Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games , this typically takes the form of hit points ( HP ), a numerical attribute representing the health of a character or object. The game character can be a player character , a boss , or a mob . Health can also be attributed to destructible elements of the game environment or inanimate objects such as vehicles and their individual parts. In video games, health is often represented by visual elements such as a numerical fraction, a health bar or a series of small icons, though it may also be represented acoustically, such as through a character's heartbeat.
241-578: Final Fantasy VII is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation . The seventh main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was released in Japan by Square and internationally by Sony Computer Entertainment , becoming the first game in the main series to have a PAL release. The game's story follows Cloud Strife , a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist organization to stop
482-401: A 2D game for Nintendo 's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES). After creating an early 2D prototype of it, the team postponed development to help finish Chrono Trigger . Once Chrono Trigger was completed, the team resumed discussions for Final Fantasy VII in 1995. The team discussed continuing the 2D strategy, which would have been the safe and immediate path just prior to
723-420: A fixed-width font and having to insert kanji through language input keys to add special characters (for example, vowels with diacritics ) to keep the code working. Consequently, the text was still read as Japanese by the word processor; the computer's spellcheck could not be used, and mistakes had to be caught manually. The code used obscure kanji to refer to main character's names, which made unintuitive for
964-401: A knockout . Yie Ar Kung-Fu established health meters as a standard feature in fighting games. Kung-Fu Master (1984), an arcade beat 'em up developed by Irem , uses a health meter to represent player health, with the bar depleting when taking damage. In addition to the player character having a health meter, the bosses also have health meters, which leads to the game temporarily becoming
1205-564: A 9.5 out of 10 and their "Game of the Month" award, lauding its rendered backgrounds, use of FMV, battles, and especially the story line, though they expressed disappointment that the ending didn't resolve all of the loose ends. They also considered the North American localization a dramatic improvement over the original Japanese version. GamePro gave it a perfect 5.0 out of 5 in all four categories (graphics, sound, control, and fun factor), calling
1446-577: A Western company to assist with releasing the PC version. Eidos Interactive , whose release of Tomb Raider had turned them into a publishing giant, agreed to market and publish the port. The port was announced in December 1997, along with Eidos' exclusivity deal for North America and Europe at the time, though the port was rumored to happen as early as December 1996, prior to the PlayStation version's release. To help
1687-450: A big open world , and let you do whatever you like [which makes it] difficult to tell a compelling story." Hironobu Sakaguchi noted that "users like to categorise" WRPGs as "a sort of different style, born from first person shooters." In recent years, some have also criticized WRPGs for becoming less RPG-like, instead with further emphasis on action. Christian Nutt of GameSpy states that, in contrast to JRPGs, WRPGs' greater control over
1928-580: A character with an attack; it can also indicate damage reduction to a character's health. AC is typically a representation of a character's physical defenses such as their ability to dodge attacks and their protective equipment. Armor class is a mechanic that can be used as part of health and combat game balancing . AC "is roughly equivalent to defensive dodging in war games". The health indicator can be represented in various ways. The most basic forms are fractions and health bars, as well as various icons such as hearts or shields. More recent games can use
2169-608: A deliberate nod to the Shinra Company and that he envisioned the events of Final Fantasy X-2 as a prequel to those in VII . The advances in technology used to create the FMV sequences and computer graphics for Final Fantasy VII allowed Sakaguchi to begin production on the first Final Fantasy film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within . The game introduced a particular aesthetic to the series—fantasy suffused with modern-to-advanced technology—which
2410-586: A false persona based around Zack's stories and his own fantasies. Cloud accepts his past and reunites with the party, who learn that Aerith's prayer to the Planet had been successful: the Planet had attempted to summon Holy to prevent Meteor's impact, but Sephiroth prevented it from having any effect. Shinra fails to destroy Meteor, but manages to defeat a Weapon and puncture the Northern Crater, seemingly killing Rufus and several other personnel. After killing Hojo, who
2651-409: A finite number of points to the attributes of their choice. Gaining experience will also unlock new magic spells for characters that use magic. Some role-playing games also give the player specific skill points , which can be used to unlock a new skill or improve an existing one. This may sometimes be implemented as a skill tree. As with the technology trees seen in strategy video games , learning
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#17330853200222892-578: A former Turk and victim of Shinra's experiments. The game's main antagonists are Rufus Shinra , the son of President Shinra and the later leader of the Shinra Corporation; Sephiroth , a former SOLDIER who reappears several years after being presumed dead; and Jenova, a hostile extraterrestrial life-form who the Cetra imprisoned 2,000 years ago and who Sephiroth was created from. A key character in Cloud's backstory
3133-545: A gamemaster. Exploring the world is an important aspect of many RPGs. Players will walk through, talking to non-player characters , picking up objects, and avoiding traps. Some games such as NetHack , Diablo , and the FATE series randomize the structure of individual levels, increasing the game's variety and replay value. Role-playing games where players complete quests by exploring randomly generated dungeons and which include permadeath are called roguelikes , named after
3374-449: A greater degree in the early 1990s. As console RPGs became more heavily story-based than their computer counterparts, one of the major differences that emerged during this time was in the portrayal of the characters. Console RPGs often featured intricately related characters who had distinctive personalities and traits, with players assuming the roles of people who cared about each other, fell in love or even had families. Romance in particular
3615-473: A health meter) are restored when the character does not move. Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) is credited with popularizing the use of regeneration in first-person shooters . However, according to GamesRadar+ 's Jeff Dunn, regeneration in its current form was introduced in The Getaway (2002), as Halo: Combat Evolved only used shield regeneration. Arneson is also credited for the term "armor class" which
3856-626: A hold as they had in the West due to their cost; there was little market for Western-developed games and there were a few Japanese-developed games for personal computers during this time such as The Black Onyx (1984) which followed the Wizardry / Ultima format. With the release of the low-cost Famicom console (called the Nintendo Entertainment System overseas), a new opportunity arose to bring role-playing games to Japan. Dragon Quest (1986)
4097-586: A hot-blooded detective named Joe. The main characters would eventually blow up the city. An early version of the Lifestream concept was present at this stage. According to Sakaguchi, his mother had died while Final Fantasy III was being developed, and choosing life as a theme helped him cope with her passing in a rational and analytical manner. Square eventually used the New York setting in Parasite Eve (1998). While
4338-503: A landmark title and one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made . The title won numerous Game of the Year awards and was acknowledged for boosting the sales of the PlayStation and popularizing Japanese role-playing games worldwide. Critics praised its graphics, gameplay, music, and story, although some criticism was directed towards the original English localization . Its success has led to enhanced ports on various platforms,
4579-805: A large number of Western indie games are modelled after JRPGs, especially those of the 16-bit era , partly due to the RPG Maker game development tools . Another oft-cited difference is the prominence or absence of kawaisa , or "cuteness", in Japanese culture, and different approaches with respect to character aesthetics. WRPGs tend to maintain a serious and gritty tone, whereas JRPG protagonists tend to be designed with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty, and even male characters are often young, androgynous , shōnen or bishōnen in appearance. JRPGs often have cute characters, juxtaposed with more mature themes and situations; and many modern JRPGs feature characters designed in
4820-634: A little box doesn't mean it belongs there." Nick Doerr of Joystiq criticizes the claim that JRPGs are "too linear", pointing out that non-linear JRPGs are not uncommon—for instance, the Romancing SaGa series. Likewise, Rowan Kaiser of Joystiq points out that linear WRPGs were common in the 1990s, and argues that many of the often mentioned differences between Eastern and Western games are stereotypes that are generally "not true" and "never was", pointing to classic examples like Lands of Lore and Betrayal at Krondor that were more narrative-focused than
5061-686: A lower polygon count than field areas, which made creating distinctive features more difficult. The summon sequences benefited strongly from the switch to the cinematic style, as the team had struggled to portray their scale using 2D graphics. In his role as producer, Sakaguchi placed much of his effort into developing the battle system. He proposed the Materia system as a way to provide more character customization than previous Final Fantasy games: battles no longer revolved around characters with innate skills and roles in battle, as Materia could be reconfigured between battles. Artist Tetsuya Nomura also contributed to
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#17330853200225302-423: A major challenge in order to progress to the next area, and this structure can be compared to the boss characters at the end of levels in action games . The player typically must complete a linear sequence of certain quests in order to reach the end of the game's story. Many RPGs also often allow the player to seek out optional side-quests and character interactions. Quests of this sort can be found by talking to
5543-459: A mixed class, such as a fighter who can cast simple spells. Characters will also have a range of physical attributes such as dexterity and strength, which affect a player's performance in combat. Mental attributes such as intelligence may affect a player's ability to perform and learn spells, while social attributes such as charisma may limit the player's choices while conversing with non-player characters. These attribute systems often strongly resemble
5784-408: A motion specialist for such animations, the designers taught themselves motion work, resulting in each character's movements differing depending on their creators—some designers liked exaggerated movements, while others went for subtlety. Much of the time was spent on each character's day-to-day, routine animations. Motion specialists were brought in for the game's battle animations. The first characters
6025-505: A multimedia subseries called the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , and a high definition remake trilogy currently comprising Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024). The gameplay of Final Fantasy VII is similar to earlier Final Fantasy titles and Japanese role-playing games . The game features three modes of play: the world map, the field, and the battle screen. At its grandest scale, players explore
6266-419: A non-player character, and there may be no penalty for abandoning or ignoring these quests other than a missed opportunity or reward. Players can find loot (such as clothing, weapons, and armor) throughout the game world and collect it. Players can trade items for currency and better equipment. Trade takes place while interacting with certain friendly non-player characters, such as shopkeepers, and often uses
6507-485: A nonlinear health bar, where earlier hits take off more damage than later ones, in order to make the game appear more exciting. The indicator can be combined with other elements of the game interface. Doom uses a character portrait located at the bottom of the screen as such an indicator, in addition to a numerical health percentage display. If the hero takes damage, his face will appear increasingly pained and blood-covered. The health point indicator can also be part of
6748-470: A number of games do without such an indicator. In the Super Mario series, the player character initially only has one health point, and the character's appearance is used to signify the number of health points; if the character collects a Super Mushroom , they grow in size and gain an additional health point. In a number of first-person shooters , such as Call of Duty or Halo , the numerical value of
6989-466: A number of user-configurable settings. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura offered players the option to play in either turn-based or RTwP mode via a configuration setting. The latter also offered a "fast turn-based" mode, though all three of the game's modes were criticized for being poorly balanced and oversimplified. Early Ultima games featured timed turns: they were strictly turn-based, but if
