Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fantasy 7

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Xeogred
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

Post by Xeogred »

So, FFXV.

I think they've finally hit the point they've wanted to hit now. :lol:
(interactive movie?)

It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. But I definitely thought it was hilarious taking the discussion here into consideration after rewatching the trailer again and seeing how it looks to be full blown real time action with ridiculous stuff going on everywhere.
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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Holy crap they announced vXIII/XV/whatever back in 2006. Get with it, Square!
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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Well I hope it has some weight to it. I by far prefer only getting ~2 installments of a big series pure gen. The quality tends to show.

(Metal Gear Solid always comes to mind)
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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Xeogred wrote: Holy hotdogs! Cannot disagree with this enough, haha. FFVII is one I've replayed several times with ease, but FFVIII is one I've failed to try and completely replay 2-3 times now.

I just get way too OCD about the drawing and Junctions were pretty annoying, I remember a bit clearly from my last replay. Every time the party switched up or you went back to Laguna, if the Junctions didn't transfer right you just had to straight up set everything up again. That got so annoying. I'm pretty sure by leveling any bit extra in this one too, you end up making the game harder with enemies unlocking higher magic and stuff. People who don't care about maxing out the magic cards like I do and just run through the game seem to do it effortlessly lol.

I still think it has one of the best OST's in the series, city/town theme wise, and just had a really cool vibe. Definitely things I like about the game, but yeah I should probably accept I'll never be able to put up with it again. At least I 100%'d it back in the day, lol. I was so powerful, Junction'd right, my characters absorbed 100% of every element in the game and stuff. But in FFVI after a gross amount of dino slaying, I could probably have run through Kefka's tower with one character. Then in FFVII... don't even get me started on how literally invincible you can become with the right Materia setups.

Easiest JRPG's ever. :lol:
What I like about FFVIII's junction system is that A) I can break the game right away by putting the cursor on memory, using something to keep X held down, and going to take a dump, and also B) How OCD I can go on its ass.

I understand why other people would hate it, but I think FFVIII is one of the most controversial games in the series, in the sense that either you REALLY hate it or you REALLY love it, making discussions between FF fanboys very heated. I'm on the love it camp, but then again I loved XII which everyone seems to hate, so what do I know? :lol:
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

Post by Xeogred »

Yeah, I mean it's a love/hate relationship for me. I loved it when I first played it, did absolutely everything and maxed out everything. Don't have any complaints about the good past. I just can never go back... but that doesn't make me regret my previous experience, lol.
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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Xeogred wrote:Yeah, I mean it's a love/hate relationship for me. I loved it when I first played it, did absolutely everything and maxed out everything. Don't have any complaints about the good past. I just can never go back... but that doesn't make me regret my previous experience, lol.
Are you talking about the game or a girl? :lol:
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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BoringSupreez wrote:I agree with most of what he said, in particular that Aeris's death is made out to be way too big a deal. As he said, she's just a flower girl that dies at the end of the first of three discs. It's in no way the game's climax and to be honest,
Cait Sith's death
was more emotional. But whatever. Even if FFVII has become an overrated sacred cow, it's still a great game that deserves to be remembered.
Disagree. Unless you played the game upon release back in 1997, you have no idea the impact that moment had on the game/story. A main character dying, WHAT? That had never happened before. Not only that, but Aeris, in my opinion, was a very sweet and likeable character, one I thought Cloud would end up with. 13 year-old me was shocked and heartbroken when that sword was rammed through her chest. I actually wanted to cry (the music is superb at that moment too, REALLY pulls on the heartstrings). Her death was a moment in gaming that will likely never be recreated to the degree it was at that time and place in video games.

As far as the game being overrated is concerned, that statement has been around since the game was released. I don't agree at all. I don't think you'll find a better cast of characters in any game, not even Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 3. Cloud. Tifa. Sephiroth. Red XIII. Cait Sith. Barret. Vincent. The Weapons. The Summons like Knights of Round and Bahamut - come on now. It doesn't get any better than that, not even today.

The story is convoluted, yes, but what RPG wasn't back in the 90s? RPGs became more and more refined as the years went on, but I can tell you right now that back in 1997, playing that game, the story was only one reason among many you did so. The game was hard to put down for so many reasons, it was the perfect mish-mash of gameplay, exploration, combat, and yes, even storyline (for me and my friends anyway, disagree if you like).

I don't mind people criticizing the game, but you can't examine the impact the game had if you played it in 2001 or 2005, and you can't fairly compare the game's story, characters, graphics, and gameplay to anything in the last thirteen years. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but only those of us who were fortunate enough to experience the game upon release and remember the time and place in gaming we were in will remember just how special FF7 was and continues to be.
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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So basically what you are saying is that only people who's first JRPG was FF7 can judge its impact?

The only impact the game had was that it popularized the genre in the west. But it was also the reason for the genre's downfall if you ask me. Just like Sonic and speed, Final Fantasy and cinematic feeling have proved how bad a design choice it is to believe your own marketing campaign
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

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Retrogamer0001 wrote: Disagree. Unless you played the game upon release back in 1997, you have no idea the impact that moment had on the game/story. A main character dying, WHAT? That had never happened before.
Well, aside from
General Leo, Shadow, Chrono, Galuf, Tellah, Maxim, Selan, Guy, Artea, etc.
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Re: Interesting, somewhat brief retrospective on Final Fanta

Post by Retrogamer0001 »

ZeroAX wrote:So basically what you are saying is that only people who's first JRPG was FF7 can judge its impact?

The only impact the game had was that it popularized the genre in the west. But it was also the reason for the genre's downfall if you ask me. Just like Sonic and speed, Final Fantasy and cinematic feeling have proved how bad a design choice it is to believe your own marketing campaign
No, actually, that's not what I'm saying at all - I'm saying that people that have only played the game ten years after release can't realistically judge how special and influential FF7 was during that time period. I also disagree with your statement that all the game did was popularize the genre in the west... it has frequently and consistently shown up on "Best Game" lists since release. Yes, it brought RPGs to the mainstream audiences, but you can't trivialize that - it takes a groundbreaking gaming experience to do that.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "cinematic feeling being a bad design choice"? Putting short movie sequences in video games was the next logical step - if FF7 didn't do it, another game obviously would have. Also, can you honestly say that a moment like Aeris being killed by Sephiroth would have been so intense/incredible if it hadn't have been shown the way it was?
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