Midgar...
7 Years before the main events in Final Fantasy VII..
Graphics
Amazing.. Square Enix standard as usual. To me, this is my first full 3D RPG game, and I am very delighted with the graphics. The FMVs are of digital-movie standards while the in-game graphics are very colourful and rich in details or anime-like to me. Thus, it is the best from the both worlds.
"Normal" gameplay screen
Look at the details and rich colours of the background and the ground
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Not an FMV.. But it is considered an event cinema (with voice acting!)
Graphics during battle
The movie-quality FMVs.. Woohoo.. (Plus voice acting too!!)
Angeal - Sephiroth - Genesis
The battle FMV is really like a full-action movie. Haha.. Even more hilarious, the writer of the game guide that I use describe his experience of watching this FMV as "orgasmic" lol
Other than the graphics alone, I also love the 'customisation' that Square Enix provides in following the story-line. When Zack's attire, hair, and weapon change, all the limit break and summon animations change too following his new attire, hairstyle, and weapon. The best is the part where Zack is at the beach. In the story, he is in his beach where and instead of a sword, he uses beach umbrella to fight. In the battle screen as well as the various animations, he is again seen his beach wear and beach umbrella. To me it would be lame if there is only 1 set of animations. Imagine if in the story, he is seen with one thing but when it comes to a battle, suddenly all his clothes change.. Soo lame..
Zack's attire, hair, and sword in the limit break animation will change appropriately. Basically there are 3 sets: 2nd Class SOLDIER set, 1st Class SOLDIER set (new clothes+longer hair+buster sword), beach set (beach bermuda+beach umbrella)
Another thing that I like is that the 'main' summons get their own FMVs! Wow.. They are pretty lengthy but they can be skipped. The 'minor' summons do not have FMVs but in their animation, they are interacting with Zack. I find this very cute and comical . Haha.. For example, Zack will copycat Cactuar and Chocobo's movement, while with Mog, Cait Sith, and Tonberry, he is like 'talking' to them.
Each summon has their own FMV! Wow! Odin's is my favourite
Ifrit indeed looks very infernal and brutal.. Suits his "Hellfire" image very well
Cute mog 'borrows' Zack's materia, levels them up, and returns them. Zack will wave goodbye when Mog is flying off at the end of the animation.
My most favourite Limit Break attack though the animation before that "I'm trying! I'm trying" gets irritating most of the times haha..
My only irritation with the graphics is the representation of some of the summons. Phoenix looks like a fat white chicken, rather than a majestic firey bird. That's just gross.. Bahamut looks more like a mecha/robot, rather than a dragon king. The bahamut fury has the worst animation for me: the attack involves some machines in outer space o_0 to me that's utter rubbish.
Gameplay/FeaturesThe battle system is real-time action RPG. Unlike traditional RPGs where players only choose the commands, here I can "fully" control Zack. The traditional commands element is still there. However, there are blocking and dodging effects. In addition, the direction and range become important now. Back-attack is really when you run behind an enemy to bash it. Even magics can also be avoided or can also miss. The traditionally single target magic and physical attack can be effected to multiple targets if they are located closely together or in the same line of attack. In short, it is possible to avoid damage and avoid taking HP refilling items now., though blocking is actually much better than avoiding since wrong timing of evasion is equal to taking the full damage. This is the only good thing about the gameplay.
Thunder-type magics attack in straight line making them easily avoidable
Battling against a summon: Bahamut Fury. It is unreachable by physical attacks and can only be attacked using magic.
The bad side about the real time system is that Zack (yup only one player) can be swarmed with tonnes of enemies (I think maximum is 10 enemies at one time). They can attack at the same time and when you add an element of stop or staggering status, survival rate is too low. The enemy hits very hard too! Within 3-4 received physical attacks, they can easily KO me.. If they use magic, it is worse, 1 or 2 hits KO. Since there is only 1 character to be played, this level of 'difficulty' is way to ridiculous for me.
Adding to the nightmare is the DMW (Digital Mind Wave) system. It means: random-ness.. This is the very frustrating part of the battle system. The summons, the limit breaks, the materia leveling, and the character leveling are random! Ouch.. Well apparently there is EXP calculation involved for the character leveling but the former 3 are totally random! The DMW system involves a slot machine which randomly rotates and stops. Only if when the pictures and numbers are of certain pattern, then certain limit breaks or summons would be activated. It makes the game much harder because usually summons and limit breaks can be abused to increase lethality or prolong survival in Final Fantasy games and for this game, these aspects are no longer abusable. The chance of getting something is low and the chance of getting something appropriate is even lower! Just imagine the irritation when you are dying but Aerith's limit break (healing ability) is never activated while when your HP is full, you keep getting Aerith's limit break. Getting the summons is worse. Firstly you need to enter the modulating phase, then you need to activate the appropriate mode (summon mode or chocobo mode), then you need to pray hard that it's the correct summon that you want which gets chosen, and lastly you need to get 3 of the same kind pictures to get it activated. Wew..
