Pyro Tempest's FFVII Review

I'm going to be very blunt about this: I can be a tough reviewer. I don't base any of my opinions on what anyone else thinks. So if you take offense to any of this I am quite sorry because that was not my intention. Much like the site designer-I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. And now that we've gotten that crappy part out of the way I have only one more warning. There may be spoilers ahead!

Content: 7.0/10.0...and I am being lenient!

The plot was actually pretty decent. It changed a bit here and there-and just when you thought you knew what was happening everything you thought you knew went up in smoke. The plot went smoothly until close to the end when the writers decided it wouldbe really good if they threw a monkey wrench in with all the bananas. The plot did a complete 180 and Cloud literally went up the wall. It was kinda weird and unexpected-but refreshing at the same time. The plot actually goes much like a number of other games but I am not sure whether that is because everyone genuinely liked FF7 soooo much that they decided to copy the plot or what? It is the same, everyday plot involving a band of companions that help people. There is a love/friendship interest in there, but later on they throw in a weak, helpless girl who happens to be "unique". This chick usually has holy powers, holy stones, light powers, or light stones-and she is gifted in magic. Does this sounds familiar? Yeah-so it gets kinda of old seeing as there are tons of other games-I won't name any names but I think you know what they are- exactly like that.

Then there are the rest of the characters...If you even remember that they are still there. Tifa is delved into quite a bit towards the end. Cloud is left on a limb for a while until they decide to screw him over by changing his past. Aeris is not really delved into-which is a good thing because if you know one inserted magical girl's past you basically know them all. Barrett is glimpsed at every now and then only because of the history behind the towns you go to. As for Cid, Yuffie, Red X, and Vincent there all kinda just there. Oh-and then there's Cait Sith...there really isn't any thing to be said about any of them without giving everything-which is really not all that much- away. Really, the extra characters are really just that-extra characters that you only use every now and then because you like to see their new limit breaks.

As for the love triangle that the game guide talks about...there really isn't any! You can catch a wiff of it every now and then but it's not like the characters are purposely being flirtatious just to lure in their "man". It is obvious that some aspects of the plot were sacrificed in order to concentrate on cloud's complicated history.

Sound: 7.0/10.0

Hmm....what can I say about sound... Not much I can tell you that. There may have been a great variety, but that was it. The best song had to be Sephiroth's theme. But the catchiest song was Gold Saucers. The most annyoing but somewhat catchy song was Aerith/Aeris' theme. As for the other ones that may have been included in the game...none of them were truly memorable. Maybe that's because I haven't played the game again in several years-but despite that I am a big fan of Nobuo Uematsu!

Graphics: 8.0/10.0

The graphics were cute. I really liked their big eyes and how they blinked! Honestly-with the technology they had to use the graphics were as good as they could be. If the designers had tried to add a nose or a mouth it would have looked cramped and stupid.

But, while the graphics were cute, they weren't too good. There were flaws involving displaced and melding body parts-don't think of that in a hentai way!

A lot of the graphics looked like atari pong graphics and were much too cylindrical. It reminded me of legos sometimes....

The battle graphics were much better on the other hand. They looked like real people instead of like short munchkins. The weapons looked really cool too. I didn't really notice any extremely annoying flaws while in battle mode though. All in all, it was a great improvement when compared to the regular graphics.

FMV graphics were really good. They looked far more life like and not as polygonal as before.

Battle: 8.0/10.0

Ahhh, my favorite part of the game. I thought that the battle system was really good! Some battles may have seemed difficult, but the majority of the battles-even the plot moving ones- were incredibly easy!

Skill Factor: 6.0/10.0

Materia was at a decent price and it was easy to get more so you could equip anyone you wanted with any type of materia you want. I loved the materia system and the enemy skills materia namely because you could really get rid of all your other materia and just use the enemy skills magic for almost any type of spell. That got boring really fast though. Especially since-because of this type of skills and battle system-everything was way too easy and the game lacked further appeal. Combine this with the fact that there really weren't any good places except one to level up in then you have a major problem. Leveling up becomes boring and tedious seeing as the hardest enemies-the Head Hunters- provide a patheticly small amount of experience. You end up having to get into like 90 battles just to level Cloud up...yep-I was so bored I counted the number of battles it took to level up.

Overall: 7.0/10.0

Well, let's see....based entirely on personal opinion...the game had its ups and downs. But, to be honest, I really don't like the whole insert magical, pathetic girl plot. Then there was the ending...let's see...it sucked. Everything was going fine and then Cloud has to open his non existent mouth. It was a decent game to play if you want to kill some time or if you want a great ego boost for being able to beat an FF game. But, overall, it is only really a one run game and the replay factor wasn't really good-at least not for me.

If I offended any of you I'm sorry because-like I said before- that was not my intention. I loved this game back when I first got my PS1, but once I discovered the other Final Fantasy games I switched gears and dropped this one. But, you be your own judge on the game! Feel free to voice your opinions but bashing reviewers wouldn't be the wisest thing to do!