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After Nintendo announced that the N64 would still be using cartridges, Square panicked. Sakaguchi's plans for the next game wouldn't be possible to accomplish with that format, not to mention cartridges are more expensive to produce than discs. Square had no choice but to cut ties with Nintendo and make a deal with Sony. Using CD technology, Final Fantasy VII broke new ground by seamlessly integrating FMV footage with gameplay models and using pre-rendered backgrounds as a way to disguise the console's limitations, thus creating a never before seen cinematic experience in a videogame. Before this game was made, Sakaguchi's mother had died and that's reflected in his input in the story, which he created together with his work colleague Tesuya Nomura. Besides the series' usual themes of war, nature and friendship, FFVII is a story of life and becoming part of something grander in the afterlife. It was acclaimed as a masterpiece when it came out and its popularity brought the JRPG genre into the mainstream. Let's see how it fares after 15 years shall we?
The Story:
Like I said above, this is a story about life and spirituality. It is also the first story in the series that takes place in a modern sci-fi fantasy setting. It tells the story of a group of rebels fighting a company named Shinra that's sucking mako energy (the primary energy source in this world) from within the planet (don't worry, the environmental message doesn't beat you over the head). Among them is a mercenary that used to work for Shinra, but left for mysterious reasons. The story of this game is fantastic and the characters are very complex. Definitely the most complex and mature plot the series has ever told. I have only one gripe with it: The script. For the most part it's very good, sometimes even brilliant, but there are also some grammatical errors that are actually pretty stupid. Also, why so much swearing? To make it feel mature? Reminds me of a certain other game that does it, except it's a million times worse. I don't mind swearing at all, but there are two characters that basically swear all the time and it gets old very fast.
Despite those problems, this is still a fantastic story with fantastic characters.
9/10
The Gameplay:
This game takes the gameplay from the previous games and adds its own new mechanics to it. We once again have a huge world map to explore with lots of stuff to do in it. It's basically the same structure, so let's talk about the new stuff.
First, the good: Our development system this time around is the "Materia System". In this world, magic, summons and abilities are only possible through these small spheres of condensed mako energy. There are five types of materia: Magic, Summon, Command (which gives you extra battle commands), Support (which adds certain effects to other materia) and Independent (which gives you abilities like "Cover"). You equip these materia in your equipment to gain their abilities and make them grow. As you win ability points in battle, your materia levels up and with that comes new abilities. Characters don't actually learn anything; each materia does, so you need to always mind equipped materia. Eventually, the materia will level up to its maximum, and as a result, it will create another materia of the same name, which means hard working players are rewarded for all their work. At first, the fact that you can only equip one weapon, one armlet and an acessory might turn off series veterans, but then you will learn that each piece of equipment has a materia growing rate of either normal (1x), double or none. This forces the player to equip the right equipment when leveling materia up. Another great addition to the gameplay is the now famous limit breaks. Each time a character gets damaged, his limit bar will fill according to the damage taken, and when it's full, the characters can perform special powerful attacks unique to each character. It's a neat addition that hepls to prevent the materia from taking away each character's sense of identity.
Now, the bad: My only gripe with the gameplay is the controls. Exploring the fully three-dimensional environments with the D-Pad is awkward at times. True, when this game was being developed, the Sony Controller still didn't have analog sticks, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a problem.
Overall, the gameplay is fantastic. It has everything that was great in the previous games.
9/10
The Music:
Just like the game itself, Uematsu takes the typical FF OST formula and takes it in a new direction. Certain tracks have a rock sound to them and the instrumentation is slightly different than previous games in the series. The result is a fantastic soundtrack with everything a FF OST should have with a fresh feel to it. One of the best soundtracks ever created for a game.
10/10
The Graphics:
Like I said before, this game uses CG movies and pre-rendered backgrounds to create a seamless cinematic experience. By today's standards, it's nothing special, but it was groundbreaking for its time. It should be noted that Yoshitaka Amano didn't design the characters this time, since Sakaguchi thought that Tetsuya Nomura's manga style would fit the modern setting better. This allowed for some great artwork, but since this game was made back when PS1 games had really blocky character models, the characters look really weird outside battles, where the character models are way better.
The monster design is also very creative. The graphics haven't aged well, but there's still great eye candy in there.
8/10
Overall this is a fantastic game. I don't think it's the best in the series like many others but i can see why people would think that.
Final Grade: 9/10
Join me next time when i review the first Final Fantasy that divided the fans: FFVIII. See you then ;)
