 |
An epic adventure across 3 cd-roms. What begins as a rebellion against an evil corporation becomes much more. And what erupts goes beyond imagination. With vivid landscapes, lush 3D animation and environments, Square Soft's multi-million dollar masterpiece is like nothing ever seen before. And it is only on Playstation. | ||||||
|
|
"Sell your house, sell your kids, do whatever it takes
to play this game." Rob Ashton
Intrepid GameShark hackers discover a code to access a series of debug rooms in Final Fantasy VII. Screens included.
Almost two years after the US release of Final Fantasy VII, two GameShark hackers known as RPGod and CzarDragon have discovered a code which allows players to access a previously hidden -- and quite bizarre -- debug room in Final Fantasy VII. From the initial room, one can enter various areas which were presumably originally designed to allow programmers to easily test and debug the game. (Screens below.) The GameShark code necessary for the debug mode is:
8009A05C 0041
Using the code, players can access virtually any point in the game, adjust party members, gain a complete set of materia, watch a large number of CG movies, battle against inactive "pyramid" monsters, or even view the current number of "love points" needed to score with Tifa, Aeris, Yuffie, or Barret during Cloud's racy date at the Gold Saucer.
To enter the debug room, simply enter the above code into a GameShark and select "New Game" when the first FF VII disc loads up. From there, deactivate the GameShark and enter one of ten rooms by stepping onto one of the encircling Japanese Kanji characters or by walking onto the white line at the top or bottom of the screen. A man also stands in the lower-left corner of the first screen to turn on and off a number of "flags" used in the game, among other selections. The debug room can also be accessed at any point in the game by turning on a GameShark with the inputted codes and then entering a room.
When you jump into the lete river and have to choose which way to go, keep going up. Press X when you get to a save point and then config. Select your chooser Memory. Go out and buy a controller with a auto option if you don't already have one. Save your game and when you get into a battle, make bannon use health, and the rest of the people fight. After the fight, make the team go up again. Make your a button set to auto, or tape A down and set it to turbo if you don't have auto. Leave your house and go watch a movie. When you come back, you should still be alive thanks to bannon's health command, if not, try again. If it worked, you should be at a way higher level and have lots of gold pieces. Take off the auto or turbo on the controller, and when you have to decide where to go, go left. Continue your journey.
Yelton yelton@city-net.com
To defeat Safer-Sephrioth in FFVII (PSX), make sure you are at least
on
level 68 and make sure you have Yuffie and Vincent in your party.
Get
Knights of the Round from Round Island and get at least 4 stars mastered
and get W-Summon from the Battle Arena. Make sure each character
is
equipped with MIME. Go fight him. When he casts WALL on
himself, cast
DEBARRIOR. Then cast KotR on him. Have each character mime
that (even
the caster). He will die super fast!
Getting UNLIMITED Ribbons in Final Fantasy VII
This little tip REALLY helps, especially when you fight
Safer-Sephrioth. Make sure you have Yuffie in your party and
make sure
she is equipped with the MORPH materia and the Conformer. Go
to the
final cave and find a Master TonBerry (little dude with a star spinning
over his head and carries a lantern). Have Yuffie use Morph on
him
until he dies. When he dies, he will turn into a Ribbon.
This is
repeatable, so do it until EVERYONE has a ribbon. WAY COOL!!!!
David Reese dreese6@mailcity.com
On the way to Coral, go to the switch that
you push to let the others go through. If you explore
around that area, you should hear birds chirping.
Go up the hill where you hear it (you might have
to search to find the right spot) and pick
the first choice you are given.
After collecting the 10 Phoenix Downs, go back
down to the lower tracks and follow your
partners. As they turn to the right, you need
to take the left split because buried in the hill under
the tracks is a cave with an out-of-work miner.
A Power Source, Mind Source, and Tent may be
acquired within this hidden area.
Note: Your score will be lowered if you do this. It's not nice to disturb baby birds.
