Xander_VJ said:
i64ever said:
Before FFVII, the final fantasy games were virtually unknown to mainstream gamers. Fans of 1-6 were part of a small niche, a tiny club, proud of being unique. Then VII just exploded, bringing in all kinds of new people ignorant of the games history and more in love with flashy graphics then story and RPG elements. It was like all the newbies were trespassing on the old guards turf.
A clash was inevitable.
As I explained in the previous page, that's not the case at all.
That's just some delusion the oldest FF fans have in order to feel their opinion has more weight.
I think you're overlooking some pretty critical points.
First, the PS1 revolutionized home console gaming. There were more of those in homes and videogames were, in no small part to this system, on their way to becoming the dominant entertainment force they are.
Which meant that when FF7 came out the potential audience was already higher.
Second; no other game prior to it had used cutscenes in this way before. To my knowledge, this led to a North American revolution in gaming; the potential for television commercials. Personal anecdote: It was the first time I'd seen anything like this advertised on TV and I'm old enough to remember commercials to play Atari systems (but rarely games, because the games looked like 1981 sprites.)
Third; you rely heavily on the success of FF in Japan-which it no doubt was. However, it's pretty easy to understand via the nature of both the criticism, hate and the defense here that the view is from a North American/english-speaking world and from that perspective, videogames and particularly FF games were not well known outside of a small circle.
Fourth, according to the Wiki,
"Final Fantasy VII was both a critical and commercial success, and set several sales records. Within three days of its release in Japan, the game had sold 2.3 million copies.[9] This popularity inspired thousands of retailers in North America to break street dates in September to meet public demand for the title.[59] In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies,[60] and had reached sales of 500,000 units in less than three weeks. The momentum built in the game's opening weeks continued for several months; Sony announced the game had sold one million copies on the continent by early December,[62] prompting business analyst Edward Williams from Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. to comment, "Sony redefined the role-playing game (RPG) category and expanded the conventional audience with the launch of Final Fantasy VII".[62] Final Fantasy VII had sold over 9.8 million copies worldwide including Final Fantasy VII International as of December 2005,[63] making it the highest-selling Final Fantasy title."
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII
So I think you're vastly overstating the popularity of the games prior to 7. That is not to say that without the (relative) success of the previous games, Final Fantasy 7 would have been equally huge. I think it's perfectly logical to say that without the work and critical mass of people, especially in Japan but gradually in the West, who enjoyed previous Final Fantasies, 7 would never have become the juggernaut it became.
But the long and short of it is; Final Fantasy 7 is, to many people, what Final Fantasy {and in some mistaken opinions, JPRGs} are about, or certainly defined by.
I replayed it a year or so ago and it's still quite good. Story is a bit twisted and occasionally goofy but it holds up well enough to keep you going for 70+ hours. The villains are beings you can hate, the heroes are characters you can come to admire or even love.
I've had difficulty enjoying Final Fantasy games after 8 because the plotting is dreary and slow. The antagonists are frequently awful, if they're sketched out at all. The heroes aren't given relationships to build on, the sidequests never tell you anything more about the game/character, and the weapon systems are frequently opaque in their use.
But Final Fantasy 7 broke that series in the West and subsequently all over the world and to suggest otherwise seems to miss how big a deal it was in 1997.
