"Final Fantasy 7"

Graphics:
The characters are very deformed, with Big heads and blocky arms. But I don't mind it too much. Once in battle the characters look really good. The backgrounds are pre-rendered, which means hardly any interaction with it. The FMV is pretty well done, and it amazed me when I first got the game. (soon after it came out)

Sound:
I really liked most of the music in this game. Aeris's theme was well done. The Boss Battle was also well done. The Final Boss battle was amazing, and many of the dungeon themes were good. The only two songs that I didn't like to much was the map and, unfoutunately, the battle theme. Most the sound effects, sounded fake, but it was nice how all the monsters had there own noise when the game appeared into battle.

Story:
This is one of my favorite storylines. Although it can be confusing. It has a great villan, who was very well developed, great characters who were also very well developed. Two secret characters were presant in the game, and even they were developed pretty well. Cloud was a pretty good main character, a lot better then Squall in FF8. The storyline itself is a basic bad guy trying to take over the world, but the characters are what make it good.

Gameplay:
Like most RPG's the enemies can't bee seens until battle. Luckily battles don't seem to occur too often. A new system is the Materia system. I personally, liked it. Each materia had it's effect on you Hp or defense or Mp while allowing you to cast a spell. You could fit Materia in your weapons and armor and depending on how good your weapon or armor was, the more materia you could fit. Some of them were connected, so you could use two materia to help each other out. Say you had a Heal and an All materia, put them in a connecting slot and you could heal All your party members at once. The materia grew in levels as you battled, Heal could become, Cure 1, 2, 3 and Regen throughout the game. Each spell had this. Summons were also in Materia, and the levels that they grew equaled how many times you could use them in one battle. If Ifrit was level 1 you could use him once in battle if he was level 2, twice and so on. New to FF are Limit Breaks, each characters unique special attack. Each character has a Limit meter, everytime he or she is attacked, it goes up, when it fills the character can use his or her Limit Break. Cloud uses special sword attacks, while Tifa can combine all her Limit breaks for one amazing combo. Although some of these Limit breaks can make the game very easy. If you get the ultimate Limit break for Cloud or find the ultimate summon the final boss is a breeze, and even without he's not too tough.

Replay Value:
As usual not much of one. However the game lasts quite a long time the first time through. Three discs long. If you take your time and do some of the sidequests or level up your limits and find the ultimate weapons it would take about 70 hours to complete. Also two special, really hard bosses await for a great challange and some decent items.

Difficulty:
Medium-Some bosses gave me some trouble and if you forget switching materia at certain points it will be quite a challange. Two hidden bosses are in the game and they provide a great challange. However the final boss is very easy, ultimate limit break or not.

Buy or Rent?
(Bottom Line); I suggest you buy this game. It's on the Greatest Hit List which means it's cheaper then when it first came out. If your weary about it try a rent first. I think you'll enjoy it.

My Score 9/10

Review by: STARSCOP33