Product Description

Witness the truth behind Vincent's tragic past as the story unfolds through Square Enix's world-renowned cinematics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6488 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Square Enix
• Released on: 2006-11-16
• Rating: To Be Announced
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review

In a nutshell:
Revisit the world of Final Fantasy VII three years on from the end of the original classic game. Take control of the mysterious ex-Turk Vincent Valentine in this wholly original third person action adventure.

The lowdown:
Part of the “Compilation of Final Fantasy VII”, that already includes Advent Children and a mobile game, this is the first official follow-up to the series’ most popular entry on a home console. You may have heard though, that it didn’t go down so well when it was released in Japan earlier in the year. To Square Enix’s credit though the game’s being given a thorough revamp for its Western release so that it’s faster and much easier to control, with a lot more combos and aerial moves and a slicker first person view. The game was originally intended to be a role-playing version of Half-Life, so hopefully the new Western version will properly realise this goal.

Most exciting moment:
Shoot ‘em-ups like this are unpopular in Japan so just seeing a developer of Square Enix’s standing attempting a game like this is exciting. It even includes an option to use a mouse and keyboard as a controller, just like a PC shooter (although the Japanese game’s online mode is being removed).

Since you ask:
Apparently Square Enix see Final Fantasy VII (and XIII) as twenty year long projects so even after the Crisis Core game on PSP this may not be the last time you see Cloud Strife and co. in action.

The bottom line:
One of Final Fantasy VII’s most obscure characters stars in the most unlikely spin-off ever.
HARRISON DENT

Customer Reviews

Vincent gets his own game!
For the unenlightened. Final Fantasy 7 was a MASSIVE game on the PS1, a game following a chap called Cloud and his friends taking on Sephiroth, and Shinra to save the world. One of those friends is a guy named Vincent Valentime, the main character of this story. An x-Turk (like a mob group for Shinra) and what happens after Final Fantasy Advent Children.
Basically, a group known as Deepthroat are seaching for the Protomateria to do something to a thing known as Omega-that is as much story as you get from me, I don't want to spoil anything really. Although you'll discover more about Vincent and Lucrecia through this game. The story line is sound, that's all you need to know really.
Graphically, we see the likes of Junon, the mansion in Nibelhiem, Midgar, Kalm etc in the game. For places like Kalm, you'd never know it was the same place if it didn't say so, but the Shinra mansion in Nibelhiem has the lot, from the piano from the original FF7, to the library at the very lowest part of the mansion. The detail is good, and the characters reflect this, but it's the FMV that stands apart being some of the best and most action packed I've seen on PS2.
Gameplay. It's a shooter being blunt, you guide the gun using the right analogue making the controls instantly accessible. You have close range and long range attacks, and you can upgrade your gun in terms of power, speed, accuracy etc. However, that's pretty much it. You shoot, you shoot baddies, planes, strange creatures etc. There are some class moments though, such as the drive to edge where you take on a tonne of motorbiked men, and the occassional, save the people section, or lead the child to this place to entertain you. There are some side missions though on the disc and unlockables, so it's not all bad.
In terms of sound, the voice actings great, only thing that trully dissappointed me was that very little of it is from the original FF7! This really shouldn't have been the case.
For FF fans, you MUST GET THIS GAME! For anyone else, you'll find a solid shooter, but the story will probably annoy. Try it and see.

What a review about the game?!? No way!
Yes that's right, I've played the game and I'm actually going to comment on the game itself. I know that's a bit of a novelty round here but I'm going to do it anyway.

Right well, first impressions after 12 hours worth of gameplay. There are a lot of cut scenes, and a lot of long cut scenes. We're talking Advent Children 2 with bits of game here and there. But that doesn't really matter because if you're a fan of FF VII you're going to love it.

One bug bear is the controls are a pain in the proverbials at the start, but there are numerous tweaks you can do to get them to your liking. After you're comfortable with the controls the game flows along nicely... until the next cut scene.

Square don't really do 3rd person / FPS games and it does show, there are some nice touches though don't get me wrong. The weapon customisation is quite good fun to play around with but the AI isn't that great we're talking AI levels from FPS games from yester-year. Still you've got a big gun and all you really want people to do is stand in front of you so you can shoot them isn't it?

The gfx are top notch, the FMV is typical Square quality - they're beautiful. Some of it is on par with Advent Children, which makes me wonder if they re-used any bits. The game takes you on a nice tour of various locations from FF VII, you'll recognise most of it, all looks pretty nice although some of the earlier levels are a bit drab.

The new bad guys, won't say much on them but how they bring them into existance works pretty well. Some nice boss fights, although some of them are a bit on the easy side. Voice acting on the most part is good, which is handy as you'll be hearing a lot of it. :)

The whole crew is back in some part or other, playing various parts in the story. It is mainly Vincent, Yuffie and Reeve/Cait Sith with the others having bit parts. Still nice to see them all again.

I've avoided talking about the story as I'm not going to spoil anything but it's a good'un. You will want to watch the cut scenes. Oh and one last thing, play it on hard. It's a bit easy!

A review from a rational FFVII obsessive
I went against my instincts in buying this game, I'd seen the critical reviews it had got in the press, and I'm not sure I really approve of Square Enix's attempts to milk the popular FFVII franchise for all it's worth, but I'm such a FFVII nut I couldn't resist it, But fortunatley I was pleasently suprised with it. As a game it's a much more competent shooter than I thought it was going to be, and in terms of story it's much, much bigger than I thought it was going to be, and that's what I imagine most fellow FFVII obsessives are interested in, the story. And on the whole it's pretty good. As I'm sure you'll be aware it stars Vincent and elaborates on his past and explores his character which perhaps wasn't focused on as much as it should have been in FFVII. As for the other characters, Reeve/Cait Sith and Yuffie have supporting roles and Cid has a perephiral role, while Cloud, Tifa & Barret are just limited to a couple of cameo appearnces, Red XIII has no dialouge and just appears on screen for a second. It does all feel quite fan-fictiony and there's some elements in there seem a little at odds with the previously established FFVII world, but it's nothing too jarring, I think the keyword to think of it as is a spinoff and not a true sequel. The quality of the voice acting is a bit mixed, some of it's fine and some of it's just terrible.
Ultimatley if you are a diehard FFVII fan then I would say it is just about worth getting just for the story and the fan service, (like getting to explore previous FFVII locations in full 3d)

Getting back to the matter of the actual gameplay, as I said I was pleasently suprised, it's quite a fun game, yes it is heavily flawed and dated - it's incredibly linear, things that should break from gunfire, don't break, you sometimes can't jump over small stacks of boxes or other objects, the controls aren't very good. In some ways it feels more like a ps1 era shooter, that's the main problem with it, it feels so dated, but it's still works well once you get past those things, and mixing a shooter with Vincent's ability to double jump, attack from close range and of course turn into a beast with his limit break, along with the other RPG elements, do give it a bit of a unique flavour. Under the hands of a company more experinced at making these types of games, it could have been excellent, so there is perhaps in this game the forming of a decent idea that could become great overtime (although arguably Devil May Cry and to some extent Resident Evil 4 have had similar ideas first) as it is, in terms of gameplay alone, I don't think I'd recommend it to non FFVII fans, unless you absloutley love shooting games or like shooters but want something a bit different. But generally there's better games of this genere out there and your going to be quite baffled by the story if you not played FFVII or indeed any RPG before. But I've read reviews from others saying they got into it, even though they haven't played FFVII, so who knows. You can skip the cut scenes if your not into it though.