4/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Final Fantasy VII.

TLDR: FF7 good as hell when you have love in your heart. Gameplay: I have been FF7's biggest hater since I began playing FF like 10 years ago. I thought it wasn't as good as other RPG's I've played. I thought the writing, characters and mechanics were weak. It's been years since then. I have 6 FF's under my belt. I tried again and I have seen the magic that so many gamers have seen almost three decades ago. Such cool characters to play as, limit breaks are awesome! The Materia System is fun to level up and mess around with. It's so free yet limits you in a way where you must be creative. Battles are interesting, exploring is fun, the mini-games are...hit or miss. As much as I am enjoying FF7 I feel like many aspects of the gameplay, especially the mini-games and optional content, is totally esoteric in terms of access and rewards. Case in point, do you want classic spells such as Break and Flare? Well, you can only get it if you feed the small white chocobo in Mideel some Mimett Greens and then scratch behind it's ear. It's the ONLY way to use those spells. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING. In fact, everything to do with the Chocobo's is kind of annoying. Chocobo breeding is a long and drawn out process, requiring you to go to and from the Golden Saucer and participate in a bunch of Chocobo races. And you need certain Chocobo's to reach certain areas or else miss out on some good stuff. In fact, the Battle Square should be really sick but the requirement of going all the way to the Golden Saucer and being forced to us BP to even try is foolish and makes me want to avoid it. They should have just made the Chocobo Breeding only affect the races and the Battle Square literally anywhere else. Materia management is ass, and sometimes I didn't want to use a different character just because it'd be such a hassle. Also, only three characters? I don't really mind too much but I always need Cloud, so my options are pretty limited. I probably would have used Yuffie or Red XII more if I had one more party member. But I get it. Despite these very specefic complaints, this is as solid as a Final Fantasy as you can get. Everything good I've said about FF I've said for previous games. It's just good stuff. Story: "I don't trust ya! Press B to run" I don't know if it's the translation or what but the script is pretty weak. Which is strange because all the previous FF games had mature and realistic dialogue. But FF VII can feel like a cartoon sometimes. Especially with characters like Barrett and even Cloud. However with time, they characters develop quite well. On the bright side, FF7 foreshadows like no other. I love all the allusions to Zack, a character that won't even be shown until more than halfway of the game. Especially Aeris going "I want to know...you." Graphics: The backgrounds are great, and were probably mind-blowing when this game came out. But navigating through them can be impossible trying to figure out what you can interact with and what you can't. The field models are...less great. They are so low-poly that it can be laughable when they get close to the camera. And also stylistically it's funny to see everyone have small arms and giant blocky hands. In constrast, the battle models are excellent with great animations! Something older RPG's have trouble doing is convincing me that the enemies aren't just programmed numbers hidden behind some artwork. But FF7 is the first game to have real animations and living models to bring all these enemies to life. I just like getting into fights just to see them! Sound: In a series with only bangers, this soundtrack is the bangest of bangers. Again, as a FF7 hater I thought this shit was overrated, but now I see it as godlike. Especially the JENOVA theme. WOOF. Sound effects are also really good. Big ups to the sounds of the "planet screaming". Extra: There is a moderate amount of side content that, as I said previously is totally esoteric and bizarre to try to figure out how to see some of it. How in the hell are you supposed to figure out how to get the Underwater Materia without a guide? Favorite Thing: Tifa dropping the r-bomb on Barrett out of nowhere is still the funniest thing Not My Favorite Thing: Everything to do with the Gold Saucer is tiedous and I hate it dearly.