7230-514: A one-on-one fighting game during boss battles. Kung-Fu Master established health meters as a standard feature in side-scrolling action games such as beat 'em ups. Health meters also began being used to represent hit points in role-playing video games , starting with The Black Onyx (1984), developed by Bullet-Proof Software . This inspired the use of a health bar in Hydlide (1984), an action role-playing game by T&E Soft , which took it
7471-442: A particular action will increase. Many role-playing games allow players to play as an evil character. Although robbing and murdering indiscriminately may make it easier to get money, there are usually consequences in that other characters will become uncooperative or even hostile towards the player. Thus, these games allow players to make moral choices, but force players to live with the consequences of their actions. Games often let
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7712-483: A particular skill in the tree will unlock more powerful skills deeper in the tree. Three different systems of rewarding the player characters for solving the tasks in the game can be set apart: the experience system (also known as the "level-based" system), the training system (also known as the "skill-based" system) and the skill-point system (also known as "level-free" system) Older games often separated combat into its own mode of gameplay, distinct from exploring
7953-475: A piece of armor with each sustained hit, as well as the cars in the Grand Theft Auto series, in which smoke begins to flow from the hood after the car takes a significant amount of damage. The use of health points simplifies the game development process (since developers do not need to create complex damage systems), allows computers to simplify calculations associated with the game, and makes it easier for
8194-503: A port. Having never released a title for PC, Square decided to treat the port as a sales experiment. The port was handled by a team of 15 to 20 people, mostly from Costa Mesa but with help from Tokyo. Square did not begin the port until the console version was finished. The team needed to rewrite an estimated 80% of the game's code, due to the need to unify what had been a custom build for a console written by multiple staff members. Consequently, programmers faced problems such as having to unify
8435-581: A positive-feedback cycle that is central to most role-playing games: The player grows in power, allowing them to overcome more difficult challenges, and gain even more power. This is part of the appeal of the genre, where players experience growing from an ordinary person into a superhero with amazing powers. Whereas other games give the player these powers immediately, the player in a role-playing game will choose their powers and skills as they gain experience. Role-playing games usually measure progress by counting experience points and character levels. Experience
8676-421: A result of being attacked. Protection points or armor help them to reduce the damage taken. Characters acting as tanks usually have more health and armor. In many games, particularly role-playing video games, the player starts with a small number of health and defense points, but can increase them by gaining the required number of experience points and raising the character's level. In game design , it
8917-402: A result, Japanese-style role-playing games are held in disdain by some Western gamers, leading to the term "JRPG" being held in the pejorative. Some observers have also speculated that JRPGs are stagnating or declining in both quality and popularity, including remarks by BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk and writing director Daniel Erickson that JRPGs are stagnating—and that Final Fantasy XIII
9158-519: A runner-up slot for "Game of the Year"), and also gave it awards for "Hottest Video Game Babe" (for Tifa Lockhart), "Most Hype for a Game", "Best Ending", and "Best Print Ad". Since 1997, it has been selected by many game magazines as one of the top video games of all time, listed as 91st in EGM ' s 2001 "100 Best Games of All Time", and as fourth in Retro Gamer ' s "Top 100 Games" in 2004. In 2018, it
9399-619: A section of the final battle of the game. The track has been called Uematsu's "most recognizable contribution" to the music of the Final Fantasy series, which Uematsu agrees with. Inspired by The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky to make a more "classical" track, and by rock and roll music from the late 1960s and early 1970s to make an orchestral track with a "destructive impact", he spent two weeks composing short unconnected musical phrases, and then arranged them together into "One-Winged Angel", an approach he had never used before. Music from
9640-428: A separate sheet of paper". Something that could not be carried over from earlier titles was the chibi sprite art, as that would not fit with the new graphical direction. Naora, in his role as an assistant character designer and art director, helped adjust each character's appearance so the actions they performed were believable. When designing Cloud and Sephiroth, Nomura was influenced by his view of their rivalry mirroring
9881-504: A shock of spiky, bright blond hair. Vincent's occupation changed from researcher to detective to chemist, and finally to a former Turk with a tragic past. Sakaguchi was responsible for writing the initial plot, which was quite different from the final version. In this draft for the planned SNES version, the game's setting was envisioned as New York City in 1999. Similar to the final story, the main characters were part of an organization trying to destroy Mako reactors, but they were pursued by
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10122-442: A side-scrolling view. Most notably since Ultima Underworld (1992), role-playing games started implementing true three-dimensional (3D) graphics, where players typically navigate the game world from a first or third-person perspective. However, an isometric or aerial top-down perspective is common in party-based RPGs, in order to give the player a clear view of their entire party and their surroundings. Role-playing games require
10363-416: A significant weakness in the game, and IGN regarded the ability to use only three characters at a time as "the game's only shortcoming". Reviewers gave similar praise to the PC version but criticized its various technical faults. Computer Games Magazine said that no other recent game had the same "tendency to fail to work in any capacity on multiple [computers]". Computer Gaming World complained that
10604-490: A single paragraph) spread across 13 booklets, while the second contains 50,000 paragraphs spread across 14 booklets. Most of the games from this era are turn-based, although Dungeon Master and its imitators have real-time combat. Other classic titles from this era include The Bard's Tale (1985), Wasteland (1988), the start of the Might and Magic (1986–2014) series and the continuing Ultima (1981–1999) series. Later, in
10845-406: A small group managed to seal away Jenova in a tomb, which Shinra later unearthed. At Nibelheim, Jenova's cells were used in experiments which led to the creation of Sephiroth. Five years before the game's events, Sephiroth and Cloud visited Nibelheim, where Sephiroth learned of his origins and was driven insane as a result. He murdered the townspeople, and then vanished after Cloud confronted him. At
11086-409: A smaller set of possible actions, since computers can't engage in imaginative acting comparable to a skilled human gamemaster. In exchange, the typical role-playing video game may have storyline branches, user interfaces, and stylized cutscenes and gameplay to offer a more direct storytelling mechanism. Characterization of non-player characters in video games is often handled using a dialog tree . Saying
11327-415: A specialized trading screen. Purchased items go into the player's inventory. Some games turn inventory management into a logistical challenge by limiting the size of the player's inventory, thus forcing the player to decide what they must carry at the time. This can be done by limiting the maximum weight that a player can carry, by employing a system of arranging items in a virtual space, or by simply limiting
11568-463: A spell, as ammunition is consumed by a gun, most games offer players a finite amount of mana which can be spent on any spell. Mana is restored by resting or by consuming potions. Characters can also gain other non-magical skills, which stay with the character for as long as the character lives. Role-playing games may have the player focus only on a single character throughout the game; the character may be joined by computer-controlled allies outside of
11809-486: A step further with a regenerating health bar. Namco 's arcade action role-playing title Dragon Buster (1984) further popularized the use of a health bar in role-playing games. The 1982 Apple II platform game Crisis Mountain displays health as a number from 3 (full) to 0 (dead), and health gradually regenerates over time. In Hydlide (1984) and the Ys series, the character's health (represented as both hit points and
12050-434: A strong connection to the Planet and the Lifestream. The main protagonist is Cloud Strife , an aloof mercenary who claims to be a former 1st Class SOLDIER. Early on, he works with two members of AVALANCHE: Barret Wallace , its brazen but fatherly leader; and Tifa Lockhart , a shy yet nurturing martial artist and his childhood friend. During their journey, they meet Aerith Gainsborough , a carefree flower merchant and one of
12291-640: A then-new subsidiary of Square that specialized in computer graphics and FMVs creation. Visual Works had created the initial movie concept for a 3D game project. The FMVs were created by an international team, covering both Japan and North America and involving talent from the gaming and film industry; Western contributors included artists and staff who had worked on the Star Wars film series, Jurassic Park , Terminator 2: Judgment Day , and True Lies . The team tried to create additional optional CGI content which would bring optional characters Vincent and Yuffie into
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#173308532002212532-451: A world-controlling megacorporation from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. Ensuing events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of Sephiroth , a superhuman who seeks to wound the planet and harness its healing power in order to be reborn as a god. Throughout their journey, Cloud bonds with his party members, including Aerith Gainsborough , who holds the secret to saving their world. Development began in 1994, originally for
12773-597: Is Zack Fair , a member of SOLDIER and Aerith's first love. AVALANCHE destroys a Shinra Mako reactor in Midgar, but an attack on another reactor goes wrong and Cloud falls into the city's slums. There, he meets Aerith and protects her from Shinra. Meanwhile, Shinra finds AVALANCHE's base of operations and intentionally collapses part of the upper city level in retaliation for the Mako reactor being destroyed, killing many AVALANCHE members and innocent bystanders as collateral damage . Aerith
13014-503: Is a failed clone of Sephiroth. Sephiroth summons Meteor and seals the Crater as Cloud falls into the Lifestream and Rufus captures the party. After escaping Shinra, the party discovers Cloud at an island hospital in a catatonic state from Mako poisoning, and Tifa decides to stay as his caretaker. When a planetary defense force called Weapon attacks the island, the two fall into the Lifestream, where Tifa helps Cloud reconstruct his memories. Cloud
13255-464: Is also captured since Shinra believes that as a Cetra, she can potentially reveal the "Promised Land", which they believe is overflowing with Lifestream energy they can exploit. Cloud, Barret, and Tifa rescue Aerith, and during their escape from Midgar, discover that Sephiroth murdered President Shinra despite being presumed dead five years earlier. The party pursues Sephiroth across the Planet, with now-President Rufus on their trail; they are soon joined by
13496-431: Is considered important to clearly show that the player's character (or other object that they control) is losing health. In his book Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design , game designer Scott Rogers wrote that "health should deplete in an obvious manner, because with every hit, a player is closer to losing their life". As examples of visualizing health loss, Rogers cited Arthur of Ghosts 'n Goblins , who loses
13737-566: Is credited as having the largest impact of the Final Fantasy series, and with allowing console role-playing games to gain mass-market appeal outside of Japan. Aerith's death in the game has often been referred to as one of the most significant moments from any video game. In addition, Final Fantasy VII is also noted for its use of the unreliable narrator literary concept, drawing comparisons to films such as Fight Club (1999), The Sixth Sense (1999), American Psycho (2000) and Memento (2000). Patrick Holleman and Jeremy Parish argue that
13978-446: Is injured, the character can get a fracture , which will reduce their movement speed, and if their arm is injured, the character can drop their weapon. Health can also serve as a plot element. In Assassin's Creed , if the protagonist takes too much damage, thus departing from the "correct" route, the game ends and returns the player to the nearest checkpoint. In some games such as The Legend of Zelda and Monster Hunter , only
14219-496: Is largely predefined for the sake of telling a specific story, many role-playing games make use of a character creation screen. This allows players to choose their character's sex, their race or species, and their character class. Although many of these traits are cosmetic, there are functional aspects as well. Character classes will have different abilities and strengths. Common classes include fighters, spellcasters, thieves with stealth abilities, and clerics with healing abilities, or
