Final Fantasy 7: The Gameplay

I've focused most of the past FF7 blog posts on the story, mostly trying to make observations about the story that perhaps some of you hadn't considered before. Through it all, I don't think I've really touched upon the non-story elements, especially the gameplay. So, in this final blog about the most popular Final Fantasy I'll stop rambling about the story for a while.

Final Fantasy 7: The Finale

I had never played this far into the game without cheating before, so when the time came to finally finish the game I decided to stream it via Fangamer's Twitch channel. I started off by beating the Emerald and Ruby Weapons to show how it's done, then proceeded to tackle the Northern Crater and defeat Sephiroth once and for all.

Final Fantasy 7: The Assault on Midgar

Once the party learns that Holy has been summoned and that Sephiroth is just standing in its way, the path is clear: get to Sephiroth and stop him. Unfortunately, there's a barrier in the way, but Shinra has a plan for that problem.

Final Fantasy 7: Wrapping up Loose Ends

With Cloud back in the party the group stops talking about how weird Cloud is quite so much. There's just a few tasks left to do before heading toward Sephiroth.

Final Fantasy 7: Psychiatrist Planet

I think I'm going to just keep posting these FF7 blog posts until I get it out of my system. If these aren't your bag, come back next week and I should be done.

Anyway, here we go: the emotional climax of the game.

Final Fantasy 7: Not a Cloud in the Sky

Whoops, I got distracted talking about Weapons in the last FF7 post. Speaking of which, what exactly was the Mako Cannon for before the Weapons came along? It didn't seem terribly practical for any other engagement. Couldn't they have maybe shot down the escaping airship, maybe? Also, when Tifa and Scarlet get into a slap fight on top of the Mako Cannon, wouldn't the barrel have been incredibly hot after having fired twice? And why is Tifa slapping Scarlet in the first place--isn't she a badass martial artist? Kick that awful woman in the gut!

Anyway, so Cloud's missing, but you've got an airship. Let the search begin!

Final Fantasy 7: Meteor and Weapons

As Cloud finally breaks down we get to see the Shinra honchos arrive at the crater, commenting on the things they see. Rather than being the ruthless people we've experienced thus far, though, they seem genuinely amazed and concerned. Rufus actually worries about the state of the planet, and it almost seems like he's on the verge of becoming an ally. And, to some degree, he does: when Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia, the whole place starts falling apart. The only reason the rest of the party makes it out of the crater alive is because Rufus pushes them all onto his airship. It doesn't take long for Shinra to seem evil again, though.

Final Fantasy 7: Dance, Puppet, Dance

After the death of Aeris and the fight with Jenova - Life you receive the only words Jenova ever speaks directly: "Beacause, you are......a puppet." (sic) This is after Sephiroth really hammers Cloud with some heavy existential remarks, like "Oh, so you have emotions now?" and other lines that clearly question Cloud's humanity. Yet though the player has every reason to doubt Cloud's sanity (given his odd episodes since the beginning of the game) and his control over his own mind (given his two recent awful Will Saves (and one good one) against Domination), we have no reason to really believe he's purely a puppet. Yet Jenova's claim injects the seed of doubt into ourselves as well as our hero. It's kind of like playing FF4 with Kain as the main character instead of Cecil.

Choices in Games

Today's episode of Extra Credits got me thinking about games in which choices are a primary part of the experience. As they explain in the episode, choices are situations in which you are knowingly weighing your options, with no clear right or wrong answer.

An excellent example they gave in a previous episode was the part in Mass Effect 2, in which you have to decide to either destroy all of the enemy Geth or reprogram them to be friendly. It's a massive choice: to destroy them while letting them retain their free will or to strip them of their free will and let them live.

There are very few games I've played with choices like that, or major choices at all for that matter. I'll try to talk about any worth mentioning.

Final Fantasy 7: The Forgotten Capitol

I've always referred to it as the City of the Ancients, though apparently it's actually called the Forgotten Capitol. That makes more sense, since the Ancients were a nomadic people, so a city wouldn't make much sense for them. Even so, apparently the Cetra once lived there. Regardless, the place is remarkably well-preserved.

Final Fantasy 7: The Temple of the Ancients

Once you've got the Tiny Bronco, it kinda feels like the whole world is open to you. You can finally travel around fairly quickly to pretty much every place you've been to before, plus a few new places.

After traveling around a bit and talking to people (or simply by finding the place) you learn of the Temple of the Ancients and how it supposedly houses the Black Materia Sephiroth has been searching for.

Final Fantasy VII: Wutai

How difficult is it, really, to get Yuffie in the party? I seem to recall once spending hours running around in a forest trying to encounter her, yet most of the time I remember seeing her basically the first time I get into a fight in a forest on the world map.

Wutai would be a pretty pointless town without her.

Final Fantasy 7: Rocket Town

I believe the town is actually called Shinra No. 26, but I think I've always just referred to it as Rocket Town. Like many towns, there's two distinct experiences there: a disc 1 experience, and a disc 2 experience. I might as well go through them both.

FInal Fantasy 7: Gongaga

Even more back-peddling! I skipped over one of the most low-key, overlooked locations in the game, mostly because it's full of 100% foreshadowing: Gongaga.

Final Fantasy 7: Cosmo Canyon

I think I skipped right over Cosmo Canyon in my discussions, though I guess I've been doing pretty bad at staying in Chronological order. Hey, have you ever noticed how you start off on the first continent at Midgar and leave from Junon, yet the two cities are basically right next to each other? Same thing for Costa Del Sol and Rocket Town. You pretty much just tour each continent, walking in a huge circle around their mountainous cores.

Anyway, Cosmo Canyon is at about the half-way mark in your circuit around the second continent.

Final Fantasy 7: Shinra

I mentioned before that the true villain of Final Fantasy 7, at least for disc 1, was really the Shinra Corporation. Yet, after escaping Midgar their presence in the game changes dramatically. We have a lot to talk about.

Final fantasy 7: Nibelheim Part 2 - Zack, Vincent, Jenovaroth

Continuing my exploration of Nibelheim! This time I'm talking about Zack and Cloud's escape, the tragic story of Vincent Valentine, and why we bother going to Nibelheim in the first place.

Final Fantasy 7: Nibelheim Part 1 - Rebuilding and Sephiroth's Conception

My notes on Final Fantasy 7 are piling up faster than I can write them out. There's a lot more here to talk about than I remembered.

This time I want to talk about Nibelheim in the present day.

Final Fantasy 7: Leaving Midgar and Sephiroth, Professional MacGuffin

When you finally leave Midgar, you finally reach the world map. Up to now, the story has been focused on Shinra and their use of Mako. The story has been subtly hinting at something else going on via Cloud's visions, headaches, and, of course, the murder of President Shinra, but the main villain still seems to be the mega-conglomerate. In fact, it even seems like you owe Sephiroth for your escape.

The story at Kalm shifts the game's focus entirely, adjusting not only the goal of the game but the feel of it as well.