Result : 6 - Huge Japanese adventure game.
 | Graphics: 7 - Well drawn, cartoony style. |
| FMV : 9 - Some of the best FMV's I have seen. |
| Sound : 7 - Ranges from bland to explosive. |
| Music : 5 - Some real annoying tunes. |
| A.I. : 4 - Dumb. |
| Lifespan : 9 - Huge world, lots of sub-games. |
| Gameplay : 5 - Annoying random combats, very linear. |
| Adrenaline : 3 - You never feel in danger. |
Final Fantasy 7 was the first Japanese adventure game to really hit it big in the USA and Europe. It has a lot of "cutesy" things, and all those big-eyed, jail-bait women that Jap men like. It follows Cloud, a special forces soldier, though a convoluted story about his missing memories and genetic manipulation. You need to go from place to place, taking to people, and picking up various items, or doing tasks to get to the next thing. Combat is a flashy, but unsatisfying, turn based affair, with FMV sequences whenever you release a "Materia" spell. The whole combat thing just got dull after a while, and I completed the game because of bloody-mindedness, rather than being interested to see what would happen.
Sound and graphics do the job, but the whole games selling point seemed to be how good it looked (gee, a 5 minute FMV whenever I cast a spell - neato!) and the huge scope of the game (which annoyed me, because you had to follow the storyline it didn't really feel like I had control).
A hit world-wide, but I kept thinking "I hate the way this is implemented" on a more than acceptable number of items. Still, if you have a 12 year-old, it will keep them busy for 60+ game hours, and that may be worth something to you.
Quick Money:
Go to the desert outside of the Gold 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!
Quick Money II:
At the Gold Saucer most attractions require you to have GP. Once you have entered by
shuttle, go to the top left-hand corner to the save point. At the house to the right there
is a chance that there will be a dark figure. He will sell you 100 GP for 10,000 gil...
Lucky 7 fever:
Try to get a character's life to 7777 by Exp. points and switching Materia around. Once
this is done the character will go berserk and hit the enemy at 7777 points until the
battle is over.
Item Duplicator Trick:
You only need the W-Item Materia. During a battle, have the character with W-item pick a
highlighted item that you want to duplicate. Then pick any other item. When the cursor is
over a character, press "cancel" and your first item will increase to its
original number. Then, press "accept" and then "cancel" over and over
until you have 99 of the item.
Easy 2 Mega-Materia:
In the final dungeon when you are prompted to take your party to the left and right
path... take your party to the right path thus leaving the rest to go to the left. Follow
the path down to the end where you meet up with the rest of the group. You can take the
path that leads to where the party went left - do it and collect all the items from the
left path. Now return to the group. They will hand over the items that they found on the
left path (which are the same items you got).
Tetris Elemental:
South of Cosmo Canyon is an island you can barely or maybe not even see on the world map.
But this small little island is filled with Cactrots. Be sure you have the Morph Materia
equipped along with a weapon with a good attack%. Go to battle and you will encounter a
Cactrot. The Cactrot has 6,000 HP so take off atleast 5,800 to 5,900 damage points, then
use Morph on it. If you don't hit him the first time with Morph then just keep on trying
because most likely you will hit it with Morph. You now have a Tetris Elemental. Keep on
doing this over and over again and you will get this rare relic.
Raise XP and Materia levels quickly:
To raise your XP and Materia levels very quickly, simply go to the town of Junon (The town
with the big cannon). Pay the man at the elevator 10 gil to enter. Once you reach the top,
go the way that you would go to reach the underwater reactor. When you enter the hallway
with the Shinra troops doing the marches led by the man in Red you will see a Red light on
the wall. Go up to the light and press the Circle button or X and an alarm will go off.
Run around the hallway but do not exit it! You will begin to fight a majority of enemies
who are not very hard but will give you large amounts of XP and AP.
Slow down the Slots:
In the battle square when the slot machine is going around to pick your handicap tap
Square really fast and the slot will slow down.
When fighting bosses, combine Final Attack materia and either Pheonix Summon Materia or a Revive Spell Materia on master level. If you die you resurrect. Great for Sephiroth, Ruby, and Emerald.
When in the Chocobos Race, hold L1+L2+R1+R2 for extra speed and hold R1+R2+X to keep speed up and not lose any stamina.
Against the boss Gi Natakk, all you have to do his give HIM an X-potion or a Phoenix Down. This automatically drains all of his HP and you win the battle.
Underwater Cave
This cheat can be done only once you have acquired the submarine. Board the submarine and
go to the sea northeast of the Gold Saucer where the river meets the ocean. Submerge, and
you will find yourself in a cave in the bottom of the ocean. You will notice that in the
and of the cave there is a crashed airplane. It's Shinra's cargo plane. It's not very big,
so search all of it and you will find many items.
Easy EXP and AP:
An easy way to gain EXP and AP is to go to the upper path in the left path of the crater.
In here, you will find creatures called Magic Pots. Each Magic Pot is worth 8,000 ep and
1,000 ap. However, there is one catch. If you try to attack them, you will do zero points
(physical or magical). They will also say "Gimme Elixir!" So you must give them
an Elixir. This will allow you to do damage to them.
Gold Chocobo:
To raise a Gold Chocobo, you will have to breed a variety of others to get the desired
product. You will first need the Chocobo lure to capture them. Once you have it, rent out
six stalls at the Chocobo Farm. Each stall will run you 10,000 gil, so be prepared to
shell out a lot of money. Now the first two Chocobos you need are a Running female and a
Walking male. The Walking male can be found near the Gold Saucer, while the Running female
is just west of Mideel. Capture two of them and then head back to see what you've caught.
Choco Billy will rate each one you bring in. Be sure that you get a "good"
Walking male and a "great" Running female. This is a good time to save your
game. Head to the plains below Bone Village and steal Carob Nuts from the Vlakorados' (3
Carob Nuts needed). Now return and mate these two using a Carob Nut. Keep resetting until
you come up with a Green and Blue Chocobo of opposite genders (either combination will
work). You can use the same two Yellow Chocobos to breed again, but you will need to give
them some time after a successful mating. Once you have the Green and Blue Chocobos, feed
each of them 10 Sylkis Greens (See Chocobo Sage) and head off to the Golden Saucer to
race. All of the initial Chocobos you get will be C-Class and will need to be advanced to
A-Class (Tip: When racing, hold R1 + R2 to keep your Chocobos stamina up). Return once
again to the farm and mate them together with another Carob Nut to get a Black Chocobo.
Head to the snow-covered Northern Continent and look for the tracks on the western shore.
Here you will find the Dashing Chocobo. Make sure it is in the "wonderful" quota
and is the opposite gender of whatever your Black Chocobo is. Feed these newest Chocobos
10 Sylkis Greens each and race them both up to A-Class. At this point you will need to go
to an island to the northeast of the Chocobo Farm. You will need to battle with the
goblins there to receive a Zeio Nut. With any luck, when you return and use it to mate the
Dashing and Black Chocobos, you will get a Gold Chocobo!! The Gold Chocobo gives you
access to any place you want to go on the map.
Knights of the Round Summon Materia:
To get the Ultimate Materia, you will require a Gold Chocobo. Head North of the island
with Goblins on it, to an invisible island that can't be seen on the tiny map, even when
it's enlarged! Head into the cave there and the Knights-Of-The-Round Materia is yours!
This materia takes a surprising total of 60,000-70,000 HPs off all enemies!
