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Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 3) artwork

Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 3) review


"Those who write Final Fantasy VII off as "emo" forget that it isn’t a game about a whiny group of teenagers. Cloud starts off as a cocky dick. The gamer is given the rare opportunity to witness the fall of this character. By the end, perhaps Cloud is a little depressing. But it takes him 40 hours of psychological and emotional abuse to get there."

It is the most enduring game of all time. Since its rerelease on the PSN, Final Fantasy VII has received over 100,000 downloads, polygon graphics be damned! Why has this antiquated game endured so strongly through the ages? It’s in the story, I say. Nay-sayers call it “emo” but I don’t think they realize how dark a game it is.

Final Fantasy VII broke from JRPG tradition in that it isn’t a game about a bunch of people saving the world. Rather, it is about a man failing to save the world, or anything in it, over and over again. It doesn’t follow the classic epic story arc, in which a weak character finds their own inner strength and overcomes previously insurmountable odds. It follows a reversal of this arc, in which a strong character’s ego is slowly chipped away until he is left a broken shell of his former self.

Cloud’s first words in Final Fantasy VII are to tell Barret to bugger off when the man asks for his name. Cloud doesn’t get chummy with the locals. He is willing to use his gargantuan sword to help the locals in exchange for a bit of extra cash, but that’s about it. At the start of the game, Cloud is a self-sure badass who looks out for number one and doesn’t give a damn about anyone else unless they have tits and might be up for showing them.

Our faith in Cloud’s abilities are quickly shaken. He has strange lapses of memory and odd mood swings. He blows off his childhood love interest for some random woman he meets in the slums. He later beats this woman half to death and stands by as she is idly killed by a sword through the gut. He becomes obsessed with understanding this darker side of himself, bringing to mind the old warning "stare into the abyss..."

It's not an easy path for Cloud. Every scene in Final Fantasy VII exists to point out how much of a failure he is. He fails to save the members of Avalanche or the rest of Sector 7. He fails to kill President Shinra and, shortly afterwards, his son Rufus. He gets wrongly framed at the Gold Saucer and fails to prove his innocence, landing him and his buddies in the Desert Prison. He hands Sephiroth the very object he needs to destroy the world.

Those who write Final Fantasy VII off as "emo" forget that it isn’t a game about a whiny group of teenagers. Cloud starts off as a cocky dick. The gamer is given the rare opportunity to witness the fall of this character. By the end, perhaps Cloud is a little depressing. But it takes him 40 hours of psychological and emotional abuse to get there.

They’ve tried, but Square Enix hasn’t abused a character in such a memorable way since.



zippdementia's avatar
Freelance review by Jonathan Stark (October 22, 2009)

Zipp has spent most of his life standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox there. Sometimes he writes reviews and puts them in the mailbox.

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CoarseDragon posted October 22, 2009:

Well that certinly was different from any other review I read about the game. Interesting viewpoint. Well writen too. But I never thought the game was a 10.
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SuckingDick posted October 22, 2009:

Isn't this written by the same idiot who thinks LittleBigPlanet is artform?

What an idiot.
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zippdementia posted October 22, 2009:

Isn't this written from the same idiot who thinks LittleBigPlanet is artform?

What an idiot.

The very same idiot. Man, that guy's reviews suck. Who is that fucker? Why hasn't he been kicked out of the site yet?
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hmd posted October 22, 2009:

I SAY WE SHOULD LET HIM GO
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CoarseDragon posted October 22, 2009:

ROFLMAO
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MoreHonestGamer posted October 22, 2009:

This site tends to be quite easy on RPG's it seems. At least based on my very minimal time here. FFVII is actually my fave game of all time (FFVI comes close), so I won't dispute the score (not that it even matters one iota), however, I have to agree that the written article is all over the place and lacking in substance. It veers on tabloid or teen mag esque at times. Emo? I mean...really? In any case, for a game as rich as FFVII, more effort and time could have been given to the review. Would have preferred something much more meaty, a modern day in-depth analysis of a riveting but still not ancient (as far as gaming history is concerned) classic.
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wolfqueen001 posted October 22, 2009:

ATTN: New guy (not MoreHonestGamer):

Due to the repulsive vulgarity of your name, you shall henceforth be referred to as SD. That is all.

[Edit by Zig: even though she is too proper to say such things, Wolfqueen is referring to SuckingDuck]

[Edit2 by Zig: damn it. That wasn't intentional.]
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zippdementia posted October 22, 2009:

Would have preferred something much more meaty, a modern day in-depth analysis of a riveting but still not ancient (as far as gaming history is concerned) classic.

I mean, you're welcome to write one. I personally would find such a thing pretty boring and I think maybe 5 people in the world would be bothered to read it.

Note that this comes from the man who wrote this so I have some experience in the matter.
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MoreHonestGamer posted October 22, 2009:

Lol wolfqueen, charming.

