First off, let me start out by saying that there are TONS of great RPG's out there. From the Dragon Warrior series from Enix, to Tales of Destiny recently published by Namco, quality RPG's aren't hard to find these days. However, one RPG stands out in my mind as being the best among them all, that beng Final Fantasy 7 from Squaresoft. Although many people may disagree with me and say that Final Fantasy 3 (6) is the best RPG, or maybe they'll even say Chrono Trigger is the best (don't get me wrong, they're both great games) Final Fantasy 7 reset the standards for RPGs and also put Playstation back on top of the RPG world. Final Fantasy 7 has one of the, if not THE best stories I've had the opportunity to experience in an RPG. The plot twists and character developments are very well done and the story itself is very original. Each character has a different background and they all have their own personalities. Like Cid, he's the cranky old-pilot that loves to fight, while Cloud is the cool and calm mercenary who only fights when the situation calls for it. Also, the character backgrounds are either drawn out to give you the full effect of the story, or they are short and to the point, giving the characters a more mysterious aura. The graphics in Final Fantasy 7 are unmatched by any game to date. The backgrounds are very well detailed, (e.i. the church in Midgar, you can see the wood grains in the floor boards!) and the FMV's are extremely clean. The characters on the battle screen and the spells & summons they cast are very eye-appealing. although Cloud can look like a walking block figure at times, the polygon characters on the world map and in towns and caves look good for just a bunch of squares. The gameplay in Final Fantasy 7 is very easy to grasp. The materia system can be confusing at first glance, but once you experiment with different combinations, yo'll get the hang of it in no time. The battle screens are very self explanatory and the build of AP on materia is a very neat concept (it also gives you incentive to build up your character's levels while gaining new spells). Also, the secrets in Final Fantasy 7, though very few, are very fun to discover and take a while to finish (like breeding a gold chocobo, defeating both the Emerald and Ruby weapons, and finding Vincent Valentine). The music in Final Fantasy 7 is extremely good, especially in FMV's and a lot of the town scenes. Aeris' music is probably the most liked, while the other 40 or so tracks are very well organized and they add to the dark mood of the game itself. Whenever the music stops, (like in Mideel after the earthquakes) you know something big is about to happen, then another track comes on and adds to the excitement of the game. I definetely say Final Fantasy 7 is the best RPG out there, although it does have some strong competition, it isn't going to be outdone any time soon. We'll have to wait and see if Final Fantasy 8 is just as good if not better next winter.
Final Fantasy VII is called the greatest Final Fantasy game and one of the best in the world. I completely agree. This game's story, graphics (for its time), gameplay and sound are some of the best ever to grace a consol... Read Full Review
(This review was made September 2004 for GameFAQs but it was too long that's why it was not posted there. Thank you GameSpot for posting this review, although it is not compatible with your rating system :P ) THANK YO... Read Full Review
