Some refer to it as Final Fantasy VII. People who hate Roman numerals go with Final Fantasy 7. Fans of brevity stick to FFVII or FF7. Me? I call it all of these things, and if you're reading this after surfing on in from Google, you'll see how clever this intro paragraph is.
Onto the game itself. The dialogue is badly translated at times, the polygon modelling was never great to begin with and looks even worse when seen through fifteen years of hindsight, the brilliantly composed soundtrack was somewhat wasted after it went through the MIDI mangler, and in the time it's taken me to get it working on the PC I probably could have single-handedly coded that damned remake which Square Enix have been flip-flopping over for the best part of two decades.
But there's a reason why Final Fantasy VII is near the top of every 'Best Gamez Ev4R' list compiled by uninspired copywriters the world over. 'Epic' is a grossly overused word these days, but it is the only word we can use to describe the adventure offered up by FFVII - simply put, gameplay and story telling does not get better than this. I'm excited to be embarking on this journey and hope you'll join me for the duration.
As you've probably got the hang of by now, our usual house rules dictate that if the party dies even once, the game and blog must come to an abrupt end and all save files will be promptly deleted.
And it even goes beyond that - for the first time on Iron Man Mode, if I lose, I'm never going to play the game again. Ever. See the very first intro for the backstory to that decision.
So, there's a lot riding on this one. Let's begin, shall we?
I'm treated to the Final Fantasy intro music, which instantly fills me with joy - within that series of arpeggios lies hope, love, exploration, friendship and the promise of an expansive stage on which the sprawling adventure plays out - backing this notion up visually, the camera then pans around the heavens of the FFVII universe.
Oh. Given the apparent distances between what look like tiny stars, the cosmos seems to be the same size as my kitchen. Let's move on.
Zooming into the planet and its largest city, we see a brief shot of a girl we'll come to know as Aeris. Yes, I'm going to call her Aeris (the US translation) rather than the original Aerith for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm not Japanese and nor do I have a lisp. Secondly, it'll wind up Allahweh, which is pretty funny.
But we'll return to Aeris later on in the game. For now, our attention is turned to the train which has pulled into the city and the freedom fighters which have just leapt from it.
I am given control of the spikey-haired blonde guy, and I'm instantly confronted by two guards. Our first fight!
Rather than taking a moment to question my motives or ask for ID, the first guard dives straight in with his baton swinging, which is a bit over the top if you ask me. After he taps me with the nightstick I respond in a measured and reasonable fashion, namely by slicing him in half with my outrageously large sword, killing him outright.
The second guy takes exception to this and throws a grenade - a grenade - across the five feet between us. Man, this is getting out of hand! Luckily (and bizarrely) it misses me completely, so I hack him to death too before rifling through their bodies and helping myself to a health potion and some cash.
So far, so good. I meet the other freedom fighters by the foot of a reactor. The group marauds under the name of AVALANCHE.
Here I meet Barrett, the grumpy team leader of AVALANCE who has a gun for an arm, and it's revealed that our mission is to blow up the Mako reactor which is sapping the planet of life energy. We're kinda like Greenpeace except we're willing to use terrorism in order to push our hippy agenda... oh wait.
My guy introduces himself as Cloud, a former member of the elite SOLDIER military group. When the other three rebels try to introduce themselves, Cloud tells them he doesn't care about their names. Barrett interjects by telling Cloud he doesn't care that he was a hot-shot in SOLDIER and that he just wants to blow up the reactor and save the world. Cloud responds by saying that not only does he not care that Barrett doesn't care, but also that he doesn't care about saving the planet. He just wants the job done so he can get paid.
Good. So we've established that no one gives a shit about anything. Let's crack on.
We split up and make our way to the reactor individually. Once inside I get into a couple more scraps, but at this stage of the game they're minor inconveniences moreso than actual threats. I find Barrett and the others by a security elevator. He asks Cloud if he's ever been in a reactor before, to which he replies in the positive - afterall, he used to be in SOLDIER, and by extension was working for Shinra (the megacorporation which owns and runs the reactors.) Regardless, Barrett gives Cloud a lecture on how the reactors work. Cloud tells him he doesn't care. I think it's important to set a precedent.
Barrett decides to join me from here on in as he doesn't trust me, and we head into the elevator and down. Then back up, because being I'm a complete idiot I accidentally hit the button again. Then back down.
We find ourselves in some kind of boiler room designed by the world's biggest steampunk fanatic. Jessie, whose name I learn by osmosis (and via the blue dialogue boxes that pop up whenever she speaks), tries to teach me how to use a ladder. Er, hello? Former member of SOLDIER over here! I'm not a complete idiot.
