Final Fantasy VII (PS1) Review

Final Fantasy is a series that I held myself back from trying to play. Actually, I held myself back from trying to play any form of role-playing games in general. As much as I wanted to, I feared that they would be too complicated for me to play through. After all, I mainly play platformers, beat 'em ups, and shooters. But then, something happened: a friend of mine got me Kingdom Hearts for Christmas last year. That was another series that I held myself back from playing for the same reason. After a bit of hesitation, I tried it out and had a blast with it.

Thanks to Kingdom Hearts, I felt that I was ready to step out of my comfort zone. That's where Final Fantasy VII comes in. That was the next RPG I wanted to tackle. I chose this in particular because I had some form a connection with this game years before finally playing it. I have a friend who loves its prequel game, Crisis Core, which was the reason I even heard of Final Fantasy VII in the first place. After watching a whole walkthrough of the former game, I grew interested.

So that's my backstory relating to Final Fantasy and role-playing games in general. After years of hesitance, I finally got to playing Final Fantasy VII, and just in time for its 20th anniversary. The game does show its age in some areas, but I see it as great game that mostly holds up. Prepare for a review from the point-of-view of an RPG newbie.

Going back to my list of favorite intros back in March, I still say that Final Fantasy VII has a great opening, and many will agree. What stands out to me is that tracking shot of Aerith walking to the street while the camera zooms out to show off the city of Midgar and the title flashes out. Then it almost seamlessly blends into the gameplay as we start in the action. Remember, games in the mid-1990's tried to break ground by including cinematic elements. I still say that this is impressive even after 20 years.

The main protagonist of the game is Cloud Strife, a former member of SOLDIER. I find him to be a pretty interesting protagonist. He does comes across as a cold and anti-social mercenary who is only in it for the money at the start. However, as we get to know him later on, he becomes a whole lot more than that and he gets some decent character development. Plus, the story takes some twists and turns that really makes us wonder if Cloud is who he says he is.

He joins AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group that is dedicated to stopping a company named Shinra. Shinra drains the Lifestream from the planet to form Mako energy. This is hurting the planet, but they don't seem to care, having much influence into how things go in Midgar. A lot of the game tackles the battle between nature and technology, which we've seen in a lot in movies. I think it's done pretty well here. Yeah, it portrays corporations as evil, but I don't think it's too "in your face" unlike a lot of environmental stories.

The game also explores the themes of loss and identity. Some of the characters in the game have lost someone in their lives that makes us sympathetic to them. The theme of loss was conceived by the series creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, after he lost his mother during production of this game. This is evident in some moments where death occurs and it doesn't feel too manufactured or manipulative like a lot of Hollywood movies. Identity also plays a big part in the game as some of the characters are trying to come to grips into who they are and where they come from. I'd talk more about it, but that would mean going into spoilers.

I won't get too deep into the plot because there is a lot going on that only just breathes life into the world of Gaia. I think the description in the back of the jewel case describes it best: "What begins as a rebellion against an evil corporation becomes much more." It does get a little complicated as it goes on, but never too confusing to follow. Playing through the game from beginning to end, I was able to follow its story just fine and I didn't mind some of the detours like that desert prison.

What I liked in the game are the other main cast of characters. I'll talk about my favorite party members because talking about all of them would take too long. The first is Barret Wallace, the leader of AVALANCHE, who bears a resemblance to Mr. T. After that realization, I couldn't stop reading his dialogue with that voice in mind. He does seem like a tough guy who you do not want to mess with, which he is. But underneath all that, he is a good friend to the AVALANCHE members and a loving father to his daughter, Marlene. I like it when certain characters have hidden depths in them.

The next is Tifa Lockhart, a childhood friend of Cloud. She is a member of AVALANCHE and a bartender at Seventh Heaven. Part of what made me like her as a character was not just how much she kicks butt, but also because of her motherly and supportive nature. I also find her backstory with Cloud to be endearing enough that I regret not having her on my party much on the game's first disc because I fell in love with the next character more.

Cloud runs into a flower girl named Aerith* Gainsborough. She asks him to be her bodyguard at the cost of one date, so she joins the party immediately. I find Aerith to be a pretty likable character thanks to her positive attitude. Her presence just brings a smile to my face, which is the reason that I always have her on my party. Gameplay-wise, she is also very useful thanks her Limit Break, which I will get to when I talk about gameplay.

*NOTE: I'm aware that her default name is Aeris. However, Kingdom Hearts and all other supplementary material for Final Fantasy VII spells it as "Aerith," which I'm sticking with.

The last character I want to talk about is Cid Highwind. He gives off the best first impression out of all the main party members. This line says it all:

Cid is a foul-mouthed, but good-hearted scientist who dreams of going into outer space. The stuff he says is a joy to read through and delivers a very commanding presence. As soon as he joins the gang, you can bet that I selected him as a party member throughout all of the game. He's that great. Now that I think about it, picking party members is like selecting people who are applying for a job; you select them if you think they have what it takes and if they're good enough to get along with.

