Final Fantasy VII Review - DetroitOtaku Reviews

Today, I will try to stop being lazy and add some spice to my Minds page. For now, I plan to post some game reviews once a week.

For my first game review on Minds, I will start off with reviewing the most popular entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy VII, which came out on the PlayStation in 1997, and was recently released on Nintendo and Microsoft platforms for the first time ever in 2019. As you all know, I made an article explaining in detail why Final Fantasy VII is NOT a Socialist fever dream, and that it is the exact opposite of one. I explained in detail how Shinra has a lot more in common with Socialists and environmentalists than you've been led to believe, and that it is an attempt by the woke to demoralize us. 

But enough about that, let's talk about Final Fantasy VII, and see if it's still held up today.

The Plot

Final Fantasy VII takes place in the near-distant future on the planet Gaia, a planet that lives on a spiritual energy source called the Lifestream. It’s processed form is called “Mako.” During the plot of the game, Gaia’s Lifestream is being drained for different sources of energy such as electricity by the Shinra Electric Power Company, a megacorporation that acts as a one-world government, which is located in the city of Midgar. Shinra’s draining of the Lifestream threatens the very future of the planet, as it is very likely it could end all life on the planet as well as destroy it.

FFVII follows the story of Cloud Strife, a mercenary who claims to have been a member of SOLDIER, Shinra’s military division. At the start of the game, he works for an Eco-terrorist group called AVALANCHE that is plotting to take down Shinra. Cloud works with two of its' members – Barret Wallace, an ex-coal miner who lost his job and livelihood due to Shinra, and Tifa Lockhart, a young martial artist who is also Cloud’s childhood friend. Together, they perform a successful bombing operation of a Shinra Mako reactor in Midgar. However, the next day, they are ambushed by Shinra troops on their next bombing run, and Cloud falls down to the slums of Midgar, located underneath the main city. Cloud then wakes up inside of a church, where he meets Aerith Gainsborough, a lonely young flower merchant. Shortly after the two of them meet, the Turks – a group of spies who work for Shinra, attack both Cloud and Aerith, but the two of them manage to fend them off and escape.

While Cloud and Aerith are trying to track down the other AVALANCHE members, Shinra tracks down AVALANCHE’s headquarters, and collapses part of upper Midgar, killing most of the AVALANCHE members as well as the population living in the Sector 7 slums. Aerith is then captured by SOLDIER, the reason being that she is one of the last surviving Cetra, who are ancient beings that once roamed Gaia, and Shinra believes that she can lead them to the “Promised Land” – an unknown area of Gaia that is supposedly overflowing with Mako. Cloud, Barret and Tifa go to Shinra HQ and rescue Aerith, but they are also captured after encountering a powerful lifeform called “Jenova”. Shortly after they are captured, their prison cell suddenly opens, and they find out that Shinra’s President has been murdered. They find a katana in the president’s body, and the group learns that this was the work of Sephiroth, a former member of SOLDIER who was presumed dead. The group then escapes Midgar, and they are joined by Red XIII – a member of an unnamed feline species that is part of a tribe that protects the planet and also have the ability to speak. As the story progresses, we learn more about each character's background, particularly that of Barret, who was a coal miner in the town of North Corel who lost his job due to Shinra forcing the town to abandon coal and switch to Mako.

While searching all over Gaia for Sephiroth, Cloud and his group are then joined by Cait Sith – a robotic cat controlled by rogue Turk member Reeve Tuesti, Cid Highwind, a pilot who dreams of becoming an astronaut, Yuffie Kisaragi, a young ninja and Materia thief, and Vincent Valentine, an ex-Turk and a victim of Shinra’s experiments. They eventually find Sephiroth at a Cetra temple, and he reveals his ultimate scheme – he plans on using the Black Materia to summon “Meteor” – a spell that will completely destroy Gaia with a meteorite strike.

The Gameplay

Final Fantasy VII has gameplay that is similar to that of previous Final Fantasy games. Enemy encounters are random. The Active Time Battle system that was first introduced in Final Fantasy IV is also present in VII as well. When a character’s turn comes up, you can input a command for that character. Also, your characters’ commands will change as the game progresses, and will also change depending on the equipment you choose. Commands include attacking with your equipped weapon, using magic, summoning monsters, using non-magical materia attacks, as well as items. New to this game are Limit Breaks, where your characters can perform a special attack once a gauge is filled by enemy attacks.

Like previous Final Fantasy games, VII has an open world to explore. In the open world, you can visit towns, battle enemies, visit dungeons and caverns, take on side quests, and save your game.

Another addition to this Final Fantasy game is the use of orbs called Materia. Materia is made from Mako, the planet’s energy. You equip Materia in the slots provided by the weapons and armor you equip your characters with, and the number of slots will vary depending on the equipment. Materia is added to your equipment to provide new magic and summoning spells, different commands for things like physical attacks, statistical upgrades, etc. As your characters level up, the Materia that you equip your characters with also level up to become more powerful. You can also combine different kinds of Materia to create different effects and commands. It has many similarities with the job system in Final Fantasy III and V.

The Characters

• All character pictures are courtesy of the Final Fantasy Wiki

Cloud Strife – Age: 21 – Cloud is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. He was originally a member of Shinra's SOLDIER division, where he was part of their 1st Class. Cloud now works as a mercenary-for-hire and decides to take on the job of destroying Shinra’s Mako reactors in Midgar with AVALANCHE. After meeting Aerith, as well as learning about Shinra’s true ambitions and Sephiroth, he decides to join the remaining members of AVALANCHE in their quest.

