub-quests or visit an area for some optional cut-scenes that that will give a little more spice to the game’s plot. Difficulty
With all the power up modes offered, the game can become quite easy, so if you want to have some sort of a challenging game, be sure to stay away from taking advantage of all these power ups. The difficulty of Final Fantasy VII depends on the gamer’s style. This game concentrates on providing pure entertainment than giving a challenging experience, but it could have been better if there was a hard mode.
Mini-Games
Final Fantasy VII recognized the need for mini-games in RPG’s. Mini-games offer a break from the usual serious story path of RPGs and give gamer’s time to really enjoy. Throughout the game, mini-games are scattered. From the simple”squat race” to the annoying (at first) “jump to the swinging pole”, there’s this “press the buttons at the same time. On top of that, there’s Gold Saucer, a theme park where you can enjoy the game’s mini-games at the same time unlocking and collecting many of the games special items. Most of the mini-games you’ve done along the way can also be re-played there like the motorcycle game, the submarine game and the snowboarding game. You would want to give special attention to the Roller Coaster, Battle Tourneys and Chocobo Races because it’s where the big fishes are hiding.
Optional Quests
The catch in beating Final Fantasy VII is not in beating it, but in beating it with all things done and unlocked. Final Fantasy VII can offer quite a lot of things to do. Secret characters, areas & scenes, collecting & mastering materia, chocobo breeding & racing, battle tourneys and lots more of mini-games were scattered throughout the game. Although not necessary, it’s important if you want to get the best out of the game.
Life Span
The game has an average play length (about 40-60 hours), but can take a while if you want to do just about anything. The lack of true challenging gameplay gave the game a longer life span. Now, there are lots of challenges that come out to test the ability of gamers… These challenges added to the replay value of the game. Another thing that prompts gamers to replay the game is its complex story. For a regular gamer, the need to play the game at least 2 times is needed to fully understand the game. Lastly, there’s a “mysterious force” that urges gamers to play this game on and on, which is hard to understand. Many gamers claim that “It’s just full of hype”, but they still play this game to death... maybe because it’s too intriguing so gamers become curious to know if “Is that possible?” or “I have a theory” thing. I don’t know, but one thing is for sure… Final Fantasy VII is not yet dying.
Fun Factor after 7 years: Hard to believe, but true. Final Fantasy VII is still the top choice among RPG gamers. The entertainment you get from this game is too cheap at US $20. There are many new games that come out and take away our attention from this game, but after some time, we return to VII. It’s really hard to understand how a game sustains such entertaining experience even after your tenth time through the game. There are critics, but I’m sure, there are lots more of gamers who appreciate the game. If you really got into it, I’m sure that the urge to play the game at least once every year will haunt you forever.
Overall, the Fun Factor provided by Final Fantasy VII is immeasurable. For a hard to explain reasons, most of the gamers who played this game will claim that this is the best RPG… or even the best game (for some)… ever made! A normal gamer that appreciated the game as a whole will no doubt play this game at least 3 times.
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Rent or Buy:
A solid RPG gamer should and must have this game in their collection. Now that it is already in the “Playstation Greatest Hits”, there’s no reason not to have this one. Even to serve just a mere collection, it’s still worthy of your hard earned money… it’s a historical game, a world-recognized game and a gamer’s favorite over the years, so don’t think twice, especially if exchange rate of your currency is high, BUY IT!
(I, myself, have the original Japanese PS, US PS and PC Version of the game considering the very low value of our Philippine Peso vis-à-vis the US$)
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RATIONALE: 8.8/10
Final Fantasy VII is still one of the top-notch and most enjoyable RPG’s to date… not to mention how it captured and still capturing gamers’ hearts. With all the criticisms that says, “This is the most promoted game ever… that’s why it’s famous”, all I can say is a game cannot live by hype alone. I think this game has delivered what many gamers are looking for a true entertaining game. After 7 years, I honestly believe that it stood the test of time. “Regardless of its merits and demerits, Final Fantasy VII is and was important to the RPG genre. Despite the game’s relatively recent release date, the history of RPG’s can safely be divided into "BFF7" and "AFF7" eras. Its release ensured the success of the Playstation console as well as the future of the RPG genre.” So, for those who say that Final Fantasy VII is just all about hype, no game can ever live long because of hype alone… and if ever you’re not convinced, it is worthy of that hype!
(So, how did I end up with 8.8? I took the average scores of Story, Video, Audio, Gameplay and Fun Factor. That's it!)
THANKS FOR READING!
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