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Final Fantasy VII (In my opinion) is by far the best Final Fantasy so far. Here is my review.
Graphics 8/10 Well the graphics do suck but the battle graphics are pretty good for a 1997 game. I like the Cinematics as well.
Sound 10/10 Nobuo Uematsu is the best music composer ever! I love the FFVII Soundtrack. There are good tracks like Anxious Heart, JENOVA, One-Winged Angel, Judgement Day and more!
Gameplay 10/10 A very long game but the whole thing is worth it!
Character Design 9/10 There are some very weird characters in the bunch but everyone else is awesome!
Storyline 10/10 A very good story! The best storyline in a Final Fantasy yet!!
Overall 10/10 An amazing game that is worth every penny! I'm hoping for a remake.
A picture of Cloud holding Zack's Buster Sword looking at Shinra HQ.
208 hits
Final Fantasy VII
Creator: Squaresoft
Platform: Playstation, PC.
Year of Release: 1997 (PS1), 1998 (PC).
The world of Final Fantasy VII is economically, militarily, and politically dominated by a powerful conglomerate called the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, which profits from the use of machines known as "Mako Reactors". These reactors syphon a special type of energy - called "Mako" - out of the planet and convert it into electricity. One of the by-products of the extraction and refinement of Mako energy is materia, a concentrated form of Mako which allows the owner to use its magical properties.
In actuality, Mako energy is drawn from the Lifestream, a flow of life-force beneath the surface of the planet. All life originates from the Lifestream, and returns to it upon death. In short, the Lifestream is the sum of all the life that have ever and will ever walk upon the planet. The process of extracting Mako energy literally drains the life of the planet in order to generate electricity.
Shin-Ra's management is concerned with the limited repositories of Mako energy available for harvesting, and are fascinated with the idea of a "Promised Land"—a place where the land is incredibly fertile and where Mako flows abundantly. Only a race called the Cetra, or the Ancients, are, according to legend, able to find it. However, the Cetra have been driven to extinction, except for one, Aerith Gainsborough (sometimes called "Aeris," an alternate rendering of Earisu, the Japanese transliteration of the English word "Earth"[1]), whom Shin-Ra has been trying to capture for years.
The city of Midgar is a municipality created and operated by Shin-Ra. It is also the location of Shin-Ra headquarters and serves as the home to their nemesis, a rebel resistance group of eco-terrorists called AVALANCHE. The game opens as AVALANCHE hires a mercenary named Cloud Strife, who claims to be a former member of Shin-Ra's elite special forces team, SOLDIER, to aid in the destruction of eight Mako reactors situated in a ring surrounding Midgar.
Cloud shows little interest in AVALANCHE's cause at first. By his own admission, he is interested only in the money. Eventually, however, Cloud discovers the connection between Shin-Ra's ecologically destructive actions and a shadowy figure from his own past, a man named Sephiroth, a legendary SOLDIER, whom Cloud had long believed dead. As Cloud is drawn deeper and deeper into the three-way conflict between Shin-Ra, AVALANCHE, and Sephiroth, Cloud's identity and his past come into question. Themes explored in the story include the need to forgive one's own failings and the redeeming power of love.
At the end of the first disc of the game occurs a famous scene in which Aerith is killed by Sephiroth (I wonder why they didn't use a Phoenix Down). The scene shocked many fans, and has been regarded as one of the most memorable scenes in RPG history.
Sephiroth before and after the final battle
Main Protagonists
Cloud Strife
Age: 21
Cloud Strife (クラウド・ストライフ, Kuraudou Sutoraifu?): The game's lead protagonist. A self-proclaimed ex-SOLDIER-turned mercenary employed by AVALANCHE, and the main character of the game. Cloud is portrayed as a confused and conflicted individual with an occasionally arrogant attitude. He wears a purple SOLDIER uniform and is distinguished by his glowing blue-green eyes, which are a sign of having been exposed to mako. He also sports spiked blonde hair for which he is often made fun of by his peers — particularly Barret. He wields a giant Buster Sword in combat. Initially a cold-hearted mercenary who refuses to aid AVALANCHE for any reason except money, Cloud eventually comes to take up the cause of the planet whole-heartedly, largely as a result of Aerith's (and Sephiroth's) influence.
Aerith (Aeris) Gainsborough
Age: 22
Aerith Gainsborough (エアリス・ゲインズブール, Earisu Geinzubūru?, originally romanized as Aeris Gainsborough): A young woman who sells flowers on the streets of Midgar and is sought after by Shin-Ra's research department. She asks Cloud to be her bodyguard after a run-in with the Turks, and subsequently joins AVALANCHE. Throughout the game, there is a large amount of romantic tension between herself, Cloud and Tifa, influenced by the player's own choices.
Aerith has long brown hair she keeps in a braid with pink bows and vivid green eyes, and wears a red mini-jacket with a pink dress. A loyal and self-sacrificing type, Aerith never puts herself ahead of helping others, and would give anything to save the planet. Throughout the game, Aerith helps to bring Cloud out of his shell. Aerith is the last Cetra.
