Final Fantasy VII (Famicom)

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children  (Chinese: 最终幻想7) is a China-exclusive unofficial, unlicensed remake of the 1997 console role playing game of the same name originally developed by Square for the PlayStation. The remake was developed and published by the Chinese company Shenzhen Nanjing Technology for the Famicom. The cartridge itself is unique, structurally different than a majority of Famicom cartridges.

Gameplay
The game features an adaptation of the Materia system and many other gameplay elements of the original Final Fantasy VII. The items and magic spells are based off those in the original game, although a large number of them have been omitted.

The game features elements akin to the original, such as a three-member party structure. However, due to the Famicom's restricted hardware, the remake is entirely 2D, unlike the original Final Fantasy VII. Special compensation was done for some of the sprites such as Cloud Strife's, using a larger size of 16x24 instead of the usual 16x16.

The story was faithfully reproduced in very minute detail however some later cutscenes are condensed. Despite this the game plays through the entirety of the original game's story, including the final battle. However due to the size of the game, many elements were dropped. Yuffie Kisaragi and Vincent Valentine are no longer present in the game. Nor are summons or limit breaks, some entire areas have been removed, and while some vehicles do remain, including chocobos (though without the breeding option), you are never granted an airship to use.

Materia and spell casting are handled somewhat differently. Each character brings one materia into the party when they join, and said materia levels up to a maximum level of nine with usage. Once the materia have earned enough points, characters can take them to one of the game's magic shops, and get the spell itself related to the materia leveled up as well (each character's weapon follows the same principle, to be taken to the game's Weapon Shops to be leveled up). Additionally while characters can swap materia amongst themselves, unequipped materia can also be used mid battle to do things such as heal party members, which is valuable given the number of boss battles in some latter areas and the limited types of healing items. Armor too has been revamped in the game. It now affects vitality, which will in turn affect the amount of life gained when leveling up. However the game's strongest armor will severely impact a character's fighting ability negatively, even though they can absorb large amounts of damage.

Development
Final Fantasy VII was originally developed by Squaresoft (now Square Enix) and released worldwide in 1997 for the PlayStation. At an unknown date, Shenzhen Nanjing Technology developed an unauthorized remake of the game, for the Famicom. As the box and name both make reference to Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, this places the release window sometime after 2005 and the earliest known information about the cartridge appeared online November 18, 2007. Despite the name on the box and cartridge, the title screen simply states "Final Fantasy VII", and includes no content or plot elements from the film.

The cartridge itself is yellow, featuring a label on the front that reads "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" and the serial number NJ063. The board for the cartridge is unique: unlike most Famicon boards, the board has a single two kilobyte PRG (program) rom without any CHR (character) roms. Instead, character graphics are strewn across the rom in various banks, a method more commonly seen used in Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis games. It only features one eight kilobyte battery-backed SaveRAM, giving it just enough room for the game's single save slot. The game additionally uses it's own 16x16 several hundred character font, and the script is strewn in chunks across the code. At the beginning of each dialog box script piece is a three digit code in the form of "@###", which represents which character portrait to display.

Despite similar appearance to and sharing some elements with Final Fantasy III, the game is not a ROM hack but coded from scratch instead. However, many of its sprites are borrowed from other Final Fantasy games, including some SNES titles with the graphics scaled down in quality for the Famicom to handle. Similarly, much of the music is borrowed from other games as well, though in many cases shortened significantly to a few repeating notes.

Reception
While the game has received praise for covering the entire story within the game, it's been noted to be extremely difficult, with an inconsistent battle rate and a habit of fights that take quite a while to complete. A lack of healing options and slow rate of item level ups hinder things a bit more, with Cinnamon.com's article on the game to state "play it — but cheat." The game has also drawn some comparisons regarding look and handling to Final Fantasy III (see Development).

However, interest has been shown regarding an eventual English patch now that the game has been dumped, and the game has received praise on several grounds. Kotaku's article on the game cited it as "an achievement I have no hesitation in labelling Herculean" and "...a triumph of the human spirit." Boing Boing Gadgets followed with their own article on the game, calling the game "more than just a knock-off — it's an act of true skill and commitment by an unknown team of Chinese coders." On the other hand, Michael Trouten of The Tanooki chastised the game for removal of many elements such as limit breaks and chocobo racing, and the choice of Famicom hardware over the Super Famicom, adding "is there any point in playing a downgrade remake of a game that is already starting to feel dated?"