Alternate Save Pictures
The saved-game picture changes depending on
what slot your game is saved in. Here's the
complete list:
FILE 1 : CLOUD
FILE 2 : BARRET
FILE 3 : AERIS
FILE 4 : CAIR SITH
FILE 5 : RED XIII
FILE 6 : CID
FILE 7 : TIFA
FILE 8 : VINCENT
FILE 9 : YUFFIE
FILE 10 : RUFUS
FILE 11 : TSENG
FILE 12 : PRISICILLA
FILE 13 : RUDE
FILE 14 : DAIN
FILE 15 : SEPHIROTH
Ancient Forest
To get to the Ancient Forest before disc 3,
simply ride up the hill with a black, gold or green
chocobo.
Beat the Cosmo Canyon Boss
When you get to the Boss inside the caves at
Cosmo Canyon to beat him all you do is use a
Phoenix Down on him to kill him instantly.
Sometimes that misses so you might want to use other
healing items like X-Potion, High Potion or
Potion.
Beat the Emerald Weapon
If your having difficulty beating Emerald Weapon
and you can't get the Knights of the Round
consider using this method.First equip three
gravity materia, one to each character, second if
possible equip a mime materia to each character.
Next to one character, equip both the W-Magic
materia and quadra magic materia joined to the
characters gravity materia. Join an all materia
to the other characters materia. Okay. Now when
you go into battle all you do is use any level
of demi on the Emerald weapon and it automatically
does 9999 HP of damage to with every hit but
at the end his HP will lower and a couple of hits
with a moderately powerful summon spell and
he's done for. Voila!
Beat the Ruby Weapon
For this you will need Nights Of The Round
with at least 3 levels. Phoenix summon with at least 3
levels. Shield with at least 2 levels. Final
Attack with any level. About 3 mastered HP and MP
pluses (you might need more). 3 Enemy Skills
with White Wind learned (to learn White Wind, go
to the grassy area of Junon untill you fight
a big green creature with wings. Manipulate it and have
it use White Wind on your party).
You also need MP and HP absorb and the MIME
command. Make sure you do NOT have the
w-item, w-magic, and w-summon materias. Give
everyone HP pluses untill it reaches 9,999 HP.
Then do the same with the MP pluses until
it reaches 999. Equip Cloud with the Ultima Weapon
and give him the following materia.
Combine the Nights Of The Round with the MP
absorb. Give him Phoenix with Final Attack.
Give him mime with HP absorb. Make sure that
you only eqip these matiera on the Ultima
Weapon if their mastered. Give him shield
and enemy skill. Give your other party members the
other enemy skills. Make sure Cloud has an
accesory that will protect him from Frog and Small.
Before you fight Ruby, get into a battle and
have Cloud kill your other party members. Now go
after Ruby. Start off by using shield on Cloud.
Do NOT have Cloud bring the rest back to life.
Now have Cloud use Knights of the Round and
just keep miming it until the Ruby Weapon kills
you. When you come back to life, repeat the
process until you've won..
NOTE: No matter what, do not use any limit
breaks or regular attacks on Ruby. If Cloud
becomes a toad, use white wind to heal him.
Beta Materia
When you first go to the Chocobo ranch you
have to catch a chocobo to avoid the Midgarsorm.
Well, I figured out a way to get the powerful
Beta spell before the second disc. You need the
Enemy skill materia, a Fire materia, and any
elemental materia equipped on one person. MAKE
SURE THE LAST TWO ARE ON YOUR ARMOR!
If you keep this character healed until Midgarsorm
casts Beta you SHOULD be able to survive
the spell. Then just finish him off. This
is tricky to pull off but if done correctly you will be set for a
LONG time.
Cait Sidhe's Level 3 Limit Break - Japanese
Cait Sith has a level 3 limit break which will
kill all enemies in one hit. This is tested and proven in
the Japanese FFVII. To get it, you must use
Cait Sith to kill 954 enemies. The Level 3 limit should
be highlighted, but there will be no name.
For activation, it will take about 36 times your HP
damage.
It will look like an error, because it is,
but when activated, an error message will appear and the
battle will continue as if the enemy was killed
in one hit.
Cast Any Spell Three Times
To cast three magic spells in one round, first
equip someone with a Magic Materia + "All" Support
Materia. You'll also need Barrier Materia
with the Reflect spell learned. When you enter battle,
cast Reflect on the entire party, (your party).
Then cast the magic spell that was connected to the
"All" Materia on YOUR party. Even though you
casted the spell once, it will be reflected and
returned to the enemy hitting for three times!
