I may be a little late on this, but I just noticed Final Fantasy VII in the PSN store for £7.99. Now I can honestly say that I've never played this game before, But I've heard a ton of stuff about it both ways (and quite frankly, its fanbase scares me).
The only thing that really bugged me about this game was the fact that they replaced Yoshitaka Amano (An incredible artist, with gallery shows all over the world and who has worked on classic animes such as
Gatchaman,
Tekkaman and
Time Bokan) with Tetsuya Nomura (Someone who imitates the so-called "anime style", and not very well I might add, and who started a trend of stupid, girly-looking protagonists in games), honestly, only about three of his designs look slightly appealing to me (These being Barret, Tifa and Cid).
But I suppose I really have no idea what I am, or am not, missing. I've heard the soundtrack is quite good, and I mean, it has to have done something to earn such a rabid fanbase, right? (then again, maybe not)
Maybe I'll just wait until I have eight quid that I reeeaally don't need.
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I wouldn't worry about the character art too much as they're basically just a few pixels anyway. I'd say it holds up pretty well all in all though, worth the 15 AUD in my opinion.
FFVII is definitely an excellent JRPG. It's the game that really got me into RPGs in general. Well worth it. It's hard to give you specific reasons why, because I love it. But it's just a really great game.
The game was freaking inredible, but let it stay in the past. I have a feeling it will be better remembered that way
Long story short, yes, it's a great JRPG with a great (if not a little absurd at times) plot, that still holds up to this day despite others' contrary sentiments.
Lost me when you said Barrets design is interesting.
It's Mr.T with a gun for a Hand.
If someone says the only thing wrong with it is the Graphics, or doesn't mention any of it's weaknesses as a game. *cough*Cait Sith*cough*, Ignore them because they're not going to give you a fair outlook.
1. The story is strong, But not great, It has it's own problems, the majority of the characters who aren't Cloud/ Aeris with a god damn S/ and Sephiroth are pretty much forgotten after their introductory arc, the little character development for other characters is pretty much limited to one scene after their introduction. This however could be a criticism of most JRPG's.
2. The music is by Uematsu. That's all you need to know about that. If you're not clued in, We'll just say that it's great music which is iconic at times, and almost always perfect for the situation, Definitely the strong point of the Game.
3. Graphics are not brilliant, But they're functional. The Animations are frustratingly long for a replayer, but if you haven't played it before, That probably won't bother you much. Once you get over the shock of everyone being half horse (Hoof Hands :D), you can forget about it and Enjoy the game.
4. Gameplay.
It's good, IBy the end game you have alot of freedom to do what you want. It has several minigames, but only one really stands up to scrutiny, which is Chocobo Breeding, which when you get past the incestic requirements, is a fun way to fritter the hours away, The Battle Arena is just normal fights with penalties, I wouldn't call it a Mini-game.
Materia System: Pioneering for it's day, Quite dated now, it does allow you to create a character with the skills you'd like them to have, such as "Lots of strong Magic", "Healer" but it's not indepth really, and if you're looking to beat the bonus bosses, you're going to have a set build anyway.
Crunch time: To buy or not to buy.
If you're prone to impulse buys, Get it. It's better than splurging 30+ on a Hard copy and not liking it
If you're a fan of JRPG's: Get it. You probably won't find it to be worth the praise it gets, but you do need to remember that when alot of people played it, it was more than 10 years ago and rose tinted goggles set in.
If you have a busy life and not much time to play a long game: Don't buy it. First Playthrough takes a long time, and if you want to do everything, say goodbye to 40 hours.
And if you've always wanted to play it, Buy it, 8 quid isn't alot after all, and even if you don't really like it, you can't say it's not for the lack of not trying it.
I have it on Disk and PSN, It's around 7th on my Fav FF list, and I think My summary is about as Neutral as you'll get on a game like this, where the common opinion is either "OMG I LOVE SEPHI FF7 ROCKS!" and "FF7 sucks".
Let me get this straight: have you beaten it? No? Go fucking beat it!
It's not my favorite Final Fantasy. Hell, it's barely in my top 5, but dude...it has some of the best, if not THE best end/post game content you can find in a JRPG.
And don't listen to people dissing Cait Sith, he was the man, and his little story arc was cleverly done.
If you've got the time to kill, I say go for it.
Just prepare to play something really dated.