Retro Review - Final Fantasy VII

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Final Fantasy VII, just to name it all know that we are before some of the best games of the saga and in addition, some of the best RPG industry as such, a game that innovated in many aspects, adding new features that later ported to later games, with a catchy story, full of feelings and a good amount of well-designed and designed characters.

For many it is his favorite game of the whole saga, although being sincere my Final Fantasy favorite will always be the IX, although well maybe it influences because it was the first Final Fantasy that I played for those years and I still keep that affection, even so, without taking away the merit it deserves Final Fantasy VII, it is still an excellent game and one understands the admiration you have.

And well, we started this new Retro Review.

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We are in a futuristic world compared to previous games, in this abound the industrial structures and organizations, where we have SHINRA an industry that is draining a type of energy that owns the planet where they live, because of this they are ending life on this planet.

In this world there is also another organization that opposes the acts it is committing SHINRA, an organization that has the name AVALANCHE and it is in this organization where our main protagonist joins so that, along with your help to stop SHINRA.

Final Fantasy VII introduces us into a world totally different from what we had been accustomed to, we are already a world where there are no castles and magic does not abound as in previous games, if not that puts us in a more "current" world, so to speak, but still it shows the essence of Final Fantasy, in fact I take that essence and add his personal touch, creating a revolutionary game.

Now, since I've talked a little about the history of this game, it's time to talk about the characters, starting with the main character:

Cloud Strife:

This is our main protagonist and therefore the hero of the story, it is a young man with blond hair and bristling, formerly belonged to the elite group of SHINRA, whose name is SOLDIER, but after that this one leaves its position, joins to AVALANCHE, knowing thus to the great amount of personages that will help us and of equal way will make the life difficult during the game. Cloud has at hand a huge sword, whose story and former owner is told in a prequel game.

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Tifa LockHart:

She is a childhood friend of Cloud and has since been in love with him, she also belongs to the AVALANCHE group, she is one of the playable characters and is characterized by melee combat.

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Aerith Gainsborough:

We know her accidentally after Cloud joined AVALANCHE and this falls in a church product of an explosion, she is a young woman who has great secrecy, a secret that is of great importance for the purposes of the main villain. A character that without going into spoilers made more than one cry.

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Barret Wallace:

He is one of the first companions that we know in the game, he is the leader of AVALANCHE, has in his right hand a machine gun.

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Red 13:

It is a moment of history when Aerith is kidnapped by the boss of SHINRA, after his rescue, also rescued this other personage of the history, it is a species of tiger whose coat is red , an animal of great intelligence and useful character throughout the game.

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Caith Sith:

Not only do we have tigers as playable characters in this game, but there are also robotic cats, especially a cat that on top of a Moguri (classic character of the saga Final Fantasy), in addition to using a megaphone as Attack weapon also belongs to the SHINRA organization.

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Yuffie Kisaragi:

It is a 16 year old girl, trained in the noble ninja art, a character who possesses great speed and agility.

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Vincent Valentine:

It is a character full of mysteries and a tragic past, previously worked with SHINRA by another organization that appears in the game, The Turks, due to experiments that had to submit has the ability to become both in demon as in other forms. For many your favorite character.

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Note: Both Yuffie Kisaragi and Vincent Valentine are secret characters in the game.

Cid Highwind:

Something that has accustomed us Final Fantasy is a character named Cid and that this is always related to ships, aircraft or some flying vehicle, is a wink that we always see in almost all games. And in this could not miss, this helps Cloud and his group by giving his plane as transportation around the world.

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And like any good game, you could not miss a good villain, a villain who can even be said to be the favorite of fans, even above Cloud, the main protagonist of this game and I'm talking about :

Sephiroth:

Product of an experiment, which upon learning that its origin comes from nothing more test tubes and some scientists, it loses sanity. He belonged to the group SOLDIER and was known as the best soldier. The soldier by which the others must be guided and follow in his footsteps, the soldier number one. It has as its plan to invoke a meteorite so that when it collides with the earth releases a type of energy from which it can merge and thus become a god.

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Being a game set in a time more to the future compared to previous games, when designing the environments and scenarios of the games they had to do it in a credible way, something that they achieved for their time, the atmosphere that could be witnessed in the game despite having loaded funds were coupled very well to what the game wanted to convey.

As for the designs of the characters, bearing in mind that this game was of the Playstation 1 and one of the main features of this game console were the graphics polygonal, for their time they were innovative, the colors used in each character gives the necessary characteristics so that these are complemented with the industrial-type scenarios.

In addition the animations are well done, both in battles and when we move around the world, something that stands out in this game, it is the animations as far as special powers are concerned, because they looked spectacular.

Another point to add are the cinematic ones where many were surprised when they saw it for the first time, , until I say, that despite having played first Final Fantasy IX and in terms of graphics you can see the passing of the years, , the cinematics of the FFVII are not left at all by comparison.

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Although, maybe I'm talking from the nostalgia and as everyone knows nostalgia makes us believe that some things are better than they really are, but still I'm sure that despite the years this game still remains in force.

If something the developers of Final Fantasy know how to do, independent of the game of the saga, is that they know how to take advantage of their soundtrack, is that any music in the game is subtly composed for any type of situation that merits. The music of this game was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, every fan knows what this name means for the saga Final Fantasy, is a master of composition, that simple.

So just enjoy this wonderful soundtrack that knows how to transmit emotion during the time we are playing.

Video Author TantrisOST

Being a RPG game is characterized by gain experience, level up and equip us with different armor and items to improve our status something that this game applied perfectly, with a polished game mode where battles were random, that is to say, as we move around the world they appear enemies of whom we had the possibility to fight with them, in addition to the characteristic game mode by turns where we can fight with 3 characters at a time with a certain amount of enemies.

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During battles we can use either magic or invocations that was visually the most spectacular, where the effort made at the time of the programming of this game is noted.

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The gameplay of Final Fantasy VII was innovative for its time, a gameplay that despite that games after this,some of them were maintained, unfortunately the most current games of this saga opted for one where the action is the key piece for its gameplay and with the arrival of the new remake of Final Fantasy VII, without wanting to sound pessimistic, graphically looks spectacular, but what is shown in terms of gameplay does not seem to pay tribute to what was and what represents the game.

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I feel that I am missing words to describe what this game really is and what it represents for your developer company, but especially what it represents for its fans and regret that as I said earlier, Final Fantasy IX is my favorite game of the saga, I know what Final Fantasy VII is the most beloved and with all the reason of the world, is a game with a lot of charismatic characters who know how to transmit their emotions and also are characters that you fancy and even you can identify with them.

I just hope the next remake, in spite of the shown, know how to pay him the tribute that deserves this game and well, I wish that in the future they would do a remake of Final Fantasy IX.

And with this I say goodbye, I hope that for those people who have played Final Fantasy VII in the past have been able to relive the good moments that I left this game and for those people who have not yet done so, I hope you have been curious to do so.

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