14460-492: Is not even really an RPG; criticisms regarding seemingly nebulous justifications by some Japanese designers for newly changed (or, alternately, newly un-changed) features of recent titles; calls among some gaming journalists to "fix" JRPGs' problems; as well as claims that some recent titles such as Front Mission Evolved are beginning to attempt—and failing to—imitate Western titles. In an article for PSM3 , Brittany Vincent of RPGFan.com felt that "developers have mired
14701-484: Is notable for introducing automapping and in-game scrolls providing hints and background information. They also released Pool of Radiance in 1988, the first of several " Gold Box " CRPGs based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules . These games feature a first-person display for movement, combined with an overhead tactical display for combat. One common feature of RPGs from this era, which Matt Barton calls
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#173308532002214942-621: Is often rooted in speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy or science fiction ), which allows players to do things they cannot do in real life and helps players suspend their disbelief about the rapid character growth. To a lesser extent, settings closer to the present day or near future are possible. The story often provides much of the entertainment in the game. Because these games have strong storylines, they can often make effective use of recorded dialog and voiceover narration. Players of these games tend to appreciate long cutscenes more than players of faster action games . While most games advance
15183-413: Is revealed to be Sephiroth's biological father, the party descends to the Planet's core through the opening in the Northern Crater and defeats both Jenova and Sephiroth. The party escapes and Holy is summoned once again, destroying Meteor with help from the Lifestream. Five hundred years later, Red XIII is seen with two cubs looking out over the ruins of Midgar, which are now covered in greenery, showing that
15424-406: Is usually divided so that each game location is an opportunity to reveal a new chapter in the story. Pen-and-paper role-playing games typically involve a player called the gamemaster (or GM for short) who can dynamically create the story, setting, and rules, and react to a player's choices. In role-playing video games, the computer performs the function of the gamemaster. This offers the player
15665-451: Is usually earned by defeating enemies in combat, with some games offering experience for completing certain quests or conversations. Experience becomes a form of score , and accumulating a certain amount of experience will cause the character's level to go up. This is called "levelling up", and gives the player an opportunity to raise their character(s)'s attributes. Many RPGs allow players to choose how to improve their character, by allocating
15906-579: The Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Some role-playing games make use of magical powers , or equivalents such as psychic powers or advanced technology. These abilities are confined to specific characters such as mages, spellcasters, or magic-users. In games where the player controls multiple characters, these magic-users usually complement the physical strength of other classes. Magic can be used to attack, defend, or temporarily change an enemy or ally's attributes. While some games allow players to gradually consume
16147-458: The Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box Japanese package on December 18, 2012. While its success in Japan had been taken for granted by Square executives, North America and Europe were another matter, as up to that time the Japanese role-playing genre was still a niche market in Western territories. Sony, due to the PlayStation's struggles against Nintendo and Sega's home consoles, lobbied for
16388-502: The Final Fantasy VII game scaled back to 2D, with some of the side quests removed. The game's popularity and open-ended nature also led director Kitase and scenario writer Nojima to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2 . The character Shinra from X-2 proposes the concept of extracting the life energy from within the planet Spira . Nojima has stated that Shinra and his proposal are
16629-537: The Nintendo DS have had more original and experimental Japanese RPGs released in recent years. Western RPGs have also received criticism in recent years. They remain less popular in Japan, where, until recently, Western games in general had a negative reputation. In Japan, where the vast majority of early console role-playing video games originate, Western RPGs remain largely unknown. The developer Motomu Toriyama criticized Western RPGs, stating that they "dump you in
16870-703: The Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the MSX in 1984, the NES in 1985 and the Sharp X68000 as New Bokosuka Wars . The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time , action role-playing game . In 1986, Chunsoft created the NES title Dragon Quest (called Dragon Warrior in North America until
17111-600: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System . After delays and technical difficulties from experimenting with several platforms, most notably the Nintendo 64 , Square moved production to the PlayStation, largely due to the advantages of the CD-ROM format. Veteran Final Fantasy staff returned, including series creator and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi , director Yoshinori Kitase , and composer Nobuo Uematsu . The title
17352-500: The Ultima series, employed duplicates of the miniatures combat system traditionally used in the early role-playing games . Representations of the player characters and monsters would move around an arena modeled after the surrounding terrain, attacking any enemies that are sufficiently close. Earlier role-playing video games used a two-dimensional top-down view or tile-based first-person view. Early action-based role-playing games often used
17593-405: The artificial intelligence and scripted behavior of computer-controlled non-player characters . The premise of many role-playing games tasks the player with saving the world, or whichever level of society is threatened. There are often twists and turns as the story progresses, such as the surprise appearance of estranged relatives, or enemies who become friends or vice versa. The game world
17834-478: The console's audio capabilities but found that it resulted in the game having much longer loading times for each area. Uematsu then decided that the higher-quality audio was not worth the trade-off with performance, and opted instead to use MIDI -like sounds produced by the console's internal sound sequencer , similar to how his soundtracks for the previous games in the series on the Super NES were implemented. While
18075-500: The eighth game ), which drew inspiration from computer RPGs Ultima and Wizardry and is regarded as the template for future Japanese role-playing video games released since then. Also in 1986 The Legend of Zelda was released for the NES , while not generally considered an RPG itself did inspire many aspects of future action-RPGs. In 1987, the genre came into its own with the release of several highly influential console RPGs distinguishing themselves from computer RPGs, including
18316-430: The tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Gary Gygax based on the latter's previous game Chainmail , Arneson felt that it was more interesting for players to manage small squads than a large army. This also allowed them to act out the role of each squad member. However, this approach had one drawback: according to the rules of Chainmail , the player rolls the dice during each battle, and depending on
18557-436: The " Golden Age " of computer RPGs, is the use of numbered "paragraphs" printed in the manual or adjunct booklets, containing the game's lengthier texts; the player can be directed to read a certain paragraph, instead of being shown the text on screen. The ultimate exemplar of this approach is Sir-Tech 's Star Saga trilogy (of which only two games were released); the first game contains 888 "textlets" (usually much longer than
18798-416: The 1980 video game Rogue . The game's story is often mapped onto exploration, where each chapter of the story is mapped onto a different location. RPGs usually allow players to return to previously visited locations. Usually, there is nothing left to do there, although some locations change throughout the story and offer the player new things to do in response. Players must acquire enough power to overcome
19039-422: The 1990s, and became known for being more heavily story and character-based, American computer RPGs began to face criticism for having characters devoid of personality or background, due to representing avatars which the player uses to interact with the world, in contrast to Japanese console RPGs which depicted characters with distinctive personalities. American computer RPGs were thus criticized for lacking "more of
19280-408: The 1996 Tokyo Game Show , dubbed Square's Preview Extra: Final Fantasy VII & Siggraph '95 Works . The disc also included the early test footage Square created using characters from Final Fantasy VI . The initial release date was at some point in 1996, but to properly realize their vision, Square postponed the release date almost a full year. Final Fantasy VII was released on January 31, 1997. It
19521-491: The CD-ROM had a slower access speed, delaying some actions during the game, so the team needed to overcome this issue. Certain tricks were used to conceal load times, such as offering animations to keep players from getting bored. When it was decided to use 3D graphics, there was a discussion among the staff whether to use sprite-based characters on 3D backgrounds or fully rendered polygonal models. While sprites proved more popular with
19762-466: The Japanese language is very different from English", making it difficult for the translation to read like native English without distorting the meaning. Michael Basket was the sole translator for the project, though he received the help of native Japanese speakers from the Tokyo office. The localization was taxing for the team due to their inexperience, lack of professional editors, and poor communication between
20003-480: The Lifestream, is a flow of spiritual energy that gives life to everything on the Planet; its processed form is known as "Mako". On a societal and technological level, the game has been defined as an industrial or post-industrial science fiction setting. During Final Fantasy VII , the Shinra Electric Power Company, a world-dominating megacorporation headquartered in the city of Midgar, is draining
20244-454: The North American and Japanese offices. A result of this disconnect was the original localization of Aerith's name—which was intended as a conflation of "air" and "earth"—as "Aeris" due to a lack of communication between localization staff and the QA team. The team also faced several technical issues due to programming practices which took little account of subsequent localization, such as dealing with
20485-473: The Northern Crater, the party learns that the "Sephiroths" they have encountered are Jenova clones who the insane Shinra scientist Hojo created. Cloud confronts the real Sephiroth as he is killing his clones to reunite Jenova's cells, but is again manipulated into giving him the Black Materia. Sephiroth then taunts Cloud by showing another SOLDIER in his place in his memories of Nibelheim, suggesting that Cloud
20726-420: The PC port, Square attempted to fix translation and grammar mistakes for the North American and European versions but did not have the time and budget to retranslate all the text. According to Honeywood, the success of Final Fantasy VII in the West encouraged Square to focus more on localization quality; on future games, Square hired additional translators and editors, while also streamlining communication between
20967-851: The PC version and adjusted for mobile devices by D4 Enterprise , was released on August 19, 2015, with an auto-save feature. The PC version was released for PlayStation 4 on December 5, 2015. DotEmu developed the PS4 version. The game was also released for Android on July 7, 2016, for the PlayStation Classic on December 3, 2018, and for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One worldwide on March 26, 2019. Within three days of its release in Japan, Final Fantasy VII sold over two million copies. This popularity inspired thousands of retailers in North America to break street dates in September to meet public demand for
21208-448: The PCs enter these locations or perform certain actions. Combat options typically involve positioning characters, selecting which enemy to attack, and exercising special skills such as casting spells. In a classical turn-based system, only one character may act at a time; all other characters remain still, with a few exceptions that may involve the use of special abilities. The order in which
21449-458: The Planet for help, Sephiroth attempts to force Cloud to kill her; after this fails, he kills her himself before fleeing, leaving the White Materia behind. The party then learns of Jenova, a hostile alien lifeform who landed on the Planet two thousand years prior to the game's events. Upon arrival on the Planet, Jenova began infecting the Cetra with a virus, and they were nearly wiped out. However,
21690-476: The Planet's Lifestream for energy, weakening the Planet and threatening its existence and all life. Significant factions within the game include AVALANCHE , an eco-terrorist group seeking Shinra's downfall so the Planet can recover; the Turks , a covert branch of Shinra's security forces; SOLDIER, an elite Shinra fighting force created by enhancing humans with Mako; and the Cetra, a near-extinct human tribe which maintains
