The battle screen is a 3D representation of an area, such as
a building's interior or an open grassland, in which the player commands the
characters in battles against CPU-controlled enemies. While characters are
super deformed on maps, the character models are more realistic and
normal-scaled in combat. Final Fantasy VII is the first game in the series to
have character models with fully rendered polygons, rather than 2D sprites.
During battle sequences, the game uses the series' traditional Active Time
Battle (ATB) system first featured in Final Fantasy IV. Unlike previous games
in the series, which allow 4-5 playable characters to participate in battle,
Final Fantasy VII only allows three characters per battle.
Final Fantasy VII's skill system is built around the use of
Materia—magical orbs that are placed in special slots on weapons and armor,
allowing players to customize their party's ability to use magic, summons, and
special abilities. However, most magic-based Materia also lowers an equipped
character's physical attributes. In addition, certain types of Materia can be
combined in a fixed number of ways to enhance their effects or produce other
abilities. Summon spells feature in the game, equippable as Materia, with
elaborately animated attacks. A modified form of Final Fantasy VI's
"Desperation Attacks" appears in Final Fantasy VII as the "Limit
Break." Every playable character has a bar that gradually fills up as they
suffer damage in battle. When the bar is completely filled, the character is
able to unleash his or her Limit Break, a special attack which generally
inflicts significantly more damage on enemies than normal attacks, or otherwise
aids the party in battle. Unlike Materia, each character has their own unique
set of Limit Breaks, which are divided into four levels of strength, although
one character, Cait Sith, has only two levels.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows 95/98
Processor: Pentium @ 133 MHz
Memory: 32 Mb
Hard Drive: 260 Mb free
Video Memory: 4 Mb
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 5.0
Keyboard
Mouse
DVD Rom Drive