Tifa Lockhart
Age: 20
Tifa Lockhart (ティファ・ロックハート, Tifa Rokkuhāto?), or Tifa Lockheart. The female protagonist of the game. A childhood friend of Cloud and a skilled martial artist in her own right. One of the main members of AVALANCHE, it is Tifa who convinces Cloud to work for the group. She has feelings for him but won't admit it. She has long brown hair tied back in a loose pony-tail and red-brown eyes. Tifa helps Cloud unravel the secrets of his past and stands by him throughout the game.
Barret Wallace
Age: 35
Barret Wallace (バレット・ウォーレス, Barretto Wōresu?): The leader of AVALANCHE, Barret is a man with a powerful build and a deep-seated hatred of everything Shin-Ra. Barret mistrusts Cloud at first because of the mecenary's past affiliation with the corporation. He lost his right forearm during an encounter with Shin-Ra years ago and had it replaced with a powerful gun prosthetic.
Red XIII (Nanaki)
Age: 48
Red XIII (レッドXIII, Reddo Sātīn?): Strong, fierce, and coated with fire-red fur, Red XIII is a large and powerful creature with a strong intellect and warm heart to match. His species is possessed of great longevity, which surprises the party when they learn that his 48 years only amounts to adolescence by his species standards. Though his real name is Nanaki, he is given the name Red XIII by Hojo, and the name sticks when the party rescue him from Hojo's laboratory. Seto, Red XIII's father, protected Cosmo Canyon from invading Undead Gi. Red XIII believed his father was a coward, until he was proven wrong at the end of the Cave of the Gi, where he saw his fathers' petrified body.
Yuffie Kisaragi
Age: 16
Yuffie Kisaragi (ユフィ・キサラギ, Yufi Kisaragi?): The spunky young ninja of Wutai and Godo's daughter. A self-proclaimed "Materia Hunter", Yuffie is in fact a pickpocket and thief who joins the party hoping to steal their Materia, with the intention of restoring her country, Wutai, to its former glory. Although Yuffie is a skillful ninja, she has her weaknesses: namely, she is prone to sea and air sickness and shows signs of kleptomania.
Cait Sith
Age: ?
Cait Sith (ケット・シー, Ketto Shī?): Appearing as a stuffed, talking cat, Cait Sith is friendly, but often unreliable. He rides on the back of a stuffed moogle, which does all of the pair's fighting. Cait Sith is eventually revealed to be an animatronic robot that Reeve Tuesti, Shin-Ra's head of Urban Development, used to infiltrate AVALANCHE. However, over time, Reeve came to care for his new friends and their cause, and used Cait Sith as a way for him to help them. Cait Sith sacrifices himself at one point in the game to aid the group, but a second Cait Sith immediately shows up to replace him. "Cait sith" is gaelic for "fairy cat", which explains the reasoning behind the often derided Scottish/Irish dialect of Cait Sith in Advent Children.
Vincent Valentine
Age: 57 (27 biologically)
Vincent Valentine (ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン, Bisentou Barentain?): A dark, brooding and sardonic young man whose heart has been numbed by a tragic love. Vincent is a former Turks gunman who was experimented on by Hojo approximately thirty years before the start of the game[2], and consequently developed superhuman abilities and characteristics. Cloud and the others eventually discover him sleeping inside a coffin in the basement of the Shinra Mansion, where he joins them in their quest.
Cid Highwind
Age: 32
Cid Highwind (シド・ハイウィンド, Shido Haiwindo?): A rather grouchy and foul-mouthed (but nonetheless warm-hearted) character, Cid is a pilot who dreams of travelling into space. He lives with Shera, an assistant who forced Cid to abort his past chance of launching his rocket into space, saving Cid's life by checking oxygen tanks she correctly feared were faulty during the lift-off sequence. Cid designed the airship Highwind and also owns the Tiny Bronco, a small plane which Cloud and the others use as a boat in the game after it is downed by Shin-Ra. Cid wields spears and lances in battle.
Other Major Characters
Sephiroth
Sephiroth (セフィロス, Sefirosu?): The game's primary villain. Known to be the strongest member of SOLDIER ever, Sephiroth rose to a prominent rank at an early age. After a traumatic incident in which he learned of his true origins, he plans to become god-like by wounding the Planet with Meteor and absorbing the entirety of the Lifestream sent to heal the damage. He manipulates Cloud (and the party, by extension) over the course of the game.
Zack
Zack (ザックス, Zakkusu?) was a SOLDIER 1st Class from Gongaga. Though laid back and a flirt, Zack follows a moral code of loyalty to his friends, striving to protect people above all else, and fighting those who have no respect for life. He dated Aerith for five years prior to the game’s beginning. He and Cloud are used as Hojo’s test specimens after Sephiroth burns down Nibelheim, however Zack manages to escape after four years and he carries the incapacitated Cloud with him.
Zack is shot to death by Shin-Ra soldiers, while Cloud is left to die on his own. Throughout most of the game, Cloud adopts Zack’s memories and character traits as his own, even using Zack’s Buster Sword as his own weapon. During the CGI sequel Advent Children, Cloud uses the Buster Sword as a gravemarker for Zack.
