I recently found a review back, a review about FFVII i wrote when i just finished playing FFVII.
(this is 2001, at the age of 15 ^^):
The game starts of nice and pretty. You can see a train ride into the station of a big city. Just before the train stops, a couple of people jump out, with one a those people a blonde lad in a purple outfit. The blondie seems to be Cloud. Cloud's a mercenary, at the moment hired by the terrorist organisation of AVALANCHE. Mission of the day: blow up Mako Reactor 6. Why? The Shinra company's getting Mako Energy from the planet through these machines. That Mako's starting to run out, and when there's nothing left, the planet wil meet certain doom.
The Mission is complete, Cloud wants his money, and get back with his life. But somehow you get tangled up with AVALANCHE and next thing you know, you're fighting for the existence of the whole planet.
It all sounds a bit cliché, but it's really not. The story about the dying world isn't that much predictable, and actually quite nice. But on the other hand, maybe that basic storyline isn't that good at all, the thing that makes it beautiful is the way it's been told.
You'ld gonna feel sympathy for the characters, like in a good book.
FFVII was one of the first, and probably one of the very first Rpg-games that was in full 3D. This would make everything show more realistic, plus: the camera doesn't have to stand at the same position anymore.
That it's different, doesn't mean it's better, once in a while that camera angle is disturbing, and you'ld long to the isometric perspective. What makes it even more fun is that you know that the game has nice 3D graphics. Hey, it's the year 1997, remember.
The environments are very well done, and filled with great athmosphere, alas you can't say the same about the sprites. They contain no detail, which the backgrounds do have. The music is quite dissapointing, though, it all sounds like a complicated ringtone or something.
FFVII is one of the few games i don't really bother the bleeping sounds, 'cause on the other hand, it's got something special. A few music themes from FFVII they might have put away. But the rest just sounds good, besides the bleeping, so respect for the creator.
The thing that really amazes are the cut-scenes. These are obviously not done with the in-game engine, 'cause they're to good to be true. Now i might be overreacting, but still, for those who haven't played it: watch the cut-scenes on the internet or something.
Too bad that there isn't a word spoken, as well in the game as in the clips. In-game all communication goes by textballoons, and in the cut-scenes everybody lost their tongue.
FFVII also introduced a brand new battlesystem. Rpgs in that time still had standard turnbased fights.
In this games, it's still about selection menus, but the whole principal has just been turned over: Active Time Battle System. It works as simple as it is good: Each character has its own meter that fills. When it's full, you can pick an action. You can adapt the speed of the filling by the options screen, to select the difficulty level. When it goes faster, it does mean less time for choices, but it does provide a smooth fight, which doesn't make it turnbased as it used to.
Also during the battle, you can adapt the speed of the meter by magic and items, which gives an extra touch of tactics. That way you can choose your characters, which to be faster than the other.
But that's not the only thing. Meet Materia. These are little stones containing Mako energy, and where you can get your magic from. In the weapons you can find throughout the game have Materia slots, openings where you can put your Materia in. The amount of slots depend on the weapon. This way, your magic has influence on your physical attacks and vice versa. So generally, the more Materia, the more magic points; the less materia, the more attack and health points.
You can also link Materia with eachother, for more possibilities. So each character has its benefits (magic or just full force), and your opponents have flaws and benefits. Are you going to upgrade your attack to the limit by just using the necessary Materia? Or just fill up your weapons so you can get very strong magic? This way there has been given more depth to the battles.
On other areas of the Rpg game, FFVII isn't that much innovating. Walking around, talking to people, solving quite easy puzzles, the usual stuff. Mostly this is a benefit in FFVII, you always know for certain what to do and where to go, and who to talk to, something that's missing sometimes in other Rpg's.
There are plenty of side-quests, so you won't get bored very quickly. There are also a good amount of mini-games, like chocobo-racing, motorcycle driving, and even smaller and more simple ones. With other words, FFVII has it all.
Conclusion:
The standars for a top game are enjoyable graphics, good music, a gameplay that's fascinating, and a very strong story-line. FFVII contains everything. There are alot of people saying it's the best Rpg ever, but i've got my remarks on those fan boys as well. As i said, the camera-angles aren't everything, the difference in graphics (characters versus background) is to big, and if you're not a fan of the midi-file background score, you could irritate yourselve at a lot of factors as these.
This way, you'ld encounter quite a lot of these minor flaws, due to the technical (im)posibilities of the time the game's been made.
But this Final Fantasy certainly has its brilliant elements, and is a Rpg no FF-fan should miss out on.
^__^