In Final Fantasy VII you'll breed these birds and grow them in order to obtain racing champions, in their purest form and race. A chocobo is some sort of huge golden ostrich, used for transportation and racing, just like a horse. It's the companies trademark mascot, so to say, like Mario is for Nintendo and Sonic for Sega. What's a Chocobo? In case you don't know that, you haven't played many Square-Enix titles till now. Since I mentioned minigames above, I might as well say that they're pretty exciting, from the snowboarding you'll have to do in order to reach Sephiroth's lair to a submarine hunting game or Chocobo racing. feline of some sort and Cait Sith, a talking toy shaped like a cat. The other characters are: Tiffa, Cloud's childhood female friend, Aeris, Cloud's great love, Barret, a tough one-electronic-arm dude, Cid, a crazy pilot, Red XIII, a wise.
There's a wide range of characters to choose from and there are even optional ones, like Yuffie or Vincent Valentine, a mysterious vampire-like man, so fascinating that he was featured in 2 other Square-Enix titles (Dirge of Cerberus and a Final Fantasy title for mobile platforms). You control a party of three almost always including Cloud Strife, the game's protagonist, but there will be times when he'll be out of the group of controllable characters, due to "health" reasons.
One might think that such a feature can fragment the action, but they're wrong, specially because you'll get to like the sound of a battle starting plus Square couldn't have implemented on-screen monsters roaming on the map in 1997, because they would have been poorly drawn. Square's hit features battles that are separated from the regular action (walking on the map, talking to NPCs etc) through a special fading screen. I would say about 15-20 if you're an expert and you want to go through it in a hurry, but it can even reach 70+ hours if you check out all the minigames, the Weapons (monsters) and additional quests and storylines. It's hard to say how many hours you can play Final Fantasy VII before finishing it. All combat sequences are randomly triggered by walking on the world's map or any location in the game, which is a trend pretty much fading away these days, when we can see the enemies approaching and get ready for some serious walloping. You could call it a turn-based RPG, since the battles feature a waiting time and turns for each character's attack.
He's pretty quiet, but when he does talk he can be the most diabolical creature ever and his actions are also an argument supporting this statement.įinal Fantasy VII is Square-Enix's RPG, pertaining to an extremely successful series that doesn't quite seem to end. The arch-nemesis of the title is the famous Sephiroth, probably the best designed and the most complex villain I've ever seen. In case you haven't played the game, I could go on talking about it for hours, but I would spoil the experience, so I'll let you find out for yourself how Cloud and Aeris, one of the most important feminine characters, fell in love. As you progress, you'll find out that each new character who joins your party has his/her own complicated story and you'll have to vanquish their enemies and get to know their past. The game starts with the blond main character (Cloud) aiding Avalanche (a rebel group) blow up reactors belonging to Shinra, the greedy corporation that's leading the world right now. Back to this game's storyline, you'll control Cloud Strife throughout the title's action spanning 3 CDs (quite an achievement for a 1997 game) and witness as he becomes the Planet's savior after getting to know him as cold-blooded mercenary.
Now, when there's a movie to be seen, Advent Children, serving as a follow-up to this game, you'll surely understand the story better, specially if you also play Crisis Core, on the PSP, FF VII's prequel.
It's a tale of love, hatred between clones, the dangers of technology and magic.
Don't be harsh, don't criticize the graphics, as it's a 1997 game I'm going to review here, but one that generated millions of fans, motion pictures and even sequels.įinal Fantasy VII features the best storyline I've ever seen in a game.
One of the first titles I've replayed on the PSP and PS3 is Final Fantasy VII, produced by Squaresoft (back then), turned into Square-Enix for quite some time now. It's time to wipe them clean and give them the spin and the glory of the old days by re-playing them. You should be familiar with the fact that PlayStation games are compatible with the PS3 and PSP by now, which is a pretty good piece of news, specially if you've kept your PSX titles laying on some shelves, covered with dust.