21931-510: The PlayStation and PC versions had sold over 11 million units worldwide. Steam Spy estimated the game to have sold over 1.2 million downloads on Steam as of April 2018, with a later Steam leak estimating it had 1.14 million players on the platform as of July 2018. As of June 2020, the game has sold more than 13.3 million units worldwide. As of September 2023, the original version of the game has sold over 14.4 million units worldwide. The game received widespread acclaim from critics upon release. It
22172-608: The Ravager and Menzoberranzan , transferred the AD&;D license to several different developers, and eventually gave it to BioWare , who used it in Baldur's Gate (1998) and several later games. By the 2000s, 3D engines had become dominant. The earliest RPG on a console was Dragonstomper on the Atari 2600 in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was Bokosuka Wars , originally released for
22413-508: The Super NES only had eight sound channels to work with, the PlayStation had twenty-four. Eight were reserved for sound effects, leaving sixteen available for the music. Uematsu's approach to composing the game's music was to treat it like a film soundtrack and compose music that reflected the mood of the scenes, rather than trying to make strong melodies to "define the game", as he felt that approach would come across too strong when placed alongside
22654-582: The ability to pause the game and issue orders to all characters under his/her control; when the game is unpaused, all characters follow the orders they were given. This "real-time with pause" system ( RTwP ) has been particularly popular in games designed by BioWare . The most famous RTwP engine is the Infinity Engine . Other names for "real-time with pause" include "active pause" and "semi real-time". Tactical RPG maker Apeiron named their system Smart Pause Mode (SPM) because it would automatically pause based on
22895-533: The added difficulty of ensuring that the inferiority of the in-game graphics in comparison to the FMV sequences was not too obvious. Kitase has described the process of making the in-game environments as detailed as possible to be "a daunting task". The musical score of Final Fantasy VII was composed, arranged, and produced by Nobuo Uematsu , who had served as the sole composer for the six previous Final Fantasy games. Originally, Uematsu had planned to use CD quality music with vocal performances to take advantage of
23136-487: The album had sold nearly 150,000 copies by January 2010. A single-disc album of selected tracks from the original soundtrack, along with three arranged pieces, titled Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks , was also released by DigiCube in 1997, reaching #20 on the Japan Oricon charts. A third album, Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII , was released by DigiCube in 2003, and contains one disc of piano arrangements of tracks from
23377-437: The ambitious scope of Final Fantasy VII raised the possibilities for the genre, with its dozens of minigames and much higher production values. The latter includes innovations such as the use of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, battles viewed from multiple different angles rather than a single angle, and for the first time full-motion CGI video seamlessly blended into the gameplay, effectively integrated throughout
23618-515: The amount of data while preserving the desired effects. This was aided with reluctant help from Sony, who had hoped to keep Square's direct involvement limited to a standard API package, but they eventually relented and allowed the team direct access to the hardware specifications. Final Fantasy VII features two types of cutscenes: real-time cutscenes featuring polygon models on pre-rendered backgrounds, and FMV cutscenes. The game's computer-generated imagery (CGI) FMVs were produced by Visual Works ,
23859-428: The arcade DECO Cassette System , a scrolling action game based on the manga and anime series Astro Boy (1952–1968), has an energy bar that gradually depletes over time and some of which can be sacrificed for temporary invincibility. Punch-Out!! (1983), an arcade boxing game developed by Nintendo , has a stamina meter that replenishes every time the player successfully strikes the opponent and decreases if
24100-419: The bargain reissue of the game, had sold over 158,000 copies in Japan. By May 2010, it had sold over 10 million copies worldwide, making it the most popular title in the series in terms of units sold. The original PC version surpassed Eidos' expectations: while initially forecast to sell 100,000 units, it quickly exceeded sales of one million units, garnering royalties of over $ 2 million for Square. By August 2015,
24341-449: The battle ends, and the player is rewarded with money, items, and experience points . If the player is defeated, it is game over and the game must be loaded from the last save point. When not in battle, the player can use the menu screen, where they can review each character's status and statistics, use items and abilities, change equipment, save the game when on the world map or at a save point, and manage orbs called Materia. Materia are
24582-587: The campaign included numerous articles in both gaming and general interest magazines, advertisements in comics from publishers such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics , a special collaboration with Pepsi , media events, sample discs, and merchandise. According to estimations by Takechi, the total worldwide marketing budget came to US$ 40 million; $ 10 million had been spent in Japan, $ 10 million in Europe, and $ 20 million in North America. Unlike its predecessors, Final Fantasy VII did not have its numeral adjusted to account for
24823-580: The categories of " Console Adventure Game of the Year " and " Console Role-Playing Game of the Year "; it also received nominations for " Interactive Title of the Year ", "Console Game of the Year", " Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics ", and " Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design ". In the Origins Awards , it won in the category "Best Roleplaying Computer Game of 1997". Final Fantasy VII
25064-485: The category," pointing to Chrono Trigger (which he also worked on) and the Mana games. He further noted that there have been "other games similar to the style of Chrono Trigger ," but that "it's probably because the games weren't localised and didn't reach the Western audience." Xeno series director Tetsuya Takahashi , in reference to Xenoblade Chronicles , stated that "I don't know when exactly people started using
25305-448: The character at an effectiveness determined by that character's numeric attributes. Often these attributes increase each time a character gains a level , and a character's level goes up each time the player accumulates a certain amount of experience. Role-playing video games also typically attempt to offer more complex and dynamic character interaction than what is found in other video game genres. This usually involves additional focus on
25546-669: The character to survive several hits from an enemy. Some of the first home computer games to use hit points are Rogue (1980), in which health is represented by a fraction, and Dungeons of Daggorath (1982), which includes an audible heartbeat influenced by the player character 's condition. Action games also began moving away from one-hit deaths to health systems allowing players to take multiple hits, such as SNK 's arcade shoot 'em up game Ozma Wars (1979) numerically representing an energy supply that depletes when taking hits and Mattel 's Intellivision game Tron: Deadly Discs (1982) allowing players to take multiple hits at
25787-410: The character's health after a difficult battle. This system may allow the player to safely run through dangerous parts of the game without consequence. Tag team games often regenerate part of the health of a resting character. In some role-playing games, armor class (abbreviated AC ; also known as defense ) is a derived statistic that indicates how difficult it is to land a successful blow on
26028-463: The character's health points is hidden from the player. However, when the player character receives a large amount of damage, the game screen (or the part of the screen to which damage was dealt) is painted red, often including drops of blood, which simulates the effect of real-life injury. As health is restored, these effects gradually disappear. The term "hit points" was coined by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson . While developing
26269-442: The character. In Dead Space , it is located on the main character's costume. In Trespasser , it is represented as a tattoo on the main character's chest. In Half-Life: Alyx , a VR game, the indicator is located on the back of the player's non-dominant hand, requiring the player to physically look at their tracked hand to check their health. The character's condition can be conveyed through sound. In Dungeons of Daggorath ,
26510-643: The characters act is usually dependent on their attributes, such as speed or agility. This system rewards strategic planning more than quickness. It also points to the fact that realism in games is a means to the end of immersion in the game world, not an end in itself. A turn-based system makes it possible, for example, to run within range of an opponent and kill them before they get a chance to act, or duck out from behind hard cover, fire, and retreat back without an opponent being able to fire, which are of course both impossibilities. However, tactical possibilities have been created by this unreality that did not exist before;
26751-456: The characters within a tile-based graphics system . Dragon Quest was highly successful in Japan, leading to further entries in the series and other titles such as Final Fantasy that followed the same simplifications made in RPGs for Dragon Quest . Because of these differences, the role-playing genre began to be classified into two fairly distinct styles: computer RPG and console RPG . By
26992-469: The cost of reducing maneuverability. Before the introduction of health meters, action video games typically used a lives system in which the player could only take damage once, but could continue the game at the expense of a life. The introduction of health meters granted players the right to make mistakes and allowed game developers to influence a game's difficulty by adjusting the damage an enemy character inflicts. Data East 's Flash Boy (1981) for
27233-408: The development and customization of playable characters has come at the expense of plot and gameplay, resulting in what he felt was generic dialogue, lack of character development within the narrative and weaker battle systems. He also states that WRPGs tend to focus more on the underlying rules governing the battle system rather than on the experience itself. Tom Battey of Edge Magazine noted that
27474-459: The development and localization teams. Some months prior to the game's North American release, Sony publicly stated that it was considering cutting the scene at the Honey Bee Inn due to the salacious content, prompting numerous online petitions and letters of protest from RPG fans. Square subsequently stated that it would never allow Sony to localize the game in any way. In addition to translating
27715-520: The earliest role-playing video games on a microcomputer was Dungeon n Dragons , written by Peter Trefonas and published by CLOAD (1980). This early game, published for a TRS-80 Model 1, is just 16K long and includes a limited word parser command line, character generation, a store to purchase equipment, combat, traps to solve, and a dungeon to explore. Other contemporaneous CRPGs (Computer Role Playing Games) were Temple of Apshai , Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure and Akalabeth: World of Doom ,
27956-437: The early 2000s, the distinction between platforms became less pronounced as the same games appeared on both console and computer, but stylistic differences between Western role-playing games (WRPGs) and Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) remained, rooted in the earlier distinctions. Though sharing fundamental premises, WRPGs tend to feature darker graphics, older characters, and a greater focus on roaming freedom, realism, and
28197-476: The ending. As this would have further increased the number of discs the game needed, the idea was discarded. Kazuyuki Ikumori, a future key figure at Visual Works, helped with the creation of the CGI cutscenes, in addition to general background design. The CGI FMV sequences total around 40 minutes of footage, something only possible with the PlayStation's extra memory space and graphical power. This innovation brought with it
28438-472: The enemy or aid the player characters. Final Fantasy VII also features powerful, character-specific commands called Limit Breaks, which can be used only after a special gauge is charged by taking enemy attacks. After being attacked, characters can be afflicted by one or more abnormal " statuses ", such as poison or paralysis. These statuses and their adverse effects can be removed by special items or abilities or by resting at an inn. Once all enemies are defeated,
28679-493: The enemy. Players can often restore a character's health by using various items such as potions, food or first-aid kits. In role-playing video games, the player often can also restore a character's health by visiting a doctor or resting at an inn . A number of games incorporate a mechanic known as "life steal" or "life leech", which allows a character to restore health by siphoning it from an enemy. Methods for replenishing health differ from each other and are dependent on
28920-451: The environment and their distance from the camera, giving a sense of scale. The choice of this highly cinematic style of storytelling, contrasting directly with Square's previous games, was attributed to Kitase, who was a fan of films and had an interest in the parallels between film and video game narrative. Character movement during in-game events was done by the character designers in the planning group. While designers normally cooperate with
