Final Fantasy VII on Steam

Final Fantasy VII is currently on Steam, on sale for $5.99. I somehow missed the news that FF7 was not only making a return, but coming to Steam, no less. I've briefly tried it out and it plays just like the original PSX/PC original. There's no HD remake, no mouse support, and the same weird mix of polygonal characters and drawn backgrounds...but the game is nothing short of epic (competes with FFVI for the best Final Fantasy ever, in my opinion) and it's a steal for $6.

 

I would have picked this up but I've played the game so many times already I'm not sure I could soldier through another playthrough. Still, one of the best games ever and it's great that Steam is making it available for PC gamers to experience who may have missed it when it came out.

And there are some mods for it that increase the graphics a bit. Don't quote me as I've never used them, but I think there is one that upgrades the battle backgrounds a bit.

 

FF7 was actually originally offered for the PC. I still have my disks (I had it on PC, not PSX), but it doesn't run on modern versions of Windows. The Steam re-release fixes this.

 

Tempting... or I just boot it up on a PS1 emulator lol.

 

I was tempted to get this on sale but given I still have the original PlayStation version lying about I couldn't justify having another copy of it. Final Fantasy VII is OK but Final Fantasy IX still remains my personal favourite!

 

Quoted.

Also, yes, there are mods and they're great. They basically use the in-battle models for the overworld and tidy things up. It can look a little odd once the game goes back to the 'chibi' art style for some scenes but it's still worth a look. People have also made super high poly characters based on Advent Children and the like.

 

PC controls are horrible. Better to buy on playstation.

 

Default PC controls on the current version are horrible, but if you have a numpad, the original configuration from the original release of FF7 PC work well. I just changed the mapping of all the controls to this:



Also, good luck finding a PSX and/or a copy of FF7 for the PSX for $5.99

 

Try Xpadder or Joy2Key to fix your control woes. Then you can just map that to a 360, PS3, Wii, or similar controller (all of them work on PC)

 

I still have the PSX version of it and still I was very tempted to buy its on my wishlist after all.

didnt buy it, going to use that cash to help a forum.

I really wish that they launch an updated version of FF8, which for me is the best one

 

Here is some info on mods How To Make Final Fantasy VII Look Like An HD Remaster

Seems some disable cloud saving and achievements.

 

never played any final fantasy game before. worth buying this one for $5?

 

yes the story on this one is very very good

 

I've played eight different Final Fantasy games and this one ties as my favorite (with Final Fantasy VI for the Super Nintendo). And $5.99 is a steal. Get it. Get it now.

 

My first playstation game.

ONLY game I have played over and over again. Each time I play through it, I would find something new without using a game manual. Eventually I had to use a game manual because I kept missing alot of things =/

 

I have it as well. Came in that trapezoid box. The graphics on it paled in comparison to the console version though.

Heh, I remember wasting quite a few afternoons trying to beat Ruby weapon.

Brings back memories of Y2K, lol.

 

I played a Final Fantasy game. I am not really a fan of the play style. The combat is turn based, or close to turn based. You choose an action and the game animates it for you. It all has an old console feel to it. I would prefer more interaction, more real time combat. Give me Oblivion or Skyrim, or Fallout instead.

This is just my opinion, I know many love these games.

 

If you prefer action RPGs to menu-based RPGs, Final Fantasy 15 for the PS4 may be up your alley.

 

It looks good, but it is hard to tell what the game play will be like. It seems like there is only one player, even though they seem to show status for the rest of the squad in the lower right of the screen. So maybe you switch in real time, or maybe just choose one to control for the battle. Anyway, I will keep an eye on it.

 

well the story looks kind of interesting, its the same thing as usual, which is why I like the older final fantasys

 

From reviews I've read, you directly control one character in an action-RPG format (real-time control, can dodge attacks, your aim matters, etc) and indirectly control the rest of your party through issued commands and/or configured behavior profiles. This is a huge change for Final Fantasy, which generally has always been a menu-based game where hits and misses are just calculated chance, and issue commands for all party members, and the only combat movement is front row/back row (or switching out players like FFX).

 

Squall's and Rinoa's story has an unusually high appeal to me. Others call it "cheesy" and overwrought. Perhaps those qualities are what I like about it...

 

I dont know I liked very much that bad boy appeal of squall and rinoa complete absent lack of direction

anyhow Im not into the story because of that, although its clear from the symbol of the game, the 2 together, that this was going to be about love. I like the game because of political movements of the major players and because I was in love with the city of eshtar

 

That sounds great, simular to how Dragon Age works. I wonder if most will embrace this change or not.

