Chris Pieprzak CIS 487 Assignment 2 Due 10 2 06 Final Fantasy VII Review Game Title Final Fantasy VII Company Square Co Now Square Enix Type of Game Role Playing Game RPG Minimum Hardware Required 200Mghz Processor and a 3d Accelerated Graphics Card Actual Hardware Required PlayStation or any modern computer Price Between 20 and 30 from Ebay Overview The Final Fantasy Series has always been known as one of the best titles in the RPG genre and Final Fantasy VII does not break this tradition As of March 2006 the game has sold around 9 72 million copies world wide making it the highest selling title in the Series Wikipedia Final Fantasy VII was the first Final Fantasy Title to be released for the PlayStation in 1997 and had ground breaking graphics for its time The game has a fairly linear storyline that has many optional side quests to learn more of the characters pasts The game has tons of content enough to last you more than 100 hours That s when the game stops keeping track but can be beaten in around 60 hours if you just follow the main story Storyline The game starts off following the main character Cloud Strife a hired mercenary and an Ex Soldier An Elite Member of the Shinra Army Soon you learn that Cloud has been hired by a group of extremists known as Avalanche to help destroy Shinra Shinra provides electrical energy for the world but do so by draining it from the life force of the planet or so Avalanche claims This energy is being pumped from the planet through a total of eight locations and Cloud has been hired to help destroy these places All does not go as planned however and Cloud is forced to take a detour that leads to uncovering some of Shinra s darkest secrets as well as some secrets from his own past Player s Role The player s main role in the beginning of the game is to guide Cloud through his journey completing various tasks assigned to him As the game progresses Cloud takes over the group and you make decisions about where to go and how to proceed Along the way you encounter numerous enemies that you must defeat and the player controls up to three party members actions while in battle Defeating monsters yields and experience and items It is the player s job to decide how to best outfit their characters in order to defeat enemies and progress the story Installation There are two versions of the game one for the PC and one for the PlayStation Installation for the PlayStation involves dropping in the disc and making sure there is enough memory left in the memory card to save a game For the PC version there is an installation disc which installs the game and Direct X 6 if you don t already have higher In addition you must download an unofficial patch from the internet if you want to play on Windows XP The patch keeps the game from freezing and is entitled something involving Chocobo Racing Fix there are numerous different names for it User Interface The user interface is similar to other games in the Final Fantasy series and involves the player moving a character around the screen bringing up a set of menus involving viewing character statistics equipment tactical setup items and the option to save your game During battles enemies and the players take turns attacking each other and the player selects which actions to take from a list available to them for each character Game Play Final Fantasy VII is a single player Role Playing Game As the game starts out the player controls Cloud and follows instructions given to him Soon after the player begins to get the hang of the game the game opens up tremendously allowing the player to explore the world at their own leisure as well as progress the story line Along the way there are numerous side quests that yield stronger equipment and explain more about the workings of the world but are not necessary to beat the game Scoring Final Fantasy VII does not have a direct scoring method but progress through the game can be measured by a combination of character levels equipment items time played and story progression The main objective is to defeat an evil villain bent on world domination but there is at least as much content that is not necessary to completing this goal Artwork The artwork is a combination of mostly 2D backgrounds with a 3D character drawn in with a very low polygon count for most of the story The artwork during the battle scenes are much more detailed and more 3D looking Throughout the game there are also various cutscenes of very high quality for the time Pictures from Wikipedia Sound And Music The sound track of Final Fantasy VII is composed mostly of midi files That being said they are of very high quality and are quite catchy Most have them have even been ochastraited to large audiances Manual The purpose of the manual is to give you a brief overview of the background explain the characters and give a brief tutorial on how to play To this definition the manual included with Final Fantasy VII succeeds Bugs The only bug is for the PC version porting it to an operating system it wasn t designed for The game will always crash at one part during the story on Windows XP An unofficial patch however is available to download on the internet to fix this problem Game Review If you are a fan of the Role Playing Genre Final Fantasy VII is a must play The battle sequences are enthralling and leveling your characters is as much fun as progressing the story which is no small feat The games system of equipment allows for amazing customization allowing any of your characters to assume just about any role from healing to high melee damage to strong magic attacks or my personal favorite maxing all three While the graphics are sub par to today s standards the defining characteristics for a Role Playing Game is storyline and in this regards Final Fantasy VII succeeds better than game I have ever played Summary Final Fantasy VII is as a whole a very solid game If you enjoy role playing games even just a little it s a safe bet that you will enjoy Final Fantasy VII A lot The story is better than any game I have ever played and rivals that of most books movies If you can get over the 1997 graphics you can easily have 60 hours of satisfied gameplay with a high replayability If the game was remade with good voice acting and graphics standard of games of this ERA the game would be flawless
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