Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1937 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sony
• Platform: PlayStation
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Long recognised as role-playing games par excellence, the Final Fantasy series gets a technological makeover in this instalment. Shedding the two-dimensional graphics and limited sound capabilities of its predecessors, Final Fantasy VII features lush 3-D graphics, beautifully animated "movie" sequences, and soundtrack-quality music. Coupled with the game's intricate storyline, endearing characters, and an immense yet highly imaginative world, these new advancements make for a quite an engrossing experience.

The story of Final Fantasy VII centres around a solider named Cloud Strife, who joins forces with Avalanche, a group of resistance fighters, to take down an evil mega-corporation known as Shinra. (The fate of the world hangs in the balance, of course.) Truly epic in scope, this three-disc game requires a considerable amount of time to complete---this reviewer gladly gave up over 80 hours of his life to finish it. But it's definitely a rewarding adventure that every gamer should consider undertaking, especially since it's now one of the low-priced "Greatest Hits" titles. --Joe Hon, Amazon.com

Pros:

• Intricate and absorbing storyline with endearing characters
• Immense and highly imaginative game world
• Special battle system
• Beautifully animated movie sequences

Cons:

• Your friends and family may feel neglected

Manufacturer's Description
In Final Fantasy VII you'll explore a beautiful fantasy world that is slowly succumbing to the iron-fist rule of the ruthless Shinra, Inc conglomerate. Operating from Midgar, the neon-drenched city built on a giant elevated plate to separate it from the poverty-stricken slums, the evil corporation uses giant Mako Reactors to gain power by draining the life force from the land, thus giving it a stranglehold over the planet's natural resources.

A number of rebel groups form to destroy this sinister force, the most powerful of which is a group of experienced fighters known as Avalanche. Each member of the team shares a common bond in that they have all been personally affected by Shinra's misdeeds and seek vengeance to reclaim their dignity. Their newest member is Cloud Strife, a former Shinra soldier who could be the key to victory for the rebels. So begins a grand adventure that will change the world forever.

The first Final Fantasy title for PSone is an unmitigated classic, a truly epic title that spans three CDs of finely crafted storytelling and deep RPG action. With a huge world to explore, hundreds of characters to interact with and a myriad of sub-games and side quests, Final Fantasy VII will tax your mind, your reflexes and even your heart. It's a truly unforgettable experience.

Customer Reviews

Revolutionary
There I was with my new playstation which I had for Christmas. I remember the games I received with it quite clearly. Resident Evil 2, Crash Bandicoot 2, Worms, Gran Turismo and Die Hard Trilogy. Needless to say it didn't take me long to get very, very bored of these so off I went in search of good "next generation" gaming. And my search brought me to this masterpiece of a game.

My friends had been raving about it for months but to be honest it seemed quite boring and complicated to me. This seemed like a game more suited to the Japanese market. Not a game we Westerners should be playing...

Still I went ahead and purchased a copy, and from the off I was hooked. The opening FMV sequence I remember as breathtaking. We Start out looking at what appears to be a night sky filled with stars. The camera then moves to focus on the face of a girl (who you later discover is one of the main characters) before panning back over the city. The game title comes on then and lets you know that you're in for a world of adventure and excitement. As the camera then zooms back in on the city and follows the path of a train carrying our band of adventurers the FMV flows seamlessly into the in-game graphics and your journey starts.

The game itself is amazing in every aspect. The graphics for back then were revolutionary. It was one of the first fully 3D RPG's ever. The whole world was vibrant and full of colour, and some of the scenes were capable are bringing you close to tears. These days graphics have totally changed. We now have RPG's like Final Fantasy 10 which admittedly are beautiful that make the game look blocky and bland. The advancements made in graphical technology do nothing however to mar the awesome adventure in this game.

The story is perhaps to date, one of the most complex stories ever written for a computer game. Perhaps the only games to nearly compare are the other games in the Final Fantasy series; but even then most fans will agree that the story of 7 easily surpasses all the others. Most will also agree that this was one of the only games around at the time that provided you such a strong emotional attachment to the characters. Through the story and the many, many subplots that were worker in, you grew to know the history and life story of all the characters in the game. This provided you with an emotional attachment to them that could cut you deeper than any game I've ever experienced. When one of them hurt, you hurt. And as players of the game know, when a certain event occurs half way through the game, you will feel a strong sense of loss, that is pretty much unique among games.

The gameplay, though certainly not groundbreaking, certainly fit the game perfectly. The game operated on the perhaps legendary materia system. This worked by attaching magic stones (materia) into slots in your weapons and armour. Attaching this materia gave your characters certain powers and abilities that they otherwise did not have access to. Limit breaks were another important part of the gameplay in this game. These are what you might call extreme abilities that your characters accessed when they had built up a certain amount of stress. And of course, like many other RPG's Final Fantasy 7 took advantage of the XP based levelling system that allowed your characters to level up to level 99.

The sound in this game is also excellent. After not playing it for while you'll suddenly start to hear the fighting track in your head again and will even start humming it to yourself. Appearance of insanity be damned. Seriously the music of this game was so good and added such a lot to the environment of the game and the emotional attachment offered that a soundtrack CD was released and was purchased by thousands of fans.

The main thing I buy a game for however is not the graphics of the sound, but the lastability. And this game lasts a long long time. Playing it the first time through, if you do absolutely everything your looking at a good 200 hours. And you're almost guaranteed to play it through more than once. There are so many things to see in this game. So many towns and dungeons to visit, so many enemies to defeat and so many materia and spectacular weapons to discover, that you'll find youself playing it until late into the night. The best part is that if you ever get tired of playing the main game there are dozens of little minigames all played in a huge arcade that you enter halfway through (and that you can go back to anytime after). You can play snowboarding, motorbike racing and even a first person shooter game on a rollercoaster. This doesn't even scratch the surface though.

