With equal amounts of gushing praise and venomous hate, I honestly had no idea what playing FFVII would be like. Needless to say, I was pleasantly taken aback about how much I enjoyed it.
One thing I loved about FFVII was its immersion. The thing I have massive gripe about in RP Gs is how long they take for the plot to get good, often only getting exciting 7 hours in. Here? You start the game and BAM, you're blowing up a reactor! And it only gets better from there. Adding to the immersion is the incredible music score that really adds to the feel of the scene.
Gameplay is your standard turn based fare, with a few extras, notably the Materia system and limit breaks. I loved the Materia system, as it was simple enough to understand, and yet gave you the creative freedom to create your own ideal builds. There were also plenty of puzzles and minigames that kept the gameplay fresh and interesting.
The thing I loved most about the game were its characters. I started off hating most of them, what with Cloud being a moody Jerkass, Barrett being a cranky Jerkass and Tifa being... dull. By the end, I genuinely loved the characters and wanted them to succeed! Brilliant character development indeed!
Inversely, my biggest beef with the game was its main antagonist Sephiroth. I had heard endless praise for him being a complex villain and the poster boy for Draco in Leather Pants. What I saw was an abrupt and unconvincing transformation from legendary soldier to Omnicidal Maniac, bizarre and vague sightings of him throughout the game (even though it was JENOVA, it still didn't feel very threatening) and the final confrontation with him just didn't have the right emotional charge to it, because I found him as a villain to be incredibly insubstantial.
Also of negative note were the graphics. Hilariously bad 3D models aside, the pre-rendered backgrounds were incredibly frustrating to navigate, as often the right path was obtusely hidden. Of particular note was the climb up to Midgar. I had no idea what I was doing.
Overall, it was still surprisingly good. It had an epic (and confusing-as-balls) story that was seriously engrosing! And man, was it long. I played it in 5-hr bursts during the holidays and it still took me 2.5 weeks to beat. Despite everything, I still found great enjoyment from this game and would totally play it again.
Surprisingly still good
With equal amounts of gushing praise and venomous hate, I honestly had no idea what playing FFVII would be like. Needless to say, I was pleasantly taken aback about how much I enjoyed it.
One thing I loved about FFVII was its immersion. The thing I have massive gripe about in RP Gs is how long they take for the plot to get good, often only getting exciting 7 hours in. Here? You start the game and BAM, you're blowing up a reactor! And it only gets better from there. Adding to the immersion is the incredible music score that really adds to the feel of the scene. Gameplay is your standard turn based fare, with a few extras, notably the Materia system and limit breaks. I loved the Materia system, as it was simple enough to understand, and yet gave you the creative freedom to create your own ideal builds. There were also plenty of puzzles and minigames that kept the gameplay fresh and interesting.
The thing I loved most about the game were its characters. I started off hating most of them, what with Cloud being a moody Jerkass, Barrett being a cranky Jerkass and Tifa being... dull. By the end, I genuinely loved the characters and wanted them to succeed! Brilliant character development indeed!
Inversely, my biggest beef with the game was its main antagonist Sephiroth. I had heard endless praise for him being a complex villain and the poster boy for Draco in Leather Pants. What I saw was an abrupt and unconvincing transformation from legendary soldier to Omnicidal Maniac, bizarre and vague sightings of him throughout the game (even though it was JENOVA, it still didn't feel very threatening) and the final confrontation with him just didn't have the right emotional charge to it, because I found him as a villain to be incredibly insubstantial.
Also of negative note were the graphics. Hilariously bad 3D models aside, the pre-rendered backgrounds were incredibly frustrating to navigate, as often the right path was obtusely hidden. Of particular note was the climb up to Midgar. I had no idea what I was doing.
Overall, it was still surprisingly good. It had an epic (and confusing-as-balls) story that was seriously engrosing! And man, was it long. I played it in 5-hr bursts during the holidays and it still took me 2.5 weeks to beat. Despite everything, I still found great enjoyment from this game and would totally play it again.