Final Fantasy VII, Finally
When I was 17 I didn’t have much time for video games - or at least, I had as much time for games as I had for anything. My “friends” and I would play whatever sports, fighting or Sonic games we had, bitching and switching from one to the next until we had a big enough fight about what to play and then went out to get in more trouble. Point being, the lengthy crawls of late ’90s RPGs are totally lost on me. The idea of sticking with anything for 50+ hours was anathema.
That’s my excuse for why it took me this long to play perennial canon-bait Final Fantasy VII.
This month, the PS 1 game finally came to the PlayStation store, where it’s downloadable to the PSP or PS 3. I grabbed a copy - $10, cheap - and I’m playing it on the PSP, aka “the forgotten handheld,” just to give it something to do.
And you can guess the first thing that everyone tells me - gamer friends, Twitter pals, and random strangers on the subway: “You know what happens in Final Fantasy VII, right?”
If you have somehow stayed unspoiled for the last 12 years, don’t read past the jump.
I knew next to nothing about Final Fantasy VII, except for the one giant plot twist: Aeris dies. It’s one of the most moving moments in gaming history. It’s Bambi’s mom times a million. Everyone knows about it, as surely as we know that somebody shot Kennedy. So what does that mean to a total noob playing the game today? How do you enjoy the game when you know that Aeris gets whacked?
So far, I’m enjoying it quite a bit. And even though Aeris’ death looms over everything, I’m impressed by how firmly the story’s gripping me anyway.
I’ve finished the first part of the game, where I’m an ex-soldier turned sword-for-hire chasing through the futuristic city of Midgar. An eco-terrorist group named AVALANCHE has hired you to help them blow up the giant reactors that ring the city - reactors that they believe are poisoning the planet. But your first missions quickly lead to complications. Your past comes out, you learn more about the lives of your companions - a motley crew of old friends and new comrades - and oh yeah, you pick up this sweet little slumdog flower girl named Aeris.
The first section of the game is completely linear. Your adventures in the slums and later, in the skyscraping headquarters of the evil Shinra, Inc., are a straightforward march from one scene to the next - but in each scene, clever puzzles and gimmicks suck you in. A run-of-the-mill RPG would rely on conversations and combat to keep you engaged; in Final Fantasy VII, every room has a new interactive element. When you’re picking your way across a dangerous highway, you have to find the right route to get across. Mini-games are everywhere, including one where you have to match a bodybuilder for squats, and another that takes you on a high-speed chase down a highway. And my favorite scene is a microstudy of interactive storytelling: your ragtag gang has found the headquarters of Shinra, and you choose whether to make a frontal assault, or sneak in the back. Try the back, and you end up climbing all the way to the 60th floor by taking the stairs - and sure enough, you actually have to lead the party all the way up, flight by flight, hitting “left” and then hitting ‘right” and listening to them whine and complain the whole way.
This stuff isn’t hard, but it’s engaging - in the same way that if you buy a doll house and the sewing machine actually switches on and makes noise, that simple trick gives your imagination a few extra sparks.
By contrast, the combat - that staple of any RPG, as essential as potatoes for meat or beer for shots - is, so far, easily the worst part of the game. A timer system makes it more engaging than a simple turn-based system, and enemy variety keeps the challenge fresh. Except so far, there is no challenge. Feel free to tip me off if the nemeses ramp up in the later part of the game, but so far, my characters haven’t broken a sweat. I’ve given minimal thought to my skills and equipment, and as my party line-up keeps changing, I’m also not incented to invest much time in optimizing them. In other words, combat doesn’t feel like a meaningful challenge or an integral part of my character development: it feels more like parking at a 30-minute meter and running back all day to keep it fed.
But let’s talk about Aeris. I knew nothing about her before I started the game - except, you know, that she dies. With this in mind, it’s easy to spot when the game is manipulating you, transparently, even crassly, into caring for this character. Knowing her fate, I didn’t fall for the trick. But I did succumb to a different one: I started to feel painfully responsible for what would happen to her.
The protagonist, Cloud, bumps into Aeris once when he’s running from the cops, and later he meets her for real in the church where she tends some flowers. From there, he flirts with her, fights beside her, and rescues her again and again. She calls him his “bodyguard” - I’m noting this now, ’cause I know they’ll hit me with it later - and they act like playground pals, with Cloud playing hero and Aeris pretending to be a damsel - which is pretty chauv, but I guess ’90s games get a free pass on that stuff.
