Yes, I know it's called Dragon Warrior VII because it was released before they started using the Dragon Quest name outside of Japan. Still going to call it Dragon Quest VII though.

Recently, I finished playing Dragon Quest VII for the first time. Yes, I know, as a big fan of the series, this is a little shocking. But I just never got around to it. The game is legendary for being very slowly paced. A playthrough can take 70+ hours, depending on if you do optional things or not. I'll elaborate on the game itself.

The game mostly follows the classic formula of the series, which means it is a traditional JRPG. No action bars that urge you to navigate the battle menus quickly, no gimmicks like that. Personally, I really like that. It does what it does well. I dislike turn-based RPGs that incorporate things that force you to make your selection quickly. It feels like they're trying to pretend to be an action game, where turn-based RPGs should be about being able to take the time and make a decision. It's the equivalent of trying to make a chess match seem lively by having a drill sergeant yelling at you to make your move. If I want fast-paced action, I'll pick up a game like Megaman X.

Back on topic. About the plot: I won't spoil anything that isn't obvious within the first few minutes of the game, or told by the manual/etc. You play as the main character, who you name yourself. You and your party move throughout the world looking for stone shards, which open a portal to a missing land's past when you obtain all of the land's corresponding shards. There's always some kind of disaster occurring in said land, which you must work to fix, which usually involves killing a boss. When you succeed, you restore the world in the present, which you can then explore, and there are more things to do and more shards to recover. I know the way I'm describing it makes it sound overly simple and boring, but that's because I'm avoiding spoiling things.

The game's writing is pretty good, actually. There are various spelling errors littered throughout dialogue on a couple occasions, but nothing too major. The most prominent I noticed was "eople" instead of "People", occurred twice throughout the game that I noticed. Considering how trashy JRPG translations were kind of known for being around the time, that's a minor problem.

The game features art that I believe still holds up to this day. For a PS1 JRPG, that's a surprising thing. The game uses a combination of sprites and 3D models that looks really nice. Characters are sprites, buildings are models, some objects are sprites and some objects are models. You can also rotate the area to see behind objects, etc. which would be impossible if the game used pre-rendered backgrounds like many JRPGs did on the platform. The level of detail looks really nice, and ironically, the "problem" of the game using sprites back in the day is a blessing now, because games that tried to "push the bar" on the PS1 tended to look ugly. Admit it: Final Fantasy VII is hideous in many aspects. I look at it today and I'm not like "That's a guy standing in front of a building". I'm like "That's a chibi 3D model of a guy imposed over a 2D picture of a building. Completely pre-rendered backgrounds are poor at conveying depth. Just look at a video of a person playing Dragon Quest VII compared to a video of a person playing Final Fantasy VII and you'll probably understand what I'm saying.

The game's music is excellent, as with the rest of the series. Very memorable, accompanies the setting well. Never gets grating at all.

The battle screen looks like you'd expect for a game in the series. Enemies are represented by really nice looking 2D sprites with attack animations, and backgrounds have a nice level of detail to them. Battles are fought in the traditional Dragon Quest style. Spells and skills have animations, some of them 3D, some of them sprite-based. When enemies attack, they have animations for it, depending on if they physical attacked, used a skill or cast a spell. The animations are brief, look nice, and don't overstay their welcome. You don't have to worry about having to watch a 3-minute FMV every time an enemy uses a spell like the Sephiroth fight in Final Fantasy VII (Wow, I'm really ripping on that game now, aren't I?)

The game features an extensive class system. There are 20 normal classes, and 34 monster classes. You pick low-level classes, and as you master classes (get them to their highest level through fighting battles), more become available. For example, if you master Mage and Cleric, Sage becomes available. If you master Dancer, Jester and Bard, TeenIdol becomes available. If you master Sage and Teenidol, Summoner becomes available. There is a bit of complexity to the class system. For example: If you master Warrior, then switch to Dancer before switching to any other class, you'll get Sword Dance, a skill that allows the user to attack 4 random enemies in a single turn, upon reaching Dancer level 5. Monster classes cannot be selected normally. You must own the corresponding monster heart to select the class, and higher-up classes require you to master specific lower monster classes, but do not require hearts themselves. Other than that, they work similar to regular classes, and mastering them gives the character the appearance of the monster whose class they have.

The game does have some problems. Shards, which are 100% necessary to progress the story, can sometimes be difficult to find on your own if you don't pay enough attention to things like character dialogue, and don't look around for treasure chests and such. I only had this problem a couple times, and fortunately the internet exists and I was able to find what I'd missed the first time I was in an area, but others might not be as lucky.

Overall though, I'd recommend this game to anybody that likes the Dragon Quest series, or even just PS1 JRPGs in general. Despite the shard problem, the occasional typo, and a couple groan-worthy FMV sequences, it's a solid title, with all sorts of little things on the side along with the main gameplay. There is a 3DS remake in Japan that I've heard corrects the game's problems (not counting translation issues because, well, it hasn't been translated to English), but it hasn't been released outside of Japan and there's been no word on whether or not it will be. If you've got a PS1, I'd recommend getting it wholeheartedly. If you've got a 3DS, and "primitive" JRPGs from the PS1 era turn you away, you might want to hold out and see if the remake gets released in English. Unless of course, you can read Japanese, obviously.