Final Fantasy VII (PS1) (T)

[The Silent Orator]

Final Fantasy 7. Most of you have probably heard of it. Many of you have probably played it. Some of you have probably liked it. Few of you will probably agree with what I have to say.

In a nutshell, the premise of Final Fantasy 7 is of a young mercenary named Cloud Strife, former soldier of the antagonistic Shin-Ra, who initially joins a revolution to save the planet from being sucked of its energy (Mako) by the aforementioned company, Shin-Ra.

Early in the adventure, the whole thing gets turned upside down and a series of events has turned a group of rebels into a group of people locked in a desperate quest to save the world.

Storyline: 7/10

It's your typical RPG storyline. I will forgive it on the premise that many franchises that jumped into the 3D era recycled a lot of content from the golden age games of SNES with the added bonus that they could do something as amazing in 3D (Ocarina of Time being generally a recycling of Link to the Past, Super Mario 64 being a recycling of Super Mario World, etc. etc.).

However, as far as characters go, I have to say that this one was both hit and miss. Cloud, while not as emo as portrayed across the internet, still has his moments but generally is a lot better than other protagonists (and I look at you, Squall). Tifa is your standard beat-em-up gal with a soft side. Aeris--sorry, Aerith is your typical homely flower girl... who actually is a flower girl. Cid is just Setzer with a foul mouth and without the kinda hilarious flirtatious nature. Barret is actually pretty cool; he was one of my favorite characters.

Anyway, if you really compare the storyline between FF6 and FF7, you can really see the recycling. If you take in the fact I have a huge bias toward good villains, this puts FF7 down another notch. Sephiroth is probably one of the lesser impressive antagonists in a video game that I have played. Seriously, I probably would have been a LOT more satisfied if Sephiroth was the penultimate boss and Jenova was the absolute final battle.

Graphics: 6/10

They tried. They really did. It may not seem like it to one's eyes, but the effort is there. For the first Final Fantasy in 3D, they did a marginally good job. For 3D in general, even in the PS1 era, I've seen a lot better. Final Fantasy 8 definitely has the realistic factor going on a lot better and Final Fantasy 9 just overall had a better, more diverse cast of characters.

Overall, graphics just were a bit lacking... although without Final Fantasy 7's over-exaggeration of an already well-stacked Tifa, there would not be a single video game character that would be as overly satirized as being a sexual object as she is, even to this day over ten years later.

Sound: 9/10

This is Final Fantasy. There is very little to nothing wrong with the sound. Music is amazing as always, sound-effects are superb.

I think the only problem I have is the weakness of the soundtrack as stacked against other soundtracks. Although it's great in its own right, compared to FF6 or FF9, it just doesn't seem to be as glamorous.

Control & Interface: 9/10

I really had no problem with the controls. If you played one Final Fantasy, you've played pretty much them all. The only issue I had is I keep on pressing X to select something. Pretty much shows how early in the generation this game was released when circle is the select button (compare it to the position of the A-button on the SNES controller and you'll understand what I mean).

The materia system was fun to work with and I did have fun messing with everyone (and putting all the summons on Cloud for the lulz and seeing him with only, like, 500 HP against Jenova). Although I have an extreme love of the Junction system of FF8 and the Esper system of FF6, I have to say that at least the Materia system was a lot better (IMHO) than FF9's system.

Replay: 4/10

Sorry, but this fell flat on its face. It took almost nine years for me to even consider re-playing it and... after Sephiroth first came into the picture and the boss fight between Cloud and Rufus, I just couldn't take replaying the game.

Overall: 6/10

As a game in itself, it is a rather decent game, but as a Final Fantasy, it falls flat on its face. This Final Fantasy, out of all of them, suffers the most because of having a relatively subpar villain, a mediocre storyline, an admittedly okay magic/skill system, and just a rather bland cast of characters. Because of that, I didn't even bother with many side-quests (although getting level 4 limit breaks was fun, but don't get me started on the Gold Chocobo quest) and couldn't really stomach a replay.

It is definitely the Star Wars of video games. Decent in its own right, but highly overrated by worshipping fans who consider it the mecca of its artform.

[Ninmast]

Please remember the guidelines when you compile a game review. You should never compare a game to earlier or later era games, as most components will generally improve or degrade with time depending on the direction you go with it.

When discussing graphics, do not compare it to later games, ESPECIALLY games in the same series. For example, we know Twilight Princess has better graphics than Link's Awakening. You don't need to tell us. Instead, you might want to compare Twilight Princess to, say, Oblivion, which came out the same year.

The Story of the game should always be judged on its own merits, never by "Well, this sequel or prequel did it better." A storyline grade should never consist of two paragraphs of musing about other games you like and one that kinda-sorta talks about the characters, but nothing in the entire entry really about the actual story and execution.

Replay value should, yes, consider fun factor, but should also consider secrets, exploration, extra endings or plot twists.

Please try to remember this in the future and avoid writing articles that really come down to nothing more than, "I'm here to try to make my opposition to fanboys sound official." And not confirming the ESRB rating is just laziness. If you don't know it, google it.

[The Silent Orator]

There wasn't anywhere in the guidelines that said that you could not compare games story-wise, but I will amend this soon to fix that now that I have been informed of it. I only kept the story that short to avoid spoilers since this is a review and generally they are written to try to convince people who haven't played the game whether they should play it or not. If spoilers aren't minded here, then I will gladly do a whole exposition why the storyline of Final Fantasy 7 and its characters are lackluster on its own merit as well as in an overarching series.

Graphics was written that way comparing PS1 era games to each other. I never mentioned anything about PS2 or SNES graphics anywhere. If I cannot compare the graphics to other games of the generation, then I am rather confused on *how* I am to rate the graphics.

The ESRB has been found (after some research) and fixed in the review. Also, this was not an "opposition to fanboys" as much as it was "I am writing my honest opinion on why this game is only mediocre... at best".

I always thought a game review was a person's opinion on a game and how fun (or not) it was to that person; Final Fantasy has always had pretty much a template (from FF1 to FF9 as far as I can see) so I partially judged from that as well as from other RPG's of the era (Legend of Dragoon, Brave Fencer Musashi, etc.). Final Fantasy 7 honestly ranks down with Final Fantasy X as THE WORST Final Fantasy games out there, just as much as Link to the Past is one of the lesser Zelda games and Ocarina of Time is as overrated as Kingdom Hearts. Simply put, there are much better games (and much better Final Fantasy games) than Final Fantasy 7.

EDIT: If you're referring to the Tifa comment, that was kinda supposed to be a bit of humor in an otherwise sadly dry review. I'll take it out if that's what broke the guidelines. Sorry.