Final Fantasy VII is a masterpiece, to say the least, and its blend of story, characters, and gameplay is unmatched.
User Rating: 9.8 | Final Fantasy VII PS
The Final Fantasy series has a reputation for displaying a beautiful presentation along with memorable characters, a great story, and to top it all off, great gameplay. Now with its seventh installment into the series, Squaresoft has taken everything that was great about Final Fantasy and has made it into something that is unmatched in any genre, or on any platform. It is Final Fantasy VII. The best feature of Final Fantasy VII has to be its story; you follow the young, enigmatic mercenary, Cloud Strife as you try to uncover his checkered past and fulfill his destiny. The plot in the game continues to inflate as you progress through the games massive environments. You will travel from a huge metropolis, to ancient forests, to abandoned towns. At the same time you will meet a wide variety of both playable and non-playable characters, each with their own personality and backgrounds. This helps in adding emotion and makes you want to play the game more and more. The gameplay is also interesting, you fight your enemies in a turn-based fashion and you use abilities through Materia, small crystals that are connected to the planet in some way. Materia comes in different colors and each one does something different. For example, green Materia lets you cast magic spells, while red Materia allows you to summon monsters to aid you in battle. Materia is also tied into the story, which creates a good sense of flow. You’ll be using all of your characters abilities to their fullest potential during the game’s 30-50 hour adventure, and if you decide to stop and embark on the game’s many sidequests you could easily max out the clock at 99 hours. The graphics are revolutionary, the pre-rendered backgrounds in the game are extremely detailed and in some cases the camera is able to rotate around them somehow, creating a beautiful 3-D scenario. The game also uses some CG cutscenes that are easily the best ever seen in a game before. The sound is also very good but sometimes it may sound like you are listening to a lullaby as opposed to a soundtrack, but for the most part, everything sounds great. The game lacks voiceovers, so you will be doing a lot of reading because the game is extremely text heavy, and the characters have got a lot to say. Final Fantasy VII may be just shy of gaming nirvana, but its presentation is just fantastic, and although it is very long, you could easily play through this game twice just because of everything that it has to offer. This is something that everyone must experience, and you may find it to be one of the greatest games you have ever played-or ever will. 
