As with most RPGs, this took me about a week's worth of separate play sessions, but I have done it. I finally got to play one of the most popular games of all time, and I can't wait to talk more about it. BACKGROUND:
As I may have mentioned before in my blog entry on the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, I managed to miss all the flagship titles of the PS1 in the few years that I got to play it. One of those titles is Final Fantasy VII. Despite never having played it, I knew a lot more about the game than I probably should have. I knew Cloud, Tifa, and Barret, I've heard some of the battle themes before, and I've even managed to stumble upon a spoiler or two just learning about the game. It's a testament to the legacy of the game that even someone who's never played it (like I have) would recognize some aspects of it. Hell, I understood how fucking big a deal it was when Cloud was added to Smash Bros. For the longest time, this game was out of reach for me. My PS1 was long dead, and I swore off emulating games I never owned a while ago. Rereleases on mobile and PC came about, but being the console-based lower life form that I am, I couldn't be arsed to pick them up (the PC version was also Windows-only, so there's that). Then, on one of the Nintendo Directs from last year (I probably talked about it here on the blog), they announced four or five Final Fantasy ports were coming to the Switch (7, 9, 10, and 12? I don't quite recall). This was another of those "now's my chance" moments, so I pre-purchased the game as soon as I could. PLOT: In contrast to most RPGs that came before, FFVII is set in an industrial, borderline sci-fi Planet. There are still some clear supernatural elements involved, but for the most part, the story leans away from the typical high fantasy that RPGs are often known for. Within this Planet is something called Mako energy. A good way to think of it is like how the Force is a prominent fixture in the predominantly sci-fi setting of Star Wars; it's a supernatural source of power that governs a lot of the rules of the universe, can be harnessed by individuals, and is oddly mystical given the setting of the story. This Mako energy is being harnessed by Shinra, an energy corporation that controls a lot of the Planet. In a perhaps unsurprising twist, they've let greed get the better of them, and their quest of expansion has ruined people's lives. What's more, the rate at which they siphon Mako energy is beginning to threaten the Planet's very existence. Enter AVALANCHE, a group hellbent on taking down Shinra in an effort to save the planet (if we're being frank, they're eco-terrorists). The story begins on one of their missions, and it's where you meet the game's protagonist: Cloud Strife himself, the quintessential "spiky anime-hair sword protagonist." He's on the job with AVALANCHE as a mercenary, but what seems like just another contract slowly becomes an epic, globe-trotting tale... The journey to save the planet gradually escalates as you move along the story. At some point, you learn about a man named Sephiroth, and once you do, the plot shifts away from Shinra and towards him. Despite the change in focus, the overall themes of FFVII remain largely the same: saving the planet, the consequences of corporate greed, a heavy emphasis of life and death, finding out who you are and what you live for... I'm sure there's at least one thing about this story that would resonate with everyone. Like any good RPG, you meet a colorful cast of characters as you go along your journey. While Cloud gets the most screen time, a lot of your party members get ample time to shine and grow as characters (even the optional ones). Apart from Sephiroth and a few other exceptions, the prominent NPCs don't have as much room to develop, but I found the majority of them to at least be amusing to interact with. PRESENTATION: In 2019, FFVII looks like shit compared to games these days. The 3D models have a low-poly count and have weird proportions, the pre-rendered backgrounds look horribly low-res (leading to moments where you can't tell which is a walkway and which is just background), the fixed camera angles are frustrating, the mini-game segments look even weirder, and so on. What I'm trying to say is: if you released a game today that looked like this, people would shit on it. Before you do that, remember that this game is from 1997. The graphics we'd call shitty today were revolutionary at the time. Games have only begun to shift from the traditional sprite-based pixel art graphics to full 3D models. The use of pre-rendered backgrounds was rare before this game came around. Varying camera perspectives during gameplay were equally as rare; most games from the previous console generation were side-scrollers or had top-down views. Hell, the fully animated cutscenes (known as FMVs) in this game probably blew people's minds at the time, because very few games then had such a cinematic element to them. My point is, as poorly as the visuals of this game may have aged, it's important to note that FFVII was one of the pioneers in gaming. It's not a ridiculous notion to say that modern games wouldn't be as cinematic and cutscene-heavy if it weren't for this game. In that respect, FFVII is an essential title in gaming history. Also, despite the goofy-looking character models, they actually did a phenomenal job of making them expressive. From Cloud shrugging to Sephiroth's unnerving laugh, they were able to convey a lot of emotion with quite little. Some things about this game that did stand the test of time include: the character designs (by the legendary Tetsuya Nomura — you should see his drawings), and the music (by the equally legendary Nobuo Uematsu). The music in particular is fantastic; everyone knows One-Winged Angel, but my personal favorite probably goes to the regular battle theme. I usually avoid grinding in RPGs, but Let the Battles Begin made the act infinitely more enjoyable. GAMEPLAY: FFVII follows the battle system of many a Square RPG and uses an active battle system. Instead of the typical turn-based action, you can act as soon as your character's time gauge is done filling up. You can choose