Arguably the biggest game in 2020 has been Final Fantasy VII Remake. I was ready to finally play the game for the first time, however 2 of my good friends (shout out to Sabrina and Julia) recommended I play the original first and although I have yet to play the remake, I have no regrets playing the original FFVII.
FFVII by far gets the most praise by the Final Fantasy community and for good reason. The biggest thing they say is that it is ahead of its time, however I had no nostalgia holding me back as I played it for the first time in 2020. I have heard of a lot of people that missed it when it first came out, and tried to play it in the modern era, but dropped it because they couldn’t handle how the graphics looked. Now I will admit the graphics have aged pretty poorly and maybe its because I gave it the benefit of the doubt of it being a PS1 game, but I looked at it like I was playing the old school Pokémon games and I was able to adjust. The graphics for me aren’t so bad that it would put me away, but this most definitely may be hard for some people considering how good video games look nowadays.
With the original release of FFVII, the game was so massive that it had to be on multiple disks, obviously with the re-releases this is not an issue. The game will simply say you completed a disk and resume right after. However, the one thing that can be frustrating is that there are several side quests and items that you can miss if you finished a certain disk. For example, Barret has a weapon called Missing Score that can be obtained in disk 2, however if you play up to disk 3 that item is no longer available. I had used a walk-through for most of the game, so I didn’t miss too many items, but this can be incredibly frustrating if you find out later.
Like I mentioned this is originally a PS1 game and of course considering the time you expect several bugs. With the re-release of the game you would assume they got rid of the bugs. Although some of the bugs are fixed, as far as I know most of the bugs are still there. This is a complete missed opportunity and at times can cause you to rip out your hair.
Now probably the strongest point of Final Fantasy VII is the story. This game is a masterpiece in story telling in every way. The story centers around Cloud Strife (or whatever you decided to name him) with a smattering of other great characters. Each character offers something to the team and the relationship between all of them and how they develop is the strongest point. I am personally a huge fan of the relationship between Cloud and Tifa, but there are amazing relationships all throughout the team. With a heart wrenching story and a mystery involving Cloud. I truly believe that the story will keep you entertained for the entirety of the 40-hour story.
As great as the characters are, one downside to this is that half way through the game you lose one character. I don’t want to spoil too much, but unless you live under a rock you know which character this is. The reason why this can be a hindrance is that if you were unaware of this happening and you put this character in your main party only to find out this character doesn’t return it can cause you troubles later on.
As awesome as Cloud is, the hero is only as good as its villain. If you have ever played Kingdom Hearts, you know where I am going with this. Sephiroth is the bane of Cloud and from start to finish this man makes an amazing villain. Once you find out all the details regarding him it truly makes you hate him, despite him looking so cool. Sephiroth is what all gaming villains should aim to be and once you hear One Winged Angel play you know shit is going down.
Speaking of One Winged Angel, in my opinion the second-best part of Final Fantasy VII is the music. This is everything you want in a video game soundtrack. Every track in this game does its intention beautifully from the song after you finish a battle which is super satisfying, from the super calm music during the heartfelt story moments that could lull you to sleep, or the epic boss battle music that I could easily see myself bumping at the gym. Rivaling only the Zelda and Kingdom Heart series, FFVII has some of the best video game music you could ever imagine.
Next up is the combat system. Now I absolutely love this combat, because it is simple to understand, but has its own hidden complexities. The game follows a turn-based system with an ATB gauge needing to be filled to perform your next action. After every fight the characters involved will gain experience which will help them gain levels and get stronger. This is super simple, but super satisfying. FFVIII was too complicated for me until I figured it out, while FFVII was simple and enjoyable like the Pokémon series.
The second part of the combat system is the Materia system. Essentially Materia is an item that you put on a character that allows them to gain a variety of abilities which can include summons, increasing stats and using spells. This allows for vast amounts of combinations and customization to offer a ton of variety. In addition, this gives you a good reason to explore shops and defeat enemies to gain new Materia and make the optimal combination for your play-style. I really enjoyed this system because as addicting as it was to make new combinations, it is super easy to understand and doesn’t take long to learn how it works.
One of the best things that the PS4 version has are some cheats that include: no random encounters, refill health and limit break, and triple game speed. The only one I used was the triple speed, but this became super useful. As a PS1 game the process of going from walking around into a random battle can take several seconds and when the encounters are so often it can be incredibly boring just waiting and this is where the triple speed came super clutch. My gameplay clocked in at 38 hours, but if it wasn’t for the triple speed it could have been 50 or even 60 hours.
PROS
- Masterpiece in story telling
- Amazing Music
- Great Antagonist
- Easy to follow combat mechanics
- Materia System
- Mostly Great characters
- Triple Speed
CONS
- Graphics have not aged well
- A lot of missable moments due to multiple disks
- Several Bugs
- Lose a character half way through
CONSENSUS
If I was reviewing this as a game from the 90s it would easily receive a perfect score, but in 2020 I do have to take off some points for the fact that the graphics have not aged well and the fact that it has some bugs and issues, but with all that being said Final Fantasy VII is still one of the best games of all time and even today I still recommend everyone to play it.
RATING
9/10: EXCELLENT
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