This game works in with original so well you'll swear they had been planning it from the beginning
I love the FF7 Compilation, and in celebration of this game's american release, I went back and played through the original. while it was strange, 2D and slightly goofy, it really helped me appreciate this game as far as attention to original detail.
yeah the game play is wildly different than, but it does have its elements of 7, a little bit of 12, and hint of Kingdom Hearts with a dash of the price is right - and to be honest the only thing that could have made this game better (or any game for that matter) would be a cameo by bob barker. the combat is a bit strange, and at times, a little easy - the AI will just sorta sit there from time to time but I don't know if it's fair to knock this game for its difficulty simply because at the start of the game it gives the option to play through it on Hard. so if the normal level just ain't cuttin' it, you can pull and Emeril and take it up a notch.
one of the aspects of this game that I love the most is how "portable" it actually is. I'm a college student, member of the Lax team, and when I only have a minute there are plenty, and I mean PLENTY of mini missions you can just pick up and play along with the main story line; a story line which is nothing short of amazing.
I'll start with my only MINOR complaint about the story line, I personally didn't enjoy Genesis's constant reciting of the Novel/Play/whatever the **** "LOVELESS" but in all honesty it wasn't that big of a deal, and the only reason I didn't like it much was I couldn't relate it to anything because I haven't read the whole work. it's like when a bunch of your friends constantly quote a movie you've never seen and you're like "haha yeahhhh" except loveless isn't funny, so no "haha" The Graphics
oh, just look at it...so wonderful. I've heard of some people say that the environments can be a little on the bland side, but whenever I encounter comments as such, regarding the environment or any other aspect of this game actually, it seems that people are really judging this game as if it were a Console title. that fact alone really speaks to just how well made it is. I mean, not many hand-held games are held to the same standards as a console game, and at many times I feel as though I'm playing an early ps2 game. I mean just look at some of those EARLY ps2 titles such as Bungie's Oni (which I LOVE btw), the grapics pale in comparison, and in no way am I saying Oni should have looked better, Im just comparing skin deep looks and not so much reasons behind them.
all in all this game is amazing. however, I'm not sure if anyone who hasn't Played FF7, Watched Advent Children AND Last Order, will fully understand it. I mean, I haven't played through Before Crisis (partly because I don't know WHERE to get it.Partly because I can't READ japanese but mostly because I refuse to play a RPG on my Cell) but there are many refresher's of FF7 around, and any gamer on here should know how to rip a couple of movies. and you can even Torrent the original game onto your PC as it was ported to the PC by Eidios.