to attack, cast spells, use items, or run away like a coward. Once your action is done, the time gauge resets, and you must wait again before you can take your next action. Your party of three can each be equipped with three things: a weapon (each character has a unique type; Cloud has swords, Tifa has gloves, etc.), armor (self-explanatory), and an accessory (a miscellaneous article that provides you bonus buffs, like immunity to certain elemental attacks). On the surface, that's pretty par for the course for an RPG, but things get more complex once you get to the subject of Materia. Materia is the difference maker in every battle you'll get into in the game. In addition to their respective purposes, your weapon and armor also have Materia slots, and it's in these slots where you can equip Materia. Once equipped, Materia allow you to do all sorts of things: cast spells (everything from elemental attacks, debuffs, healing, and more), boost stats, gain passive buffs (like an automatic counter attack), use additional commands (Steal, for instance), and summon badass-looking monsters (Bahamut, Leivathan, to name a few) to lay waste to your enemies. While Materia can do plenty on their own, there's a lot more you can do with them. For one, you can level them up, which improves their strength and grants you access to stronger spells. Once you max out a Materia's level, you get a duplicate of that Materia, allowing you to equip it to other members of your party. You can also "pair" Materia, allowing you to enhance spells (All + Restore, for example, extends your Cure spell to the entire party as opposed to a single target), or gain passive buffs (Fire + Elemental increases your resistance to fire-based attacks). You should probably look these combos up, because a lot of the spell descriptions aren't informative enough. Enemies come in all sorts of annoying, with the ability to inflict a plethora of status effects (pro tip: look up what they do so you don't spend five minutes trying to figure out why your Limit gauge is blue), bullshit skills/spells that fucking wreck your team, and a whole lotta HP (especially bosses). Again, you'll wanna look this up; knowing what certain bosses were weak to/what elemental attacks they favored allowed me to plan ahead and spare myself hours of angry yelling. It's also faster than using the Sense command, which could easily get you killed. When shit gets rough, your party members have an ace up their sleeve: Limit Breaks. Next to your time gauge, you have a Limit gauge. This fills up every time an enemy attacks you, and once it's full, it allows you to unleash a powerful skill. Limit Breaks vary greatly from character to character, and while most of them are super attacks, some Limit Breaks can heal or buff allies/debuff enemies. If an enemy hits hard, rest assured you can hit back harder. Exploring the overworld is a little rough given the fuzzy backgrounds and fixed camera angles, but overall, it's not so bad. You'll have your fair share of puzzles, exploration, and the occasional stealth mission in this part of the game, so it's not all "go to point A to point B." What I do find a little tedious is exploring the world map. The map, even when expanded, isn't entirely helpful. Thankfully, the vehicles are fun to move around in, so I wasn't too bothered by this. I would advise pulling up a clearer map from a guide or something. I mostly focused on beating the main story, but there are plenty of worthwhile sidequests that net you useful items and even unlock Limit Breaks. You'll spend a lot of time just going through the campaign, but if you want to get your money's worth, there's a hell of a lot more to do than just get to the end. As the story goes along, you'll encounter the occasional mini-game that spices things up. These range from Chocobo racing (fun), snowboarding (really fun), a part where you ride a motorcycle and whack other people (tremendously fun), piloting a submarine (controls like ass), some sort of tower defense thing (fun on paper, but I didn't really bother with it), and more. I appreciated these infrequent changes in scenery. I'm glad the idea of being able to save only on certain spots is becoming less of a thing in games today, because boy are they rough to deal with. I either had to backtrack a long way or force myself to progress the game just so I find a save point, save, and go to bed/do something else. It also made retries of a boss incredibly annoying, especially if the fight is preceded by a cutscene (which, by the way, you can't skip). There were also one or two instances where I got fucked over while grinding XP and had to redo about twenty minutes' worth of levelling because I put off saving, but that's more an issue with me than with the game itself. This version of FFVII comes with a few upgrades, like a Turbo mode (everything, save the cutscenes, is sped up threefold, making stuff like summon animations go by quicker), a No Encounters toggle (allowing you to avoid random encounters if you need to), and a Max Stats option (which I didn't realize was a thing until I finished the game, but whatever). It's no autosave, but these additional features made the more vexing parts of the game much more bearable. Trust me, those long-ass summon animations get real repetitive after the third or fourth time. VERDICT: I now understand why this game is so beloved. Though unimpressive to look at now, the presentation of FFVII revolutionized gaming as we know it. Along with its massive story, engaging combat, amazing music, and iconic characters, it's no wonder that FFVII is often hailed as one of the greatest games of all time. Even if you don't agree with that sentiment, you can't deny the legacy of this game; I don't think JRPGs would be as big as they are outside of Japan if this game didn't exist. I'm thrilled that I finally got to experience the magic for myself, and even more thrilled that I now understand all the references in Cloud's Smash Bros. trailer. You owe it to yourself to play this game at least once. Here's a few places where you can pick it up: - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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