3 of a kind to activate a limit break (Aerith's limit break in this case)
The numbers will determine the level (i.e the potency) of the limit break
777 to level up.. though it seems that when you are ready to level up, the 777 combination will certainly comes out.
Chocobo mode needs to be activated (randomly!) to get the chance of mini-summons (chocobo, cactuar, tonberry, mog, cait sith). There is another summon mode to be activated (again randomly) to get Ifrit, Bahamut, Odin, Phoenix.
There are 3 types of attack: normal attack, magic attack, and special sword skills. The special sword skills are garbage, they are too slow to be effective: the enemy can attack you first as you are taking the stance for the attack. Even the normal attack is better (faster and capable of dealing the same damage). Only steal, mug, and costly punch are basically useful. However, magic is the best: fast, multi targeting, huge range! That makes Zack more of a magician, rather than a soldier.. A contradiction to me.. In addition, some of the names are very badly chosen. There is hell fire, hell fira, and hell firaga. Ifrit's attack is Hellfire. So basically there are magic which are even stronger than a summon. Wow.. ultra lame.. In addition, what the hell is Bahamut Fury?? o_0 Do they run out of ideas? I mean there are still other traditional summons like Shiva, Ramuh, etc.. Why on earth that they choose a Bahamut Fury? Ew...
Overall, I find the battle system sucks haha.. To me, the best real-time system is like the one employed in Tales series. That is really like playing a fighting game in an RPG. This one is lame.. Can run around, can dodge, can block like fighting/action game. But to attack, still have to press and choose certain commands. Neither here nor there..
Materia system is something I hate even from the original FF VII. Lol.. Last time I had to grind for exp but this time, I need luck to level up the materia. The problem is most of the materia is useless. It is more important to equip materia with status bonus for Zack (bonus HP, attack, etc), rather than the use of the materia itself. Most of the materia are rubbish except: mug, costly punch, and curaga. Mug is for stealing, Curaga is for healing, and Costly Punch deals 9999 or 99999 damage. Costly Punch makes it possible to kill the ridiculously tough enemies but at the same time it makes the game boring. Materia Fusion system is just fanciful at the start but not much used eventually. A redundant system in my opinion.
The equipment system does not make Zack's life easier. Initially, he can only equip a freaking 2 equipments!! He needs to get certain items to increase to 3 and maximum 4 equipments. I can hardly equip things to boost his stats since the negative status in the game is far more irritating. Thus most of the spaces is used up for equipments to negate the bad status, especially stun and stop. This is worsened by the fact that most good equipments are only obtained through the missions which are 'optional', not from the main storyline. That brings me to the worst part of the gameplay: the missions.
I spent more (MUCH MORE!) time for the supposedly optional missions than for the main storyline. I find this super boring -__- The missions are much harder than the story lines. By the time some missions are cleared, the main storyline becomes too easy. But to get the good equipments, I have to play the missions. It gets very frustrating to keep dying but luckily it is not a game over for failing a mission. This can be used as a mean to level up. I honestly cannot imagine how to complete the Japanese version since it is a game over for failing a mission there. OMG! Anyway the missions are boring: just a few maps being repeated, same few enemies with just different names and difficulties. To me names like Gaia Malboro or Holy Tonberry is just too much to show that Square Enix has already run out of names -_-
There is a secret super boss: Minerva. The supposedly manifestation of Lifestream or Goddess of the Earth. She is tough, very tough, but not impossibly tough. I guess she's ok as a secret boss since there is no one hit kill attack or something, just that her attacks leave Zack barely standing. However, I wish some of her attacks are avoidable. That will make the battle more interesting. It is a long battle but it is boring because I only need to attack a few times (only use Costly Punch) then block then heal then repeat again from attack. Keep repeating that until winning. So brainless -_-
Minerva from the ending cutscene
In the battle, she wears a mask and she looks like a gundam robot rather than a Goddess
ReplayabilityThere is actually a new game+ option and we can choose harder difficulty level. But no thanks, I don't think I want to repeat. The 'normal' difficulty level is already very hard. And harder difficulty does not make sense when there is Costly Punch which can deal 99999 damage. That just basically prolongs the battles. Bleah.. not an incentive to me to play it again.