29161-411: The eventual conclusion involving his newly created character of Zack. The crew helped Kitase adjust the specifics of Sakaguchi's original Lifestream concept. Regarding the overall theme of the game, Sakaguchi said it was "not enough to make 'life' the theme, you need to depict living and dying. In any event, you need to portray death". Consequently, Nomura proposed killing off the heroine. Aerith had been
29402-515: The frequency of the player character's audible heartbeat is dependent on how much damage has been received. Silent Hill uses a similar system, but transmits the heartbeat via vibrations from the DualShock controller. The player character's health point indicator often occupies a significant position in the game's heads-up display . In The Legend of Zelda , it occupies one third of the HUD. However,
29643-481: The game "a subversion that deconstructs and comments meaningfully on how we think about heroism, masculinity and identity in videogame storytelling". Ric Manning of The Courier-Journal noted elements of psychoanalysis in the game. The game is also noted for its cyberpunk themes; GamesRadar+ called it one of the best games of the genre, and Paste Magazine compared its cyberpunk city of Midgar to Akira and Blade Runner . According to Comic Book Resources ,
29884-618: The game despite its technical flaws, and PC Gamer summarized that, while "Square apparently did only what was required to get its PlayStation game running under Windows", Final Fantasy VII is "still a winner on the PC". Final Fantasy VII was given numerous Game of the Year awards in 1997. At the second CESA Awards , it won the Grand Prize, Scenario Award and Sound Award. During the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences ' inaugural Interactive Achievement Awards , Final Fantasy VII won in
30125-457: The game has been released in several albums. Square released the main soundtrack album, Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack , on four Compact Discs through its DigiCube subsidiary in 1997. A limited edition release was also produced, containing illustrated liner notes. The regular edition of the album reached third on the Japan Oricon charts, while the limited edition reached #19. Overall,
30366-402: The game takes the unreliable narrator concept a step further, with its interactivity establishing a connection between the player and the protagonist Cloud, setting Final Fantasy VII apart from films as well as other video games. According to Holleman, "no RPG has ever deliberately betrayed the connection between protagonist and player like FFVII does". Harry Mackin writing for Paste called
30607-405: The game was the opening theme; game director Yoshinori Kitase showed him the opening cinematic and asked him to begin the project there. The track was well received in the company, which gave Uematsu "a sense that it was going to be a really good project". Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the series to include a track with high-quality digitized vocals, "One-Winged Angel", which accompanies
30848-435: The game world. More recent games tend to maintain a consistent perspective for exploration and combat. Some games, especially earlier video games, generate battles from random encounters ; more modern RPGs are more likely to have persistent wandering monsters that move about the game world independently of the player. Most RPGs also use stationary boss monsters in key positions, and automatically trigger battles with them when
31089-534: The game's climate change theme is more meaningful in 2019 than it was in 1997. Role-playing video game A role-playing video game , role-playing game ( RPG ) or computer role-playing game ( CRPG ) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immersed in some well-defined world, usually involving some form of character development by way of recording statistics. Many role-playing video games have origins in tabletop role-playing games and use much of
31330-417: The game's genre. In more dynamic action games , it is important to quickly restore a character's health, while role-playing games feature slower-paced methods of health restoration to achieve realism. A number of games incorporate a regeneration system that automatically replenishes health if the character does not take damage. This makes the game easier to play by giving the player the opportunity to restore
31571-438: The game's graphics were "light years beyond anything ever seen on the PlayStation", and regarded its battle system as its strongest point. Computer and Video Games ' s Alex C praised the dramatic story and well-developed characters. In addition to calling the graphics "bar none the best the PlayStation has ever seen", Next Generation said of the story that "while FFVII may take a bit to get going, as in every entry in
31812-431: The game's new 3D visuals. As an example, he composed the track intended for the scene in the game where Aerith Gainsborough is killed to be "sad but beautiful", rather than more overtly emotional, creating what he felt was a more understated feeling. Uematsu additionally said that the soundtrack had a feel of "realism", which also prevented him from using "exorbitant, crazy music". The first piece that Uematsu composed for
32053-473: The game. The game was soon ported to the PC and gained much success there, as did several other originally console RPGs, blurring the line between the console and computer platforms. Computer-driven role-playing games had their start in Western markets, with games generally geared to be played on home computers. By 1985, series like Wizardry and Ultima represented the state of the art in role-playing games. In Japan, home computers had yet to take as great
32294-500: The game. It was arranged by Shirō Hamaguchi and performed by Seiji Honda, and reached #228 on the Oricon charts. Final Fantasy VII was announced in February 1996. Square president and chief executive officer Tomoyuki Takechi were fairly confident about Japanese players making the game a commercial success despite it being on a new platform. A playable demo was included on a disc giveaway at
32535-774: The gameplay; he designed the Limit Break system as an evolution of the Desperation Attacks used in Final Fantasy VI . The Limit Breaks served a purpose in gameplay while also evoking each character's personality in battle. Square retained the passion-based game development approach from their earlier projects, but now had the resources and ambition to create the game they wanted. This was because they had extensive capital from their earlier commercial successes, which meant they could focus on quality and scale rather than obsessing over and working around their budget. Final Fantasy VII
32776-448: The genre is that characters grow in power and abilities, and characters are typically designed by the player. RPGs rarely challenge a player's physical coordination or reaction time, with the exception of action role-playing games . Role-playing video games typically rely on a highly developed story and setting, which is divided into a number of quests. Players control one or several characters by issuing commands, which are performed by
33017-521: The genre-defining Phantasy Star , released for the Master System . Shigeru Miyamoto 's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the Famicom Disk System was one of the earliest action role-playing games , combining the action-adventure game framework of its predecessor The Legend of Zelda with the statistical elements of turn-based RPGs . Most RPGs at this time were turn-based. Faxanadu
33258-527: The imminent industry shift toward 3D gaming ; such a change would require radical new development models. The team decided to take the riskier option and make a 3D game on new generation hardware but had yet to choose between the cartridge -based Nintendo 64 or the CD-ROM -based PlayStation from Sony Computer Entertainment . The team also considered the Sega Saturn console and Microsoft Windows . Their decision
33499-500: The increased storage capacity of CD-ROM when compared to the Nintendo 64 cartridge, Square shifted development of Final Fantasy VII , and all other planned projects, onto the PlayStation. In contrast to the visuals and audio, the overall gameplay system remained mostly unchanged from Final Fantasy V and VI , but with an emphasis on player control. The initial decision was for battles to feature shifting camera angles. Battle arenas had
33740-539: The key features of RPGs were developed in this early period, prior to the release of Ultima III: Exodus , one of the prime influences on both computer and console RPG development. For example, Wizardry features menu-driven combat, Tunnels of Doom features tactical combat on a special "combat screen", and Dungeons of Daggorath features real-time combat which takes place on the main dungeon map. Starting in 1984 with Questron and 50 Mission Crush , SSI produced many series of CRPGs. Their 1985 game Phantasie
33981-520: The label "JRPG" is most commonly used to refer to RPGs "whose presentation mimics the design sensibilities" of anime and manga, that it's "typically the presentation and character archetypes" that signal "this is a JRPG." Modern JRPGs are more likely to feature turn-based battles; while modern WRPGs are more likely to feature real-time combat. In the past, the reverse was often true: real-time action role-playing games were far more common among Japanese console RPGs than Western computer RPGs up until
34222-428: The lack of a Western release for Final Fantasy II , III , and V — while only the fourth Final Fantasy released outside Japan, its Japanese title was retained. It was released in North America on September 7, 1997. The game was released in Europe on November 17, becoming the first Final Fantasy game to be released in Europe. The Western version included additional elements and alterations, such as streamlining of
34463-404: The last surviving Cetra; Red XIII , an intelligent feline from a tribe that protects the planet; Cait Sith , a fortune-telling robotic cat controlled by repentant Shinra staff member Reeve ; and Cid Highwind , a pilot whose dream of being the first human in outer space was unrealized. The group can also recruit Yuffie Kisaragi , a young ninja and skilled Materia thief; and Vincent Valentine ,
34704-437: The late 1990s had become more cinematic in style (e.g. Final Fantasy series). At the same time, WRPGs started becoming more novelistic in style (e.g. Planescape: Torment ), but by the late 2000s had also adopted a more cinematic style (e.g. Mass Effect ). One reason given for these differences is that many early Japanese console RPGs can be seen as forms of interactive manga or anime wrapped around Western rule systems at
34945-415: The late 1990s have had a stronger focus on extensive dialog tree systems (e.g. Planescape: Torment ). On the other hand, JRPGs tend to limit players to developing pre-defined player characters , and often do not allow the option to create or choose one's own playable characters or make decisions that alter the plot. In the early 1990s, JRPGs were seen as being much closer to fantasy novels , but by
35186-919: The late 1990s, due to gamepads usually being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. Some journalists and video game designers have questioned this cultural classification, arguing that the differences between Eastern and Western games have been exaggerated. In an interview held at the American Electronic Entertainment Expo , Japanese video game developer Tetsuya Nomura (who worked on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts ) emphasized that RPGs should not be classified by country-of-origin, but rather described simply for what they are: role-playing games. Hironobu Sakaguchi , creator of Final Fantasy and The Last Story , noted that, while "users like to categorise" JRPGs as "turn-based, traditional styles" and WRPGs as "born from first-person shooters ," there "are titles that don't fit
35427-428: The late 1990s, which saw the rise of optical disks in fifth generation consoles. The implications for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, better audio, and full-motion video . This was first clearly demonstrated in 1997 by the phenomenal success of Final Fantasy VII , which is considered one of the most influential games of all time. With a record-breaking production budget of around $ 45 million,
35668-567: The legendary animosity between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō , with Cloud and Sephiroth being Musashi and Kojirō respectively. Sephiroth's look was defined as " kakkoii ", a Japanese term combining good looks with coolness. Several of Nomura's designs evolved substantially during development. Cloud's original design of slicked-back black hair with no spikes was intended to save polygons and contrast with Sephiroth's long, flowing silver hair. However, Nomura feared that such masculinity could prove unpopular with fans, so he redesigned Cloud to feature
35909-459: The main cast would die shortly before the final battle; Nomura vetoed the idea because he felt it would undermine the impact of Aerith's death. Several character relations and statuses underwent changes during development. Aerith was to be Sephiroth's sister, which influenced the design of her hair. The team then made Sephiroth a previous love interest of hers to deepen her backstory, but later swapped him with Zack. Vincent and Yuffie were to be part of
36150-464: The main method of customizing characters in Final Fantasy VII , and can be added to equipment to provide characters with new magic spells, monsters to summon, commands, statistical upgrades, and other benefits. Materia level up through their own experience point system and can be combined to create different effects. Final Fantasy VII takes place on a world referred to in-game as the "Planet" and retroactively named "Gaia". The planet's lifeforce, called
