League of its own! (Final Fantasy VII (Platinum) (PS))

Member Name: wob1001

Product:	Final Fantasy VII (Platinum) (PS)
Date:	03/05/08 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The best game ever?

Disadvantages: Dated in terms of graphics

There are a few games in every generation of gaming that stand out. They become part of gaming history and are played religiously from then on. Here we have one of those games. In terms of the best games of all times this game for me is runner up, falling short of ocarina of time.

The story is quite complex. A lot happens over 40 - 60 hours of game play!. To give you the general idea you play from the start as the stories protagonist. His name is Cloud Strife and is on one the most popular heroes ever. He carries a huge sword on his back and has spiky blonde hair. You follow his battle against a corrupt corporation called "Shinra". They are draining all of the energy from the world and Cloud is part of a rebel group trying to stop them. This is only the tip of the iceberg however and the worlds safety is threatened and Cloud finds himself with the task of saving it. You encounter many characters throughout your travels and they will join your party and you will control them too. You can however only have 3 players on your team at anyone time but apart from Cloud you can swap at any time.

The gameplay is amazing. It is your typical RPG (role playing game). In this type of game battles are turn based and involve a certain degree of strategy. There are a few different types of play however. The first is when you are in a town. You move one your character to shops and locations without much action. There may be small cut scenes but generally nothing of great importance happens. Next is in the over world map. Here you move in between locations and may encounter enemies. If so a battle sequence is engaged.

In the battle sequence your characters are stationary and normally face the enemy. A time meter will let you know when you can next perform a move. You have up to 3 players to control and you have a number of options you can do. One is fight. You can do your standard move or you can use magic. Against different enemies different methods of attack will work better. For example against robots electric magic attacks work best. You can also use an item. This may help you to heal yourself or you allies or even recover one if the lose all of their life or magic. There are meters which show you how much health and magic you have. The next thing you can do is what makes FFVII special, more so than other RPG's. This is the ability to "Summon". Around the world you will find spheres which are known as summons. With these during a battle you can call upon the help of magical beings to help you. Some are more powerful than others. An example is a huge dragon that shoots a blast of energy at all enemies!

When a battle is won you go to the menu screen. Here you see what experience you have achieved. As with many other RPG games you have levels. Once you gain enough experience from killing enemies you go up a level, When you go up a level you gain more attack power and also more maximum health. This works well as you will find your level rises with the strength of enemies. You may also gain other powers known as "limit breaks" when you go up a level. These are also a revolutionary element. As you get hit by enemies your "limit meter goes up. When it is full you can unleash a powerful attack. The attack usually hits the enemy more than once and may involve some interaction from the player such as pressing combinations of buttons!

The graphics are dated now. The cut scenes that use CGI are still great but overall you can see how old the game is. In this type of game however it doesn't really matter. You're still going to have a great time playing. The music also is fantastic. Nobou Uematsu gives a powerful score as he has with many other games. You will find the music makes the game and is memorable even to me now years after playing it.

You probably will not find a copy in the shops anymore. EBay is you best bet. It probably wont cost you more than £5 either, which is a bargain for the 3 discs this immense game is spread across. Don't miss out on this part of gaming history. I love this game. Everything about it oozes brilliance!

Summary: My profile pic shows my love for this game!