First, let me say that there are bound to be people disagreeing with me here, most especially the fact that many retro FF fans consider this game to be overrated. Some even go as far as to calling it the worst Final Fantasy game ever. I won't argue about what they think and if you don't like FFVII, fine by me. I shouldn't be too bothered.

Anyway, what made this game so big was itself being the first 3D Final Fantasy game in the series as well as its debut to the Playstation. The storyline, the characters, the music, pretty much everything made this such a well known game. Of course, with it being so well known, like I said before, there's bound to be people calling it overrated and it's fine. This game won't please everyone, but it sure made the majority happy.

What I didn't like:

*** Useless items ***

Seriously, what was the point of items such as Tissue, 1/35 Soldier and Super Sweeper? The only thing they seemed to have done was spread hundreds of rumours, even though the FFVII rumour site I found is pretty interesting.

What I liked

*** It's the first FF game I ever played ***

Funny, I was wanting to get FFVIII when I heard about it. This was back in 1999 and when I asked for it for Christmas, my dad got me FFVII instead, simply because I didn't have any other games in the series, so he took the earliest release he could get me for the PS1. One of the very few moments where I'm glad my dad got me something else instead of what I actually wanted.

*** Superb characters ***

The main characters in this game were an odd bunch. You have Cloud with a massive sword, Barret with a machine gun on his arm, Aeris the flower girl, Red XIII the wolf-like beast and Cait Sith who's a cat riding on a fat Moogle toy. All the characters in this game are awesome and they all have their own backstory, so you get to know them all.

*** Astonishing storyline ***

Of course, this is one to talk about. At the start, you play as Cloud and as the newest member of AVALANCHE, you and the others are plotting to destroy all the Mako Reactors in Midgar starting with Sector 1. This kept me interested since they were terrorising Midgar and I wondered what Shinra were going to do with them. Along the way, Shinra became more and more of a nuisance to AVALANCHE and even resorted to blowing up a whole town of theirs just to try and get rid of them.

The other key part of the storyline is going after Sephiroth. The first thing he does in the game is killing several people including President Shinra in the Headquarters. After leaving Midgar, you hear Sephiroth's backstory and the game focuses more and more on Sephiroth as it progresses while Shinra persist to get in your way. As Sephiroth caused more chaos to the world, kills Aeris and summons meteor to the world, you'll then want to kick his ass once and for all.

Along with the storyline, many smaller events happen in the game. One of the greater examples are what Cloud says to certain characters, which affect the dating scene at the near-end of disc 1. All who have played FFVII should know you either have a date with Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie...Or even Barret. Most of the time, I get Aeris, but sometimes, I do my best to be nasty to her and hope I get someone else.

I was very impressed with the storyline overall and it kept me hooked until the very end.

*** Soundtrack = Masterpience ***

The music sets the mood for the whole game from start to finish. When I heard the Bombing Mission track for the first time, I knew there was a mission to be taken care of as soon as I started playing. Other great examples of how well done the soundtrack for this game are when you enter the world map and hear the main theme of FFVII and the world map music for when meteor is summoned. The former gives you a great feel of the overworld, while the latter gives you that "This world is doomed!" mood. Another great moody track is Anxious Heart. This really gives out a depressing feel of the game and makes you aware that the town has had a dark past and/or you're coming towards a tragic event. The perfect example for that would be when Aeris is about to die.

I could go on for days on how awesome the soundtrack is, but I'd like to mention Hurry, Shinra Company, Cait Sith's theme, Those Chosen by the Planet and of course, One Winged Angel. Hurry gets me to concentrate on the situation and try and escape from trouble. Shinra Company has that evil corporative feel and I think it's so great, it should be the theme tune for the government and companies such as Viacom, Microsoft and AOL. Cait Sith's theme has a shady feel and warns you that the character might turn your back on you later on. Those Chosen by the Planet screams "Fear me, mortals!" whenever you see Sephiroth and One Winged Angel, it's epic! It's a great choice for the final battle and just like Those Chosen by the Planet, it has a fearsome feeling.

Overall for the soundtrack, it was done extremely well and is certainly in my top 3 for FF soundtracks, but where I'd rank it exactly is for another story.

*** Materia system ***

As usual, Square find ways to make each Final Fantasy game different to each other and this is no exception. The materia system was a whole new way for the characters to learn new abilities, although if they unequipped a certain materia, they will lose those abilities. Despite that, I still find it to be a nice and unique way to learn abilities in this game.

*** Limit Breaks ***

Kind of like the Desperation Attack in FFVI, except Limit Breaks were explained better and were used more often. I just love the idea of getting attacked by the enemies and then let the character go "THAT DOES IT! TIME TO DIE YOU BASTARDS!!" Of course, you don't have to use the Limit Break right away. You can use it whenever you feel like it and that's convenient for when you're about to face a boss. The only problem with Limit Break is if you've got it, you cannot use "Attack" until you use your Limit Break, but I can easily get over that if I just focus on Magic and Summons instead.

