You look like a bear wearing a marshmallow.
A long time ago, I was told to get Final Fantasy VII because it was just that good. What did I do? I got Final Fantasy VI because it came with a demo for Final Fantasy X, which was obviously the better purchase - a taste of the paste with a glimpse at the future too.
But if you've read that blog post, you'll know that already. It's finally time for Final Fantasy VII, which is - apparently - one of the greatest games ever made in the history of ever, so it's got some clout around these parts.
It's also got some Cloud too...
See what I did there?
Cloud. You play as a kid named Cloud. Is he even a kid? I don't know. They all look like kids.
Fun Times
Like all good games, Final Fantasy VII starts by throwing you into the action. You are swept up in the midst of the plot and have no choice but to proceed into the thick of it, and forward in the introduction of FF7 is towards the enemy standing between you and your objective.
Cloud is working for a bunch of rebels, I guess you could say, on a mission to disrupt the harvesting of the planet's energy by a no-doubt evil corporation solely focused on their profit margins. By 'disrupt', we mean 'destroy', and within the first ten or twenty minutes of the game, you've been in some scrapes, you've seen some landscapes, and you've met a cast of characters that are already different enough to pick out your favourites.
We've seen previous titles use polygons on top of pre-rendered backgrounds - Resident Evil springs to mind - and FF7 isn't too dissimilar. However, the artwork on display here is a work of art, for lack of a better phrase.
The detailing and colour show off the fantasy twists applied to the reality of such a location, making the locations seem more impressive than they physically are in the game - a power-plant come sewer system sounds industrial, dirty, and generic. Does that describe these images?
Well, yeah, it does, but it's a nice-to-look-at kind of industrial, dirty, generic look. It's pleasant to look at, which is perhaps the opposite of what you want if you're trying to get players immersed in a grimy city. At least I can see where I'm going.
When you're not oogling at the imagery, you're playing an RPG in every sense of the word. You and your party have stats, and those stats make some characters better at certain things than others. Attacking physically or with magic, supporting the team with items and healing; finding and equipping new items will increase your strengths and hopefully eliminate your weaknesses as you progress through the story of saving the world.
Again.
In the middle of combat, you'll act according to when a time bar fills and refills once you've decided to commit to an action. This means you can sort of save your turn to act until the moment is right - something that you'll learn from the first boss you'll encounter, preferably before the Game Over screen...
My bad.
Holding off on an action just a little, instead of hitting the 'accept' button on everything that your cursor defaults to, is the smarter choice. Eventually, you'll reach your breaking point, as your Limit Break meter fills and unlocks a stronger attack, complete with fancy graphics that I failed to screenshot in any kind of satisfying manner.
So the combat works like you'd expect, and so do the menu screens, and so does the movement outside of combat - ish, because holding a button to sprint is meh - what's the fuss with FF7 again?
I played for a couple of hours in my initial run, which I didn't expect at all, sot he fuss is that the plot is dripped at you just enough to keep you interested, and not in stupid amounts to put you off actually playing.
I kept playing FF7 because the game kept wanting me to play, and when the natural pauses in the action came up, there was enough of a hook in a cutscene or piece of dialogue that I wanted to see where it lead.
Frustrations
That, and the fact that this was the time where Save points were a thing, and I'm glad we've moved on from those times.
But I can't fault FF7 for hardware limitations. Instead, I'll fault FF7 on those character models. Those fat, deformed, chibi looking monstrosities that spoil those lovingly crafted backgrounds.
There are three different character models. Those used in pre-rendered cutscenes, those used inside combat, and those used out in the world. See if you can spot the differences...
Do you get used to them over time? Sadly, I suppose you do. They're god awful, but the game and its many, many fans clearly didn't care about them. For the longest time, they were one of the reasons why I didn't look into FF7 and prefer the look of Final Fantasy VIII instead. Evidently, it what the characters do and say that matters here, not what they look like when they do things and say stuff.
So I can't fault FF7 on that either because as much as I dislike the look, it's a personal thing. What about the random encounters?
You're navigating an empty corridor when all of a sudden, things with an intent to kill you pop out and spoil the mood. You can run away from them, but you might as well attack everything for the experience points, even if it inflates your game time, right?
They are a bit jarring and always caught me out, but I can't even fault FF7 for those. I'm sure including yet more polygon models for wandering enemies would cause them to fill up the discs even quicker, so once again technical limitations get in the way of a masterpiece.
At least, I'm told it's a masterpiece.
 |
| Should stop celebrating and run when there is a countdown timer, really... |
Final Word
I'm nowhere near the meat of Final Fantasy VII to say whether it's any good or not, and yet ever after a brief stint I'm well aware that the meat of the game is in its story, and that of all the things I'm interested in, it's the story that stands out.
I couldn't tell you what the set up to that story is. Something, something, evil bad guys, I suspect. I can tell you that I like the setting and that I look forward to seeing more of it, and I can also tell you that I didn't really think that I would ever be saying that.
For all the hype that the Final Fantasy series has gotten - and deserved to get - I never really cared about it in my youth, and only had a passing interest in it before this 1001 list began. I would have watched it being played because that's easy, but now I might actually play until I'm utterly confused, rather than just done for the day.
I still think that it looks equal parts stupid and magnificent, but so far it plays great, hasn't thrown me for a loop from the onset and I actually want to make further progress. For real, though. When I can find the time.
First world problems, eh? Play Final Fantasy VII.
Fun Facts
Final Fantasy VII famously jumped from the SNES to the PlayStation, because the CD-ROM and the hardware reading from it could actually spit out the 2000 polygon models the developers wanted to use. One option could have been to release the game on discs for the Nintendo 64's 64DD, but estimates put the disc count at 30, versus just 3 for the PlayStation.
Final Fantasy VII, developed by Square, first released in 1997.
Version played: PlayStation, 1997, via emulation.
Version watched: PlayStation, 1997; PC, 1998 (numerous, including Games Done Quick, XeroKynos)