FFVII: The end
At last. This experiment is finally at an end.
Sort of.
By sort of, I mean I defeated the game—specifically Sephiroth in all of his forms—and watched the end movies.
But am I finished? Hardly. There is a lot of game left. Sigh.
I saved in the North Crater just before the final battles, which allows me to go back and fill in the gaps in the game later.
Will I go back and try to beat Ruby and Emerald weapon? Maybe. It will be difficult to find motivation now that I am finished with the main storyline.
The final leg of the game was very frustrating—not in regards to its difficulty, but in structure. I just wanted to fight the final bosses, and not have to spend time dividing up my party and deciding which character gets which materia.
I had my main party of Cloud, Cid, and Yuffie loaded for bear—but the game made me split up my party on two occasions, and anyone who was not in my main party had their materia stripped. I tried to “share the wealth” when it came to my higher-level characters, as I was not sure what kind of fights the other parties, if any, they would get into.
Which brings me back to one of my main complaints about Final Fantasy VII: the materia system.
While it can make for some fun and unique gameplay, it really took a lot of the enjoyment out of the game. There were more than a few times where I considered playing, but did not because I did not want to spend 20 minutes re-equipping my party’s materia.
Don’t get me wrong: I still loved playing through the game. Its story and characters hold up very well. But I’m tired of equipping materia. I’m tired of mastering materia. I’m tired of even looking at materia.
Upon beating the game Monday evening, my first revelation was: “Now I’ll have more time for other things.”
I hate confessing to such a statement, as I enjoyed the game, but let’s face facts: that’s 70+ hours of my life I’ll never get back. I try not to think about what else I could do during that time.
This was a fun experiment, but it did remind me why I enjoy portable gaming much more these days. It is difficult for me to schedule out an hour or so to sit down in front of my PlayStation. It is much easier to play a game here and there on my Nintendo DSi, thanks to the quick-save option of most games.
How did the final battles go? It wasn’t even close. Cloud was at level 81; he was equipped with Slash-All and Ultima Weapon. The first boss fight with Jenova lasted all of two or three minutes.
Boss battles are easier when your main fighter can routinely dish out 9999 points of damage. Boom.
Bizarro-Sephiroth took a little time, only due to his many parts and having to switch between three parties. If I go back and try to beat the game again after finishing all the side quests, I may see if I can just take BS on with my main party of Cloud, Cid, and Yuffie.
Safer-Sephiroth was also fairly easy, and had Cid still been in my party (I replaced him with Tifa when splitting folks up), it would have gone even faster. Big Guard and Regen did save my bacon when Sephiroth used his two minute long (ugh) summon on the party though.
And yes, I had a moment of geeky nostalgia when “One-Winged Angel” began playing.
The end video was enjoyable, although I think I like the second ending after the last of the credits a bit more. The visuals are a bit more striking.
To get to the point, if there even is one, Final Fantasy VII holds up and while parts of it can be annoying (read: materia), it is still a landmark game.
I think I’m gonna go read a book now.
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Read Gavin Craig’s week 12 post
