Feature article: PSN retro roundup

Final Fantasy VII

Here’s another game that just about transcends the boundaries of a retro game, almost reaching the heights it needs to be labelled as a “historic game” – almost, but not quite. While Final Fantasy VII made a huge splash in the gaming world when it was released on the PlayStation in 1998, most of the noise and the claims that it was “the best game ever made” were purely the slavering ramblings of the over-zealous Final Fantasy fanatics. Still, although its fans blow it way out of proportion, it doesn’t change the fact that Final Fantasy VII is a remarkably good game, as good today as when it was released a decade ago.

It might be hard to believe that there are gamers out there who know little more about FFVII than its title, but we’re sure there are some of you, so: in Final Fantasy VII, players assume the role of Cloud Strife, a selfish mercenary who has signed up with an underground eco-terrorist group called Avalanche, who plan to save their dying planet from the corrupt Shinra Corporation. As you might have guessed, things soon spiral out of control, and what starts out as a bit of environmental terrorism soon becomes something much bigger and much more sinister.

Final Fantasy VII plays in a very traditional Japanese RPG fashion. Players follow a set path through the game, and while there is some room for deviation and exploration, it’s certainly not as free as Western-style RPGs like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. As the story progresses, players will often find themselves in combat. Final Fantasy VII uses Squaresoft’s trademark Active Time Battle combat system, which is a sort of mix between a traditional turn-based battle system and a real-time combat system. It’s quite in-depth, allowing players to use standard weapon attacks, special commands,  items, and a wide variety of magic spells – which can lead to some pretty strategic battles. After every battle, Cloud and his party receive experience points, money, and items – very typical JRPG stuff.

Two of the most talked-about aspects of are its graphics and music. The graphics might not look like much today, but they were ground-breaking for their time, and the music by Nobou Uematsu is dreamy, even though it’s all synthesized scores. In particular, the Boss Battle theme is a rocking good score, and the final boss theme, One Winged Angel, is a powerful orchestral masterpiece that every avid FFVII player can remember perfectly to this day.

If you fancy playing it again for Old Time’s sake, or if you didn’t actually get to play it back then, and would like to see what all the fuss is about, then you can get it easily from the PlayStation Network. It was recently released as part of the PlayStation Classics collection – that means no trophies, no tweaks, and no upgrades, just pure FFVII, the way it was when it was released. The game came on three discs, and the disc switching functionality is handled by an option accessible by pressing the PS button on your controller. It’s really cheap too; the only drawback is the 1.2GB download, which is only a problem for us here in SA, where Internet access is expensive and jealously guarded.