And for the same price of the usual MP's. What's
even better is that if you have W-Magic, you
can cast that spell twice, or two different spells (both
need to be connected to "All" Materia) hitting
for six times!!!
Chocobo Tricks
While racing the chocobos, hold L1 + L2 + R1
+ R2 to increase your speed. To increase their
stamina, hold R1 + R2.
While choosing a chocobo to race, press L1,
L2, R1, R2 or any direction to pan, zoom and
rotate the chocobo you're viewing.
Curse Ring
While in Mideel (before it has been destroyed),
go to the weapons shop and check the door in the
back (the one that does not open.) Next, go
to the shop on the hill with the man on the balcony.
Walk behind him along the part of the balcony
on the side of the shop until you here a rattling
sound. Check the spot and you will get a key.
Use the key on the door, and it will break off. The
owner will ask what happened. Tell the truth
and he will give you the curse ring. If you lie, he will
not give it to you. It raises all of your
stats, but puts the character on death sentance, but this can
be countered with a Phoenix Down.
Defeating Savior Sephiroth
For this fight you will need: Knights of the
Round, Zero Bahumut, and any other summons. Cure
3, Wall, "Mime", DeBarrier, Remedies and at
least three Megaexlir's.
Start out by casting Wall on your party, then
cast DeBarrier to take away Sephiroth's wall. After
this has been done throw everything you've
got at him, use Mime to cause major damage. During
the fight Sephiroth will levitate higher,
signaling he's preparing to cast Super Nova.
If you are above 1500 energy you should be
alright, watch out for his Heartless Angel that will not
kill you, but bring your health down to 1.
Then use Megaexlirs. Keep up the endurance and
Sephiroth shouldn't be to hard to beat.
Easy Accessories
Here's a way to get two very helpful accessories.
Ribbon: To get a ribbon you must go into the
crater and walk around until You fight a Master
Tonberry. Attack him a few times and then
morph him. He will turn into a Ribbon.
Tetra-Elemental: There is a small desert island
in the south under the Western Continent. Land
there with the Highwind or with a gold chocobo.
Walk on the sand until you fight a small cactus
man. Morph him a eh becomes a Tetra-Elemental.
Note: I have had the best luck morphing with
Yuffie simply because see deals 9999 HP damage
each time. It may be a different case for you
but Yuffie is usually the best morpher.
Easy AP
Go to the forest outside of Meedeel. Walk around
until you fight Head Hunters or Caterpillers.
Equip Cloud with an Apocalipse sword and everyone
with a Rune Armlet. If you fight a group of
4 Head Hunters you get 340 AP. Caterpillers
and a group of 3 Head Hunters give you 240 AP.
Equip as many 'ALL' and 'MAGIC PLUS' materia
a possible in the sword and Rune Armlet.
When mastered they are worth 1.4 million gil
each.
Easy Life
With this code, you can easily restore life
while in battle without having to worry about anything
happening. Enter a battle, and when your characters'
health gets low, cast regenerate on
him/her/them. Once the spell has been cast,
open the Playstation lid and have someone cast a
spell.
FOR THIS TRICK TO WORK THE LID ON THE PLAYSTATION
MUST BE OPEN
BEFORE YOU CAST THE SECCOND SPELL!
With the lid open, the game won't be able to
cast the spell, so the game will stop until you close
the Playstation lid. Once the lid is closed,
the game will function corectly and you can resume play.
The trick to this code is that while the game
is looking for the CD, the regenerate spell will still be
working, so your life will fill up while nothing
else happens! This code works great for some of the
ultra tough bosses (Emerald and Diamond Weapon)
because nothing else will happen while the lid
is up.
Easy Money
If you want virtually unlimited money, here
is a wonderful trick. As soon as you have mastered an
"All" mateira, remove it and replace it with
the new born one and sell the old one. This may seem
like kind of a harsh comprimise, but each
mastered "All" is 1.4 million gils! and scince they are so
easy to master you will keep geting more and
will never miss them. Sell one or two and you will
never run out of money ever again!
Easy Money, AP and Experience
Go to the desert outside of the golden saucer
and walk around for a while. Sooner or later a little
cactus man will appear. You can't beat him
with magic or weapons, but he can be defeated by
summoning Chocobos or Mogs. If you manage
to kill him he's worth 10,000 gil!
