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Review
When videogames are delayed for any significant amount of time, they are
usually, for some reason, far below expectations. Games like
Battlecruiser 3000AD, Ultima VIII, and Stonekeep were all pushed back
repeatedly, only to be either incomplete (Battlecruiser) or simply bad (Ultima,
Stonekeep). But occasionally, a game comes along that bucks that trend.
And in the case of Final Fantasy VII, the latest output from RPG king
Square, the end result justifies the delays without question. FF7 is,
without a doubt, the new benchmark for console titles.
To begin with, FF7 is longer than every console RPG to date. The game
takes place across 3 CDs. It took Next Generation Online, no stranger to
RPGs, a total of 49 hours to complete the game (approximately 25 hours
for disc one, 15 for disc two, and 9 for disc three - the majority of
which was spent breeding and racing chocobos [q.v.]), twice the length
of Final Fantasy VI (known as III in the U.S.) and Wild Arms. While it
is possible for the game to be completed in less time, rushing to
complete it is definitely not recommended.
Since their last Japanese-translated RPG (Chrono Trigger for Super
Nintendo), Square has been known for adding "easter eggs" to
their games - opportunities for players to learn more about the game's
characters, bonus games, and the like. Well, Square has outdone
themselves this time. At least three hours are spent uncovering the main
character's past, with an additional hour each for several other
characters. One of the game's "secret" characters has her own
hour of backstory, complete with her own town that is not even necessary
to visit during the game's normal progression.
What is necessary during the game's normal progression is the
capacity for awe. FF7's graphics are light years beyond anything ever
seen on the PlayStation, making Wild Arms look like a Yarouze demo (we
have nothing against Wild Arms, but FF7 is that good). The game begins
in an enormous industrial complex housed in a futuristic city, and
remains there for the first seven or eight hours of play. Just when it
appears that the entire game will take place in the city, the venue
changes to a fully 3D, fully rotatable engine, and players will find
that the city is a mere dot on the enormous world map.
When not travelling in the world, players will navigate through
static, hand-drawn locales. And in another huge leap forward for RPGs,
the corridor is no more. Players can walk in, around, on top of, and
through submarines, glaciers, amusement parks, reactors, farms, and
dozens of other places. Since the backgrounds are static, the developers
were able to put all their attention into animating the iconic
representation of the party leader, which is represented in
super-deformed polygons, looking remarkably like the Wild Arms
characters look in battle.
It is unknown who came up with the idea for the polygonal battles
first, Sony or Square, but Square has been in the business longer, and
it shows in FF7's combat engine. While only three members can be in the
party at one time, the effects more than make up for the game's only
shortcoming. The graphics are as "realistic" as possible,
considering the genre, with each character having a distinct look. And
since each character uses a different style of weapon, the animation is
different for each character. But it doesn't stop there - each character
also has several other attack animations, based on their equipment. The
equipping of characters is perhaps the most important part of the game;
the game itself devotes several pages of text just to explain it.
The special attacks and spells, however, are the game's strongest
points. All nine characters have "limit breaks", which can
only be used after the character takes a certain amount of damage. When
the limit is reached, the character attacks and does extra damage to the
target. Each character has at least four, with one having nine.
The spells are the most graphically impressive part of the game (the
game's CG sequences run a close second). There are 70 in all, 16 of
which are FF3-style summon monster spells. One of these (Leviathan) was
in the FF7 demo disc, which may be why the demand for the game has been
so huge.
The game's plot is deep and typical of Square's prior efforts quite
epic. Square takes great pride in its storytelling abilities and uses a
number of flashback sequences, and loads of rendered sequences and
prerendered FMV to add greatly to the mood and emotion of the story.
Adult themes and even some uncensored language (Goddamn, Crap, Shit,
etc.) were all left in place as per Sony's promise not to alter the
work. The teen rating for the game is well deserved due to such mature
sexual and violent themes.
All in all, it is impossible to not recommend Final Fanatsy VII to
anyone who is even vaguely interested in RPGs
Thanks to IGN for the review
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