I can't finish this review without mentioning something that has been almost integral since the start of this series... chocobos. These are big birds like ostriches that you ride around. In most of the final fantasy games, preceding and succeeding number 7, that's pretty much all you can do. In 7 however you can undertake the daunting task of chocobo breeding! This involves breeding chocobos for the purpose of racing them. The depth of this is unexplainable but I'll just say that some very nice things can be uncovered by breeding chocobos, and will leave you to uncover the rest.

All in all, this is a fantastic game that is not to be missed. It completely revolutionised the RPG genre, and is remembered by millions of people as one of - if not THE - best RPG's of all time.

Can take over your life
You most likely will be reading this review because you already have the game, are just reliving memories, and laughing at people who possibly put the game down. To these people, I salute you, a fellow Final Fantasy gamer. To the others, who have not played the game, and are possibly checking out earlier games from the series having experienced the later ones, I give you one the best gaming experiences you will ever have.

This game first appeared on the PlayStation in Autumn, 1997. It already had a big fanbase because of it's history on the Nintendo systems, and it did not fail to disappoint them. The PlayStation allowed Squaresoft to launch Final Fantasy into a whole new 3D world, which left players mesmorized.

So what do we have? Well, there is the main player of the game, Cloud Strife (though you can rename him, and every other player you control), joining up with a terrorist group called AVALANCHE, in order to halt the workings of Shinra, an enormous organisation slowly but surely destroying the planet by sucking up it's energy to fuel it's city, called Midgar. His entrance off the top off a train marks the beginning of an epic 80 hour story (get a memory card) where you battle with a host of other characters to stop the planet from dying. The sheer depth of this game is mindblowing. There are many side-quests to be completed (I give you Fort Condor, Chocobo breeding and Weapon destroying) which leave the gamer with plenty to do other than go through the story. Like me, if you play the game again, you will most likely find something that you didn't see before.

The graphics are outstanding. The PlayStation had many years in it after this game and, although they look dated now, still produce some of the finest art I have seen in a game. I particularly remember Cosmo Canyon. Something about that place just makes me want to find somewhere in real life just like it. The characters themselves are not exactly life-like but appreciating the level of detail surrounding them, this is an extremely minor flaw. The FMV is gorgeous for the 60 minutes that you can see it.

For me, the music is an extremely underrated part of this game. It's really memorable. The rush of the boss battle, the slow melody of Aeris' theme and the beautiful music in Bugenhagen's dome - they all combine to make a brilliant soundtrack (noticably, it's available to buy as an OST to the game - along with orchestral and piano versions, though these are predictably rare to buy now). I freely admit to playing the game again sometimes in order to hear the music put together with pictures.

The levelling up system in RPG's is often a cheap way of extending game time but here, it really works, and you're rewarded for putting time in to make your characters stronger. To level up, you fight battles with enemies - monsters, animals, soldiers or just simply other people. These battles appear randomly as you travel around the world (or sometimes at set points). This is often an area where gamers get annoyed, and just want to get on with the story. This is undoubtably a fair viewpoint, but to me, they add something to the game as you feel like you're truly involved with how your characters are developing.

There is a fair amount of strategy involved as you decide who has what Materia (magic stones that give your character more power). This part is difficult to understand at first, but, before you're given a chance to use it, you're made to go through tutorials early on in the game which give you ample time to understand it before you carry on. This materia comes in different forms and what makes it so great is that it can make your character completely customisable. If you give your character lots of materia, they become excellent with magic but not very strong physically. Obviously this works the opposite way. You'll have to juggle them around in order to suit how you want to play the game. Personally, like many, I balance it all out. Some people are naturally better with materia than others, however. To help you away from the magic, the characters can all find and purchase new weaponary, armour and accessories to aid them in battle.

The story is gripping. This was the first ever game where I felt slightly confused about having feelings for characters, and wanting them to succeed in the game. I almost felt guilty putting the game down and switching off the machine. I have read previous reviews and can happily say I'm not alone in feeling this way. It's like a well-written big book, where you understand the people involved and are keen to see what happens next. People cry at this game, it's that simple. I have to admit I didn't get that far (well, I maybe had a lump in my throat, but hey - I was 13-14) but at a certain point in the game it's certainly possible to feel such a way. The characters are all different in their approach to things and the player will always feel that there is one they like more than others (this is mainly because each has their own background which is always gone into in depth at certain points). But the character themselves will always be wanting the same thing in the game, and therefore so does the player.

In conclusion, Final Fantasy VII is the most complete RPG you are likely to find. The games following it in the series are all magnificent in their own right, but they all lead back to here. It really is the biggest bargain available.

The games in the Final Fantasy series don't endear themselves to everyone, but each of them (particularly this one) are creating a legend that, in my time and my life at least, will never be forgotten.

Final Fantasy 7
I'm not joking when i say that this has to be the most amazing and electrifying game i have EVER played.
The amazing FMV sequences, the depth to the characters and the outstanding music will leave you stunned for hours if not days after completing it.
It all starts when ex soldier Cloud strife teams up with a small gang called 'avalanche'and try to stop shinra from sucking up the earth's life.
But thats just a small part of the story because then oher people start getting involved such as SEPHIROTH who has to be the meanist, baddest and coolest bad guy EVER!
The game also includes mini games like 'road rash'when escaping from the shinra building after battering the hell out of everone and a snowboarding game.
Not forgetting probably one of the best parts of the game are the chocobo's. Raise them, feed them, breed them and race them and try and get the legendary gold one.
To sum it all up, this is the best game ever made.