The only good reason to replay the game is actually: play one time just to clear the storyline and ignore all the missions, then play another time to clear the missions to get the equipments (or in whichever order). I did both at the same time and as a result, I don't quite get the storyline because I spent more time on the missions. So perhaps, I may replay the game just for one last time to know the story better. That's all.
StorylineZack will die for sure. I know it from the start. So I don't expect much from the plot actually. However, even though I am confused with the storyline (thanks to the LOVELESS riddles and hints), I think the story is quite solid to establish facts and explanations regarding FFVII and its subsequent epilogues: Zack's story, Zack&Cloud's friendship, Zack&Aerith's relationship, the background of the Nibelheim's incident, reasons behind Sephiroth's evilness, etc. The best part to me is how Shinra is portrayed as good in this game while in the actual FF VII, Shinra is the bad guy. Now I know why. Haha..
It's also heartening to depart from the emo-lonely type of hero. To me Zack's character is very real: he flirts with girls, he gets naughty and jokes around even with his superiors, he idolises other people, some people look up to him, and the most important thing is he is very nice to people, even to people from lower rank, especially to Cloud. Haha.. It is nice to see this kind of character. Haha.. Aerith and Cissnei are very pretty too I like LOL.. I like Aerith&Zack's relationship though it ends tragically. I like how the seemingly cold-blooded killers like Tseng&Cissnei actually wants to save Zack even when their hirers want otherwise. And it is certainly nice to see Cloud before he becomes a super emo guy.. Though I still don't like him because eventually he becomes emo anyway.
Aerith, a very nice girl.. A very suitable girlfriend for Zack. Perhaps, it is not a bad thing that she dies eventually. She can be with Zack now lol..
I like Cissnei!! Her limit!! And her weapon!! Lol..
I will say the story is quite good: Vincent is "there" though not physically visible, Cid is briefly mentioned, Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith prescence are quite significant. But Yuffie is a disappointment. She repeatedly appears as treasure hunter. But the fact that she is just a kid entering the various dungeons where the enemies are crazy just does not make sense.. To me, the attempt to make her appear so many times in this game is a total failure.
Another bad part of the game is the acquiring of the summons. Phoenix materia is found in a water tank o_0. Genesis summons Ifrit and Bahamut Fury and Zack beats them (wow.. can beat summons) but he only gets the materia after defeating Ifrit and Bahamut Fury in the lab o_0. So what are the summons in this game? I had no idea..
OverallWhile graphics is the most important factor to make me start playing a game, replayability will be the most important feeling for me to say whether the game is good or not. For that, this game is certainly not my favourite. The gameplay is just too boring for me.. The story is awesome but the way the ending is presented just ruins everything.
Firstly, they make the Zack vs endless Shinra soldiers as a playable battle which is wtf.. At this point of time, I was level 99 and the soldiers could not kill me! I need to make myself be killed to proceed with the game. How lame.. They should just make a FMV rather than forcing players to play useless battle. In other game, usually if there is an unwinable battle, they will make the enemies hit like 99999 HP. Again, this is not applicable cos supposedly the numerous soldiers are lousy. They just win because of their numbers.
Secondly, the way Zack is killed is awful. He is killed by 2 soldiers.. So yeah, after he kills so many, he cannot kill the last 2 freaking idiots and he is killed just like that. That is plain stupid to me.
Thirdly, the way Zack dies is terrible. His face does not look and he does not speak like someone who is going to die.. The blood is there, but the expression, not like a dying person.. Omg.. I think even no matter how happy someone is happy to die, you will not have a 'living person' expression when you are dying. The ultimate bullshit is: Cloud just leaves Zack dead body there.. Apparently he knows that after he leaves, Angeal will bring Zack to the sky with him..
So basically, the awesome story line, the "desperation" and "urgency" that Tseng and Cissnei have to save Zack and the nice "sad" atmosphere created when Aerith gets the feelings that Zack dies, all just ruined because of the lousy ending. Really the ending gives a bitter aftertaste.
Zack hides unconscious Cloud before his final battle
Zack vs endless Shinra soldiers
Final battle
As Zack is dying, the DMW faces turns to stones. Maybe when someone is dying, they slowly lose consciousness and memory.
Sad Aerith knows Zack dies.. So sad.. They never ever meet again, not until both die.
"My honour, my dreams.. they are yours now"
