Final Fantasy 7 End Remarks

I finally beat Final Fantasy 7, it’s what has been occupying all of my time this weekend. I never had a Playstation until College, but I really loved Final Fantasy 6, so as soon as I could, I bought a Playstation. Later my brother-in-law got me a PS2 so that I could play FFX and X-2. I wanted to play the games in order, so I started 7, but then came my wedding, the move, and a bunch of other things. So it dragged out for months. Frankly, I don’t recommend doing that for Final Fantasy or any story-based game. What I usually love about Square RPGs is the bond you feel with the characters. But with so much time between playing, I barely could remember what was going on, much less bond with them. However, as there was still a lot to do in the part I’ve been playing for the past week, I was able to get back into the game.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of the game, playing it in 2005 instead of 1997 (when it came out), is the fact that the main characters at the start of the game are ecoterrorists. I didn’t really notice it until late in the game when some of the characters were discussing actions that occurred earlier in the game. Although it’s been a tradition since Final Fantasy 4 for the main characters to be fighting against an evil and domineering empire, this was the first time they were overtly blowing up power plants and doing thing we would consider to be terrorist actions. That’s what I like about Final Fantasy games, they usually really make you think. I mean, it’s easy to root for the main characters, but what if they are killing innocents? Is it ok to kill others in order to save the planet? In fact, in Japan, a followon to FF7 has users playing from the point of view of the empire.

Of course, FF7, which some call the greatest FF, seemed to me to be a bit repititious after FF6. If you replace espers with mako, it’s almost the same game, but set in more modern times. Then again, the game IS different enough and was even a bit confusing, although I probably owe some of that to the gaps in between my playing times. I really liked the ending a lot, it was much better than the FF6 ending - the CG movie was beautiful for the technology.

Also, after playing FF7, I see that the Final Fantasy movie that came out a while back is [VERY] loosely based on FF7. It’s almost the same except for the lack of ecoterrorists - unless you consider the main girl to be a very tuned down version. Also, none of the characters could use magic, which I think is why no one really liked the movie.

Now some disjointed stuff: If you watch all the way past the long end credits you’ll get a bonus movie. It’s pretty neat and says a lot about how successful the main characters were.

Somehow I missed out on two characters: Vincent and Yuffie. I’m glad I missed out on Yuffie because it was spoiled to me some time ago that she steals the group’s materia. That would have made me pretty ticked. I wasn’t using a strategy guide until way late in the game when I couldn’t figure out where to go and was sick of wasting what little free time I have running around the map - that’s what makes FFs a great game for kids in high school and younger, but not so good for a working husband.

And finally, there’s a part where Cloud and Tifa are on a mountain talking. The game fades the screen implying that time has passed. We later find out that the others were watching and Tifa is very embarrassed. What happened? My strategy guide implies they got it on. What do you think?

• Final-Fantasy