By and large, all the suggestions of “hey, isn’t Aeris adorable? Don’t you care about her?” left me cold. I’m smarter than this, I thought. But two scenes got me.
When Aeris first brings Cloud home, her mother knows he’s trouble. She begs him to clear out in the night and leave Aeris safely at home. The foreshadowing in that moment is powerful: here’s Aeris’ mother, fearing that I’m going to get her hurt, and here I know that she’s right. But when I do try to sneak away - carefully creeping past her bedroom door on my way out the house - Aeris still catches up with me and insists on coming along. She’s doomed, but at least she chose her fate.
But later, another moment surprised me. Shinra, Inc. nabs Aeris and takes her back to their lab. On our way to rescue her, we stop by her house and talk to her mother again. I went upstars and came back to the two bedrooms where Aeris and I spent that night, where I had tried to tippie-toe past her door, not disturbing her, and not leading her to her doom. Back then it felt like child’s play, and remembering it made me sentimental. And regretful. I’ll never know if I could’ve been quieter.
So, I’m about six hours in. I just left Midgar and walked onto the world map, and I’ll post again when I get farther. Meanwhile, enough of me talking: is anyone else out there playing the game for the first time? Or have any memories or tips from the last time you played it?
14/06/2009 at 10:51 am Permalink
Eh… Aeris was a bit of a red herring, for me, in that I think her romance with Cloud is supposed to feel slightly false and artificial, for reasons revealed later (and even more in Crisis Core). And although I do like the scene where Cloud “buries” her, it’s not the defining moment in FFVII. That would be when Cloud takes off his… ah, but I don’t know how far you’ve got yet!
14/06/2009 at 10:57 am Permalink
Ooh yeah, I should clarify, I only just left Midgar and made my way onto the world map. But I’ll let you know the minute Cloud takes off anything (aside from that great dress and wig he used to go “undercover”)!
14/06/2009 at 12:01 pm Permalink
Now the irony is I knew about Aeris, and when I finished FFVII on my PSP I was confused, because well Aeris never died. But now I realize it was Crisis Core. So it turns out I NEVER played FFVII- and until this article I DIDN’T know that Crisis Core was not FFVII! Now I know it’s the pre-quel to the game.
So really if you want to add to the game, play Crisis Core, THEN play FFVII- now I’m gonna have to get FFVII…damn it.
14/06/2009 at 4:51 pm Permalink
FFVII stole the greater part of my primary school years. *sigh* I love that game so much.
The combat does ramp up and the strategies you’ll require to defeat the later bosses require a little more thinking. In addition, there are way too many sidequests and stories to engage in than you’d expect, although they’re not typically “here’s a sidequest” sort of thing. It’s more, you’ll stumble on someone who tells you something that you might use later. Feels more natural than having a log that keeps track of what you should or shouldn’t do.
Tip 1: make full use of any weapons that double / triple the experience for materia. The higher level materia, the easier.
Tip 2: mug most everything you can, especially anything that looks big. They’ve got some good loot if you can make a successful swipe. You can usually pick up armor and weapons early on that you won’t find till much later through the course of the story.
Tip 3: if you encounter something like a mini-game, keep playing till you reckon you’ve got the best stuff. If you smash the goal, there’s usually something nice waiting.
Tip 4: if you see a treasure chest, try to get it. There’s some awesome stuff.
The thing I love about FFVII is the depth in which they explore the back story of almost every character, and usually there’s a tragic event behind them, which has shaped the way the characters are when you encounter them. Red XIII’s history is probably my favourite. If I could hug ‘im, I would.
FFVII is probably one of the most well-paced games I’ve ever played, even for a slow and drudging RPG. Thanks for letting me know you can buy it so cheap for PSP, think I might have to go check if its on the AU store.
14/06/2009 at 7:38 pm Permalink
Tom - That’s a great story. I can imagine the anti-climax! And good point, I’m pretty far along in FF VII but Crisis Core is next on my list.
