For those that have never played this ground-breaking game, you are truly missing out on a treat. The game has just the right amount of seriousness, a pinch of humor, a hint of a love story, and a large dose of action.
The game follows Cloud Strife, an ex-member of the elite Shinra guard know as SOLDIER. You meet up with him in the City of Midgar, where he is working for a mercenary and has been hired by a group called AVALANCHE, a supposed eco-terrorist group run by a one-armed man named Barret (who apparently suffers from a bad Mr. T complex), and hidden in the basement of a bar owned by a woman named Tifa, who is a childhood friend of Clouds from the town of Niblehiem. The group is trying to stop the Shinra Corperation from damaging the planet with it's giant Mako reactors.
Along the way, the small group of Cloud, Barret, and Tifa, is joined by a flower-selling girl named Aeris (or Aerith in the Japanese version), a failed Shinra experiment dog-like creature named Red XIII (13), a foul mouthed pilot named Cid (for some reason there is one in every FF game., wierd ain't it?), and a remote controled puppet named Caitsith. You also have the option of allowing two other characters to join your party, if you can find them, that is.
The gameplay is quite simple to understand, and the materia system, in my opinion, is unbeatable (especially if you know a few materia combos. Wink, wink). I strongly suggest that any RPG fan out there that hasn't tried this game, do so. It may one day save your life.
Controls: 9
Story: 10
Graphics: 7