For better results, head for the Mideel Area
(an island in the south) and look for Sea Worms.
Each one you defeat is worth 1300 EXP, 200
AP and 5000 gil!
Effortless GP Gain
To do this trick, you need a joystick controller
with rapid-fire settings and access to the Gold
Saucer.
Go to Wonder Square, and up to the arm-wrestling
game. Wrap a rubberband around your
joystick so that it's pulled to the upper
left diagonal, so that Cloud continuously walks into the
arm-wrestling machine but not into the GP-trading
girl. Now, turn on the rapid-fire for the 'O'
button. Cloud will now repeatedly challenge
and beat the wrestling game. Slowly but surely, your
GP will increase. It takes a while, so it's
probably best to set this up just before you go to bed at
night, and leave it on while you sleep. By
morning, you should have plenty of GP to buy your Gold
Pass and the two secret Materia: XP-Plus and
Gil-Plus. Cheater!
Emerald Weapon
Having trouble beating Emerald Weapon? Just
equip at least two of your party members with the
mime command and have the other member equipped
with the Knights of the Round summon as
well as the W-Summon materia. Cast Knights
of the Round twice and have the other two
members of your party mime the attack.
When the rotation comes back around to the
person without the mime command, DON'T
ATTACK! Wait for one of the members with the
mime command to come up again and have
them use mime again. You can keep alternating
back and forth between the two until Emerald
Weapon is dead.
Also be sure to have one of your members equipped
with the Final Attack + Revive materia
combination. Emerald Weapon has 1,000,000
hit points, I've counted, and when it begins to run
low it uses it special attack which takes
off 9,999 from your entire party.
Note: if all three of your members have the mime command the fight is much easier.
Fast Materia Level-Ups
This cheat can only be done in the third disc.
First, go to the Northern cave and look for mole like
creatures with a star above thier heads, also
holding a knife and a lantern. Steal an elixir from them
and then run away. After that, look for these
small creatures in a floating pot. They will say
"Gimme' an elixer". Give them one. Then kill
it. Each one killed will give you 1,000 AP. You can
not kill them unless you give them an elixer.
Gain Limit Breaks Easily
When in normal status use a "Hyper." This will
let your limit meter go up faster, so you can use
your old techniques more. The reason for this
is that one way to get your limit breaks gained is to
use your old techniques.
WARNING: When you use the "Hyper," your status
changes to "Fury," which will lessen your hit
rate.
Another way to gain your limit breaks is to
defeat large groups of enemies. Try this: When leaving
the Nibel Mountains and heading for Rocket
Town, you should see a group of forests when you
leave the mountains. Try engaging combat there,
because sometimes you fight large groups of
enemies there. Such as a group of six "Battery
Caps," or sometimes five "Battery Caps" and one
"Valron." This might help in getting your
limit techniques also.
Huge Materia
To obtain the Huge Materia in Rocket Town, press Circle, Square, X, X as the passcode.
There are four huge Materia that can reproduce other materias if you can pass the requirements.
Blue - You must have Buhamut and Buhamut Neo.
Take these to Cosmo Canyon and talk to the
Blue Huge Materia and you will recieve Bahamut
Eishiki.
Yellow - Have all 13 commond materia at master
level and then talk to the yellow huge Materia to
recieve the Master Command materia.
Red- Must have all 16 summoning materia at
master level then talk to the red huge materia to
recieve the Master Summoning materia.
Green - Have all 21 magic materia at master
level then talk to the green huge huge materia and
you will recieve the Master Magic materia.
Item Duplication
If you have the W-Item Materia, equip it and
enter battle. Use the W-Item command and select
your first item you want to use with the Circle
button. Then choose your second item but do not
use it. Select it so that cursors appear on
the screen (either on you allies or your enemies) then
cancel with the X button. Select again and
make the cursor appear then cancel. Repeat the
selecting and canceling of the second item
over and over. Each time you do this the quantity of the
first item will increase by 1.
Kalm Traveller
There is a man in Kalm who will ask you to
find three items for him. To find the item he asks for,
go to the Cannon town aquarium and walk around
in it until you fight a ghost ship. Morph it a few
times to get one of the items. Return it to
Kalm and you will recieve the Underwater materia.