Other party members include Cait Sith, a fortune-telling cat who rides a Moogle, and Red XIII, a quadrupedal creature who was subject to experiments before being set free by AVALANCHE. There are also two characters who are optional to obtain, those being Yuffie Kisaragi, a thief and Materia hunter, and Vincent Valentine, a mysterious man who was formerly a part of the Turks. I'm not going into much detail about them because I didn't find them as interesting as the aforementioned party members, which is the reason why I rarely used them throughout the game. Still, I like the entire cast, and more party members means more to choose from for other players.

While I know that this is a PS1 game, the graphics both hold up and not hold up at the same time. The pre-rendered cutscenes still look good, if not a little dated and disproportionate at times. I even say that the pre-rendered, in-game backgrounds still look good, but sometimes hard to navigate. For example, on my way to a section of the slums, I didn't know that I could walk over this one plank of wood as a bridge. It's mainly because of the angle that it was presented in that confused me the first time. Nevertheless, it does provide some great backgrounds, shots that wouldn't be out of a place in a movie, like the scene where Cloud meets Aerith:

The in-game character models are also mixed bag for me. I find the character models during the battles to be pretty impressive, I will admit. They remain faithful to Tetsuya Nomura's character designs. Then comes the blocky, Chibi models which, while still identifiable, can be pretty distracting. It can also be pretty jarring when, during the pre-rendered cutscenes, the character models will either be Chibi ones or the more realistic ones. Make up your mind, darn it! I'm not faulting the game for this because we all know that the PS1 still had its share of technical limitations.

The Final Fantasy series has always been praised for its music, and it's no exception here. Long-time collaborator, Nobuo Uematsu, made some of the most iconic tracks. Just say "Aerith's Theme," "Let the Battles Begin" or "One-Winged Angel" and we'll know what they sound like. To make the world of Gaia come alive, the music does a good job in matching the various moods and settings nicely. For example, "Mako Reactor" is suspenseful and high-tech, while the "Gold Saucer" is fun and upbeat like a carnival.

I also dug the various character themes. "Aerith's Theme" definitely gets a lot of love because of how much it tugs at the heartstrings. Can we also give some attention to Tifa's and Cid's themes as well? The former, which plays in a flashback, is heartfelt and nostalgic. The latter is rough, but heroic and passionate, which fits Cid's character well.

Way before I even played Final Fantasy VII, I already knew how great the music was. This is because I first heard of the re-arrangements of "Aerith's Theme" and "One-Winged Angel" from Crisis Core. Hearing the original game's tracks left a good enough impression on me. A lot of the tracks are made with MIDI sounds, but they're still high-quality enough to stand the test of time. Also, I can't be the only one who, while listening to the battle theme, thinks of hearing a guy breathing out after drinking his can of soda. Try unhearing that from now on.

Now it's time to tackle the gameplay. As someone who is new to the RPG genre, I got the hang of the mechanics rather quickly. Navigating the world was easy enough. Once the world map was unlocked, the player can go anywhere that is currently accessible. Some vehicles will also be unlocked later on, but the player can also ride Chocobos once they're caught in a certain area, which I've only done on a couple of occasions.

The player can also explore towns. They can talk to people to learn more about other things, as well as purchasing weapons, armor, and items in various shops. They can also rest at an inn to fully restore their health and magic meters. So far, it's pretty basic and easy to follow. I do have one complaint about navigating towns and the world map and it's that the towns could have been labeled better. I sometimes had to use walkthroughs to know where to go next.

Then comes the battle system. The combat in Final Fantasy VII is turn-based like its predecessors, so party members can take turns with the commands given to the player like attacking, casting spells, or using items. Once the battle is completed, they earn experience points to level up, increasing their statistics like health or strength.

Roughly many of the battles are triggered randomly. Random encounters are what I like to call the video game equivalent to jump scares. I'm just walking around, going to my next destination, when a random battles spawns, startling me deep inside. It was a staple of a lot of RPG's at the time which have since died out as the years went by. As annoying and repetitive as they are, I didn't mind them too much. I value every battle I have because they give me a chance to level up my characters and obtain items when possible.

What I like about the battle system is the sense of urgency. Enemies do not wait and will attack you if you haven't provided a command for a party member. There will also be times when a party member is given an abnormal status, like Poison, which drains their health at every turn, or Small, which shrinks the character and weakens their attack. This forces me to quickly think of what to do or what items to use, requiring some form of strategy that I welcome.

One addition I like is the Limit Break system. At the bottom right of the screen is each characters' Limit Gauge. When enemies do enough damage to them, the gauge will fill up completely, replacing the "Attack" command to "Limit." Limit Breaks will then take top priority in which the character can provide a powerful attack that deals a lot of damage. Of course, Limit Breaks are not just limited to attacks. One of the reasons I often included Aerith on my party was her Limit Break in which she can heal everyone in the field, which saved their lives on numerous occasions.

