I really don't like that I played this before 3-6, but my friends were playing it, so whatever.
Final Fantasy's first foray into 3D, VII ditches a lot of the more fantasy aspects of the series in favor of a more "magical science fiction" setting. Without a job system, the player has a lot of flexibility in how they build their characters, which is exemplified by the fantastic materia system, which my friend described accurately as a sort of deck-building system. The synergies and strategies the player can build with this system are a lot of fun, and while I don't want this to be the permanent route FF goes down, it is a fun one time experiment.
Other than that, the story and characters are fantastic, but I felt myself missing some of the elements from the first 2 that I really enjoyed, namely dungeon design. None of the "dungeons" in this game felt like such to me, and losing that element made me feel less invested in the areas I was exploring.
By being the first game in 3D, it falters in some predictable ways: it is very hard to tell at certain points where you are allowed to go in an environment because of the polygonal models and painterly backgrounds. It's not a huge deal because guides exist, but it is definitely a chink in this game's armor.
A good game that was probably great at the time of release, age has dampened its power a bit, but it's still worth playing, especially for those characters. I'll be curious to see if my opinion of this changes at all after playing 3-6.
Final Fantasy's first foray into 3D, VII ditches a lot of the more fantasy aspects of the series in favor of a more "magical science fiction" setting. Without a job system, the player has a lot of flexibility in how they build their characters, which is exemplified by the fantastic materia system, which my friend described accurately as a sort of deck-building system. The synergies and strategies the player can build with this system are a lot of fun, and while I don't want this to be the permanent route FF goes down, it is a fun one time experiment.
Other than that, the story and characters are fantastic, but I felt myself missing some of the elements from the first 2 that I really enjoyed, namely dungeon design. None of the "dungeons" in this game felt like such to me, and losing that element made me feel less invested in the areas I was exploring.
By being the first game in 3D, it falters in some predictable ways: it is very hard to tell at certain points where you are allowed to go in an environment because of the polygonal models and painterly backgrounds. It's not a huge deal because guides exist, but it is definitely a chink in this game's armor.
A good game that was probably great at the time of release, age has dampened its power a bit, but it's still worth playing, especially for those characters. I'll be curious to see if my opinion of this changes at all after playing 3-6.