Even with the release of Final Fantasy VIII,
Final Fantasy VII still stands as one of the best games of all time. FF7
was Square's first venture into the next generation consoles with the Final
Fantasy series. Fans around the world eagerly awaited the new installment,
excited by the fact that for the first time ever, Final Fantasy would feature
3D Graphics, a more superior game engine, and most importantly, an enthralling
new storyline. On its release, FFVII brewed up a number of favourable reviews,
and some even claimed that it was the best RPG ever made.
The game itself certainly had a lot going
for it. Although it still kept the basic structure of the previous games,
FF7 showed a lot of ingenuity in its design. The magic system in FF7 was
done using 'slots' which were placed in armour, weapons and a variety of
accessories. The slots could then be filled with materia which was what
decided what spells a character would have (For example, a fire materia
placed in one of Cloud's materia slots would give him the ability to cast
fire spells). There were a wide variety of different materia which were
separated in groups by colour. Of them all, summon spells were perhaps
the most potent, although they also drained the most magic points.
Up to 3 members at a time could be put in
your immediate party, and along the way the characters would be able to
take control of different forms of transport such as a plane or buggy.
The characters ingame all took a cartoony look, and all were drawn with
an anime style.
For me, FF7 was my first extremely satisfying
game on the playstation. Its gameplay, storyline, and graphics were all
of an amazingly high standard and even today it still stands out as one
of the biggest games to ever hit the playstation. I never thought that
any game would ever even hope to rival this. That was until FFVIII came
along...