36391-588: The main narrative, but due to time constraints, they were nearly cut and eventually relegated to being optional characters. Nojima was charged with writing the scenario and unifying the team's ideas into a cohesive narrative, as Kitase was impressed with his earlier work on the mystery-like Heracles no Eikō III: Kamigami no Chinmoku , an entry in the Glory of Heracles series. To make the characters more realistic, Nojima wrote scenes in which they would occasionally argue and raise objections: while this inevitably slowed down
36632-409: The major events in development was when the real-time graphics were synchronized to computer-generated full motion video (FMV) cutscenes for some story sequences, notably an early sequence where a real-time model of Cloud jumps onto an FMV-rendered moving train. The backgrounds were created by overlaying two 2D graphic layers and changing the motion speed of each to simulate depth perception. While this
36873-497: The map and, if caught, can be ridden to areas inaccessible on foot or by vehicle. In field mode, the player navigates fully scaled versions of the areas represented on the world map. VII marks the first time in the series that the mode is represented in a three-dimensional space . In this mode, the player can explore the environment, talk with characters, advance the story, and initiate event games. Event games are short minigames that use special control functions and are often tied to
37114-414: The menu and Materia system, reducing the health of enemies, new visual cues to help with navigation across the world map, and additional cutscenes relating to Cloud's past. A version for PC was developed by Square's Costa Mesa offices. Square invested in a PC version to reach as wide a player base as possible; many Western consumers did not own a PlayStation, and Square's deal with Sony did not prohibit such
37355-461: The mid-1970s, as an offshoot of early university mainframe text-based RPGs on PDP-10 and Unix -based computers, such as Dungeon , pedit5 and dnd . In 1980 , a very popular dungeon crawler , Rogue , was released. Featuring ASCII graphics where the setting, monsters and items were represented by letters and a deep system of gameplay, it inspired a whole genre of similar clones on mainframe and home computers called " roguelikes ". One of
37596-591: The middle to late 1990s, isometric, sprite-based RPGs became commonplace, with video game publishers Interplay Entertainment and Blizzard North playing a lead role with such titles as the Baldur's Gate , Icewind Dale and the action-RPG Diablo series, as well as the dialogue-heavy Planescape: Torment and cult classics Fallout and Fallout 2 . This era also saw a move toward 3D game engines with such games as Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven and The Elder Scrolls: Arena . TSR , dissatisfied with SSI's later products, such as Dark Sun: Wake of
37837-576: The modern JRPG in unoriginality", citing Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada who stated that "they're strictly catering to a particular audience", the article noting the difference in game sales between Japan and North America before going on to suggest JRPGs may need to "move forward". This criticism has also occurred in the wider media with an advertisement for Fallout: New Vegas ( Obsidian Entertainment ) in Japan openly mocked Japanese RPGs' traditional characteristics in favor of their own title. Nick Doerr of Joystiq noted that Bethesda felt that JRPGs "are all
38078-421: The more fantasy novel approach of Squaresoft console RPGs such as Final Fantasy IV . However in 1994, game designer Sandy Petersen noted that, among computer gamers, there was criticism against cartridge-based console JRPGs being "not role-playing at all" due to popular examples such as Secret of Mana and especially The Legend of Zelda using "direct" arcade-style action combat systems instead of
38319-644: The more "abstract" turn-based battle systems associated with computer RPGs. In response, he pointed out that not all console RPGs are action-based, pointing to Final Fantasy and Lufia . Another early criticism, dating back to the Phantasy Star games in the late 1980s, was the frequent use of defined player characters , in contrast to the Wizardry and Gold Box games where the player's avatars (such as knights, clerics, or thieves) were blank slates. As Japanese console RPGs became increasingly more dominant in
38560-413: The music quality suffered on PC sound cards , and Next Generation found the game's pre-rendered backgrounds significantly less impressive than those of the PlayStation version. However, the latter magazine found the higher-resolution battle visuals "absolutely stunning", and Computer Games Magazine said that they showed off the potential graphical power of PCs. All three magazines concluded by praising
38801-459: The number of items that can be held. Most of the actions in an RPG are performed indirectly, with the player selecting an action and the character performing it by their own accord. Success at that action depends on the character's numeric attributes. Role-playing video games often simulate dice-rolling mechanics from non-electronic role-playing games to determine success or failure. As a character's attributes improve, their chances of succeeding at
39042-480: The number rolled, the character either kills the enemy or is killed. Because players did not want to lose the characters they had become accustomed to, Arneson created a "hit point" system based on similar mechanics previously used in the wargames Don't Give Up the Ship and Ironclads . According to this system, each character has a certain number of hit points, which decreases with each blow dealt to them. This allows
39283-465: The only heroine, but the death of a female protagonist would necessitate a second; this led to the creation of Tifa. The developers decided to kill Aerith, as her death would be the most devastating and consequential. Kitase wanted to depict it as very sudden and unexpected, leaving "not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness", "feelings of reality and not Hollywood ". The script for the scene was written by Nojima. Kitase and Nojima then planned that most of
39524-441: The original PlayStation version's five different game engines, leading to delays. The PC version came with a license for Yamaha Corporation 's software synthesizer S-YXG70, allowing high-quality sequenced music despite varying sound hardware setups on different user computers. The conversion of the nearly 100 original musical pieces to XG format files was done by Yamaha. To maximize their chances of success, Square searched for
39765-442: The pace of the story, it added depth to the characters. The graphical improvements allowed even relatively bland lines of dialogue to be enhanced with reactions and poses from the 3D character models. Voice acting would have led to significant load times, so it was omitted. Masato Kato wrote several late-game scenes, including the Lifestream sequence and Cloud and Tifa's conversation before the final battle. Initially unaffiliated with
40006-410: The planet has healed. Initial concept talks for Final Fantasy VII began in 1994 at Square studio, following the completion of Final Fantasy VI . As with the previous installment, series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi reduced his role to producer and granted others a more active role in development: these included Yoshinori Kitase , one of the directors of FFVI . The next installment was planned as
40247-571: The planned concept was dropped, Final Fantasy VII still marked a drastic shift in setting from previous entries, dropping the Medieval fantasy elements in favor of a world that was "ambiguously futuristic". When Kitase was put in charge of Final Fantasy VII , he and Nomura reworked the entire initial plot. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima joined the team after finishing work on Bahamut Lagoon . While Final Fantasy VI featured an ensemble cast of numerous playable characters that were equally important,
40488-605: The platform divide between consoles and computers , respectively. Finally, while the first RPGs offered strictly a single player experience, the popularity of multiplayer modes rose sharply during the early to mid-1990s with action role-playing games such as Secret of Mana and Diablo . With the advent of the Internet, multiplayer games have grown to become massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), including Lineage , Final Fantasy XI , and World of Warcraft . The role-playing video game genre began in
40729-424: The player control an entire party of characters. However, if winning is contingent upon the survival of a single character, then that character effectively becomes the player's avatar . An example of this would be in Baldur's Gate , where if the character created by the player dies, the game ends and a previous save needs to be loaded. Although some single-player role-playing games give the player an avatar that
40970-547: The player determines whether the loss of immersion in the reality of the game is worth the satisfaction gained from the development of the tactic and its successful execution. Fallout has been cited as being a good example of such a system. Real-time combat can import features from action games , creating a hybrid action RPG game genre. But other RPG battle systems such as the Final Fantasy battle systems have imported real-time choices without emphasizing coordination or reflexes. Other systems combine real-time combat with
41211-416: The player fails to dodge the opponent's blow; if the meter is fully depleted, the player character loses consciousness. Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1984), an arcade fighting game developed by Konami , replaced the point-scoring system of Karate Champ (1984) with a health meter system. Each fighter has a health meter, which depletes as they take hits; once a fighter's health meter is fully depleted, it leads to
41452-544: The player to change the party's character classes during the course of the game. Another "major innovation was the introduction of day/night cycles; certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at certain times of day." In 1989, Phantasy Star II for the Genesis established many conventions of the genre, including an epic , dramatic, character-driven storyline dealing with serious themes and subject matter. Console RPGs distinguished themselves from computer RPGs to
41693-896: The player to manage a large amount of information and frequently make use of a windowed interface. For example, spell-casting characters will often have a menu of spells they can use. On the PC, players typically use the mouse to click on icons and menu options, while console games have the player navigate through menus using a game controller. The role-playing video game genre began in the mid-1970s on mainframe computers , inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons . Several other sources of inspiration for early role-playing video games also included tabletop wargames , sports simulation games, adventure games such as Colossal Cave Adventure , fantasy writings by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien , traditional strategy games such as chess , and ancient epic literature dating back to Epic of Gilgamesh which followed
41934-399: The player to understand the game. However, more complex and realistic damage systems are used in a number of games. In Dwarf Fortress , instead of health points, dwarves have separate body parts, each of which can be damaged. The Fallout games use health points, but allow characters to inflict damage to different parts of the enemy's body, which affects gameplay. For example, if a leg
42175-435: The player waited more than a second or so to issue a command, the game would automatically issue a pass command, allowing the monsters to take a turn while the PCs did nothing. There is a further subdivision by the structure of the battle system; in many early games, such as Wizardry , monsters and the party are arrayed into ranks, and can only attack enemies in the front rank with melee weapons. Other games, such as most of
42416-406: The player's control. Other games feature a party that the player can create at the start or gather from non-player characters in the game, coming into partial or full control of the player during the game. Although the characterization of the game's avatar will develop through storytelling, characters may also become more functionally powerful by gaining new skills, weapons, and magic. This creates
42657-491: The player's health points are visible. This is done so that the player does not know how many blows still need to be delivered, which makes the game less predictable. Contrariwise, other games such as the Street Fighter series have both the player's and the opponent's health meters clearly visible, which allows the player to understand how successful their combat strategy is and how many remaining blows need to be inflicted on
42898-461: The players, to be as exciting as the Japanese imports", and lacked the arcade and action-adventure elements commonly found in Japanese console RPGs at the time. In the early 1990s, American computer RPGs also began facing criticism for their plots, where "the party sticks together through thick and thin" and always "act together as a group" rather than as individuals, and where non-player characters are "one-dimensional characters", in comparison to
43139-410: The plot when the player defeats an enemy or completes a level, role-playing games often progress the plot based on other important decisions. For example, a player may make the decision to join a guild, thus triggering a progression in the storyline that is usually irreversible. New elements in the story may also be triggered by mere arrival in an area, rather than completing a specific challenge. The plot
43380-437: The precursor to Ultima . Some early microcomputer RPGs (such as Telengard (1982) or Sword of Fargoal ) were based on their mainframe counterparts, while others (such as Ultima or Wizardry , the most successful of the early CRPGs) were loose adaptations of D&D . They also include both first-person displays and overhead views, sometimes in the same game ( Akalabeth , for example, uses both perspectives). Most of