*** Humour value ***

I thought there were several humourous moments in FFVII, such as when Barret uppercuts Biggs in the air in Tifa's bar, Barret's and Cid's extreme vulgar language (so bad that they had to censor most of the swearing, lol) and Palmer getting hit by a truck after fighting your characters. There were a few other funny moments in this game as well.

*** Gold Saucer ***

The Gold Saucer is part of the main plot, but to me, it's more of a sidequest considering the amount of things that can be done there. There were so many things to do in the Gold Saucer such as playing the Mog House story game, getting many Battle Points in the Battle Square for Omnislash Limit Break and W-Summon materia, playing the Snowboard, Submarine and Motorcycle mini-games which you also play in the main plot, trying to kick everyone's ass in 3D Battler, obtaining as many points as possible on the Speed Square rollercoaster, and so fourth. It feels like endless amount of fun and that's what a theme park is supposed to be.

*** Chocobos ***

Chocobos were vital to parts of the game, most especially using one to get across the Marsh where Midgar Zolom lives and to get the Gold Chocobo to travel to the cave where Knights of the Round materia lies. Of course, you don't get the Gold Chocobo at the click of your fingers, so you go and work your way to catch the right chocobos, feed them, race them and breed them with the right nuts so you get the right Chocobo colour. It takes some time, but the whole process is fun, except for having to wait for other Chocobos in races. That I find pretty annoying.

*** Emerald and Ruby Weapon ***

Who here remembers the first time they encountered these weapons and thought, "What the fuck just happened?! They wiped out my characters with ease!"? I certainly thought that when I first saw them two. I was never able to defeat them until one time when I started again, I was determined to beat those motherfuckers no matter what. I spent hours raising my main three characters (Cloud, Barret and Cid) and one attempt to beat Emerald Weapon, I did it! I was overjoyed when I saw it dying since I found it to be such a hard ass boss and defeating it felt so satisfying. Same day, I defeated Ruby Weapon and was even more satisfied then.

Unfortunately, Emerald and Ruby are rather easy to beat these days considering the amount of ways to beat them without breaking a sweat and the fact that there are even tougher bosses such as Penance from FFX and Yiazmat from FFXII. However, back in the days, we all saw them as a big challenge.

Extra notes

- There are actually some things I've yet to do in FFVII and the main ones are seeing the dating sequences with Yuffie and Barret. I'm pretty sure there's a few other scenes I've yet to see in this game, but I've covered most of it.

- FFVII became so popular, that it spawned several prequels/sequels and I believe there's now too much. Just one would have been enough for me, although I have to admit, as much as it was cool to see a movie based on this game, I felt Advent Children added nothing to the FFVII universe. I remember Kadaj wanting to reborn Sephiroth, but that just resulted in a 5 - 10 minute battle between Cloud and Sephiroth. I didn't really like the idea of bringing Sephiroth back to life in this film. However, what I did like about Advent Children were the action sequences and the voice acting. Sadly, the disappointing plot brought the film down.

- If you're interested in the rumour site I mentioned earlier on, have a look at the Turks' Alliance. It's an old site, but if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend having a look to see what weird shit people came up with.

- FFVII glitches such as this one look fun!

- All the FFVII fanboys/girls keep talking about a remake for this game and I wouldn't mind a remake myself, although for nostalgia purposes, I'll take the original version over the remake any day. One of the reasons why I'd like to see a remake is because at some points in the game, I struggle to tell what some of the characters are doing and I'll sometimes get the wrong assumptions as to what they were doing. Also, if they were to remake this game, I would like to see some extras added just like what they've done with the other remakes. However, don't expect Square to remake VII until they've remade V and VI first.

Overall: Like I said, it's the first FF game I ever played and because of how much I enjoy the plot, the sidequests, the music..EVERYTHING, this is why FFVII is #1 on my list. Of course, it won't be #1 for everyone else, but this is my favourite game of all time. It made a huge impact on my gaming interests and I'm very grateful I played this game first before getting the other games.

One last thing, I like to thank Square for moving this game to the Playstation rather than the original idea of it being for the Nintendo 64. I don't have anything against the N64, but if Final Fantasy never moved to the Playstation, I may not be into these games right now. Once again, thank you Square! And a big thank you to Hironobu Sakaguchi for creating the Final Fantasy franchise and going beyond the first and intentionally final FF game you or Square ever make. I still find it a shame that you're no longer with Square, but eh, what can I do? Good luck on your future projects Sakaguchi.

Comments disabled | Share this!