The game also features the Materia system. Materia are orbs that allow special abilities once equipped. How many you assign in each party member depends on what weapon are armor you equip them with. Certain weapons and armor allow a number of slots to insert Materia. They are given different colors to differentiate between abilities:

• Green: Allows for magic attacks and healing powers.
• Yellow: Allows for commands like stealing and reading an enemy's stats.
• Blue: When paired with another colored Materia, it enhances said ability.
• Purple: Increases a character's stats like health or magic.
• Red: Summons a monster which provides a powerful attack.

A lot of thought was put into the Materia system. It allows for some great character customization and experimentation. Throughout my whole playthrough, I always assigned certain Materia to a character, deciding who would be the healer or the one providing barriers for party members or the one reading an enemy's stats. Of course, Materia can have their downsides, too. A character's stats like health may be slightly decreased when equipping certain Green Materia, so it had me thinking whether it's worth inserting a different ability at a cost.

The system is taken even further when Materia can be leveled up after battles. When enough AP is earned, they can be upgraded to stronger attacks or newer purposes. For example, the "Heal" Materia only has the Poisona magic, which cures a party member of a Poison attack. While I had one character equipped with it, I hardly used it at first. It wasn't until later on, though, that I learned that the new ability for that Materia, Esuna, can cure party members of abnormal statuses. This became especially useful once I learned its purpose, saving my party members several times during battles.

When one wants to take a break from the main story, there are various side objectives to take part in. I only participated in about a handful, mainly the Wutai quest, only because I just happened to ride over there and something happened that forced me to take it. I did enjoy it regardless.

One location that players often bring up is the Gold Saucer. Over there, the player can take part in mini-games. There were some I liked such as the motorcycle game. There were also other mini-games that I didn't like such as the roller coaster. I had to earn a certain amount of points to get a reward. The problem is that I hate the controls. I don't have good enough reflexes to shoot all the targets. I didn't participate in a lot of things at the Gold Saucer, but it still serves as a nice breather from all the stress on the journey ahead.

With all the pros and cons I mentioned, there were a couple of other cons that I haven't addressed. One gripe I have is the way you control the player character. In the previous six Final Fantasy games, you control your character in four directions: up, down, left, and right. That was fine, since the games were designed to move in those four directions.

With Final Fantasy VII having 3-D graphics, you can move in eight directions, the others being diagonal. The problem with this is that you're using the PlayStation controller's D-Pad, which only has four directions. It doesn't feel right to have my thumb press both the right and down buttons just to go south-east, unless it's a Sega Genesis controller. I got used to it regardless, but had the DualShock controller come out at the time, the game could have easily benefited with analog control.

Also, I don't find Sephiroth to be that interesting of a villain. Sure, he has a menacing presence and an awesome final boss theme, but I was just left indifferent in the end. He didn't strike me as one of the best villains of all time. I haven't played Final Fantasy VI, but I already find Kefka Palazzo to be a much more interesting villain after hearing how despicable he is. That alone makes me want to play it, but I unfortunately do not own a SNES.

That's about it. I could also go on about optional content like Chocobo breeding, but that's just it: they're optional. If that particular side quest was mandatory, I would have been annoyed at how time-consuming it was. The same goes for the optional bosses like the Emerald and Ruby Weapons. I've heard about how frustratingly difficult they are and I probably would have broken my controller if I attempted to fight them even once. From my experience, if you're just casually playing through the story and not going through these, you'll do just fine.

Overall, I love Final Fantasy VII. I know people will go on and on saying that this game has aged poorly. I agree when it comes to some of the graphics and the controls. However, the battle system holds up, the characters are great, and the soundtrack is one of the best. The story is also pretty intriguing, with enough funny, heartwarming, sad, and scary moments that made for a great experience.

I do think my experience could have been a whole lot better, though, if the internet didn't spoil that one scene for me. You all know the one; if not, consider yourselves lucky. I would have gotten a great emotional reaction to it rather than "Oh, no, here it comes." It just saddens me that I was robbed of feeling the same way players did when they first played it back in 1997. A shocking scene is no longer shocking if it keeps popping up everywhere. Word of advice: either keep your mouths shut and let others experience this or provide a spoiler warning.

Still, Final Fantasy VII is easily one of my favorite PS1 games that I can picture myself replaying it in the future. After this and Kingdom Hearts, I feel ready to try out other RPG's that I missed out on. I plan on playing the later entries in the future, but I don't know how they will fare up for me. I'm probably going to be overrating it, but this is MY review, darn it! Final Fantasy VII is...

SOMETHING WONDERFUL

If anyone is interested in playing it, it has been digitally re-released on the PS3 and PS4. To help better the experience, don't get too hyped up because it'll blind you from the final product.

On an additional note, there is also going to be remake. While I am looking forward to it, it's never going to replicate the experience. No matter how great the graphics are going to be or how interesting the entire soundtrack will be reinterpreted, it's not going to replicate the charm that this game has. It's a little hard to explain, but all I'm going to say that the impact will be lost.

Imagine the time when this game came out, when the opening cutscene blew everybody's mind. The remake will just use the original as a cheat sheet, but will miss something that made this game so great. Plus, I have no idea how it will translate that moment where Cloud spins away while on a play in the Gold Saucer. That moment was just too funny that only PS1 graphics can get away with.