Final Fantasy VII PSP

04 Jun 2009 at 18:31:51 by Tim McDonald

This is a really hard one to talk about. Not because of the spoilers that result from any discussion of Final Fantasy VII. Not because of a personal love for the game that will be ruined by the slightest deviation. It's difficult because there is no deviation. It's a straight port of PSX classic, Final Fantasy VII.

That's probably a good thing, as far as most people are concerned, so let's carry on from there. The version I played appeared to be the full release version (which we understand should be available for download from the PlayStation Store now) and gave us a high-end party around the end of the game. The airship was freely available, and the party – Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent, kitted out with most of the top-notch gear including the Knights of the Round materia – were more than capable of taking on pretty much anything around.

To check out how the PSP handled it, I spent a bit of time wandering around getting into fights, and also had a look around the Chocobo Ranch outside of Midgar to see how it held up in non-combat situations. And yes, it's a straight port. The music is all there in the original MIDI-esque tunes, as opposed to the orchestral updates that have cropped up in a number of albums. The frame-rate is consistently high, too – I didn't notice any drops in speed at all. And as this is a Square RPG from before analogue stick controls were a must on PlayStation games, it handles beautifully on the PSP.

For those of you who never played Final Fantasy VII, I imagine this has gone largely over your head, so the lowdown is this: Final Fantasy VII was the first Final Fantasy game on PlayStation, and it's largely acclaimed for bringing the series to the mass market in western territories. While there's a lot of nostalgia associated with this particular entry into the series, it's still a pretty spectacular game, with an immersive world, some of the best music of the series, both solid characters and a solid plot, and the clever Materia magic system that allows for a lot of variety and smart combinatinos. There's a reason that people have been clamoring for a remake of this game, and there's a reason why Final Fantasy VII is the entry in the long-running FF series which has so many spin-off games and films: it's a great game with a great universe, and it's an experience worth trying. Now you have another method of experiencing it.

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