Equip that then go cruise around in your sub
until you find the Emerald wepeon. Kill it and return
to Kalm for three master magic materias. Then
take the air ship over to the Golden saucer desert
and fly into the little red man walking in
the desert. You will fight Ruby, kill it and return the item to
Kalm for a golden chocobo.
Knights of the Round Table
Ride the Golden Chocobo to the North-Eastern
part of the map. There you'll find a hidden island
with a cave. Enter the cave and talk to the
red light to receive the "Nights of the Round Table"
spell.
Limit Break Manuals
To learn Level 4 limit breaks you'll need to find the manuals. Here's how to find them.
Cloud: Trade 32,000 battle points at the Golden Saucer.
Tifa: Go to Nibel area (Tifa's house) and play
these piano notes: X, Square, Triangle, L1/R1 +
Triangle, L1/R1 + Square, X, Square, Triangle,
L1/R1 + X, O, X, Square, X. Then press
START and search the music sheet to find Tifa's
Limit break.
Barret: A lady will give it to you in North Coral.
Aeris: Southeast of Midgar there is a small
cave with a man living there. Talk to him when you
have battled a certain number of battles that
end in the same number, such as 122, 133, 144. He
will then give you a Mithril orb. Take the
Mithril to the Blacksmith's house on the south peninsula
near Cosmo Canyon. He will trade you for the
limit break manual for the Mithril, or you can
choose to have a gold bracelet.
Red XIII: In the Nibel area there is a mansion
and on the second floor of this mansion there is a
safe. To crack this code turn right 36, left
10, right 59, and right 97. Then the safe will open to
reveal a miniboss.Kill the miniboss and you
will recieve Red VIII's Manual.
Vincent: Land near the waterfall and use the
green, black, gold chocobo or the submarine to pass
the mountain. Then enter the waterfall. (You
must have Vincent in your group and must be done
first in disc 2) go forward and it will show
Vincent's past. Then leave. Return if you are already in
disc three and you'll get not only the manual
but a weapon of Vincent.
Cid: Cid's manual is in one of the chests in the sunken plane.
Yuffie: Go to Wutai and enter the tower with
yuffie and let yuffie beat all the bosses including her
father and you'll get a manual and Leviathan
materia.
Morph Enemies Easily
For an easy way to morph enemies, have W-Magic
Materia, Gravity Materia + "All" Materia, and
Morph Materia. Have someone else cast Reflect
on the party, then have the person with
W-Magic use Demi 3 on your party twice. It
will reflect and hit the enemy six times without killing
it, but will greatly reduce it's HP's. At
this point, you can easily morph it.
Prevent Back Attacks
If your battle starts with a "Back Attack"
hold L1 and R1 for a moment then release them. This
will turn you around before your opponents
get a shot.
Quad Magic Without a Chocobo
Use High Wind to go to Mideel. Go north, and
you should find a little cliff (looks more like a
staircase). On the edge, get on the higher
side of the cliff and press X to go down, also pressing
the square button and left. After a few tries,
the high wind will stay on the cliff but the character
will be on the lower side. Now you can walk
to the materia cave on land, without a special
chocobo.
Racing Trophy
When racing S-class in the Gold Saucer, You
will notice many keen items you can't ever seem to
get. Well you can get them all at once! Just
win 15-20 races in a row! Ester will say "I've never
seen anyone win so much in S-class before!"
She will then give you one of each item, including the
coveted Cat's Bell! this trick only works
once, though.
Re-enter Midgar
It is possible to get back into Midgar after
you have left (not including by parachute.) On disc 3,
go back to Midgar and talk to the man standing
outside the fence. He says he has misplaced his
key and that it is probably back at the dig
site he just left.
To find the key, go to Bone Village and tell
the foreman you want to look for Normal Treasure.
Place some of the workers up top in front
of the tent and set off the blast. They will point to a spot
on the ground, so have them dig there overnight.
In the morning open the treasure chest and
you should have the Key to the Sector 5 Slums. Now
go back to Midgar and go through the gate.
Go back to Wall Market and go to the shop where
the item machine was broken before (the one
that shot at you), and try to use it now. You will
recieve Tifa's ultimate weapon.
