Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII

PlayStation - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Square Publisher Square, Nintendo of America Published 1997-01-31 Platforms PlayStation, Windows Genres Exploration, Role-playing game Themes Adventure, Science Fiction Series Final Fantasy Distribution Commercial

Final Fantasy VII is a fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square and released on the PlayStation on 1997-01-31. It is the seventh game in the Final Fantasy series.

Personal

Own?	Yes. I own the US PlayStation Greatest Hits version complete in box and the Steam version. I also own the Final Fantasy VII: Official Strategy Guide
Won?	No.

I first saw this game after my friend Eric bought it for his PlayStation. I watched him play the first half hour or so and was pretty disappointed by the way it looked. I later watched him a couple other times at different points through the game, including the final battle which he won in a single round because his characters were so over-powered due to grinding. This, no doubt, colored my opinion of the game when I tried to play it myself years later after buying it in a Humble Bundle. I played about the equivalent of the first disc before becoming too bored to continue.

Review

3	4	4	5	8

Best Version: Windows

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The pre-rendered background graphics are pretty good and help alleviate the problems commonly seen with tiled backgrounds.
• The full-motion video merges seamlessly between the static game play which was a very impressive feat at the time.
• The materia magic system is original and fun. I like the idea of being able to customize the character's abilities.
• The panning camera during combat is very nice, better than a static camera.
• Limit breaks were a nice idea.
• Having the character's eyes fade last when performing a summon is a nice touch.

Bad

• The designers did a poor job of handling perspective changes when the player moves in the 3D environment. As you walk to the end of a hall, the perspective will shift and alter the direction of the D-pad, this will often cause you to walk in the wrong direction, and sometimes even back the way you came. This happens frequently enough to be annoying.
• The character design is awful. Everyone is dressed in utterly ridiculous costumes often with ridiculous hairstyles. Their shape is also awful, with legs accounting for about 2/3 of their body. Outside of close-ups they look like they're meant to be action figures with giant fists, scrawny arms, and enormous shoulders. It makes it very difficult to take the game seriously.
• The majority of the monsters are so avant-garde I have no idea what they are, which takes away any attachment. Rather than a dragon or a skeleton, you fight a spiky ball with tentacles called a "Beachplug" or an onion with a gray skirt called a "dorky face."
• Though a fan of most of Nobuo Uematsu's previous work, I'm not very impressed by the game's music. I find most of the themes to be rather repetitive and bland.
• Only the female characters are sexualized, none of the male characters. Tifa is especially bad, fighting in a halter top and a miniskirt held up by suspenders.
• I don't like having to hold down a button to run. I would prefer to hold down a button to walk, which I do far less frequently. The Sprint Shoes from FF6 would have been preferred.
• During combat, the camera sometimes focuses away from the action or moves in close behind a large monster obscuring the battle field. More effort should have been spent on preventing this.
• With the tiny arrow, and the wriggling monsters, it's often difficult to tell which enemy you're targeting during combat. I occasionally found myself attacking monsters I didn't intend to.
• I don't like how limit breaks are automatically put to the top of the combat stack. It makes it harder to plan ahead.
• Despite being ripped and having a gun for an arm, Barret is actually a really weak character.
• It's petty, but the game has terrible box art.

Ugly

• I'm unable to suspend my disbelief enough to appreciate the game world. It's always difficult to successfully merge fantasy and sci-fi. I think Final Fantasy VI pulled it off because technology was something new to the world brought about by exploiting espers, but in 7, the entire world is filled with futuristic technology, it's even widely available to the general public. There are machine guns, lasers, giant robots, cybernetic implants, and yet, for some unexplained reason, a few people still wield swords the size of couches that are far more deadly than bullets and lasers. It's obnoxiously stupid.
• So many of the special combat abilities take way too long for very little effect. Combat feels more like continually re-watching the same scenes in a bad action film rather than playing a game.
• I have little appreciation for most of the characters. Their back-stories are dull and uninspired, and I don't care if they die.

Media

Box Art

The box art for FF7 is particularly bad.

• 

  The Japanese PS1 box is just terrible. Nothing but the logo with a meteor in the background on a white box. Lame.

• 

  The North American box is a rendering of Cloud standing at the base of, I think it's the Shinra Headquarters, but I'm not sure. Cloud, as usual, looks goofy.

• 

  The EU box is just as bad as the Japanese box, and they didn't even have the artistic style to offset the logo.

• 

  The Windows box has a rendering of goofy Cloud facing away from the building. It also uses the stupid Eidos box shape which was mercifully ignored for other region and reprints.

Documentation

• 

  PS1 Manual.

Fan Art

• 

  Comic by Zac Gorman.

• 

  Zac Gorman comic about Cloud and Red XIII.

• 

  Fan art by Hans Tseng.

• 

  Fan art by Hans Tseng.

• 

  A minor plot hole.

• 

  Legit fighting armor. Fan art by Sakimichan.

Videos

Boundary Break.

Port comparison.

Longplay.

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Tifa, Aeris and Yuffie are useful party members. There are also a number of female NPCs.
Bechdel test?	Pass	When the party is female-led, talking to another female NPC passes the test.
Strong person of color character?	Pass	Barret is black and a useful party member.
Queer character?	Fail	There is a scene where Cloud pretends to be a woman, but he's straight.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Final Fantasy VII
Japanese	ファイナルファンタジー	Fainaru Fantaji VII	Final Fantasy VII

Links