Way back in the mists off time.......
I first got Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) at a time when all the other Playstation (also on PC) games that I was playing lasted about 20 hours from start to finish, some even less (I'm looking at you Resident Evil (12 hours) and Resident Evil 2 (6 hours!!!)). I was getting increasingly irritated at paying £2 per hour and more per game. Fair enough - some of these games, like Abe's Odyssey & Exodus are fantastic games that I could quite happily go back and play again even now.
I'd watched a friend play a bit of FF7, he had been playing for 12 hours and had hardly even scratched the surface, so off I went a bought it.
The game starts with a mercenary (you) helping a terrorist organisation. (That statement sounds like the game is some first person shooter but nothing could be further from the truth.) But then continues with probably the most in depth story of a game that I've ever player. I've never played a game where I actually really care about the characters in the same way as you would with a good book, film or TV series, rather than just keeping the game character alive so you can complete the level or game. The bit where (SPOILER)....
Graphically the game varies drastically from fantastic to quite poor. The rendered backgrounds look quite amazing, even beautiful in places. The FMV interludes are stunning for the time (1997) and still look pretty awesome today. However the in game characters are fairly blocky, but against the cool backgrounds it doesn't seem to matter.
I don't even know where to start on the game play, there is just so much to do but you there are only a few times when you really feel rushed, mostly you can explore at your own pace. And explore you can, after leaving the city of Midgard (after 10-12 hours)
you have a continent and eventually a whole word to explore, also with several modes of transport including finally, if you are lucky and your breeding skills are up to it - a gold chocobo.
Most of the criticism about this game is the random battles, which do occur very regularly, what these critics seem to forget is that battles give you experience and gil (money) so therefore you get more powerful. I personally think the battle system is fantastic as you can take your time and think about what you are doing - there is no rush at all on the correct setting, but the best bit is the customisation of the weapons with Materia (basically magic gems, but that's like saying a G5 Mac can work out 1+1).
Then there is the summons Materia - how many games can you summon a huge dragon (amongst other things) to come and blast the hell out of your opponent's? You want the Norse god Odin to turn up and cut you enemies in half? Then find that materia. The 12 Knights of the Round Table might just pay your adversaries a visit and each do massive damage.
Going back to the beginning of this post. I've played through this game three times. The first time took me about 80 hours to complete it. The second time about 100 hours. The third time I decided that I wanted to do everything and find everything - with this game that's no easy task, getting the gold chocobo alone can take hours, but it was worth it - that took about 160 hours.
I haven't even mentioned the wonderful atmospheric music and of course Moogles!
To summarise - play it. Once you've played that then there is always:
Final Fantasy 8(PS,PC) - very good
FF9 (PS) - which I didn't really get into
FF10 (PS2) - Brilliant
FFX2(PS2) - didn't like as it seemed to move away from everything I liked about the games
FF11 (?) - haven't played - an mmorpg
FF12 (PS2) - haven't played....yet - its sitting on the shelf ready and waiting
and the previous older games FF1-6 which are available on various nintendo consoles and handhelds - SNES, GBAs, DS.
Then there is always the prequels and sequels:
The movies
Lots of other games including:
Note: I haven't played through FF7 for 2 or 3 years so some of the information for this post may not be 100% acurate as it was taken from memory.
I first got Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) at a time when all the other Playstation (also on PC) games that I was playing lasted about 20 hours from start to finish, some even less (I'm looking at you Resident Evil (12 hours) and Resident Evil 2 (6 hours!!!)). I was getting increasingly irritated at paying £2 per hour and more per game. Fair enough - some of these games, like Abe's Odyssey & Exodus are fantastic games that I could quite happily go back and play again even now.
I'd watched a friend play a bit of FF7, he had been playing for 12 hours and had hardly even scratched the surface, so off I went a bought it.
The game starts with a mercenary (you) helping a terrorist organisation. (That statement sounds like the game is some first person shooter but nothing could be further from the truth.) But then continues with probably the most in depth story of a game that I've ever player. I've never played a game where I actually really care about the characters in the same way as you would with a good book, film or TV series, rather than just keeping the game character alive so you can complete the level or game. The bit where (SPOILER)....
Graphically the game varies drastically from fantastic to quite poor. The rendered backgrounds look quite amazing, even beautiful in places. The FMV interludes are stunning for the time (1997) and still look pretty awesome today. However the in game characters are fairly blocky, but against the cool backgrounds it doesn't seem to matter.I don't even know where to start on the game play, there is just so much to do but you there are only a few times when you really feel rushed, mostly you can explore at your own pace. And explore you can, after leaving the city of Midgard (after 10-12 hours)
you have a continent and eventually a whole word to explore, also with several modes of transport including finally, if you are lucky and your breeding skills are up to it - a gold chocobo.Most of the criticism about this game is the random battles, which do occur very regularly, what these critics seem to forget is that battles give you experience and gil (money) so therefore you get more powerful. I personally think the battle system is fantastic as you can take your time and think about what you are doing - there is no rush at all on the correct setting, but the best bit is the customisation of the weapons with Materia (basically magic gems, but that's like saying a G5 Mac can work out 1+1).
Then there is the summons Materia - how many games can you summon a huge dragon (amongst other things) to come and blast the hell out of your opponent's? You want the Norse god Odin to turn up and cut you enemies in half? Then find that materia. The 12 Knights of the Round Table might just pay your adversaries a visit and each do massive damage.Going back to the beginning of this post. I've played through this game three times. The first time took me about 80 hours to complete it. The second time about 100 hours. The third time I decided that I wanted to do everything and find everything - with this game that's no easy task, getting the gold chocobo alone can take hours, but it was worth it - that took about 160 hours.
I haven't even mentioned the wonderful atmospheric music and of course Moogles!
To summarise - play it. Once you've played that then there is always:
Final Fantasy 8(PS,PC) - very good
FF9 (PS) - which I didn't really get into
FF10 (PS2) - Brilliant
FFX2(PS2) - didn't like as it seemed to move away from everything I liked about the games
FF11 (?) - haven't played - an mmorpg
FF12 (PS2) - haven't played....yet - its sitting on the shelf ready and waiting
and the previous older games FF1-6 which are available on various nintendo consoles and handhelds - SNES, GBAs, DS.
Then there is always the prequels and sequels:
The movies
- FF: Spirits Within
- FF: Advent Children (a direct sequel to FF7 - woo hoo)
Lots of other games including:
- FF: Chrystal Chronicles (several versions)
- FF: Tactics (several versions)
- FF: Chocobo Tales
- FF: Crisis Core
Note: I haven't played through FF7 for 2 or 3 years so some of the information for this post may not be 100% acurate as it was taken from memory.
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