Final Fantasy VII Review – PSN Store

Yes, this game is now 12 years old, a decade younger than myself. Yet with it’s recent port on to the PSN store, and the ability to play it on my Final Fantasy VII PSP is great for me. I will try and make this review as unbiased as I can, but I’m making no guarantees.

Story

The story starts off with you being Cloud, an ex First Class SOLDIER *cough* with some sevre memory and head problems. Eventually the plot to take down an evil company along with a bunch of misfits, turns in to an epic task to save the planet. Aerith’s death scene is very memorable to any gamer, and was a shocking and saddening moment when first seen. The story starts a mite slow, but advances quickly and starts getting complex. Getting the two secret characters helps to add to more story plot, as does finding out all about Zack (which is all optional by the way).

Gameplay

Being the first Final Fantasy game, and indeed first RPG I’d played, this may be where bias plays in. The ATB system was used in this game for battles, and worked very well. The Limit system would lay the ground work for greater improvements, such as in Final Fantasy X, where one could change how Limits were built up, rather than just by being hit. The world map wandering is good in either landscape or top-down view.

Graphics

Reviewing this 12 years down the line means that the graphics take a serious knock. Back then, it was all state-of-the-art, “more real than real” stuff, yet now they’re blocky, things are slightly off. I’m adding a score in brackets for this one for if I had reviewed it 12 years ago, but at my current intelligence.

Soundtrack

The music however remains undeterred by a gap of more than ten years. I still listen to it these days and enjoy the memories it brings forth.

Replayability

Hmmm…this is difficult. On the one hand, I could play this endlessly. On the other hand, I have already played this enough to get all I ever could out of it. Yet I come back and play it each time. This wouldn’t be the same for everyone though. If you haven’t done ALL the optional stuff, replay it and get it. If you have, replay it for fun. See what happens when the train crashes, or play along with Don Corneo. You can’t not replay it.

Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 6.2 (8)/10
Soundtrack: 8.3/10
Replayability: 7.4/10

74.80% (79.40%)

• 0 – 19% Unplayable - why the hell did I even buy this?
• 20 – 49% Poor – Certain elements of the game hold it back
• 50 – 69% Average – More good than bad, but you might need to be a fan to really get in to it.
• 70 – 84% Good – A nice franchise or single game, that just misses out on being great because of a few flaws.
• 85 – 89% Excellent – You could play this for ages and be happy
• 90 – 100% Fucking Excellent – You should have this game and play it every single day.

Want me to review a game? Comment and let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Square Enix E3 Predictions

Square Enix mentioned that the company will reveal three previously unannounced titles at E3 2009. Rumour reported that two of the which will be sequels to their bigger franchises.

That’s from the website The Magic Box and you’ve probably seen it in various places. A few days after this blog goes up, we might know more, but I’m going to offer up a few predictions, let me know what you think.

Kingdom Hearts III

KH Insider had their April Fool’s joke be that there was a Kingdom Hearts III announced, and it would have been a good joke, but it was spoilt. Nonetheless, the slew of spin-off Kingdom Hearts games for DS, PSP & mobile phones will all have been released soon, and fans are waiting for another ‘main’ game so announcing it at E3 and seeing some cool video for the next Kingdom Hearts game would be good.

Chrono Series Game/Mana Series Game

Though I’ve never played the Chrono series, it’s DS rerelease seemed to go well and I know people that have got enjoyment out of it, and Europe had never really seen it before this release so it gave European users a new experience. To not carry on with the series would be foolish.

The Mana series could also do with a new game as well, perhaps something on the PSP rather than sticking to Nintendo’s console to mix it up.

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy fans have wanted a remake of the game for some time, and were taunted by the technical demo above to show off the PS3’s power, and then taunted by an updated opening after the end of Crisis Core, and it would be a cash cow for Square Enix. I will be shocked if this isn’t announced. The other two are more wishes than predictions. What do you think?

Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- Review - PSP

Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- is the PSP prequel to Final Fantasy for the PS1, where you take control of the rarely seen but often discussed Zack Fair as a starting 2nd Class SOLDIER, and see where it all started to go wrong.

Story

A new enemy in the form of Genesis is introduced at the start of the game, as Sephiroth has yet to begin his descent in to madness, and it deals well with setting him as a questionable villain and uses the play, LOVELESS, seen briefly in Final Fantasy VII well. Familiar faces such as Cloud & Yuffie are seen and new faces such as Cissnei are blended in well. By the end of the game, you don’t care about Cloud anymore in Final Fantasy VII and wish that he had died instead of Zack. Great story, even knowing the ending already.

Gameplay

That’s an example of a battle above, there are random encounters as usual and then battle flows by choosing your next attack from the materia you have equipped. Crisis Core allows you to break all the usual Damage & HP Limits, meaning you can deal 99,999 in a single hit later in the game with the right materia (Costly Punch). Outside of battle, you are usually wandering an area with a certain objective, there is no free-roaming world as you’re shipped off to certain locations by ShinRa. The DMW Limit system is great. The more people you meet in game, or items you collect, the more faces fill up. The reels roll each time and if three match up Zack unleashes a limit related to that character.

Graphics

The summons kick up some astounding FMV, even though the first time you see them, you know some great pain is coming your way. The other cutscenes are up to PSP-specs, but I don’t think it uses anywhere near all of the PSP’s power, which would have been nice to see, but I’m always harsh on graphics.

Soundtrack

The Crisis Core soundtrack has some great tunes and uses some variants of Final Fantasy VII tunes, which is in no means a bad thing as I think VII has a good soundtrack, and even has a theme song named “Why”. The best thing to do though, is make a playlist of all songs titled “Theme Of Crisis Core” and listen to them all.

Replayability

The “missions” section allows you to play about 300 missions of varying difficulties. Very Hard in these missions means, if you don’t have Phoenix Downs and Costly Punch, you will die. Crisis Core keeps up the Final Fantasy tradition of having a superboss, in this case, Minerva who has 10,000,000 HP on Normal mode and 20,000,000 on Hard. New Game Plus is also an option, where you will keep all items obtained, and also your level, if the missions were too tough for you the first time through.

Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Soundtrack: 8.7/10
Replayability: 6.7/10

84.5%

• 0 – 19% Unplayable - why the hell did I even buy this?
• 20 – 49% Poor – Certain elements of the game hold it back
• 50 – 69% Average – More good than bad, but you might need to be a fan to really get in to it.
• 70 – 84% Good – A nice franchise or single game, that just misses out on being great because of a few flaws.
• 85 – 89% Excellent – You could play this for ages and be happy
• 90 – 100% Fucking Excellent – You should have this game and play it every single day.

Want me to review a game? Comment and let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

J casts Break!

Maybe you read this post or this one about me ballsing up my above iPhone, which was a very foolish thing to have done. Well, my good luck continues.

I've been playing the above game quite a lot recently, finishing off all the missions and progressing through the story another time (I have already completed it once) and it's been really enjoyable. As a sidenote I recommend it for any Final Fantasy fan, or anyone planning on buying Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (as it works on a similar system apparently).

I've managed to reach 60% or so through the missions and had a few of the Break HP etc. Limits. To those who have not played the game, these are very good things.

Put down my PSP last night, and sat down to watch TV. Slumped back in my sofa, kicked over my coffe, and it went all over my damn game system.

OH FUCK. BUGGER. FUCK. FUCK.

I cleaned the system and thought it was alright and played a few more missions on it after allowing it to dry out, but then later on today I discovered the L Button was stuck down.
This means that the camera spins, which is annoying, but I could cope with, but also makes the game cycle through options during battle. Which makes it unplayable.

Fuck. I have no god damn luck. Well, let me grab my DS instead and see how I can break that.

Oh, there we go. Bollocks.