Final Fantasy Vii

Final Fantasy VII ( ファイナルファンタジーVII , Fainaru Fantajī Sebun ^? ) is a role-playing video game developed by Square (now Square Enix) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009 on the PlayStation Network. The game is the first in the series to use 3D computer graphics, featuring fully rendered characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, and was the first game in the main series to be released in Europe. Final Fantasy VII follows protagonist Cloud Strife, who, at the beginning of the game, joins the rebel organization AVALANCHE in their quest to stop the world-controlling megacorporation Shinra, which is draining the life of the planet for use as an energy source. As the story progresses, Cloud and his allies become involved in a larger world-threatening conflict and face Sephiroth, the game's main antagonist.

Development of Final Fantasy VII began in 1994 and the game was originally intended for release on the SNES, but was later moved to the Nintendo 64. However, since the Nintendo 64's cartridges lacked the required storage capacity, Square decided to release the game for the PlayStation instead. The game was designed and produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, while the actual direction was done by Yoshinori Kitase. The music was scored by Final Fantasy veteran Nobuo Uematsu, while the series's long-time character designer, Yoshitaka Amano, was replaced by Tetsuya Nomura.

Helped by a large promotional campaign in the months prior to its release, Final Fantasy VII became an immediate critical and commercial success. In the years following, it has continued to sell solidly—10 million copies worldwide as of May 2010, making it the best-selling title in the series. Final Fantasy VII received significant praise upon its release for its graphics, gameplay, music and story. There was also criticism pertaining to its English localization. It has retrospectively been acknowledged as the game that popularized the role-playing video game genre outside of the Japanese market, and has frequently ranked highly on numerous professional and fan-made "greatest games of all time" lists. The popularity of the title led Square Enix to produce a series of prequels and sequels for different platforms under the collective title Compilation of Final Fantasy VII . An enhanced remake for the PlayStation 3 has been rumored since 2005, though Square Enix has formally stated no such product is in development at the time; however, in March 2010, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada told the media the company would explore the possibility of a remake.

Gameplay

See also: Minigames of Final Fantasy

Like previous installments of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy VII consists primarily of three major areas: an overworld map, field maps, and a battle screen. The overworld map is a 3D model, featuring a scaled-down version of the game's fictional world which the player navigates to travel between the game's locations. As with preceding games in the series, the world map can be traversed by foot, on chocobos, airship, or sea vessel (in this case, a submarine and a plane used as a boat), but it also includes an additional means of transportation—a buggy. On field maps, characters are directed across realistically scaled environments, consisting of 2D pre-rendered backgrounds which represent locations such as towns or forests. The battle screen is a 3D representation of an area, such as a building's interior or an open grassland, in which the player commands the characters in battles against CPU-controlled enemies. While characters are super deformed on maps, the character models are more realistic and normal-scaled in combat. Final Fantasy VII is the first game in the series to have character models with fully rendered polygons, rather than 2D sprites.

Initially, the player is restricted to the city of Midgar, but as the game progresses the entire world becomes accessible. Progression through the game's storyline is largely developed by way of scripted sequences, although pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes are also used often.

Combat

A battle in Final Fantasy VII

During battle sequences, the game uses the Active Time Battle (ATB) system designed by Hiroyuki Ito, first featured in Final Fantasy IV . Unlike previous games in the series, which allow 4-5 playable characters to participate in battle, Final Fantasy VII only allows three characters to be in the party at any time.

Final Fantasy VII ' s skill system is built around the use of materia (which any character can use)—magical orbs that are placed in special slots on weapons and armor, allowing players to customize their party's ability to use magic, summons, and special abilities. However, most magic-based materia also lowers an equipped character's physical attributes. In addition, certain types of materia can be combined in a fixed number of ways to enhance their effects or produce other abilities. Summon spells feature in the game, equippable as materia, with elaborately animated attacks.

A modified form of Final Fantasy VI ' s "Desperation Attacks" appears in Final Fantasy VII as the "Limit Break". Every playable character has a bar that gradually fills up as they suffer damage in battle. When the bar is completely filled, the character is able to unleash his or her Limit Break, a special attack which generally inflicts significantly more damage on enemies than normal attacks, or otherwise aids the party in battle. Unlike materia, each character has their own unique set of Limit Breaks, which are divided into four levels of strength, although one character, Cait Sith, only has two levels.

Plot

Setting

Main article: Gaia (Final Fantasy VII)

The game's setting is similar to that of Final Fantasy VI' s by presenting a world with considerably more advanced technology than the first five games in the series. Overall, the game's technology and society approximates that of an industrial or post-industrial science fiction. The world of Final Fantasy VII , referred to in the game as "The Planet", but retroactively named "Gaia", is composed of three main land masses. The eastern continent features the city of Midgar, an industrial metropolis that serves as the capital city of the world as it hosts headquarters of the Shinra Electric Power Company, which operates as the de facto world government. Other locations on the continent are Junon, Shinra's major military base; Fort Condor, a fort with a huge condor covering up a Mako reactor on top of it; a chocobo ranch; and Kalm, a small town inspired by medieval Europe.

The western continent features most of the accessible areas, which include the Gold Saucer, an amusement park with Corel Prison below; Costa Del Sol, a seaside resort; Gongaga, a small town containing the remains of a destroyed Mako reactor; Nibelheim, a town residing at the base of Mt. Nibel; Rocket Town, the location of Shinra's failed rocket launch; and a settlement called Cosmo Canyon. Wutai, a village inspired by pre-modern Japan and China, is located on a large island off the western continent. The tribe inhabiting Cosmo Canyon emphasize living in harmony with nature and dedicating causes to the planet's well-being. Their settlement features an observatory and serves as a research facility for those who wish to participate in a philosophy known as the "Study of Planet Life", a lifestyle that encourages deference for nature and teaches that the planet has a life of its own. The northernmost continent is a heavily glaciated landmass, and its few settlements include an excavation site; a ski resort; the mythical "City of the Ancients"; and the Northern Crater, where the game's climax takes place. There are also underwater locations accessible only by submarine; for example, a sunken Shinra plane transporter.

Characters

Main article: Characters of the Final Fantasy VII series

The nine main playable characters in Final Fantasy VII are Cloud Strife, an unsociable mercenary who claims to be a former 1st Class member of Shinra's SOLDIER unit; Barret Wallace, the leader of the anti-Shinra rebel group AVALANCHE; Tifa Lockhart, a martial artist and childhood friend of Cloud's; Aerith Gainsborough, a flower merchant who has been pursued by Shinra's special operations unit, the Turks, since childhood; Red XIII, a wise lion-like creature who was experimented on by Shinra scientists; Cait Sith, a fortune-telling robotic cat who rides an animated moogle doll; Cid Highwind, a pilot whose dreams of being the first man in outer space were not realized; Yuffie Kisaragi, a young thief and a skillful ninja; and Vincent Valentine, a former member of Shinra's Turks unit who was experimented on thirty years before the start of the game. The game's main antagonist is Sephiroth, a former member of SOLDIER who reappears several years after disappearing in a battle in which he was concluded to have died.

Story

Final Fantasy VII begins with Cloud joining AVALANCHE in a series of raids against the Mako reactors surrounding the city of Midgar. Although the first mission is successful, AVALANCHE is trapped at another reactor during a subsequent raid. The reactor explodes, launching Cloud from the upper levels of Midgar