43621-459: The predominant lighting in Midgar and the color of the Lifestream, while the blue reflected the ecological themes present in the story. Its coloring directly influenced the general coloring of the game's environments. Another prominent artist was Nomura. Having impressed Sakaguchi with his proposed ideas, which were handwritten and illustrated rather than simply typed on a PC, Nomura was brought on as main character designer. Nomura stated that when he
43862-560: The problems often cited against JRPGs also often apply to many WRPGs as well as games outside of the RPG genre. BioWare games have been criticized for "lack of innovation, repetitive structure and lack of real choice." WRPGs, such as Bethesda games, have also been criticized for lacking in "narrative strength" or "mechanical intricacy" due to the open-ended, sandbox structure of their games. Health (gaming) In video games, as in tabletop role-playing games, an object usually loses health as
44103-422: The product stand out in stores, Eidos chose a trapezoidal shape for the cover and box. They agreed on a contract price of $ 1.8 million, making initial sales forecasts of 100,000 units based on that outlay. The PC version was released in North America and Europe on June 25, 1998; the port was not released in Japan. Within one month, sales of the port exceeded the initial forecasts. The PC version would end up providing
44344-512: The project, Kato was called on to help flesh out less important story scenes. He wrote his scenes to his own tastes without outside consultation, something he later regretted. With the shift from the SNES to the next generation consoles, Final Fantasy VII became the first project in the series to use 3D computer graphics . Aside from the story, Final Fantasy VI had many details undecided when development began; most design elements were hashed out along
44585-433: The project, Naora was granted a team devoted entirely to the game's visual design. The department's duties included illustration, modeling of 3D characters, texturing, the creation of environments, visual effects, and animation. The Shinra logo, which incorporated a kanji symbol, was drawn by Naora personally. Promotional artwork, in addition to the logo artwork, was created by Yoshitaka Amano , an artist whose association with
44826-502: The publishing rights in North America and Europe following Final Fantasy VII ' s transfer to PlayStation—to further persuade Square, Sony offered a lucrative royalties deal with profits potentially equaling those Square would get by self-publishing the game. Square accepted Sony's offer as Square itself lacked Western publishing experience. Square was uncertain about the game's success, as other JRPGs including Final Fantasy VI had met with poor sales outside Japan. To help with promoting
45067-567: The rest of the playable characters. At a Cetra temple, Sephiroth reveals he intends to use a powerful magical artifact known as "Black Materia" to cast the spell "Meteor", which would have a devastating impact on the Planet. Sephiroth claims he will absorb the Lifestream as it attempts to heal the wound caused by Meteor, and become a god-like being in the process. The party retrieves the Black Materia, but Sephiroth manipulates Cloud into surrendering it. Aerith departs alone to stop Sephiroth and follows him to an abandoned Cetra city. While Aerith prays to
45308-409: The right things to the right non-player characters will elicit useful information for the player, and may even result in other rewards such as items or experience, as well as opening up possible storyline branches. Multiplayer online role-playing games can offer an exception to this contrast by allowing human interaction among multiple players and in some cases enabling a player to perform the role of
45549-428: The role-playing game (RPG) category and expanded the conventional audience with the launch of Final Fantasy VII ". According to Weekly Famitsu , Final Fantasy VII sold 3.27 million units in Japan by the end of 1997. By the end of 2005, the PlayStation version had sold 9.8 million copies including 4 million sales in Japan, making it the highest-selling game in the Final Fantasy series. By the end of 2006, The Best ,
45790-488: The same terminology , settings , and game mechanics . Other major similarities with pen-and-paper games include developed story-telling and narrative elements, player character development, complexity, as well as replay value and immersion. The electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster and increases combat resolution speed. RPGs have evolved from simple text-based console-window games into visually rich 3D experiences. Role-playing video games use much of
46031-436: The same basic structure of setting off in various quests in order to accomplish goals. After the success of role-playing video games such as Ultima and Wizardry , which in turn served as the blueprint for Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy , the role-playing genre eventually diverged into two styles, Eastern role-playing games and Western role-playing games , due to cultural differences , though roughly mirroring
46272-492: The same style as those in manga and anime . The stylistic differences are often due to differing target audiences: Western RPGs are usually geared primarily towards teenage to adult males, whereas Japanese RPGs are usually intended for a much larger demographic, including female audiences , who, for example, accounted for nearly a third of Final Fantasy XIII 's playerbase. In 2015, IGN noted in an interview with Xenoblade Chronicles X 's development team that
46513-424: The same terminology, settings and game mechanics as early tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons . Players control a central game character, or multiple game characters, usually called a party , and attain victory by completing a series of quests or reaching the conclusion of a central storyline. Players explore a game world, while solving puzzles and engaging in combat. A key feature of
46754-598: The same" and "too linear", to which he responded that "[f]or the most part, it's true" but noted there are also non-linear JRPGs such as the Romancing SaGa series. Such criticisms have produced responses such as ones by Japanese video game developers , Shinji Mikami and Yuji Horii , to the effect that JRPGs were never as popular in the West to begin with, and that Western reviewers are biased against turn-based systems. Jeff Fleming of Gamasutra also states that Japanese RPGs on home consoles are generally showing signs of staleness, but notes that handheld consoles such as
46995-420: The screen has a time gauge; when a character's gauge is full, the player can input a command for them to perform. The commands change as the game progresses, and are dependent on the characters in the player's party and on the abilities, spells, etc., the player has added to their equipment. Commands include attacking with a weapon, casting magic, using items, summoning monsters, and other actions that either damage
47236-461: The screen. Swear words were used frequently in the localization to help convey the original Japanese meaning, though most profanities were censored in a manner described by Square employee Richard Honeywood as the "old comic book '@#$ %!'-type replacement ". The European release was described as being in a worse condition, as the translations into multiple European languages were outsourced by Sony to another company, further hindering communication. For
47477-525: The second most influential game ever made in 2002; in 2007, GamePro ranked it 14th on the list of the most important games of all time, and in 2009 it finished in the same place on their list of the most innovative games of all time. In 2012, Time named it one of their "All-Time 100 Video Games". In March 2018, Game Informer ' s "Readers Choice Top 300 Games of All Time", Final Fantasy VII ranked in seventh place. In March 2018, GamesRadar+ rated "The 25 best PS1 games of all time", Final Fantasy VII
47718-445: The series went back to its inception. While he had taken a prominent role in earlier entries, Amano was unable to do so for Final Fantasy VII , due to commitments at overseas exhibitions. His logo artwork was based on Meteor: when he saw images of Meteor, he was not sure how to turn it into suitable artwork. In the end, he created multiple variations of the image and asked staff to choose which they preferred. The green coloring represents
47959-488: The series, moments of high melodrama are blended with scenes of sheer poetry and vision". Edge noted that Final Fantasy VII had come close to being an interactive movie in playable form, praising its combination of a complex story that went against Western graphic adventures trends and "excellently orchestrated chip music". RPGamer praised the game's soundtrack, both in variety and sheer volume, stating that "Uematsu has done his work exceptionally well" and saying that it
48200-466: The sixth saddest game ever. On the other hand, GameSpy ranked it seventh on their 2003 list of the most overrated games. Final Fantasy VII has often placed at or near the top of many reader polls of all-time best games. It was voted the "Reader's Choice Game of the Century" in an IGN poll in 2000, and placed second in the "Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time" by Japanese magazine Famitsu in 2006 (it
48441-454: The source code for subsequent ports. Localization of Final Fantasy VII was handled internally by Square. The English localization, led by Seth Luisi, was completed by a team of about fifty people and faced a variety of problems. According to Luisi, the biggest hurdle was making "the direct Japanese-to-English text translation read correctly in English. The sentence structure and grammar rules for
48682-709: The staff, the polygon models were chosen as they could better express emotion. This decision was influenced by the team's exposure to the 3D character models used in Alone in the Dark . Sakaguchi decided to use deformed models for field navigation and real-time event scenes, for better expression of emotion, while realistically proportioned models would be used in battles. The team purchased Silicon Graphics Onyx supercomputers and related workstations, and accompanying software including Softimage 3D, PowerAnimator , and N-World for an estimated total of $ 21 million. Many team members had never seen
48923-541: The story, the game will enter the battle screen, which places the player characters on one side and the enemies on the other. It employs an "Active Time Battle" (ATB) system, in which the characters exchange moves until one side is defeated. The damage or healing dealt by either side is quantified on screen. Characters have several statistics that determine their effectiveness in battle; for example, hit points determine how much damage they can take, and magic determines how much damage they can inflict with spells. Each character on
49164-413: The story. While in field mode, the player can also make use of shops and inns. Shops allow the player to buy and sell items that can aid Cloud and his party, such as weapons, armor, and accessories. Inns restore the hit points and mana points of characters who rest at them and cure abnormalities contracted during battles. At random intervals on the world map and in field mode, and at specific moments in
49405-450: The storytelling "dramatic, sentimental, and touching in a way that draws you into the characters", who "come alive thanks to sweetly subtle body movements". Both GamePro and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine ( OPM ) said the ATB system gives battles a tension and urgency not usually seen in RPGs, and OPM called the summon animations "absolutely awe-inspiring". IGN ' s Jay Boor insisted
49646-466: The team soon decided to develop a central protagonist for FFVII . The pursuit of Sephiroth that formed most of the main narrative was suggested by Nomura, as nothing similar had been done in the series before. Kitase and Nojima conceived AVALANCHE and Shinra as opposing organizations and created Cloud's backstory as well as his relationship to Sephiroth. Among Nojima's biggest contributions to the plot were Cloud's memories and split personality; this included
49887-448: The team worked with were Cloud and Barret. Some of the real-time effects, such as an explosion near the opening, were hand-drawn rather than computer-animated. The main creative force behind the overall 3D presentation was Kazuyuki Hashimoto, the general supervisor for these sequences. Being experienced in the new technology the team had brought on board, he accepted the post at Square as the team aligned with his own creative spirit. One of
50128-451: The technology before. The transition from 2D graphics to 3D environments overlaid on pre-rendered backgrounds was accompanied by a focus on a more realistic presentation. In previous entries, the sizes for characters and environments were fixed, and the player saw things from a scrolling perspective. This changed with Final Fantasy VII ; environments shifted with camera angles, and character model sizes shifted depending on both their place in
50369-496: The term 'JRPG,' but if this game makes people rethink the meaning of this term, I'll be satisfied." The writer Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com states that " Xenoblade throws into high relief the sheer artificiality of the gaming community's obsession over the differences between" Western and Japanese RPGs, pointing out that it "does things that don't really fit into either genre. Gamers do love their boundaries and barriers and neat little rules, I know, but just because you cram something into
50610-493: The text, the North American localization team made tweaks to the gameplay, including reducing the enemy encounter rate, simplifying the Materia menu, and adding new boss fights. The International version of Final Fantasy VII was released on PlayStation Network (PSN) as a PSOne Classic in Japan on April 10, 2009. This version was compatible with both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable with support for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV coming later. Final Fantasy VII
