Final Fantasty VII - Taking Fandom Too Far

Flying-Emu

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chronobreak said:
What happened over the last few years where it's not cool to be a fan of games anymore? It's like a scarlet letter, saying you love a game that's heralded by most people to be a great game, and people write you off as a fanboy. What gives? If I say how much I love Bioshock, it's the only FPS I like, I'm a fanboy and therefore my opinion is moot? I think the whole thing may be a product of the console wars, exclusive titles, and whatnot. What do you think?

Also, I did like the review. Being an FF7 "fanboy" myself, I always like to hear people's unique tastes on FF7's unique experience.
I think that you're only a fanboy if you're willing to defend a games obvious flaws. If you started defending, oh, say, the unbearable agony of grinding in MMOs, you could be considered a fanboy if you don't stop when faced with credible, obvious evidence.
 

Flying-Emu

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I found FFVII's story, not confusing, but twisted to a point of almost hilarity. At times I felt like the writers just wanted to get a few more hours of wages. Nothing in the game was terribly original at the time; most of it had been done before.
Although the CG movies are rather nice, the actual world graphics were disconcerting. The disparate level of graphical quality in the game actually made my eyes a bit tired from time to time.
I'd have go agree with you, my reviewing friend; an important note in the evolution of games, but little more.
 

Frank_Sinatra_

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To quote Yahtzee "Nostalgia is like stuffing your cheeks full of cocaine infused marbles making you say stupid things."
 

Xanadu84

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Yes, the graphics sucked...it was also the first 3d Final Fantasy. Gameplay sucked too. It had some good points, by and large, but over all the grinding and repetitiveness to just increase a bunch of numbers was...well actually, its on par with almost every MMO these days. Certainly the gameplay could be faulted for many, many things.

Now on the flip side, and the reason why I still count this as my favorite RPG is the setting. First, I loved the story...story is something that is always subjective, of course, but I just dug the whole evil cooperation exploiting a power source that is actually the lifeblood of the planet. I don't think that counts as a spoiler since at this point, in game time line, that's like saying that King Kong dies in the end, or that soylent green is people. Second, I dug the art style. The backgrounds in particular, I just loved looking at. Yeah, the monsters are goofy, in FF fashion, but everything else had a certain class about it. Lastly, and most importantly, is the characters. In every other RPG (Or any game, really) I have ever played, I have enjoyed characters. They have been well written, funny, powerful, a whole bunch of things. But they are always just a vehicle for the story, to be enjoyed with a certain detachment. But not Final Fantasy. I have no shame in admitting that I was absolutely infatuated with Aeris. Something about her character was just so appealing to me, that I kept a saved game around the time you get to play as Aeris, just to be able to see things from her perspective. I wanted to see what the date sequence was like with other characters, but I just couldn't bring myself to be mean to Aeris. Her death definitely got me a little teary eyed, and I felt palpable catharsis when I realized that she was an amazingly done Christ-figure. Throughout the game, I actually was emotionally invested in her character, perhaps moreso then any other character in any media. From the flashback of her consoling her adopted mother about the death of her husband, to the dream sequence in the woods. Just seeing the patch of flowers and hearing Aeris Theme playing has more emotional gravitas then anything in any other video game I can think of. And im not particularly sappy about game characters either, its really just Aeris. The other characters too, are very identifiable, distinctive, and stylish, to make draw you into there story. Even people who have never played the game probably know more then they care to about Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth at least. So yeah, you can fault FFVII for a lot of things, most of which are attributable to the extreme age. But if you are looking for well done characters with simple, powerful emotional appeal, you have got to love FFVII. I know that when i'm done posting this, I'm searching for my discs.
 

GloatingSwine

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NewClassic said:
As far as the factual errors, technically, the Materia system was completely new. Each spell and effect could be customized completely, instead of being lodged in with which Esper you pegged onto your character (FF VI) or which job you chose to become (FF I, III, and V). As well as that, Materia allowed you to combine effects, such as Double Attack, Quad Attack, and Multi-Magic. Although that's splitting hairs, it is a detail to be noted, which is why I say the Materia system was unique. It is still different enough to call it unique, even from the Draw System, used in FF VIII.
Actually, Final Fantasy III's "spells as equippable items" system was the father of Materia, they equipped to the character, the job just determined how many MP you got to cast them. Spells in FFIII were equipped individually though, rather than equipping an item that had multiple levels of the same spell on a single slot, as it still used the quasi-D&D spellcasting system of the first game. (Which, ironically, got backported into D&D itself in the form of Sorcerers). It also didn't have the elemental modifiers.
 

GloatingSwine

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avykins said:
Im going to agree with -Seraph- the story is not that confusing. Sure I can see how it may confuse young kids who cant remmeber what happened a hour ago but there was never any doubt as to the characters history.
I don't think it's that the story's confusing, but that various bits of it simply don't fit well together. The whole "Shinra bad" green aesop was kind of occasionally prominent, but kind of wibbles backwards and forwards depending on whether the designers are distracted by Sephiroth not wearing a shirt today, Sephiroth himself appears to want to destroy the world because of his raging Oedipus complex, and the game's big emotional twist falls apart in retrospect because Aeris was just fucking stupid. "I know, I'll wander off and abandon the other eight capable fighters I know so that I can have a quick pray, never mind the fact that this will be monumentally dangerous" and she gets shanked for her troubles. A darwin award to the entire Cetra species, frankly.

However if you are referring to Zack and how every little detail of his past was not explained, why would we want that ?
Evidently people did, because they made a whole damn game about it.
 

CrafterMan

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Bravo Sir Vault Legend, loved the review and agree that fandom took this game and stamped on it's metaphorical balls.