It was 1998, I was a sopohmore in high school, and I was enjoying the hell out of my PSOne. One day, some kid on the back of the school bus sold me a game that I'll never forget, and arguably one of the best games of all time.
It was Final Fantasy VII.
Now, at this point, I was realtivily new to RPG's. I'd played around with Zelda, some of the early Final Fantasy games, and a few of the no name titles...but man something about this one got me hooked.
For its time, the graphics were amazing, the gameplay could either be super easy, or you could break down and analyze every detail in order to maximize your experience. And the story? One of the best. Hands down.
I recently re-purchased this game on the PSN for my PSPGo, and you know what? They sure don’t make em' like this anymore. I mean, to beat it and do I'd guess, I dunno half of the stuff in it, it'd take about 60 hours.
IF you are bored, want to give an old school RPG game a try, or wanna see what all the hype is about, give it a shot. It's a breath of fresh air in this market that is clogged with cookie cutter FPS's and Music Hero Guitar Overlord 3000's
You'll thank me later.
(Disclousure: I had to repeat my Junior year of high school because of this game. I'd beat it quickly the first time through, and wanted to go for a perfect game...still have yet to do it lol)
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Summons/spells are often too long, and you can't skip them. :tantrum:
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Yeah, some of the summons can be kinda long, but for me, it gives me some time to take care of other stuff, like more coffee, checking these forums, t.v., or planning my next couple moves...some of the boss fights are like a chess game man.
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I knew what game you were going mention before I saw it. For me I had always been a RPG fan, starting with a free copy of Dragon Warrior (now Dragon Quest series) around age five that I beat and really enjoyed. I was in middle school and my friend that I grew up beside, also a big gamer, said you have try this Final Fantasy game. He had beaten disc 1 so he let me borrow it and by time I got disc 2 he was done with it, so on. I sat down in my room and saw the opening scene, the music, the environment and was just blown away. The music and story will always stick with me, and as others have said the graphics at the time were topnotch and took the RPG to a new level. I remember staying home from school one day and playing all day, fought Hojo that day. I would come home, play until dinner was ready and eat while playing, then play until I just got too tired; really immersed myself in the game in a way I don't do for most game. Will probably always be my #1 game.
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If you love FF7, I highly recommend Lost Odyssey. It is probably one of the most underrated games in the planet because it is on XBOX 360. But it is made by the same director as FF7 and the music made by the same guy as well. Great plot, familiar gameplay, and the 1000 years of memories stories adds another dimension to the game that I love.
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Final Fantasy VII's director was Yoshinori Kitase. You're thinking of Hironobu Sakaguchi, who directed the earlier Final Fantasies, but by the time of FF7 had become the series' producer. FF7 was so different in tone and setting from FF1-6 precisely because Sakaguchi wasn't directing. That said, The Last Story appears to be far better than Lost Odyssey, but of course Nintendo of America won't bother to release it here.
I'd also like to say that I think most people remember FF7 as a better game than it actually was. It was a gateway game, something that got people interested in the RPG genre, but IMO it doesn't deserve the reverence it gets. Now, if we were talking about Chrono Trigger (and its arguably superior sequel, Chrono Cross), Dragon Quest V, Suikoden II, or Secret of Mana, reverence would be in order.
That said, I would like to see FF7 remade with a revised Materia system and more in-battle uniqueness to each character (Limit Breaks are their only distinguishing traits, since Materia can alter stats so wildly), but that's probably not happening. -
Only gonna say one thing about summons.....
Knights of the ****ing round....../endgame -
Knights of the Round + Mimic = enough time to make a few sammiches.
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Still playing this game the first time through. Started almost a year ago. I like it, but it doesn't quite do enough to make me forget about the outdated graphics / environments. Not like Metal Gear Solid 1 did, which I played right before starting FFVII. I keep dropping it for a few months and then going back. I'll post final thoughts when finished. I think I'd appreciate more if I played when I was younger.
I loved FFIX. -
I've just recently started it, I'm now fighting black mage #2 or whatever...Still not impresed with it so far. Story seems slow and silly...not quite sure if Ilike the battle mechanics either. Hopefully it picks up soon.