50851-503: The time, in addition to the influence of visual novel adventure games . As a result, Japanese console RPGs differentiated themselves with a stronger focus on scripted narratives and character drama, alongside streamlined gameplay. In recent years, these trends have in turn been adopted by WRPGs, which have begun moving more towards tightly structured narratives, in addition to moving away from "numbers and rules" in favor of streamlined combat systems similar to action games. In addition,
51092-581: The title overseas, Square dissolved their original Washington offices and hired new staff for fresh offices in Costa Mesa. It was first exhibited to the Western public at Electronic Entertainment Expo 1996 (E3). To promote the game overseas, Square and Sony launched a widespread three-month advertising campaign in August 1997. Beginning with a television commercial that ran alongside popular shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons by TBWA\Chiat\Day ,
51333-430: The title. In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies, and had reached sales of 500,000 copies in less than three weeks. The momentum established in the game's opening weeks continued for several months; Sony announced the game had sold one million copies in North America by early December, prompting business analyst Edward Williams from Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. to comment that "Sony redefined
51574-583: The traditional role-playing " offered by Japanese console RPGs, which instead emphasized character interactions. In response, North American computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the 1990s with interactive choice-filled adventures. Several writers have criticized JRPGs as not being "true" RPGs, for heavy usage of scripted cutscenes and dialogue, and a frequent lack of branching outcomes. Japanese RPGs are also sometimes criticized for having relatively simple battle systems in which players are able to win by repetitively mashing buttons. As
51815-427: The translators to identify characters. Translated text usually takes up more space than the Japanese text, though still had to fit to the screen appropriately without overusing page breaks (for example, item names, which are written in kanji in Japanese language, could overflow message windows in translated text); to mitigate this problem, a proportional typeface was implemented into the source code to fit more text into
52056-509: The typical Western-style RPGs of the time. Due to the cultural differences between Western and Japanese variations of role-playing games, both have often been compared and critiqued by those within the video games industry and press. In the late 1980s, when traditional American computer RPGs such as Ultima and Defender of the Crown were ported to consoles, they received mixed reviews from console gamers, as they were "not perceived, by many of
52297-448: The underlying game mechanics (e.g. "rules-based" or "system-based" ); whereas JRPGs tend to feature brighter, anime -like or chibi graphics, younger characters, turn-based or faster-paced action gameplay, and a greater focus on tightly-orchestrated, linear storylines with intricate plots (e.g. "action-based" or "story-based" ). Further, WRPGs are more likely to allow players to create and customize characters from scratch, and since
52538-468: The version available on Square Enix's North American and European online stores. The PC version would be released in Japan for the first time on May 16, 2013, exclusively via Square Enix's Japanese online store with the International version title. It has features unavailable in the western version including high-speed mode, no random encounters mode, and a max stats command. A release for iOS , based on
52779-478: The way. In contrast, with Final Fantasy VII , the developers knew from the outset it was going to be "a real 3D game", so from the earliest planning stage, detailed designs were in existence. The script was also finalized, and the image for the graphics had been fleshed out. This meant that when actual development work began, storyboards for the game were already in place. The shift from cartridge ROM to CD-ROM posed some problems: according to lead programmer Ken Narita,
53020-454: The world of Final Fantasy VII on a 3D world map. The world map contains representations of areas for the player to enter, including towns, environments, and ruins. Natural barriers—such as mountains, deserts, and bodies of water—block access by foot to some areas; as the story progresses, the player receives vehicles that help traverse these obstacles, thus opening more of the game world for exploration. Chocobos can be found in certain spots on
53261-447: Was at the time one of the most expensive video game projects ever , costing an estimated US$ 40 million, which adjusted for inflation came to $ 61 million in 2017. Development of the final version took a staff of between 100 and 150 people just over a year to complete. As video game development teams were usually only 20 people, the game had what was described as the largest development team of any game up to that point. The development team
53502-527: Was a mere infantryman who was never accepted into SOLDIER; the SOLDIER in his memories was his friend Zack. At Nibelheim, Cloud ambushed and wounded Sephiroth after the latter's mental breakdown, but Jenova preserved Sephiroth's life. Hojo experimented on Cloud and Zack for four years, injecting them with Jenova's cells and Mako. They managed to escape, but Zack was killed in the process. The trauma of these events triggered an identity crisis in Cloud, and he constructed
53743-446: Was a theme that was common in most console RPGs at the time but absent from most computer RPGs. During the 1990s, console RPGs had become increasingly dominant, exerting a greater influence on computer RPGs than the other way around. Console RPGs had eclipsed computer RPGs for some time, though computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the decade with interactive choice-filled adventures. The next major revolution came in
53984-548: Was also voted as ninth in Famitsu ' s 2011 poll of most tear-inducing games of all time). Users of GameFAQs voted it the "Best Game Ever" in 2004 and in 2005, and placed it second in 2009. In 2008, readers of Dengeki magazine voted it the best game ever made, as well as the ninth most tear-inducing game of all time. The game inspired an unofficial version for the NES by Chinese company Shenzhen Nanjing Technology. This port features
54225-402: Was another early action RPG for the NES, released as a side-story to the computer action RPG Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu . Square 's Final Fantasy for the NES introduced side-view battles, with the player characters on the right and the enemies on the left, which soon became the norm for numerous console RPGs. In 1988, Dragon Warrior III introduced a character progression system allowing
54466-410: Was awarded Game of the Year by magazines including Game Informer , GamePro , and Hyper . It was also awarded the "Readers' Choice All Systems Game of the Year", "Readers' Choice PlayStation Game of the Year" and "Readers' Choice Role-Playing Game of the Year" by Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ), which gave it Editors' Choice Awards for "Role-Playing Game of the Year" and "Best Graphics" (plus
54707-459: Was brought on, the main scenario had not been completed, but he "went along like, 'I guess first off you need a hero and a heroine', and from there drew the designs while thinking up details about the characters. After [he'd] done the hero and heroine, [he] carried on drawing by thinking what kind of characters would be interesting to have. When [he] handed over the designs [he'd] tell people the character details [he'd] thought up, or write them down on
54948-457: Was discarded during early testing, as the 2000 polygons needed to render the Behemoth monster placed excessive strain on the Nintendo 64 hardware, causing a low frame rate . It would have required an estimated thirty 64DD discs to run Final Fantasy VII properly with the data compression methods of the day. Faced with both technical and economic issues on Nintendo's current hardware, and impressed by
55189-524: Was explored further in Final Fantasy VIII , The Spirits Within , and XV . Re-releases of Square games in Japan with bonus features would occur frequently after the release of Final Fantasy VII International . Later titles that would be re-released as international versions include Final Fantasy X and other follow-ups from the franchise, as well as the Kingdom Hearts series. Final Fantasy VII
55430-421: Was influenced by two factors: a highly successful tech demo based on Final Fantasy VI using the new Softimage 3D software, and the escalating price of cartridge-based games, which was limiting Square's audience. Tests were made for a Nintendo 64 version, which would use the planned 64DD peripheral despite the lack of 64DD development kits and the prototype device's changing hardware specifications. This version
55671-410: Was later released as a PSOne Classic in North America, Europe, and Australia on June 2. The PC version was updated by DotEmu for use on modern operating systems and released via Square Enix's North American and European online stores on August 14, 2012. It included high-resolution support, cloud saves, achievements and a character booster. It would later be released via Steam on July 4, 2013, replacing
55912-474: Was not a new technique, the increased power of the PlayStation enabled a more elaborate version of this effect. The biggest issue with the 3D graphics was the large memory storage gap between the development hardware and the console: while the early 3D tech demo had been developed on a machine with over 400 megabytes of total memory, the PlayStation only had two megabytes of system memory and 500 kilobytes for texture memory. The team needed to figure out how to shrink
56153-478: Was potentially his best work. Final Fantasy VII has received some negative criticism. OPM and GameSpot questioned the game's linear progression. OPM considered the game's translation "a bit muddy". Similarly, RPGamer cited its translation as "packed with typos and other errors which further obscure what is already a very confusing plot". GamePro also considered the Japanese-to-English translation
56394-415: Was published in Japan by Square. A re-release of the game based on its Western version, titled Final Fantasy VII International , was released on October 2 the same year. This improved International version would kickstart the trend for Square to create an updated version for the Japanese release, based on the enhanced Western versions. The International version was re-released as a physical disc as part of
56635-755: Was ranked 99th in IGN ' s "Top 100 Games of All Time" and as third in PALGN's "The Greatest 100 Games Ever". Final Fantasy VII was included in "The Greatest Games of All Time" list by GameSpot in 2006, and ranked as second in Empire ' s 2006 "100 Greatest Games of All Time", as third in Stuff ' s "100 Greatest Games" in 2008 and as 15th in Game Informer ' s 2009 "Top 200 Games of All Time" (down five places from its previous best games of all-time list). GameSpot placed it as
56876-401: Was ranked in 12th place. It has also appeared in numerous other greatest game lists. In 2007, Dengeki PlayStation gave it the "Best Story", "Best RPG" and "Best Overall Game" retrospective awards for games on the original PlayStation. GamePro named it the best RPG title of all time in 2008, and featured it in their 2010 article "The 30 Best PSN Games". In 2012, GamesRadar also ranked it as
57117-420: Was referred to by GameFan as "quite possibly the greatest game ever made", a quote selected for the back cover of the game's jewel case . GameSpot commented that "never before have technology, playability, and narrative combined as well as in Final Fantasy VII ", expressing particular favor toward the game's graphics, audio, and story. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly unanimously gave it
57358-531: Was split between both Square's Japanese offices and its new American office in Los Angeles; the American team worked primarily on city backgrounds. The game's art director was Yusuke Naora , who had previously worked as a designer for Final Fantasy VI . With the switch into 3D, Naora realized that he needed to relearn drawing, as 3D visuals require a very different approach than 2D. With the massive scale and scope of
57599-535: Was the first in the series to use full motion video and 3D computer graphics , featuring 3D character models superimposed over 2D pre-rendered backgrounds. Although the gameplay remained mostly unchanged from previous entries, Final Fantasy VII introduced more widespread science fiction elements and a more realistic presentation. The combined development and marketing budget amounted to approximately US$ 80 million. Final Fantasy VII received widespread commercial and critical success. It remains widely regarded as
57840-530: Was the first such attempt to recreate a role-playing game for a console, and requires several simplifications to fit within the more limited memory and capabilities of the Famicom compared to computers; players in Dragon Quest controlled only a single character, the amount of control over this character limited due to the simplicity of the Famicom controller, and a less-realistic art style was chosen to better visualize
58081-540: Was used in Chainmail and then Dungeons & Dragons ; "although armor class might have been inspired by the rules in Don't Give Up the Ship! , there is not an explicit attribute with that name in the game's rules. [...] It seems more likely that Arneson's house rules for armor class never made it into the final published version of the wargame". However, many role-playing games that followed Dungeons & Dragons moved away from
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