Daniel - Thanks for all those great tips, and the reminder to dawdle. And Red XIII is awesome. But when he told me the name didn’t mean anything, I dubbed him Fido … does that make me a bad person? Or just human-normative?
15/06/2009 at 12:46 am Permalink
Well, definitely not a bad person, although later on, Fido might not feel so relevant. Actually, there’s a point in the game I’d like to comment on but I’ll leave it until you’re further in. Once you’ve uncovered more about Red XIII’s past, come back for a chat and I’ll let you know what I wish Square-Enix had included.
Crisis Core is a lot of fun but far more repetitive. Once you’ve got a good grasp of the materia system in FFVII, and all of it’s modifiers, CC is a breeze.
Oh, that makes for a Tip 5: Once you received the Add Status Effect materia (or whichever lets you give a weapon a status effect affinity, forget the name), use something like Bio to inflict extra damage. Once you get Death materia, set that up, too, and you’ll have the ability to insta-kill at random. Can’t remember when you pick up Death, though, might be much later in the game.
15/06/2009 at 6:28 am Permalink
I ended up dodging the Aeris trauma bullet because I thought Tifa was hotter.
I also blame the game design, Aeris has a wicked handicap on damage but only a marginal improvement in magic. All of the extreme characters, like Barret as very physical and weak in magic, tend to be less useful than the neutrals. Since you can only have 3 characters, it’s just more useful to have a character that is good at both attacking and magic since the enemies are so varied. The consequence is that as soon as I got out of Midgar, I stopped using her for Tifa’s multi-purpose stats.
But yeah, I wouldn’t say the game ever gets very challenging compared to an ATLUS game. Once you unlock Knights of the Round it’s pretty much game over for everything but the Ultima Weapons. The trick with THOSE buggers is they aren’t challenging in a typical sense: you just have to figure out how to gank the system to win.
15/06/2009 at 7:56 am Permalink
Guys, guys, GUYS!!! Stop telling PixelVixen about all the end game stuff! Death Materia? KNIGHTS OF THE EFFING ROUND?! She’ll never see those dudes in a million years, not unless she spends 100 hours in the game and… well, look, I nearly did it myself and gave something away.
It’s great to be able to see the game from a perspective completely unclouded by previous play-throughs. If I could play it again for the first time, I totally would. Time for a small personal anecdote - Barrett will for ever be known as “Dude” to me. Why? Because that’s what a 13 year old me thought “would be funny”. And it kinda was. It just stuck and from that first time, every time, he became Dude and other characters interactions with him took on an amusing tone; e.g. “Dude, what are you waiting for?!” etc.
Well, I was young and easily entertained. It was some good times.
So you’d darn well better keep us informed! I want to hear what happens when you get to Kalm. You’d better make sure you save beforehand in case you run out of a commute in the middle of the exposition. =)
15/06/2009 at 9:55 am Permalink
I love these “I remember my first runthrough” stories. You’re making me wonder if I should just book the whole summer and keep playing this thing.
Ben - Don’t worry, terms like Knights of the Round don’t mean much until they mean something. But thanks for trying to keep this spoiler free! I’m chugging across the world map and will try to open up more of the game to discussion. In fact, as of late last night I made it to the Gold Saucer after hearing the fantastic exposition in Kalm, catching a chocobo, raising across the marshes, skipping what looked like an entire mini-RTS (no time, guys, here’s some money though, fight the good fight!), marching in formation, finding great skill-building potions just lying around all over the place, and … visiting a beachside resort? This game really has everything doesn’t it?
I like the name “Dude.” I wish I’d thought of that. He is kind of a Dude.
L. B. - You’re right, there’s a disincentive to keeping Aeris in the party. Right now I’ve got Tifa and Fido. I gave Tifa a Mythril claw and two summoning materia and all of a sudden she’s a walking apocalypse. Aeris’ “whack someone with a stick for 25 damage” can’t hold a candle.
But when I got to the Gold Saucer, I let Aeris be my date … I knew she’d appreciate it, and Tifa can go find some trouble of her own.
