I also had one other problem with it which always happens. Every time I run the game from the desktop, the screen goes black as if it's about to run, but then everything stops and goes back to the desktop. The solution is to run the FF7 Config program from the start menu, check everything's as it should be, click OK and then run it again - at which point it runs fine.

Graphics, Sound and Playability

The graphics aren't too much to shout about during the field screens but they suffice for what they are required to do. The characters run about in a world where everything is very colourful and, unsurprisingly, they all have the regular Japanese doe-eyed 'Battle Of The Planets' look about them.

In the battle screens, the 3Dfx card gives a crisp, cartoon-like feel to the proceedings. Many years ago, an old game called Chaos burst onto the scene on the ZX Spectrum and many other machines. It involved turn-based combat between up to 8 characters, each of which could take a pop at the other, resulting in one winner. The battles here are effectively 3D representations of those, done in a very stylish fashion. You can also choose whether to have a fixed-camera perspective or let the PC choose which angle you'll see the action from. My settings is configured to the latter.

The other main area where the graphics come into play are in the FMV (full motion video) sequences. As highlighted in the Troubleshooting section, these are sometimes grainy-looking because they are blown-up images which were used on the Playstation version. It would have been nice to have had the FMV scenes touched up for the PC though.

The sound in the game is first-rate. During the battle scenes atmospheric music is coupled with punchy effects which bring home the full force of combat, while the field scenes are mainly accompanied by memorable music, beautifully played out by the Yamaha synthesizer program.

The playability is very good indeed overall. As someone who isn't used to role-playing games (RPG's), the use of the numeric keypad for getting about in the game or negotiating menus is very well implemented, allowing you to do pretty much everything with the one hand. It doesn't take long to learn how to use magic in a battle, instead of the good old-fashioned sword-thwack.

One aspect I haven't fully utilised yet which will come as I play more and more is the use of 'materia', an element found in various places during the game which comes in a handful of different colours and can be combined with other items/materia to differing effects. This reminds me of the different-coloured plants in the Resident Evil series which aided your character in various ways.

Overall

As I stated earlier, RPG's are usually not my bag. My favourite type of game is generally the 3D action-adventure that has a fair degree of blood, guts and/or violence, eg. Unreal, sometimes coupled with strategy, eg. Tomb Raider II and Resident Evil 2. Therefore it would take an RPG which is easy to get into, has engaging battle scenes and continually keeps you interested with a worthy storyline and good interaction between the various characters.

Thankfully, Final Fantasy VII succeeds on all counts. I may not be up-to-speed on all the aspects of the game yet, but that's the point of a game like this. It teaches you things as you progress so you're prepared for what lies ahead. If you think that the battle with the first boss is tough, there's approximately 30 to get through!

If you enjoy this game, Squaresoft's next offerings include Parasite Eve and, inevitably, Final Fantasy VIII, although the latter won't be available in the UK until late next year at the earliest.