Recover Missing Items
Did you miss something important? Fear not.
Once you get to disc 3 you can recover anything by
excavating for it in the Bone Village.
Recruit Vincent
In the Shinra mansion at Nibbhiem, there is
a safe on the top floor. The combination is: Right to
36, Left to 10, Right to 59 then Right to
97. Make sure you don't go to far left or to far right when
turning. When it opens kill the monster, then
get the stuff in the safe. Descent the spiral staircase
and into the coffin room. Vincent is in one
of the coffins. Talk to him and leave then come back
and talk to him and he will join you.
Recruit Yufie
Near the exploded Mako site there is a small
forest. Wonder around in it until you fight a ninja
woman. After you defeat her there will be
a save point. DO NOT USE THIS or she will run
away. Talk to her and tell her you don't want
to fight her again. Then tell her your terrified of her.
When she asks if you need her help, say "Yes"
then tell her that you're leaving and don't ask for
her name.
Alternatively, try this. Equip the Enemy Away
Materia which can be won in the Gold Saucer
Chocobo Racing and a Luck Plus Materia. Go
into any forests and wait for a while. Note that the
Enemy Away Materia must be at Master Level
for a higher percentage of chances to encounter
Yuffie.
Red Submarine
The first time you pilot a submarine, lose
the battle and you will wind up on the shore neer Cannon
town. Head back into Cannon town and ride
the elevator back inside the main complex. Make a
left turn and go back to the sub docking area
where you were before the sub battle. Two gaurds
and a dog are blocking the pathway, kill the
gaurds and talk to the dog. Follow it and you will find
the Red Submarine.
Reset
Hold L1 + L2 + R1 + R2 + Select + Start to reset the game.
Sense Tip
After using the SENSE materia on an opponent,
press SELECT after the sensing is done. A little
bar will appear above your party's status
bars. If you choose to attack that opponent, it will show
it's name, and HP remaining. Now you don't
have to keep sensing bosses to see how much longer
'till their dead.
Special Battle
To get to the URA battle (special battle) in
the Battle Arena, first gain 64000 battle points and buy
the W-Summon materia. Next get 32,000 battle
points and buy Cloud's level 4 limit, Omnislash.
Equip Omnislash and talk to the lady at the
counter in the battle arena, and she will ask you if you
want to participate in a special battle. Beat
all 8 enemies and get the Final attack materia.
Note: You must have your Ultimate Weapon equiped to fight in the special battle.
Time Attack Contest
At the golden saucers wonder square there is
a snowboard game. If you get a good rating on the
beginner, expert and crazy course the next
time you play there you will see a yellow balloon. Grab
it and you will enter time attack mode. In
this mode there are no balloons or obstacles and you go
extremely fast.
Turtle Paridise Flyers
There are several flyers for Turtle Paradise
hidden in this game. #1 is in Midgar by Aeris's house,
#2 is in the Shinra building, #3 Ghost Square,
#4 Cosmo Canyon, #5 Cosmo Canyon Hotel, #6
Yuffie's house. When you have all those fliers
go to the southwest corner of Utai. Enter the
restaurant and you will receive several orbs
and elixirs.
Underwater Plane Crash
If you wander around in the submarine you'll
eventually find a downed plane. Ram it with your sub
to board it. Inside you'll find powerful Materia,
items, weapons, and a lot of Turks and monsters.
Unlimited Sources
To get unlimited Sources (luck source, magic
source, etc.) perform the following actions. Get in
the submarine and go to the downed plane.
Wander around until you get into a battle and use the
morph command on the enemies. The best way
to do this is attack the enemies until they are
almost dead and then use morph. In this area
there are six different enemies and each one morphs
into one of the six sources.
Virtual Immortality
Connect the Phoenix Summon and Final Attack
materia in any linked slot. When your party dies,
there Hitpoints will be completely restored.
This makes killing Ruby, Emerald, and Sephiroth
simple, just make sure you have enough Mindpoints
to use the Phoenix Summon.
For more punch, add a Final Attack/Knight oo
the Round Table to the same weapon. Then when
you die you'll resurrect and hit back HARD.
When videogames are delayed for any
significant amount of time, they are usually,
for some reason, far below expectations.