 

no its very different from how dragon age works, it still uses D&D as basis

think of a third person shooter

 

Candidly, I doubt it. Action RPGs date back as far as menu-based RPGs; in the Nintendo Entertainment System days, there was Legend of Zelda (in the cool gold case) for the former and Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior for the latter. And the idea of an action RPG with partially-computer-controlled allies where you give them general tactics to follow dates back at least as far as Secret of Mana (1993). So even though Final Fantasy has had perhaps twenty releases (not every FF got a new number) over a couple decades, it's always stood for the menu-based systems. This is as dramatic of a switch as dropping resource gathering and base-building from Command & Conquer. It's not that you can't have a good RTS without those elements (look at the Close Combat series and the Company of Heroes series)...it's that it's no longer Command and Conquer without them. Likewise, while FF15 looks like a gorgeous and possibly quite fun action RPG, it doesn't look like a Final Fantasy game to me, because it abandons the core Final Fantasy game mechanic.

EDIT: And yeah, Dragon Age actually isn't an action RPG. Dice-rolls still control whether you and the enemies hit and miss in that game, initiative, etc. You cue up commands but it's the computer that handles all those details. The Mass Effect franchise is an action RPG; the Dragon Age franchise is a menu-based RPG.

 

First Look at Hi-Res Final Fantasy VIII for PC

so the ff8 is coming to pc again as HD, much like ff7

SteamDB Unknown App 39150 · AppID: 39150 · Steam Database

and thats the entry in steam DB. the last modification to that DB was 2 days ago, so we may soon see the ff8 in HD glory

you can currently mod the game to work with HD textures, Im going to try to those to get my fix, because basically Im an idiot that googled ff8 HD and found all those things, and started watching youtube lets plays and now wants desperately to remember how was high school gaming

 

I wish they would do a good turn based FF game again. Since they started the pursuit of a good action rpg gameplay they have never got it quite right and hampers the experience for me.

They are trying too hard to appeal to those who dislike turn based RPG's and in the process pushing out bad combat systems and or games. FFXIII was terrible, corridors and e combat.

 

The Final Fantasy where they lost me was 10. The elimination of the world map made the game feel extremely linear and constricted. Walk down this hallway fighting bad guys, fight this boss, watch this cutscene, now walk down this hallway, repeat ad nauseum.

 

I actually liked FFX's implementation, going through highroads and towns made the game feel more adventurous in my opinion. But yeah FFXIII was dull in comparison, I don't think there was any towns in that game which made it bland to go through.

 

I stopped playing on FF9, for one I grew up for 2 I didnt had friends who had ps2 that I would play at their houses, for 3 there wasnt a pc port

but it appears that people liked ff10, they made a sequel of it and it sold half of what the original did

 

A lot of people did. I know some who say it was the best FF ever. I didn't like it at all, and I don't understand why it was so beloved.

 

its interesting probably the same effect of ff7, it wasnt as beloved as it is now, but as time grew rose coloured glasses came and now its considered the best ff eva.

I still find it good, but in terms of replay value, I have played far more ff8 than any other ff available to me, including the chrono series

and off course as a to my desires Im playing ff8 right now with the HD mods and crap tons of AF and AA at least some scenarios in battles have not a single ounce of jaggies and the characters, otherwise the 2d scenarios are... stretch jagged low poly count mess and the music is getting on my nerves, gladly I just bought some new albums

soutaiseiriron ftw!

 

You've talked me into giving FF8 a chance. I didn't play it when it was new because it got very iffy reviews related to its gameplay mechanics (enemies level up as you do; you "draw" magic from enemies like "stealing" items in other games, instead of learning it for good; excessively long summon animations), but if they bring it to Steam, I'll give it a shot.

 

It's much subtler than other FF games from what I have seen. Many people complain that some of the plot and gameplay elements "come out of nowhere," but if you pay attention to the lore and dialogue, they make sense. I don't want to "spoil" the game.

With deft manipulation of the junctioning and leveling systems, you can make FF8 the easiest game in the series or the hardest.

