The original final fantasy was released in 1987 on the NES and started a hugely popular game series that has gone from strength to strength as it has progressed but in 1997 square soft switched from Nintendo to Sony and released final fantasy 7 for the playstation and in 1998 it was re-released for pc.
The basic story of the game puts you in the roll of the EX-soldier cloud (or whatever you want to call him) who is now working as a mercenary under the employment of a terrorist group called avalanche. Avalanche basically want to stop the evil shin-ra company cloud used to work for and end up getting involved in a battle to save the world from the legendary EX-soldier sephiroth who’s only goal is to destroy the world using a massive comet after finding out about his past.
The game has nine characters (Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Red xiii, Cid, Yuffie, Vincent, Cait sith and Aeris) each with their own battle style and each has their own motives to fight against both sephiroth and the shin-ra company. These reasons as well as other aspects of each of the characters backgrounds are gradually revealed as the game progresses. As well as these characters there are many other supporting characters and enemies to add to both story and playability.
The battle system of the game is typical of the final fantasy series using the ATB (active time battle) system which allows you to give commands to you’re characters when a particular characters time bar reaches its end. You then take turns with you’re enemy to attack each other using various skills obtained by each character which makes this a very tactical game. After playing the game for some time battles may seem a little slow but luckily this can be easily solved by increasing the speed of battles in the main menu. Also you can make the battle faster by switching it to active which allows both characters and enemies to attack when ready.
Within battle you have several options to choose from which include:
- Attack, which is you’re basic attack
- Item, which is for using items for healing, attacking etc?
- Magic, which is available depending on what materia you have equipped?
Also after conditions are met you will unlock limit breaks which are special attacks unique to each character that can be anything from a devastating attack to a healing spell.
More abilities become available as you find different types of materia. This gives you magic swell as support abilities.
The soundtrack to the game is well placed and perfectly suited to the game and the backgrounds are beautifully drawn and highly creative but unfortunately this and the superb story are let down by very poor character and enemy graphics which can be easily laughed at and also there are unfortunately compatibility issues with newer systems such as xp but this should not stop anyone from enjoying a superb and game defiantly a must have for those who have a lot of free time.
