Gaming Essentials – Final Fantasy VII

 

Back in the days of “Old School”, there was what we call “Two Dimensional gaming”. That is, games that only moved from side to side and maybe up and down, not “in and out” of the screen. Somewhere around the time the N64 and Playstation 1 were dominating the market, things began to shift more and more towards three dimensional gaming. Sure, there were sole older psudo 3D games out before that but generally they consisted of ugly looking sprites drawn from 4-5 angles (flipped for left and right viewing). The N64 and the Playstation brought about the advent of the Polygon.

Many of the old favorites would attempt to make the transition to three dimensions. Some would be a horrible mess of 3D gimmicks, others would be innovative retakes on old ideas, and still others would stick with the same old ideas, with a slightly prettier face. One such series is Final Fantasy.

The series that dominates the RPG market would expand into this new format with Final Fantasy 7. Now, the numbering on this game likely confused people at first. With Final Fantasy 7, we would learn that, while Square had given us several really decent games on the NES and SNES, they had also been holding out on us. Previously the Us had only been on Final Fantasy 3. there were a few other FF labeled games on the Game Boy and SNES but adding those in only complicated things by adding up to MORE than 7.

Still, we didn’t care. Square had shown us beautiful computer rendered scenes that promised the most amazing game ever made. Then we got the game and found ourselves in a strange neo fantasy Popeye cartoon. Still, the graphics were still pretty spiffy and the rendered backgrounds looked nice. Though the Polygonal characters would occasionally have their glitches and didn’t always mesh perfectly with the world they lived in.

Final Fantasy 7 also featured another interesting change, though it is more likely a change due to the new graphics technology. The world seemed to revolve around more modern technology than any previous game. Sure it still had swords and magic, but the main character is seen riding on a motorbike in one scene. Still, previous games had their technology, we just couldn’t see it quite as well.

It also featured a very strong plot. It featured a nice mix of main and secondary characters as well as a villain that came off as sinister despite his sissy boy appearance. Its ending would spawn controversy among gamers across the vast internet. Does everyone die? Does the world end? It was certainly implied.

Still, even more controversial than the ending would be the death of one of its main characters. Every time a bell rings, Aeris gets her wings, along with a sword through the back and three pieces of pornographic art from Japan.

Oops, sorry if you’re behind a bit on your play schedule, I guess I ruined the plot twist. Don’t worry though, Aeris is a completely unlikable airhead. You’ll be begging for her to get it before the end. Just remember to save your underwater materia, you can buy a rainbow Chocobo with it that can be used to rescue her from the Farplane.

PS, The game’s great, go out and play it right now!