Games like Battlecruiser 3000AD, Ultima
VIII, and Stonekeep were all pushed back
repeatedly, only to be either incomplete
(Battlecruiser) or simply bad (Ultima,
Stonekeep). But occasionally, a game comes
along that bucks that trend. And in the case
of Final Fantasy VII, the latest output from
RPG king Square, the end result justifies the
delays without question. FF7 is, without a
doubt, the new benchmark for console titles.
To begin with, FF7 is longer than every
console RPG to date. The game takes place
across 3 CDs. It took Next Generation Online, no stranger to RPGs, a total
of
49 hours to complete the game (approximately 25 hours for disc one, 15
for
disc two, and 9 for disc three - the majority of which was spent breeding
and
racing chocobos [q.v.]), twice the length of Final Fantasy VI (known as
III in
the U.S.) and Wild Arms. While it is possible for the game to be completed
in
less time, rushing to complete it is definitely not recommended.
Since their last Japanese-translated RPG (Chrono Trigger for Super
Nintendo), Square has been known for adding "easter eggs" to their games
-
opportunities for players to learn more about the game's characters, bonus
games, and the like. Well, Square has outdone themselves this time. At
least
three hours are spent uncovering the main character's past, with an additional
hour each for several other characters. One of the game's "secret" characters
has her own hour of backstory, complete with her own town that is not even
necessary to visit during the game's normal progression.
What is necessary during the game's normal progression is the capacity
for
awe. FF7's graphics are light years beyond anything ever seen on the
PlayStation, making Wild Arms look like a Yarouze demo (we have nothing
against Wild Arms, but FF7 is that good). The game begins in an enormous
industrial complex housed in a futuristic city, and remains there for the
first
seven or eight hours of play. Just when it appears that the entire game
will
take place in the city, the venue changes to a fully 3D, fully rotatable
engine,
and players will find that the city is a mere dot on the enormous world
map.
When not travelling in the world, players will navigate through static,
hand-drawn locales. And in another huge leap forward for RPGs, the corridor
is no more. Players can walk in, around, on top of, and through submarines,
glaciers, amusement parks, reactors, farms, and dozens of other places.
Since
the backgrounds are static, the developers were able to put all their attention
into animating the iconic representation of the party leader, which is
represented in super-deformed polygons, looking remarkably like the Wild
Arms characters look in battle.
It is unknown who came up with the idea for the polygonal battles first,
Sony
or Square, but Square has been in the business longer, and it shows in
FF7's
combat engine. While only three members can be in the party at one time,
the
effects more than make up for the game's only shortcoming. The graphics
are
as "realistic" as possible, considering the genre, with each character
having a
distinct look. And since each character uses a different style of weapon,
the
animation is different for each character. But it doesn't stop there -
each
character also has several other attack animations, based on their equipment.
The equipping of characters is perhaps the most important part of the game;
the game itself devotes several pages of text just to explain it.
The special attacks and spells, however, are the game's strongest points.
All
nine characters have "limit breaks", which can only be used after the
character takes a certain amount of damage. When the limit is reached,
the
character attacks and does extra damage to the target. Each character has
at
least four, with one having nine.
The spells are the most graphically impressive part of the game (the game's
CG sequences run a close second). There are 70 in all, 16 of which are
FF3-style summon monster spells. One of these (Leviathan) was in the FF7
demo disc, which may be why the demand for the game has been so huge.
The game's plot is deep and typical of Square's prior efforts quite epic.
Square takes great pride in its storytelling abilities and uses a number
of
flashback sequences, and loads of rendered sequences and prerendered
FMV to add greatly to the mood and emotion of the story.
Adult themes and even some uncensored language (Goddamn, Crap, Shit,
etc.) were all left in place as per Sony's promise not to alter the work.
The teen
rating for the game is well deserved due to such mature sexual and violent
themes.
All in all, it is impossible to not recommend Final Fanatsy VII to anyone
who
is even vaguely interested in RPGs.
As a final note, the game is immense, and you simply will not find everything
your first time through the game. After playing it once without assistance,
replaying the game with the help of a guide lends additional insight into
how
much is packed into this title. If you need a guide, the most complete
one
we've seen, that doesn't reveal the plot of the game while you use it,
is VS
Book's Unofficial FFVII Strategy Guide.