16/06/2009 at 12:37 am Permalink
My first time playing through FF7 was the beginning of 2008 so I was in a similar boat you are. I still used Aeris even though I knew she was a goner because I found her healing limit break was very useful. Once I got a good chunk of the way into disc 1 though I switched to Yuffie and Tifa and kept them the rest of the game. They both seemed to be good hyrbid characters like Jeffries recommended. I just had one heal and the other backup heal when needed. I agree that the game isn’t challenging at all. I found out I missed most of the best materia in the game and never grinded at all, but still only got a game over once the entire game. It was Vincents limit break that killed me because you can’t control him and he kept casting fire damage on a dragon, which healed him… I used him for about three battles, he got me killed and I switched Yuffie back in.
16/06/2009 at 4:00 pm Permalink
I was thinking about the early parts of FFVII the other day, and I think I finally realized why the fans’ focus on Aeris bugs me so much. In short: what about Jessie? Fine, she was an NPC, and she hung out with people named for Star Wars characters, so you could tell she was expendable. But if you ignore who the game is trying to push on you as important, I honestly thought she was more interesting than Aeris. But who’s mourning her death?
Sometimes I read a lament about Aeris and it sounds like the writer thinks that, prior to her, no one died in video games, or at least no one of consequence. But even if FFVII was that person’s first RPG, or first video game of any sort meant to be taken more seriously than Super Mario World, they should still know better. And really, when a game has already shown that it’s willing to crush an entire sector full of people you’ve been talking to since the beginning of the game, should you really be so shocked when the flower girl also doesn’t make it to the end?
I think this is a pretty unpopular opinion, though.
16/06/2009 at 6:35 pm Permalink
Book the whole summer, it’s well worth it. I renamed Barrett as well and I was in my twenties, he became B.A. Baracus and I could seriously see Johnny Depp as Vincent…and late at night I still can *ahem*
16/06/2009 at 7:07 pm Permalink
I don’t know to what extent you’re going in uninformed, except for the whole Aeris thing, but I think it’s worth mentioning that my favorite moments from the game involve some elements that are optional and pretty easy to miss . With that in mind, some suggestions:
1. Now that you’re out of Midgar, save often out on the field and be wary of conversational thieves.
2. There’s a safe in a basement. It’s worth paying attention to.
That is all.
I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of your playthrough!
20/06/2009 at 2:40 am Permalink
Also worth noting : You may know that Aeris dies, but if you haven’t been spoiled on HOW she comes to die, you might still be in for a tear or two ^^
That being said, I totally agree with Karl on the whole “Aeris’ death is not THAT big of a deal” thing. I mean, there ARE points of the story to which she is linked that make her death meaningful. But indeed many a human character dies in the game, be it primary, secondary or some random guy you met just once, and their deaths are almost as crushing to someone.
08/07/2009 at 6:57 pm Permalink
If you’re looking for some harder combat…just wait a bit… Trust me, you’ll find some XD
That game has some of the hardest side bosses EVER, and some of the bosses difficulties are shifted to match your party’s strength.
Hope you enjoy
01/09/2009 at 1:17 pm Permalink
aeris actually had some useful limit breaks, especially her fourth-level (highest level) limit break. if you manage to keep her in battle long enough to unlock the better ones, they’re actually some of the best limit breaks in the game. she’s still a weak fighter, but she has her strong points.
a lot of people dislike ff7’s story. it’s trendy to dislike it. it’s melodramatic, adolescent, etc. — you yourself talk about that in a later entry (you seem a lot more enthused about the game in this entry than in that one, where you’re just poking holes in it). but the story may be stupid, but it’s really well-told — i.e. the storytelling techniques it uses, mixing minigames in with the story like when you’re giving cpr to the drowning girl, or the game letting the player initiate cloud’s attempt to kill aeris while sephiroth is mind-controlling him — those were pretty revolutionary, and still it has overall the best storytelling techniques i’ve ever seen in a game — not the best story, but the best storytelling
09/01/2010 at 9:32 am Permalink
That’s odd, I always use Aeris due to her higher magic stat, mp, and her weapons usually having more materia slots. I just give her the offensive materia and she pretty much lays waste to all that lives. I just leave her in the back row and give Cloud cover materia. A lot of the time I have Tifa too, since she has a mighty powerful limit and high dexterity, so I put her in the back row with long-range materia. It’s sad to see Aeris die, because she is always such a core piece of my party by the point I lose her. I still use every character now and then to keep limit levels up, but I normally end up replacing Aeris with Red XIII or Yuffie.