Basic Information:
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, game play, 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.
Game Play:
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.
Legacy:
Final Fantasy VII is credited as "the game that sold the PlayStation", as well as allowing console role-playing games to find a place in markets outside Japan, and (as measured in copies sold) remains the most popular title in the series. The game's popularity and open-ended nature also led director Kitase and scenario writer Nojima to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2. The character Shinra from Final Fantasy X-2 proposes the concept of extracting the life energy from within the planet Spira. Nojima has stated that Shinra and his proposal are a deliberate nod to the Shinra Company, and that he envisioned the events of Final Fantasy X-2 as a prequel to those in Final Fantasy VII. In addition to the PlayStation and PC releases, the game was released onto the PlayStation Network in Japan on April 10, 2009, in America on June 2, 2009 and in Europe and Australia on June 4, 2009. The Japanese release is the International version.The game has also inspired an unofficial version of Final Fantasy VII for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Chinese company Shenzhen Nanjing Technology. This port features the Final Fantasy VII game scaled back to 2D, with some of the side quests removed. The full motion video sequences and computer graphics presented in Final Fantasy VII would allow Sakaguchi to begin production of the first Final Fantasy film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The game also introduced settings dominantly suffused with modern-to-advanced technology into the Final Fantasy series, a theme continued by Final Fantasy VIII and The Spirits Within. Re-releases of Square games in Japan with bonus features would occur frequently after the release of Final Fantasy VII International. Later titles that would be re-released as international versions include Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, and Final Fantasy XII. Several characters from Final Fantasy VII have made cameo appearances in other Square Enix titles, most notably the fighting game Ehrgeiz and the popular Final Fantasy-Disney crossover series Kingdom Hearts. Dissidia: Final Fantasy is the newest game to include Final Fantasy VII characters such as Cloud and Sephiroth and lets players battle it out with characters from other Final Fantasy games. Aerith's death in the game has often been referred as one of the most emotional moments from any video game. IGN ranked her death scene at #1 in its list of Top 100 Video Game Moments. Sephiroth remains one of the most popular villains in video game history, unanimously voted #1 by the staff of gaming publication Electronic Gaming Monthly in their "Top 10 Video Game Bosses" list in October 2005, and winning GameFAQs' best villain contest in spring of the same year. ~~Courtesy of Wikipedia
This is regarded by some as one of the greatest video games ever mad. Please discuss your favorite characters, moments of the game, which platform you think it is best played on etc. Just please no flaming! stressed
