Replay: Final Fantasy 7

      

One of the most pivotal games in RPG games has got to be Final Fantasy 7. And my god it’s been a long time since I've been able to replay this beast of a title. The main question is can this game still compete with the new generation of RPG games being released? Let’s break this down.

First things first the plot to this game is so painstakingly crafted its breath taking. You play as the troubled soldier Cloud who has traded allegiance to a rebel group called Avalanche. Your main objective in the beginning is to raise as much hell for the Shinra Corporation as possible. Sounds relatively straight forward right? However this game introduces enough characters and plot twists to bend the brain of any right minded player. Don’t get me wrong, you do slowly start to get accustomed to it but if you don’t want to commit to such a plot heavy game this title is certainly not for you. I have to admit at points I found myself at a loss to what was happening, especially with all the flashbacks it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between what was actually going on and what’s in Clouds head.  But for me it’s a roller-coaster of a story that kept me interested from start to finish despite remembering certain major plot points from my childhood (mainly Aerith’s story but I won’t spoil it for anyone.)

Onto the game-play and yes I have to admit the first time I picked this back up again I was completely put off by the graphics. It’s not the games fault; it was revolutionary at the time of its release. But when you become accustomed to 21^st century 1080dp style graphics and you see the characters blocky almost square appearances in comparison you can’t help but laugh. Another slight gripe I had were the in-game controls. For some unknown reason Square Enix decided the circle button should be used as select and the x button should be the cancel button. Imagine the amount of wrong commands I made in battle just because of this backwards system of controls.

However all this aside the actual game play is totally immersive. It caters to all types of gamers. Want to grind your levels so you can annihilate anything that comes your way? Plenty of monster encounters can be found simply by traversing the map. Want to go up against some gnarly and ridiculously challenging hidden bosses? A multitude of jumped up monsters await you in a plethora of side quests. Or do you just want to skip all that and progress the plot? No problem, you can move on without any fuss being made by the game. Just to add to your experience the cinematic cut scenes and the beautiful scores of music featured in amongst the game play really hits at the heart strings. It creates moments that stick with you long after you put the controller down. Nowadays a lot of games seem to sadly neglect this personal touch.

Overall I found myself being pleasantly surprised with what this game still had to offer over 20 years on. I love where the plot takes you and the fact that you can tangibly see the difference and growth of the characters throughout the game. Furthermore none of the characters introduced feel disposable or one dimensional. Everything in this game has a story to tell and that’s what interested me the most. I've already racked up 70+hours on my save file and I still keep coming back in order to complete just one more side quest.