Retro game review: Final Fantasy VII

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If we are talking about retro games, Final Fantasy VII is one of the best that I have ever tried without a doubt. It is a role-playing game that was released in the video game market on January 31, 1997 for the PlayStation digital platform. The game was developed by Square. The plot of the game is about a group of mercenaries who try to take over the Shinra Corporation that although we think they are the good guys of the story because when we read the word mercenaries we imagine the worst but it is not so, since this group tries to prevent this cooperation to continue using humanity as a source of energy. Personally I am a fan of role playing games because strategy is always very important and in many of this game you not only need to be a good player but with a good level of intelligence to put together the strategy and do what is most convenient at a given time. This game received good reviews at the time by companies specializing in this and as a player I can tell you that this game was a good success, which is why I decided to tell you more about it.

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Story

The story of Final Fantasy VII begins with Cloud joining AVALANCHA, led by Barret, whose mission is to prevent Shinra from draining the planet's Life Stream in a series of raids on the Mako reactors around the city of Midgar. Although the first mission is successful, AVALANCHA is trapped in another reactor during the second assault. The reactor explodes, throwing Cloud from the lower levels of Midgar into the suburbs. He lands in a flower zone, inside a church, where he is formally introduced to Aeris. Prompted by the arrival of Shinra's Turks, sent to capture Aeris, Cloud agrees to be Aeris' bodyguard and defends her from the Turks. After meeting with Tifa, also a member of AVALANCHA, in Sector 7, they infiltrate the mansion of Sector 6 crime leader Don Corneo. The group learns that Shinra has discovered the location of AVALANCHA's hideout and plans to collapse Sector 7's upper platform in the suburbs.23 Shinra destroys Sector 7, killing its population and three AVALANCHA members. The Turks capture Aeris, after it is revealed that she is the last survivor of the "Cetra", (also called Elders) a race closely attuned to the planet, and previously thought to be extinct. The president of Shinra believes Aeris can lead him to the "Promised Land", a mythical land of fertility, where he hopes to find abundant Mako energy.
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As for the gameplay the player must choose a character which the main character is Cloud Strife which will be accompanied by a group of companions that this case and are usually Tifa and Barret. The game is about battles that when won by the player he gets some rewards for it, which is usually experience to increase the level of the characters and this makes it more and more difficult the journey through the game. In addition to experience, the player gets a number of resources that will be very useful when it comes to go through the scenarios and go confronting the enemies that we find. Players have available weapons, as well as certain skills that the characters may have, in this case magic that can be used both defensively and offensively to defeat the opponent.

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The combat system of this game is simple to understand because it is like the usual role-playing games, where the player must face one or more enemies, accompanied by some allies that in this case are usually two more than our protagonist. The fights are turn-based, which is usual in role-playing games, and as I mentioned before, it is simple, where the player has to dedicate himself to having fun and trying to understand each of the details in order to be a real hero to complete the objective of the game. Although sometimes we are very demanding with the games, in general I can say that the game is quite good in terms of gameplay as the retro games were characterized by this and not the current ones that focus more on the graphics and sound, which of course these two aspects mentioned are very important when living a good experience or not in a game, but I think the gameplay is a more relevant point.

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Graphically this game was a real beauty at the time. The animations were very nice for the type and year in which the game was released, as well as the different scenarios that we visit in the game that are very well worked and with good details that give a plus to this game. The visual effects if that did not please me so much because it lacks this in many aspects but I think you can not ask much to games of 90, however many of those games if they are really good for that time. The lighting in the game is very good, I think they did a good job. The fluidity of the game was also good, in addition to the truth is that I noticed very few errors, although in games this is always common and more for that time. One of the facts that really impressed me and I did not know is that this game was the first to use three-dimensional graphics, where the characters were rendered on prerendered scenery. This last fact was obtained from the Source . The graphic section is the strongest point that we can find in Final Fantasy VII.

The sound is something if I was quite disappointed because it lacks details such as voices in the characters, plus the sound effects are nothing special. The soundtrack is also disappointing very always as we can get bored of it by the lack of variety in the musical themes and lacks a plus to this so that players we train a little more and thus spend many hours in this game.

Other sound data:

The music for Final Fantasy VII was composed, arranged and produced by Nobuo Uematsu. Instead of using music and sound effects recorded for the game, Uematsu opted for PlayStation's sequenced sound format (similar to MIDI), using PlayStation's internal sound chip.8Final Fantasy VII was the second game in the saga (after Final Fantasy VI) to include a track with digitized voices; in the theme "One-Winged Angel", which has been noted as Uematsu's "most recognizable contribution" to the music of the Final Fantasy saga. Uematsu confessed that the soundtrack has a feeling of "realism" that suggested him not to abuse in the inclusion of melodies that moved away from that atmosphere.
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In conclusion I can tell you that this game is good and entertaining, the gameplay is easy to understand and the difficulty increases as the player increases the experience. The game has a good narrative at least for my taste that I am not a demanding in this aspect. The graphics are really good and more considering the time in which the game was released. The sound is the disappointment of the game as it is quite basic for my taste. Anyway, this is a very fun game, for those who are lovers of retro video games where we can live an excellent experience. For the above mentioned in each of the aspects touched in this publication is that I give a 9 to the gameplay, a 9.5 to the graphics and a 6 to the sound because it is not more than correct.

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For all the above, I give a 8.2 out of 10 to Final Fantasy VII. It is always important to remember that my reviews and ratings are from the point of view of a normal user or gamer and not a professional videogame critic.

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