01/21/02
Final Fantasy 7
  
    (Once again) You must control a group of rebels to save the planet from an evil 
Empire (or in this case an evil corporation) and the "true villain" that lies beyond. 
Quite a few less characters than the previous Final Fantasy (FF6 duh), and the first 
time a Final Fantasy game has had true FMV cut scenes. This game is quite a change 
for the series. Also it's the first time a Final Fantasy game has been made for a non 
Nintendo system (the PSX) and the first time there's been one playable on the PC 
(emulation excluded).
  
    The major change here is the graphics. Now we get 3D environments and characters 
instead of sprites and 2D boards. The series makes the transition from 2D overhead 
with sprites to 3D very well. Instead of always looking straight down you'll sometimes 
walk towards or away from the screen down hallways, or have to wind around spiraling 
paths that cross over above one another, or climb up walls and fallen wreckage to get 
where you're going. This is all done by adding 3D polygon 'sprites' over pre rendered 
backgrounds. The backgrounds look great, but it sometimes feels like your characters 
need to lay off their spinach a bit if you catch my drift. The battles use more 
realistically shaped characters than the world map however, and move about in three 
dimensions as you cast spells or attack very nicely. Your characters still line up 
together facing the enemy, but now the camera changes through out the battle and they 
jump right up to the enemies when necessary to attack them instead of the traditional, 
"Let's do damage with the force of the wind created by waving our weapons at them. 
The magic effects are pretty flashy most of the time, but sometimes get old really 
fast when cast in large numbers. The "Knights of Round" summon takes a good couple of 
minutes each time you cast it, which looks cool the first few times but later tends 
to make the game drag on. The FMV CG is occasionally blended in to the actual game 
play, but often times it is shown with a scene jump. The FMV CG looks nice however.
  
    With all these CDs and all this great new technology, why are we still using text 
boxes when it's so easy to add voice? Even if it were just for crucial scenes, ala 
Lunar (which is a game that also proves it's not hard to find GOOD voice actors for 
games). That's about the biggest killer of the sound category. The music is pretty 
nice I suppose, but unless you can manage to get it configured properly you'll just 
get really ugly midi sound (on the PC version anyway). In fact, you'll get midi 
anyway, but if you have a good soundcard you get some synthesis action where the midi 
actually sounds like something other than computer blips. The sound effects are pretty 
mediocre, just standard sword jabs and what not. The FMV sound is ok, just not really 
enough. The game also lacks any sort of ambient noise. Which is something that can 
really give some nice mood setting.
  
    Gameplay in this game is great though, I don't think I stopped playing this game 
when I finally got it for PC, and I'd already beaten it once already on my friends 
PSX version. Also as for non stop playing, I played this game like 2 days straight 
till I beat it when I borrowed my friends PSX and FF7. Though I guess that may make 
you think it's short, but I was hurrying so I could give my friend back his PSX. 
Anyway, the plot is pretty good, though can be sort of confusing if you miss a few 
points. I've seen some really weird questions about the plot that made me thing "How 
did they come to THAT conclusion?" Anyway, the story is good, so that's a plus. The 
battles are pretty fast paced as long as you lay off the heavy summon spells. There 
are several mini games you play to advance the plot then can replay in the game's 
casino area such as Sub battles, Snowboarding, and a motorcycle chase. Also there are 
things like Chocobo raising to give some added play.
  
    Overall this game is pretty fun. I'd say the PSX version is definitely a bit more 
stable. The PC version has trouble lining up the FMV visuals and sounds for some reason. 
Basically its full of bugs, nice quality control there Square. I'd still recommend this 
game. It is fun to play with a wide cast of characters.