77. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)
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FF7 at number 77
That's a lot of 7's

Final Fantasy VII follows our hero Cloud who is hired on to assist an eco-terrorist group called AVALANCHE as they try to stop the evil Shinra corporation from destroying the Planet. Eventually their journey takes them well outside of the city of Midgar and Cloud learns a bit more about himself than he could have imagined.

This game is similar in some ways to the FF series. The battles use the ATB system and a menu to select Attack, Item, or other such commands. In this game, abilities are used by equiping Materia to weapon slots. Each Materia has its own use, such as allowing the character to use Fire or Ice, or other effects such as allowing the character to target all enemies or allies. There are a total of 9 playable characters, 2 of them being optional, with 3 being usable in battle at a time.

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This part was really fun

General impressions:
My opinion of Final Fantasy VII has changed over the years. This was the fourth Final Fantasy game I ever played. The three I played immediately before it (I got them all at the same time) I absolutely adored. But this one for some reason I did not. I made it about halfway through Disc 1. A few years later, after hearing more about it and learning how much people love this game, I gave it another shot. Made it almost through Disc 1. A while later I tried again, this time forcing myself over the Disc 1 hill... and then stopped. It was only within the past 2 years or so that I finally set out to finish this game. I pushed through that Disc 1 that couldn't keep me invested, and... I liked it a lot better. I think it greatly improves after the climax of the first disc, and I think a large part of why I didn't like it was because of Aeris. With that being said, I still don't like it nearly as much as a lot of other Final Fantasy games, but it is a solid game and I'm glad I stuck it out.

Story:
The story I think had a lot of potential. I always love stories that add in some psychological aspect and especially one about learning one's own identity. But sadly for me it fell a bit flat. A large part of it might be because I wasn't given a cast of characters I actually cared about, but some of it was just poor story telling. I understand the general story, but some of it just still won't stick in my mind. I have no trouble following some more complex stories (Xenogears) and they get me invested and interested but this one just wasn't told in a way I could follow, understand, and sympathize with. But it was still a good overall story and it dealt with some interesting themes, which I appreciated. It also had some beautiful and touching scenes that really stuck with me, specifically (SPOILER)Dyne committing suicide and (SPOILER)Red XIII and his father shedding those tears.


Gameplay:
The gameplay I overall enjoyed. The controls were clunky and uncomfortable, and I didn't like losing Materia slots when changing equipment (I liked to keep the same Materia on my characters at all times) but other than that it was pretty fun. I liked being able to customize my characters, the Limit Break system was pretty well done, it had a wide variety of side-quests and mini-games to enjoy, and it was easy as all heck, which I really liked. Overall pretty fun.


World:
This world was pretty forgettable to me, save a few areas here and there. Most of it didn't get me excited, and I need to see a world map to remember most of it. But I did really like Cosmo Canyon for the story and the awesome music, and also Icicle Inn because it's pretty and snowy, which I really liked.


Characters:
Overall I'm not a huge fan of the cast. I really like Red XIII, I don't mind Tifa, Cait Sith and Yuffie are kind of meh, Barret has grown on me, and the rest I pretty much hate. But I do like the amount of development they get and also some of the relationships between them. Like the friendship between Barret and Tifa I find to be really well written and under appreciated.

Favourite character: Red XIII U67LAXX.jpg
Honourable mention: Tifa 6P7kOHZ.jpg

I like Red XIII for his attitude and maturity and the scenes with his father were heartbreaking and touching. I'm just sad he gets so little relevance in the story. Tifa is a sweet and caring woman with some great scenes, so it's hard to go wrong there.

Overall the game is fun and easy with an interesting story and some well-written characters. For the most part I did not appreciate it's sense of humour, but I could appreciate that it actually had one. It has a great number of sidequests and mini-games to enjoy, the characters can be personalized, and it's just a fun game when you get in to it.