Final Fantasy VII revolves around a number of characters, chief among them Cloud Strife, the enigmatic new recruit into a group of eco-terrorists known as Avalanche working against the Military-Industrial Complex known as ShinRa. Avalanche is shutting down reactors that mine and refine Mako, a substance drawn from a subterranean force known as The Lifestream. Mako makes life much easier for the affluent citizens of Midgar, the sprawling city which houses Shinra, at the expense of the poor, who are relegated to living in desolate slums. Extracting this substance is slowly killing the planet. However, the true emotional core of Final Fantasy VII comes with the personal motivations for the characters to continue on their quest. VII’s is an epic tale spanning three discs and at least 50 hours of play, and through a series of coincidences and an ever-widening scope, all of the characters’ stories will be richly explored, and the reasons their lives are so miserable completely revealed. VII’s story is easy to get swept up in, and serves to move almost all who play it, although the story is truly better remembered than experienced a second time. When you know the story, when you know the twists and surprises in store, its pretty easy to notice the holes. The character development is at times awkward (for instance Cloud’s abrupt about face on the importance of the envronment), some of the dialogue is cheesy, awkward and often misspelled, and some of the plot elements definitely stretch the suspension of disbelief (for instance the backstories of Vincent and Cloud). Despite all this, the story is writen with such sincerity, and with such a deft balance between tone and pace that even when the plot runs a little off the rails, it works. Even forgiving how exactly Vincent became immortal, or just how Cloud’s identity is SO indistinct, the emotion packed behind the scenarios and the favorable hit and miss ratio keep the story fresh and involving, even if it isn’t as good as it seemed upon release.
Another reason the story of the game has the ability to dig deep and hit hard is the inclusion of the characters Sephiroth and Aeris Gainsborough. The superhuman Sephiroth, the game’s primary antagonist and former colleague of Cloud’s in the Midgar special forces unit known as Soldier, spurs Cloud’s quest and effectively continues the theme of personal memory and identity when he goes on a rampage after discovering he is nothing more than the result of genetic experiments engineered by Shinra using the DNA of a mysterious being known as Jenova. Sephiroth’s break from reality paired with his intense capacity for violence provides the catalyst for the story, as the characters leave Midgar after him early on. Aeris Gainsborough is a world away in theme and tone from Sephiroth, and provides necessary relief for the starkness found in the rest of the game. Aeris lives a downtrodden life in the Midgar slums trying to sell flowers for a living (and she’s the upbeat one). Aeris becomes a major part in an interesting plot element (especially for a videogame) in which her and another character compete for the affections of Cloud. In fact, she seems more interested in this than their actual quest, despite having knowledge that could prove indispensable to stopping Sephiroth. Her murder (yes, the complete and full removal of a functioning party member, your primary healer, no less) at the ends of Sephiroth near the end of the first disc is one of the crowning achievements in videogame storytelling, and, despite the flaws found within in other parts of this story, this beautiful and sorrowful moment stands as veritable proof that the videogame is an art form, capable of power and emotion.
Another interesting trick Final Fantasy VII does in regards to people already familiar with the series is to remove the Meteor and Holy spells from the actual physical gameplay, and instead use them as plot devices. It creates a sense of familiarity with what they do, but at the same time breeds a sense of awe and importance about them, as these two spells could truly mean life or death for these characters and this world, based solely on who beats whom to the punch in terms of using them.
All in all, Final Fantasy VII’s story is very good. In a lot of ways in works almost in spite of itself, but the desperation of the characters is expertly conveyed, and its themes are some we can all relate to. You can tell a lot of fun was had writing this story, and that those behind it had a lot of things they wanted to say.
Although the story has, in some ways, failed to stand the test of time, the gameplay remains fresh. Final Fantasy is the vanguard of RPG franchises, and they didn’t achieve this through lack of innovation. The downfall for a lot of RPG’s is that they only appeal to their base. They don’t experiment with different ways of doing things, and, in this regard, Final Fantasy is rather underrated. They don’t typically do the same thing twice with these games, and the innovation Final Fantasy VII brings to the table is surprisingly unheralded. Final Fantasy VII delivers one of the simplest and most fun RPG gameplay models in history. In some ways, though, it works as it has always worked. You walk around the world map until you encounter a random battle, at which point the screen blurs and you enter the battle screen. In some RPG’s you can wait as long as you want to do your move, but Final Fantasy VII utilizes the Active Time Battle system, in which both allies and enemies have a bar that is constantly filling up, once it is full, you can make your move, be that an attack, using a spell or an item, or whatever. Your time bar runs up faster as you get level up, or get stronger. You buy supplies at various stores, and your money, called Gil, comes from defeating enemies. There are different abilities your characters can learn, including casting magic spells like fire or thunder at an enemy, and summons, powerful creatures brought forth from another plain of existence capable of inflicting maximum damage. It is here that the similarities end.
The characters all have different fighting abilities, and the same fighting style never feels repeated, nor do the characters behave differently in battle than you would truly expect them to behave. The characters also have destructive attacks known as Limit Breaks. The Limit gauge fills up gradually as you deal and take damage, and when it fills, you can unleash a powerful attack. Each character has several limit breaks, each one generally better than the last. Some last for just one turn, others have residual effects. Some affect the enemy directly; others affect certain party members or even the entire party. Most can be gained simply through leveling up, but others need items or certain story scenes to be attained.