After taking a few minutes to figure out which button gets me on the ladder, Barrett and I head down to the reactor proper. We get into random fight with a pretty tough machine which was probably made by the steampunk guy when he had downtime from designing the boiler room.
Cloud's health bar takes a kicking - it's down to 190 from the maximum of 318 - but that's since the start of the game so I'm not overly concerned. Barrett takes out the two smaller enemies, and Cloud uses his 'Limit Break' (a special attack which becomes available when you've taken enough damage) and smashes the machine thingamy for a whopping 128 points of damage. For comparison, our standard attacks are taking off 20-30 each, so that Limit Break is definitely a boon to our arsenal.
We reach the point where we need to set the bomb and gain a Restore materia for our troubles, which is handy since we'll be able to heal party members magically without having to rely on potions. It also reminds me that Cloud already has some materia - Fire and Bolt - so I'll be sure to use those in any further fights here.
Barret tells Cloud to set up the bomb, because he still doesn't trust him. Cloud protests, which doesn't really help the 'not trusting the ex-Shinra employee' thing, but he also holds his head in his hands and flips out when he hears a voice in his head saying "Watch out! This isn't just a reactor!" I can only imagine how the whole scene looks from Barrett's POV.
Just when Cloud wraps up his procrastination and finally looks ready to plant the explosives, some totally bitchin' music kicks in.
This can mean only one thing...
... BOSS FIGHT!!!1!!!1
Boss #1 - Guard Scorpion, HP: 800.
Despite looking intimidating and having a hefty number of hit points, we take it down without much drama with a few well-placed Bolts, a Limit Break or two and a couple of time-outs for topping up our own HP. In return for our trouble, we get 100 Gil (the currency in this world) and a sweet new gun for Barrett.
The difficult bit follows after the bomb is set - whoever designed the bomb, and I think it was Jessie, made it so that it operates on a timer as opposed to remote detonation. Nice one, you dumb mare. If we don't get out in ten minutes, we'll be upgraded from regular terrorists to suicide bombers.
Actually, turns out we had so much time we could have hung around for a ladder tutorial, gone up and down in the lift as many times as we liked, played a few rounds of five card stud and still got out of the reactor before the bomb blew up. Being the clutz that she is, Jessie trips and Cloud stops to help her up before she gets fried.
KA-BIZZLE!
What the hell did we just set off? A nuclear weapon? Whatever it was, it certainly got the job done. That's one of Midgar's eight reactors destroyed, and I'm sure Barrett will have us sequentially work through the other seven unless a series of dramatic plot twists and the introduction of new characters with complex motives doesn't divert us first.
But the chances of that happening are slim, right?
The team emerges through a tunnel and onto a street, or at least what used to be a street until the mako reactor next door went all Chernobyl on its ass. We agree to disperse and meet on the train which will take us to the slums, but not before Cloud has a word about money. Despite having done the deed, Barrett tells him it can wait until we get back safely... huh, sounds like a pretty coy move on his part given the high likelihood of being apprehended by the authorities before making it back. Shrewd business man, that Barrett.
I make my way through the panicked streets on the way to the Sector 8 train station. It is on one of these streets that a moment of star-crossed fate occurs.
For the first time, Cloud meets a particular girl in a pink dress.
The girl sells flowers for a living, and for now the game itself labels her 'Flower Girl'.
We will come to know her as Aeris.
Wrap-up notes:
Given the fact that Nobuo Uematsu's musical score for FF7 is so bloody marvellous and heralded not only by gamers but also many modern classical composers, I figured it would be fun to wrap up each post in this series with the music featured in the parts of the game I'm writing about. Heck, if you're really into this blog you could even listen to them in turn while reading the sections they appear!
No, don't do that. It's lame and you've got way better things to do with your life.
But here are my favourite versions of the music which occured in the above part of the game, in order of its appearance:
Final Fantasy 7 prelude (original)
There's plenty of brilliant orchestral versions out there for this one, but it's the iconic MIDI version which raises the hairs on the back of my neck (yes, I know I slagged off the MIDI soundtrack earlier on. Shut up.)
Opening Bombing Mission
Such an outstanding piece of music to throw the player into the action and set the tone. This particular performance captures the original in all its nuance, and I love how much the conductor throws himself into it. Great sound quality for YT, too. Make sure your treble is up to get the most out of it.
Those Who Fight Further (boss battle theme)
Let's go with Nobuo Uematsu's own band for this one. The second this song kicks in during the game, you know it's totally on.