Aerith Gainsborough – Age: 22 – Aerith is the fourth main protagonist of FFVII. She is a mysterious flower merchant who lives in the slums of Midgar with her adoptive mother. She is one of the last Cetra – ancient beings who wield devastating magical powers. As a result, Shinra has been hunting her down because they believe that she will lead them to the “Promised Land” – an area of Gaia that is supposedly overflowing with an endless supply of Mako. She decides to join Cloud considering that they are both targeted by Shinra and Sephiroth, and during their journey, she becomes very flirtatious with him and gets more involved in the deepening love triangle between her, Cloud and Tifa.

Tifa Lockhart – Age: 20 – Tifa is the secondary protagonist of FFVII. She is Cloud’s childhood friend. She is part of AVALANCHE, and she also worked as a bartender in the slums of Midgar before Shinra dropped part of the upper city on the area where AVALANCHE was stationed. Tifa is also a highly skilled martial artist. Though she has feelings for Cloud, she is unwilling to confess to him, and ends up getting herself involved in a love triangle between her, Cloud and Aerith. 

Barret Wallace – Age: 35 – Barret is the third main protagonist of FFVII. He is leader of AVALANCHE, and a former coal miner. He began fighting Shinra when they forced his home town of Corel to abandon coal and embrace Mako, which cost him his job. He also wants to take Shinra down due to the fact that his hometown was destroyed by SOLDIER, who also murdered his wife. He also has an adopted young daughter named Marlene, who also survived the assault by SOLDIER on Barret’s hometown. Barret also lost his right hand during the attack, and replaced it with a “Gun-arm”, which can be equipped with various types of weapons like machine guns, explosive cannons, other physical weapons, etc.

Red XIII (aka. Nanaki) – Age: 48 – Nanaki is the fifth playable character in FFVII. He is a member of a powerful feline species that also has the ability to speak. He joins Cloud’s team after he was experimented on by Shinra’s mad scientist, Hojo, who attempted to breed him and Aerith together, as he considered the both of them to be endangered species and wanted to preserve them.

Cid Highwind – Age: 32 – Cid is a highly skilled pilot, mechanic and technical scientist who dreams of being an astronaut. He and his wife Shera were part of Shinra’s new space program. However, his dreams were crushed when his wife was trying to fix one of oxygen tanks just minutes before the launch, and he aborted the launch at the last second in order to save her life. Because of this, Cid became incredibly frustrated and he verbally abuses his wife on a daily basis because of her concerns over the oxygen tank. He is also a very heavy smoker, and this is probably due to his anger over losing his chance to go into space. He calls Cloud and his group a bunch of numbskulls for fighting against Shinra, but he likes the idea and eventually joins them when Shinra tries to confiscate his airplane.

Cait Sith – Cait Sith is a robotic cat that has the ability to talk. He rides on the back of an unnamed robotic moogle. He can be rebuilt and replaced. He is controlled by rogue Turk spy Reeve Tuesti, who intended to infiltrate Cloud's group to sabotage their efforts. However, he eventually betrays Shinra and decides to help Cloud's group fight Shinra as well as Sephiroth.

Yuffie Kisaragi – Age: 16 – Yuffie is a ninja and a Materia thief. She is the daughter of the leader of Wutai, a country located in the western end of Gaia. She dreams of restoring Wutai to it’s former glory before it was defeated by Shinra in a long war.

Vincent Valentine – Age: 27 – Vincent is the last of the playable characters of FFVII. He was a former member of the Turks who was experimented on by Shinra’s mad scientist, Hojo. He was part of Shinra’s Jenova Project, and during that time, he fell in love with another scientist assigned to the Jenova Project, Lucrecia Crecent. When Vincent discovered her link to his deceased father, Lucrecia broke up with Vincent and entered a relationship with Hojo, who got her pregnant and experimented on her fetus as part of the Jenova Project. This angered Vincent, and he decides to join Cloud’s group in hopes of killing Hojo.

My Thoughts

Well, Final Fantasy VII was my first Final Fantasy game. I picked it up in my first year of college, and I still enjoy playing it to this day. The gameplay is still solid and easy to get used to, and the Materia system is also very creative. The soundtrack is of course a classic, and still remains one of the best and most memorable in all of gaming. The story is also very interesting and full of Hideo Kojima-style plot twists, though the dialogue for some characters is a little over the top - see the scene where Cloud tries to rescue Aerith from Sephiroth. The side quests are also very rewarding, as you can find new weapons, limit break moves and powerful Materia spells while taking them on. The new Cyberpunk setting was also a fresh change of pace from the first six Final Fantasy games that had either medieval or Victorian-era type settings. 

However, Final Fantasy VII is not without flaws. Though the CGI cutscenes are fine for the most part, the graphics have not held up well. Another serious flaw is the awful rushed translation, as mentioned earlier. It is filled with many errors and typos, and some very cheesy lines that appear more laughable than sad in scenes that are meant to be dark. Most of these issues have made old school Squaresoft fans call this game “overrated”, and vice versa. Though some just decide to call FFVII “overrated” due to it being more popular than Final Fantasy VI, which is considered to be the best game in the series.

Well, I can reason with them in some areas. But do I think Final Fantasy VII is overrated? No. Despite it’s flaws, some major ones even, Final Fantasy VII is still excellent. The positives still heavily outweigh the negatives. Again, the gameplay is great, the soundtrack is a classic, the story and characters are all very well done, and it has a lot of replay value. Out of the 3 mainline Final Fantasy games on the PS1, I kept on coming back to this one the most. It’s not my favorite Square RPG, that would be Xenogears, but I still enjoy it very much. Are there RPGs better than Final Fantasy VII? No doubt (Again, Xenogears, IMO is better). But this is still one of the best PS1 games, one of Square’s best games, and one of the best games of all time. You have to play this at least once in your life.

8.75/10

Sources:

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII

– http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII

– http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Final_Fantasy_VII_characters