There is no doubt in my mind that
Final Fantasy VII is the greatest game ever created. Squaresoft has once
again created a masterpiece that goes beyond video games. To many, it is a work
of art. If you play FF7 to the end, you will agree.

FF7 has
a very dark and emotional story. I became attached to the characters and began
to think of them as real people. There is a mysterious ending, and as I reflected
on the final scenes that follow the credits after I won, I was overwhelmed. In
the game world, there is the belief that when one dies, his or her life is converted
into a powerful spiritual energy that flows through the world. The story begins
in Midgar, a densely populated city where a powerful corporation, Shinra Inc.,
has found a way to harness and collect the spiritual energy, taking it from the
planet to power Midgar. A fledgling organization of mercenaries from the slums
of Midgar has formed to bring an end to the Shinra ways, believing that the planet
will eventually be completely drained of spiritual energy and die. Cloud Strife,
a former Shinra soldier, is one of the mercenaries. Cloud has a questionable and
foggy past that involves his former friend, Sephiroth. Sephiroth was the greatest
soldier the planet had ever seen, and Cloud and he were good friends, but one
day Sephiroth lost his mind and disappeared. Five years later, when Cloud is searching
for another lost friend inside Shinra’s capitol building, Sephiroth suddenly reappears.
Sephiroth is not the same as when he was Cloud’s friend, however, and he is now
on a quest to bring destruction to the world. When his dream comes through, all
the spiritual energy will come together from the dead and Sephiroth will be waiting
for it. He will become a god. The intensity and complexity of the storyline of
Final Fantasy VII is the secret to its greatness. As you have probably
guessed, there is no way I am giving this story anything less than an A+. If
there were a higher category, believe me, this game would be up there!

The
gameplay consists primarily of ingredients found in other RPGs. You lead a party
of heroes through the FF7 world as you encounter and defeat enemies. The
battle scenes feature real-time action, and the graphics for the different attacks
are very well done. I definitely like the terrific backgrounds for the battles.
The graphic designers must have really spent a long time on this–there are new
ones for every small area you explore (and this is an 80-hour game). There are
also many mini-games that your characters participate in. The gameplay gets
an A.

Finally, something I can complain about in an otherwise flawless
game. Yes, the graphics are not perfect. When you’re not fighting a battle or
watching a movie clip, the characters have these weird stubby polygons for limbs,
their eyes blink but don’t move, and they don’t have much facial expression at
all. The backgrounds for all scenes, whether it be movie, battle, or regular,
are great. They are not only well-drawn, but they also set the mood of the situation
very well. You can be in the basement of an old, ominous mansion with Sephiroth
staring at you from the darkness or find yourself in a crazy amusement park where
multi-colored lights shoot out in twenty directions and giant chickens hop around.
The game designers also obviously had lots of fun with the spells you cast. As
you advance in the game, the graphics of the spells get better and better. The
movies are also excellent. This category gets a B. I would have given it
a lower grade if it weren’t for the movies, the backgrounds, and the spells.

The
music of Final Fantasy VII is very good. Every character has his own theme,
and almost every room has a different music selection that sets the mood. Sephiroth’s
theme consists of bells, a chorus of singers, and many other instruments that
merge to produce a frighteningly evil sound. Whenever I entered a room and this
theme begins to play, a shiver went up my spine and my eyes widened as Sephiroth
made his grand entrance. I also found myself snapping to the beat of hundreds
of other little tunes. The voice acting is nonexistent. The characters don’t even
move their mouths (except for movie clips) or produce sound. There is just a message
that pops up. I’m not counting too much off for this because FF7 lets you
imagine the voices of the characters. Your imagination is so much more powerful
than a recording of a voice reading the lines for you. Hand gestures are also
generously scattered throughout the conversation, enhancing it. In short, I would
much rather create my own different voices for the characters than have the computer
come up with some of its own. The sound effects were respectable. They are better
than average for this type of game, especially for the battle scenes and the movie
clips. I would have liked more of them overall, but it’s quality, not quantity,
right? I really liked the music and “voice acting,” but they could have
done better with the sound effects. It’s an A- for music, voice acting and
sound effects.

Final Fantasy VII is a very inspirational and
powerful video game that, if you win, you will never forget. I cannot stress the
level of enjoyment FF7 has brought those of us who have beaten it. Even
though the average of the category ratings comes to an A-, I am weighting them
differently. I also wrote earlier that if there was a higher grade than an A+,
it would go to the story. The story and the characters are so unique compared
to anything I’ve seen before. Sephiroth is the greatest villain I’ve ever seen
as well. He is really the perfect evildoer because he exerts evil without even
knowing it. Like Darth Vader from Star Wars, Sephiroth knows no good. His
strength towers above all else on the planet and so you begin to realize that
Sephiroth can kill you whenever he wants. I also believe that the game designers
intentionally made it so that Sephiroth hardly ever looks at the “camera.”
He always looks just to the side of it. When his eyes rarely do flicker over the
screen and into your eyes, it is for that one instant that he suddenly reveals
an evil smile. As he glances down at you in the game, it really begins to feel
like he knows you are there. This game was made to showcase its beautifully conceived
story, but more specifically, it was created as a world for Sephiroth’s character
to inhabit.

Throughout the game, I experienced a wide range of emotions.
I felt frightened, I felt tragic loss, and I felt triumphant as I encountered
an enchanting tale of life in the world of Final Fantasy. One of the greatest
games ever made, Final Fantasy VII can receive no less than an A+ overall.
I truly believe it is the greatest game I will ever play.

Overall
Grade: A+

PC System Requirements:
166+ MHz Pentium (for non-3D accelerator)
133+ MHz Pentium (for 3D accelerator)

32+ MB of RAM
4X CD-ROM drive
DirectX 5.0 compatible sound and video card
(DirectX 5.0 is included)
260 MB minimum of free hard drive space (minimum
installation)