Final Fantasy 7 is far from being the west written or the most mechanically deep&challenging RPG there is, but I really don't see how it's that much different from majority of JRPGs. When not looking at those factors, and just the roller coaster ride the game is (the scenery, the music, the atmosphere, all the different memorable events during the journey), it's one of the most enjoyable in it's kind that I've played. I enjoyed it more than 6 or 9. Now I can understand people who think that 6 is the best in the series and I probably agree with that statement (atleast the characters were better written, not sure how I'd rate espers against materia), but really, I don't see that much difference in quality between the titles. If there was a big leap between the quality of writing and depth of mechanics between 6, 7, 8 and 9 I could understand people being irate. But the difference between the titles really isn't as stark as it is in something like Fallout 2 ->Fallout 3, System Shock 2->Bioshock or Ultima 7->Ultima 8 (or God forbid 9), so from that point of view I don't understand the resentment towards 7. Yes, it's annoying when clueless people hype the shit out of games that really aren't as good as some less known games, but I don't see the two titles being that much different from each other.
isiolia wrote:
You can do a lot of world building with text, but the way that a player interacts with it changes dramatically. Creating a detailed world that a player can explore and figure out for themselves is a lot more feasible to do in 3D. Assuming that the hardware is up to the task. I mean, playing Planescape, the game has to fill in a lot of gaps that the graphics don't convey. Stuff that it wouldn't need to if I could zoom in, rotate, and look at objects/NPCs/etc for myself.
I think Ultima 7 still is the most interactive RPG up to date, and that was released in
1992. Over two decades of technological development and still it's the best in it's genre when it comes to life simulation. Many of the graphical details you speak of are fairly irrelevant, and can be dealt with the use of text. It doesn't matter to me if a text has to explain to me what a character looks like rather than the visuals. What bothers me is that after that finely rendered, voice acted and motion captured NPC stops talking, I can throw trash at it and do all kinds of stupid shit and there's no reaction to my actions. That kills my immersion and reminds me that I'm inside a game, not a virtual world. Like I said, I wish 3D games can fix those problems, but I think it's not feasible for smaller studios and kickstarter projects to deal with those problems, while still managing to create a well written and designed RPG and do it on time and within the budget.