Also Zipp, I think I'll give it a miss. I waste far too much spare time procrastinating on numerous forums to find additional time for such reviews. Also I fear if I did, Zig would have me for breakfast with wolf biting away at my duck lol.
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zippdementia posted October 23, 2009:

Also I fear if I did, Zig would have me for breakfast with wolf biting away at my duck lol.


Actually, Zig is one of the fairest and most honest people I know. I doubt he would take the opportunity to childishly "get back at you" for your comments about UC2. And as long as you don't change your name to something like "huge raping penis," WQ probably won't bite you, either.

In any case, if you do get in the mood to write a review, please do so. We're all about differing opinions here on HG (except EmP).
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HugeRapingPenis posted October 23, 2009:

Too late.
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SuckingDick posted October 23, 2009:

Wait, you gave Persona 3 an 8 , but FF VII a 10 ? Different opinion is one thing, wrong opinion is another.
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EmP posted October 23, 2009:

Hey, I'm all about differing opinions. Just so long as people are aware that if they don't coincide with mine they're silly, childish fantasy.
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wolfqueen001 posted October 23, 2009:

-_- I really wasn't talking about MHG with that remark. I really hate these vulgar usernames and refuse to type them if possible. Why there isn't some sort of restriction there is beyond me. It's really quite pointless to make your name something disgusting, not to mention just wrong and repulsive.
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zippdementia posted October 23, 2009:

Wait, you gave Persona 3 an 8 , but FF VII a 10 ? Different opinion is one thing, wrong opinion is another.

I'm not sure I ever actually wrote a review for Persona 3. I'll tell you this much, I've played FF7 five or six times all the way through since its release. I played Persona 3 once and never will again.

What can I say? I like big manly swords. I wouldn't expect you to agree with me. After all, I also like sleeping with transgenders and walks in the rain. I particularly enjoy sleeping with transgenders in the rain.
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MoreHonestGamer posted October 23, 2009:

I'm with Zipp on this one. Exactly the same scenario as well, played through FFVII at least 5-6 times since release and will likely play again in future. Played through Persona 3 once, and have no drive to play through it again, though admittedly I did love the experience whilst I was having it.
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zippdementia posted October 23, 2009:

I'm with Zipp on this one

I'm liking this guy more and more.
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WilltheGreat posted October 23, 2009:

Oh that is it. I'm writing the bash evisceration review.
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darketernal posted October 23, 2009:

FFVII was good if for anything then because it brought the jrpg experience in mainstream to the western audience. Yes, some people played jrpgs before(though that number is largely fictional, and why people make up to prove they are "hardcore" to have played something before FFVII from the genre is beyond me), but for most it was the entry into the world of jrpgs.

Me, my first jrpgs was Knights of Xentar and it was awesome.
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honestgamer posted October 23, 2009:

My first JRPGs were Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior II and I loved them immensely. I promise that I'm not making that up to appear hardcore.
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zippdementia posted October 23, 2009:

Ha! I have you beat, Jason! Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior ONE were my first titles!
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honestgamer posted October 23, 2009:

It's hard to believe that I've essentially been playing and loving JRPGs for just a hair under 20 years. It was the perfect time to start, I guess. I was old enough to understand what was happening in the games, old enough to enjoy solving the puzzles and wandering fantastic wastelands, old enough to catch great franchises in their infancy and to grow up along with them. I feel kind of sorry for people who started with FFVII and don't appreciate how good a real JRPG can be.
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zigfried posted October 23, 2009:

Actually Zipp, Jason still has you beat because Dragon Warrior One sucked.

I played it when it was new and was all like, "what is this primitive jibber-jabber? Gimme a man's RPG!"

//Zig
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zippdementia posted October 23, 2009:

It's an interesting point, Jason. Not about FF7, but about how young we were when we started playing RPGS! Honestly, I didn't play much of Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. I didn't get it. The first RPG I really took seriously was FF4 (released in the states on the SNES as FF2). I still didn't understand EXP, but I knew the Meteor Spell rocked. I also got freaked out by random battles and used to have panic attacks wandering through dungeons.

So, yeah, maybe I didn't get the mechanics. But you know what I totally understood? The story. I understood Cecil's feelings for Rosa. I got Edge's flirtatious motions towards Rydia (I liked her, too). I understood the sorrow in Cecil when he SPOILER! realized his enemy was his brother. I got enraged when Kain betrayed us for the umpteenth time.

It was the first time I felt that video games could be art.
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randxian posted October 26, 2009:

Actually Zipp, Jason still has you beat because Dragon Warrior One sucked.

How many NES games actually have a cameo with Nester from Howard and Nester? That alone makes it at least worth playing.

By the way, I did purposely name drop Howard and Nester to sound oldskool hardcore. I'll admit it. I'm still an NES junkie.
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zippdementia posted October 26, 2009:

Nester and Howard rocked. I still remember fondly Nester tracking down Mussad. Howard left pretty early on, though, at which point Nester discovered his signature bow tie was a clip on (the cad!)
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sashanan posted October 27, 2009:

My first JRPGs were Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior II and I loved them immensely. I promise that I'm not making that up to appear hardcore.

Amateur! My first JRPG was Shining in the Darkness.

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