 

you should, its a good game and the story is actually quite good, its interesting enough a more mature story

yeah its actually quite a convoluted argument that of the leveling system, here is the thing:

monster levels are calculated from an average of your group + 5, aside that you take that there are minimum levels for bosses and for some initial ones and late ones there are maximum levels

So grunt monster X will fight your group, the latter has lvl 10, 11, 14, so average is 11, the monster is going to be 16

Some boss monsters have lvl maximum cap, that is noticeable specially on disk 1 and 2, when they are too easy, disks 3 and 4 sometimes you are going to beg them to stop blowing you to smithereens, specially the monsters that are capped at lvl 100 and have tons of debuffs launched upon your group, not to mention the special extreme dmg dealing attacks/spells and the insta kill ones.

Take that without lvling up the monsters will deal less damage in general, its a somewhat good thing to not level up, however you are going to miss a lot of content, because your characters arent good enough to fight them.

and them we have the spells

mana is gone, never liked that mechanic anyway, and the spells that the monsters have and use are tied to your/their level. So by not leveling up you are missing not only the content from those quests, you are also missing spells

The spell system is simple, since mana is gone, you have to have a cap, that is the spell system and the junction system

Spells are drawable from a monster, and it takes me a good 5-10min to draw the spells for 3 characters to reach the maximum cap of 100 per character. When you cast a spell from your inventory, the spell is removed from your poll.

For example Im going to caste the Y spell, I have 100 of it, I cast it from inventory, now the spell count is 99.

There is another option which is to draw cast a spell, basically your enemy comes with a poll of drawable spells, i.e. spells Y, Z, T, F, you want to cast spell Z, so you draw and instead of stocking you cast it, that way your spell inventory remains untouched.

The enemies dont have a cap on how much you can draw, so you can draw over 300 units of that spell, 100 per character + usage in battle + drawing again

The spell inventory is also per character, not like the group inventory of items, however you can exchange spells or the inventory between characters

Im not spoiling much when I say this, since you can see this content at the first 5 min of the game, magic in this game is different, you have natural magicians in the form of sorcerers which are basically nowhere to be found and you have the entire population having to depending on the magic from monsters, which means, they dont have an inherent talent, just think of bullets in a magazine

That is all and good.

The junction system uses the guardian force (GF) to attach a spell from your inventory

For example, I have spell Y and my GF allows me to junction spells to HP, so I go and junction it

Again that is fair and not really complicated, that was actually easy wasnt it? GF gives you the ability to junction a spell to a certain characteristic that you have

That is divided in status attack/defence, elemental attack/defence and your characteristics (HP, STR, vitality...)

again not hard. Never understood why people think is so complicated, you have tons of those tutorials that you can access from your help screen and sometimes they are repeated in the course of the game, to remind you to balance the usage of the GFs and to junction spells.

Now to the caveat

The more spell units that you have, maximum is 100, the more powerful the junction is. By that account the reverse is true, so you have to strike a balance on how much you use it vs how much you can replenish it

you have several ways of replenishing a spell, you can refine from items, draw from monsters or draw points and level them up from pre existing spells, so its easy to maintain 100 units of spells for most of them, not all of them and thats the trick, to balance usage. Oh and here is another caveat, you can obtain some items that can be refined to make spells in shops, but they are quite a few, so to get those items you have to fight and kill monsters, there is a loop that prevents extreme lvling up, but you have to find this out


And yes the story is actually quite good, its an emotional roller coaster and its interesting to notice the disconnection (on purpose) of certain events to the characters reactions.

here is a clip that illustrates that



and another one



the lyrics

Anime Lyrics dot Com - Connect - Puella Magi Madoka Magica; Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica - Anime

on the 1st video we have the disconnection on the characters responses to what is going on, its a comical path instead of the flabbergasted one it should have or even the sad one, the girl is basically dead and the hat is prolonging her life

on the 2nd video the disconnection is pretty much what we are show and what is actually being said, its a very upbeat tune, with a happy opening, now if you read the lyrics you are going to see the immense dysfunctional connection that is established. its a very very sad song, being sung in a very happy upbeat tone. Its a very interesting anime in a very used genre, the magical girl. I actually recommend this, dont let the setting, genre and the way things are shown to fool you this is an anime for grown ups, there are actually news pieces covering how people reacted to it, the age of those guys are no less than 25 even 40+

In the japanese culture those functional disconnections are much more present than in western culture. What you see here is people trying to cope with hardships with a smile on their faces, just for the god writer to crush them, or not it usually doesnt happen, they just get better and story ends well, one movie that does this well is The Hours. the japanese developed layers upon layers in that.

if you pay attention to the writing and analyse it, its a more mature game than what people actually think. Probably the more mature of the series

this became a lengthy explanation that I covered all the aspects of the game that people find hard or objectionable.