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Welcome Back to another review on the golden gems of gaming! A comprehensive review on games that you might have missed and should go back to play!
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Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 7 was my introduction into the Final Fantasy series. This is a turn based Rpg game set in a steampunk futuristic type of world with turn based combat and a leveling up system based upon experience, much like other JRPG games. This game is a cherished game in my childhood and i decided to revisit it for the sake of this review. I played about 6 hours worth of the game and I felt that was long enough to make a good analysis. Lets jump right in. Take a look at some gameplay footage from this gem:
Story.
The story throws you in as the character named Cloud. You just joined an anti government group set to destroy a reactor. These reactors are killing the planet and you guys plan to blow it up. We later find out that the city is a 2 story plate system. The rich and luxorious are on the top plates, and the poor and needy on the bottom plates. The government is slowly dropping the top plates on top of the bottom plates, thus killing all of the people below. This games story is amazing. You will be in heart wrenching tears at some times, other times you will be in suspense.. it really has a deeply woven story and lore to it. You will learn all about their world and the people that inhabit it. It truly gives you immersion like no other game from its time. I must say the story is really really good in this one. It kept me engaged the entire time and I never got bored with it.
Graphics.
This game gave me something that I had never seen before. A fully 3D feeling world with 3D rendered backgrounds. This made the graphics look EXTRA prestigious for the time. It truly was remarkable to see the cut scenes for the first time. I was blown away.
As for todays standards the graphics are shit ... they hardly hold up to anything modern... and they fell inbetween when it comes to SNES graphics that were polished and a good 3D look that was smooth. All the characters are polygons and they have no mouths. Very odd basic shapes used in their general models and not a whole lot of detail. You tend to see this often with ps1 games. They got it right for the Ps2. Even still the game is playable today, and I still had a blast.
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Soundtrack.
The music in this game touches my soul. It really does. From the very first sound clips you hear in the game to the very end. This was a soundtrack that I cant get tired of. The Shinra theme song has such an omonious tone to it.. and the battle song will ring in my mind forever. They did a fantastic job with this soundtrack and I would listen to it on its own simply for nostalgia sake. You can check out the remastered soundtrack for the game here:
Controls/mechanics
As far as todays standards, the controls are a bit stiff. This game used the 4 way directional pad and your basic layout for a playstation controller, although not all the buttons are even used really. I also found that in a lot of places in the game... I had no idea if my character could enter them or not... The game doesnt give you a really good sense of where you are supposed to go, so I would just bump walls until I found new areas. This might be a turn off for new players of the game.
Replay value.
The game actually entertained me even still this many years later. I picked it up and felt at home. The story is quite linear so I remember the core of the story, but there was sooo much detail put into the lore of this game that it was impossible to remember everything that happened. There was so much charm that this game offers that I had forgotten about.
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OVERALL SCORE: 9/10 ONE OF THE BEST RPG GAMES I'VE PLAYED TO DATE.
All in all this game is really a beloved game by many, but its a true classic in my opinion. This game will always be one that I re visit in the future and will always be on my top 10 best games of all time. I definitely recommend you give it a try, original copies can get expensive but trust me its worth it. Grab a copy if you can. I hope you enjoyed this review on the golden gems of gaming daily!