A substance called materia is used for all the spells, summons, and abilities in the game. Materia is a glowing, colorful substance that can be assimilated into weapons and armor, giving them unique properties. Using a certain materia will give you spells or abilities, which grow more powerful the more that you use them., Summons, however, do not get more powerful, and can be used only so many times per battle. Using materia also lowers some of your character’s stats, especially HP, so you have to be wary of how much you use, as well as the constant juggling that comes with buying more powerful weapons and more protective armor, as well as new materia, the total amount of money you have, leveling up your old materia, and just how many materia slots the new weapons and armor have. At least the number of materia slots generally grows as the weapons and armor get stronger.
The world of Final Fantasy VII is expansive, deep, and quite varied. You can travel by foot, stupid broken plane, submarine, and airship to several different unique areas. From the dystopian sprawl of Midgar and the snowy, ominous Northern Cave, to the distinctly Native American feel of Cosmo Canyon, there is some variety to this world, which makes exploring a must, and stands evident of how art design and graphics can directly effect gameplay. Another interesting part of the game is the inclusion of mini-games like snowboarding, and chocobo breeding (chocobos being strange non-flying birds, similar to an ostrich). They don’t really need to be done more than a few times, but taking part in these games can net serious advantages down the road.
There are really very few bumps to the gameplay in Final Fantasy VII. The constant battling can wear thin on all but the most dedicated player, and the prospect of random battling, not being able to see the enemies on the world map, paired with the intense number of random encounters at various spots through the game, can seriously begin to cause frustration, although this is common with most RPG’s. The saving grace for these problems often rests on the story, and with this one you’ll invariably be swept into another shocking plot development or into either a true need or a neurotic impulse to level up, which will usually serve to stifle protest shortly after it begins. Except for the Nibelheim mansion, though. If you haven’t played this game or you haven’t reached Nibelheim yet, beware. You’ll get about two steps before you get attacked. The gameplay of Final Fantasy VII, at its worst, is the problem with the RPG genre on the whole, so they make no big mistakes, and, more often than not, their choices are wise.
My biggest point of contention with this game lies in its graphics. Not only have they not stood the test of time, they had some issues in the first place. However, we’ll start with the good. The environments are great. As I said before each place carries great variety and it all fits. This game world is expertly realized from the aforementioned Midgar and Cosmo Canyon, to the surreal charm of the Forgotten City and the Temple of the Ancients. The original character designs are startling in their exact visual representation of the characters’ personality. The actual character designs as they appear in the game, however, are a different story. No matter how hard you try to relegate this complaint into a mere nitpick (and believe me, I have) there’s something off tone about chibi, SD (Super-Deformed) character models in such a dark story. The equally dark Final Fantasy VI didn’t really have much of a choice, but this game seems to have had one, seeing as how we switch between SD and realistic character models in battles and certain cutscenes, depending on their importance. It adds just a little bit of tonal confusion, nothing conscious, but still something tangible. Furthermore, the SD models are…well…pointy. That is more a problem of the age of the game, but still, these things add up to something. By far the weakest part of this game is its graphics. At the end of the day, however, I can’t name one good game that was broken by sub par, or even bad graphics, nor one terrible game saved by being beautiful (like, say, Lair).
Earlier in the review I stated that certain moments in this game’s story were some of the premier moments in videogame storytelling. Well, quite frankly, Final Fantasy VII’s entire soundtrack speaks to supreme artistry in videogaming. VII’s score is beautifully composed by Nobuo Uematsu, which is par for the course. It is a sweeping, epic score, punctuated by moments of pure magic, most notably the opening theme, a rich and beautiful variation and expansion on the previous opening themes in the series, the world map theme, and the momentous (obvious pick at this point, really) One-Winged Angel, which is played against the final, desperate, cathartic showdown between the characters and Sephiroth. Even though I’ve singled out these tracks, all of the music in this game stands to attention, and not a single song is sub par or wasted. There is no voice acting, although few games carried much voice acting back then anyway, and besides, voice acting often ends up a minus rather than a plus.
Final Fantasy VII is a classic, and the moniker is well deserved. The game is not without its flaws, some of which are enhanced by age and a second playthrough, but these flaws ultimately pale in comparison to the strengths the game has to offer. Its gameplay is addicting and rock solid, with almost no cause for complaint. It has a beautiful and haunting story set in beautiful and haunting locales with a beautiful and haunting score to back it up. In true RPG fashion, VII is a long game, and expect it to take you no less than 50 hours to complete it (it took me around 70). That may be more time than some players are willing to divest for a second playing, perhaps even a first, but if I had to name an excellent RPG more than worth the time for anyone with even a passing interest in the genre, this is it. The distinct voices that decry this game, are, in my opinion, overlooking all the wonderful things VII has done for gaming in terms of plot development, cinematics, and ushering the genre into something at least somewhat commercially bankable, in order to focus on a few flaws everybody initially ignored amidst the hoopla. Anyway, in closing, Final Fantasy VII is one of the hallmark RPG’s of all time, and is well worth the attention its received.
9/10
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