Final Fantasy VII (1997)

I got this game when it first came out and it was my very first PS1 game. At the time the I believe the only other Final Fantasies I had played were 6 and Mystic Quest. I chose the obvious team for a teen boy (Tifa and Aeris of course) and was completely blown away by you know what, and definitely cried. Aeris has a very special meaning for me because of how closely she resembles my high school crush; both in appearance and personality. I was the dark brooding asocial introvert while she was the sweet nice girl in a dress with a ribbon in her hair who went out of her way to talk and even flirt with me. Unfortunately, nothing came of it because I was too shy and she moved away.

I beat the game though did not get everything. I went through the game again specifically using Yuffie and Cait Sith as my team because they were my least used and least liked characters. I may have gone through a third time but cannot remember. I played through the game again around 2010-2012 using a walkthrough to do everything perfectly. I chose Barret and Yuffie as my team because they both have long range weapons and can thus be put in the back row to take less damage; Vincent was a contender but I do not like his limit breaks. There was a point around disc 3 where you had to do something in order to get Vincent's ultimate weapon. I forgot it and had to start the game entirely over! Oh well I was not too upset because this is such an amazing game. I ended up getting all the best equipment, completing all relevant side content, including chocobo breeding and defeating Emerald and Ruby.

Here are my end game stats:

Cloud: Level 93, ultima weapon, mystile, safety bit, double cut + luck up, W item + master magic, enemy skill + counter attack, magic up + hp up, master summon + absorb mp, phoenix + final attack, speed up + W summon

Barret: Level 85, missing score, mystile, ribbon, absorb mp + ultima, contain + quadra magic, revive + bahamut zero, hp up + slash all, magic up + speed up, full cure + all, master command + hp up

Yuffie: Level 83, conformer, mystile, ribbon, master magic + quadra magic, added cut + master command, W magic + mega all, pre emptive + counter attack, magic up + hp up, speed up + magic up, mp absorb + knights of the round

The others are: Vincent level 83, Cait Sith level 80, Cid level 77, Tifa level 75, Red level 73

Needless to say, my characters are so brokenly overpowered that I can easily beat the final boss with just normal attacks.

This game is a beloved masterpiece of mine but ranks around the middle of all the Final Fantasies. It has the best setting and world building in my opinion, and its story and characters rival the best of the series. The FMVs add a truly epic feel that was not quite possible on the SNES. The problems with the game are pretty much the same as 6; it is a bit too easy with master of all trades characters (other than Aeris) that spend too much time on the back bench. The largest flaw is the nature of materia, in that it is an equippable item whose power is its own and only improves when in the battle team. You have to put extra effort into the game to have enough decent materia for more than 3 people, leaving the benchwarmers severely underpowered. If you are like me and like to frequently swap the characters around so everyone gets to fight, then it is awkward to keep moving materia around. Especially given that the character's weapons are not always equal in terms of slots and connections.

I can't see myself playing through the game again given how much time I have already played. One of the best games of all time and among the best music of the series.

After never owning a PS1 I finally finished this historic JRPG! Incredible music and FMV cutscenes. I actually enjoyed the first 20 or so hours. End of Disc 2 and Disc 3 becomes a drag...I just wanted it to end. Final bosses where underwhelming considering the history and all the memes and spoilers I got! Final ending FMV was lackluster also. It was kinda like....ehhh that's it?!?! Especially with the high quality cutscenes we got during the course of this game.

I'm glad I played it...although maybe in 1997 I would of loved it more...I still had a great time with these characters/battles/situations. I look forward to the FF7 Remake!

My first Final Fantasy game! Really, really liked it, and it definitely got me interested in diving into more FF games. I will say that I'm starting to get frustrated with a lot of older RPG's though. I think modern games RPG's do a good job at properly guiding you towards end game difficultly. But in a game like this, you kind of have to do hours of grinding or hunting for optional items to beat the game. I'm all for challenge, but when I got to the end of FF7, I basically realized that I would need to leave the final area and grind for hours to actually beat it. I've had that problem with 3 or 4 old RPG's I've played recently, and it's kind of starting to turn me off from games like this, despite enjoying them. Anyways, here's a little video I did about it.

Gave up on this after 25-27 hours of gameplay. Played on PSP.

I stopped playing at 3 hours into disc 2. After that I just watched a "let's play" of the rest and read a guide to know about the sidequests, secrets, etc.

I have to say that the story gets really interesting in discs 2 and 3. The music is also fantastic.

On the other hand: the controls and movement through the maps are irritating , the puzzles are dumb, the combat is tedious and repetitive (attack animation takes forever), the minigames are terrible. Most of the antagonists are a complete joke, except for the main villain.

I remember having a blast with FF6 and FF5 on the SNES so maybe I had too high expectations for this game... Anyway, if you have a lot of patience and love JRPG's this is definitely worth playing. I recommend playing on emulator and use fast-forward or something like that.