Final Fantasy VII

Square are the masters of Rpgs not to mention Video games in general. The Final Fantasy series is Squares pride and joy and you know when Square promise goods, they deliver and in style to. Final Fantasy VII is essentially a Japanese action/Rpg but its like nothing you have ever played before. Hollywood styled visuals, one of the best storylines to ever accompany a video game, luscious CG movies, a polished turn based strategy battle system and indeed depth which most other developers could only dream of stretched across three epic CD's.

Square are now well known for pumping more out of the Playstation visually than any other developers on the face of the earth. The first thing everybody notices about FF7 graphically is the amazing work which Square put into the games static CG backgrounds which are exceptional. Likewise the games usage of polygon characters on CG backgrounds works very well insuring incredibly clean textures and smooth animation. But what makes Final Fantasy VII one of the best looking Psx games to date are the battle graphics. Describing the specials effect in this department of the game is impossible but there is no doubt your reaction will be something like "wow". The games audio to is nothing to be forgotten while certainly not quite as slick as the visuals. The use of well suited music is great creating a real sense of excitement and action.

Games like this don't came along that often, but it seems every time Square make an Rpg it turns out be a real winner. Something that impressed me (well everything did really) is the epic storyline which Square takes great pride in. The way the plot twisted and the characters slowly showed their characteristics was something that I hadn't yet experienced in video games. The games battle system too while being turn based was one of the deepest and most well thought out so far. Gameplay itself was quite linear but not in a bad way since the Final Fantasy world was absolutely massive and the games simplicity was just one of the charms. The storyline was also conveyed with a massive amount of CG movies which were not only of very high quality but told an intriguing story and served as a good deterrent from the basic action. Another interesting addition was the use of arcade games which would be used to break up the action again. These included Road Rash styled racing part, snow boarding, submarine battles plus plenty more and all played amazingly well for sub games.

Overall: Final Fantasy VII is the type of game I could write on about for pages, but I only have to say one thing "Buy it now"!

9 out of 10
Reviewed by Brad Penniment from VideoGames.co.nz