When the adventure of Final Fantasy 7 had finished, some people
wanted more; like with most RPG's it never finishes and you wonder ‘gee I
wonder what would happen after the game. Maybe so and so, then they
strike down the enemy, break into people's houses, and then…’ Well
something along those lines, more or less. This case though we have a
fan made game that takes place after the events of Final Fantasy 7. Much
has happened since the defeat of Sephiroth but soon a lot will change. A
well written story, complete with the Final Fantasy trademark sounds
and characters from 7 and overall just a fun game, all wrapped into one
in
Final Fantasy 7: Dark Cloud.
Now
if you have not played Final Fantasy 7 or are still playing it, you may
want to skip this paragraph as I break down the story for the ones who
have beat it. All right, so after the defeat of Sephiroth, Cloud has
left his team-mates behind, but he is still troubled by his past and the
question whether Sephiroth was really defeated. The other members of
the team have also gone their own ways, but eventually with a
disturbance in the land they unite again to discover this evil and try
to find Cloud too.
Graphic
wise the game is built on the RPG maker 2000. Therefore, the sprites
and everything about the game is very similar to the old Super Nintendo
Final Fantasy games. The game operates on a turn-based system of battle
but differently from the Super Nintendo version's of Final Fantasy, in
that you see the enemies from a first person perspective. In regards to
the story, it actually is an interesting idea that works. Because it
relates back to the original and builds on the possible ‘what if’
scenario that could have happened, so it is not out there and totally
different that will make you wonder what is going on here. The Final
Fantasy 7 sound effects and music all are used in the game. That was
very nice to hear as you head from town to town, you will recognize
many of the sound tracks from each town. It really made this game, that
much more of a true Final Fantasy 7-fan game. The difficulty in game is
not too bad either and it should not be much of a challenge for most
gamers to get into, just remember random battles are good.
There
were only a couple of issues I had with the game: Number one is the
game ends quite quickly. It was not as long as I was expecting and it
ended at a part where it left more even more questions than it did
answers. The other thing is that you can save anywhere. Now you might be
thinking, ‘Saving anywhere, what is so bad about that?’ The issue I
have with that is that in Final Fantasy you cannot save everywhere. If
this was some other RPG that would be fine but save points, that's how
it works and granted, it can also make the game much easier. As you can
just save right before you come up to a boss and/or cheat in that sense
in other ways.
Still
this was a very interesting game to play and if you are a fan of the
Final Fantasy 7 series definitely try it out and you will probably enjoy
it. Its called
Final Fantasy 7: Dark Cloud, check it out.