Final Fantasy VII Review

[agent0042]

Nice review, Bob. While I don't personally agree that VII is the best FF title, I thought your points were generally solid.

There's something I'd like to talk about, and it's the PC version of the game, which you didn't mention at all, and which I really think deserves coverage.

1. You talked a lot about the issues related to the script, i.e. errors such as "Off Course" or "This guy are sick." Well, taken care of in the PC version:



2. Graphically, the PC version is superior, especially if you're running it on hardware version. Unfortunately, it's no longer compatible with many newer systems. I run it in XP using a virtual machine.

3. The PC version is a lot easier to manipulate. You can easily edit savefiles, trade savefiles with other players and it's even possible to hack it to be able to save the game anywhere, something I really like.


On the whole, the PC version is a great port. It's a shame it doesn't get more attention.



One other thing: Have you ever noticed that this is by far the most "mature" of any Final Fantasy title. You did mention the profanity, but some of it is so blatant, I was a bit surprised it managed to escape a Mature rating:

- References to cutting off a male's genitals and other sexual references
- Alcohol content and chain-smoking
- A character cross-dressing and entering a very... um... questionable establishment


Heh heh, yeah. Definitely not a kids game.


Oh, and good on ya' about Aeris's name. Yeah, she's Aeris. Changing it to "Aerith" was just dumb.

[Bob]

I'm glad that the PC version corrected things. I haven't played that version and I'm trying to review all of the games on their original platforms, hence why it was left out, but glad to hear your take on the PC version.

Yeah, it's definitely the most mature FF out there. My nephew and niece (ages umm...let's say 11 and 8; that sounds right) played through FFX at my wife and my insistence and really liked it. So then one day they saw me playing FF7 (chocobo racing) and were like "WHOA! I wanna play that!" So when they were looking for a new FF to start, they both wanted that one. To which I say "Nope, not happening. Not until you're older. Your mom would kill me." I wanted to find my ultimate game to just let them race some chocobos, since that's all they really seem to care about, but I think that game is on a memory card that can't be read by the PS2, so no-go there... Now they're playing FF9. I'm okay with that.

And glad to hear that other people out there support Aeris > Aerith. Aeris is not only the name given to her in the original game, but Aerith sounds stupid. It sounds like the name of some demon from Buffy or Angel.

[agent0042]

I often refer to her as Aeris/th, simply for giggles.

[Bob]

I'd hate to see anybody around you NOT get spit on them if you ever talked about her possessively. "Who's rod is that?" "Oh, it's Aeris/th's."

[countlieberkuhn]

A good review! Personally my favourite of the FF series, even though it's not cool these days The typos and translation errors are bad, but I like that. It adds to the more retro appeal of it.

The story is the deepest and most interesting of the FF games in my opinion, with a ton of backstory behind it - what I especially like is that many of the details of the story about Sephiroth and Jenova are implied, and only certain pieces of the puzzle given. Enough for the player to be able to fill in the gaps themselves, without requiring them to explicitly be told what's going on. I'm not including the later spin-offs in this backstory thing btw.

But most of all, I like the music. I could go on all day about FF7's music, and to this day I don't think I've ever heard a better marriage of music to a game's atmosphere. I could write an essay on how perfect it is. And those synthesized, male choir sounds that are used on a couple of the slow, foreboding, heartbeat-pulse tracks in the game are really hair raising. If they were real choir samples, I don't think it would have been nearly as scary. In fact, the same goes for most of the music in this game - the MIDI tracks used seem far more effective than using real instruments or samples, I imagine.

Speaking of MIDI, I tried the FF7 PC version once, and am I right in remembering that the music is played as MIDI through the sound card, resulting in a different sound quality? I'm pretty sure that it sounded quite smooth and glossy when I tried it on my computer, since I've got a pretty decent sound card for my music recording purposes.

[agent0042]

Bob - ROTFL. I meant that I often refer to her that way on message boards!

Oh, and I think I've mentioned this before, but for the record, my favorite Final Fantasy title is IX.


Regarding the music - yeah, I like this game's soundtrack too. In fact, this is one of the few FF titles, where I think that there are just one or two, if any, pieces of music that I dislike. And, count, yes, that's correct. The PC version is all MIDI and some of the tracks do sound different. Being familiar with both versions, I find that I prefer certain tracks on the Playstation, and others on the PC in MIDI.

[Bob]

Yeah, I only touched on the music in my review, but as I said, that ambiance that the music creates in that game is INTENSE. I love the first time you get to Shin-Ra HQ and like, you've heard the Shin-Ra theme before, but now that you're there it's like "Holy fuck. I'm doomed."

Shin-Ra HQ is the same as Magus's Castle in Chrono Trigger. Both are excellently scary and get your heart racing because they've been talked up so much. "I'm breaking into SHIN-RA!? Am I a dumbass or what!?" "MAGUS!? The guy that's slaughtering everybody in 600 A.D.!?"

But yeah, between Shin-Ra, Turks, and Sephiroth (plus so much more), that music is really intense. It knows how to make you squirm as an RPG player, especially your first time when the Turks are hard. Later it's like "Bah, Turks. No prob."

Speaking of Turks, I'm reminded of Reno on the pillar with that intense "hurry" music they play (sorry, I don't know music track titles; I could sing it, but alas: text). But tell me that music doesn't make you rush. I even go into my menu screen in a hurry! "GAH! CURE! CURE! No time to change materia! I'll do it later! We'll make it!"