Retro Gaming Round Up: Final Fantasy VII

Remember in my last post, where I stated that the nostalgia will always be better than the real thing? Well, I am happy to report I have been proven wrong. Final Fantasy VII was recently released after Sony's E3 Press Conference and I was happy to shell out the cost of a movie ticket ($10) to experience 70+ Hours of classic J-RPG action. For me, this was the game that lit the fire. Sure, I had an SNES for my first system and played my share of every console since the inception of the Nintendo, but the Sony Playstation and Final Fantasy 7 are where my addiction began. Although it was my first RPG and I was only 13 at the time, its story stays with me and after over a decade of RPGs since then, I was unsure it would still meet my expectations. I was surprisingly mistaken, it seems my years of experience have only made the game better.



Right now, I am over 25 hours in and have spent a ton of time tearing through the main story. Side Quests will become a little more important in like 10 hours or so. The narrative is one of the most impressive aspects; even with the limited technology, its characters, enviroments and overall ambience is still better than many RPGs being made today (see Infinite Undiscovery or the latest Star Ocean). There is alot of chemistry in the group once everyone joins the party, whether its Yuffie obsessing over materia or Barrett causing a ruckus, these 3D sprites come with alot of personality. Speaking of materia, this is why years of playing RPGs pays off, because now I am paying attention to all the complexities of the battle system. For example how materia affects your stats or how specific weapons will affect the growth of materia, these are things I had not considered when I was a kid. The process of getting through the game seems much easier as well, especially when taking advanatge of the Enemy Skill materia during the lower levels. Even materias like Deathblow and Destruct, which in the past I remembered ignoring, have become a important components in my arsenal.

A few complaints though; the graphic backgrounds can be difficult to interact with because you have to face the object. Just to be knit picky this could easily have been solved by integrating the analog stick in... I'm looking at you SquEnix. Also, the mini-games in specific stages still drive me crazy. Like trying to sneak past the guards in the Shinra building or cracking the safe to get Vincent's key, I tend to wish they weren't there at all. Lots left for me to do and I am probably going to be a completionist about this so it could be 80 more hours before I omnislash Sephiroth's face. Guess I should get back to the game, but in the meantime Cid Highwind recommends you "Shut up! Sit your ass down in that chair and DRINK YOUR GODDAMN TEA!"