Is Final Fantasy VII Overrated?

PostRe: Is Final Fantasy VII Overrated? by KK » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:47 pm

Jazzem wrote:I remember being over a friend's house in the late nineties and seeing a copy of the game there. I asked if we could play it, but he said he could never figure out what to do in it, which I've heard mirrored from a few other people as well. Strange eh?

Yeah, one of my cousin's at the time, who was extremely good at games (whizzed through Tomb Raider 2 & Broken Sword Smoking Mirror) struggled with it too. I think many people also found it incredibly boring. The reviews influenced many people to give it a go.

Thinking back, the opening sequence at the Mako reactor is actually bloody confusing. Opening the barred doors and finding the exits actually stumped me for a short while. If it wasn't for finding the 'arrow' button which highlighted exits, ladders etc then I probably would have joined the masses saying WTF.

Yes, JRPGs are trash.

The three FF PS1 FF games really got the "grab you right at the start" stuff perfect. Most RPGs seem to think that since they're really long they can have slow openings and slowly set the scene, but the Mako Reactor and Garnet's kidnapping are all unforgettable openings. FF8 probably should have started with the attack on Dollet, but it happens within an hour so it's still pretty quick compared to most RPGs. Despite being my favourite of the lot, FFXII didn't have the same high-impact opening. It didn't kick off until the palace/introduction of Vayne (The real quintessential RPG villain!

).

Nothing quite like an RPG that starts right in the middle of the action. :mrgreen:

Hmmm.

It's a 'maybe' from me. The scale and scope of the whole thing was monumental; the random battles were utter tripe. Skies of Arcadia had a better structure across the board, where as Grandia/Grandia II had a brilliant (non-random) battle system.

Both I probably wouldn't have played if it weren't for FFVII. In fact, if I'd the choice now I'd probably load FFVII up before the other two, even though SoA was better.

It must be the atmosphere it had.

I too never got caught up in the hype of it, I just happened to have a friend who enjoyed playing it, borrowed it off him for a while, loved it, and got my own copy (PC, and in arm's reach and it set me back £30 second hand!). First of all, let me air this: FFVII IS THE RPG THAT SET THE GROUNDWORK FOR ALL RPGs SINCE. If that's not revolutionary, I don't know. Whether this is a good thing is down to you.
On top of that, the graphics at the time were pretty awesome - well integrated FMVs, pre-rendered backgrounds, the battle graphics, the lot.
On the subject of battling, it's combat system is, IMO, still the best I've ever come across (FFX's Grid comes a close second, while on the other hand, FFVIII is easily the most detestable). I'm honestly surprised either Square-Enix or any other company has ever copied it in some way, which is very strange.
Overworld sections were... hit and miss to say the least. I got lost for hours trying to get somewhere only to stumble upon how to get somewhere due to the lack of perspective.
So now the final crux of the subject: the story. It was pretty wonderful, I must say. Awfully confusing at times. As I said before though, it's fairly generic compared to FFIV and FFVI.

So, overrated? If you scored it above 9/10, then yeah. But it's not my favourite RPG ever (THAT crown is reserved wholly for Chrono Trigger).

Anung wrote:
Mafro wrote:Yes, yes it is.

ditto

actually, i would say FF7 is over-rated in the same way as some of the GTA games are: in terms of scope, effort and impact, they deserve their places in history, and they are often the first and best experiences of such games for a lot of people. However for people with more experience of other games in the genres (that's sounds really pretentious, but it's the best way to put it i can think of), there are lots of faults and inferior elements of the games compared to other games that the razzle-dazzle doesn't hide - this leads to a polar opposite where people who don't over-rate the games tend to under-rate them.

PostRe: Is Final Fantasy VII Overrated? by **Hexx** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:58 am

Final Fantasy VI, for instance, can easily be classified not only as the best Final Fantasy game, but one of the best RPGs of all-time."

A friend told me about this amazing looking RPG game that I had to play. So I bought it on the PC.

I remember installing it, starting it up. To be presented with some of the worst graphics ever seen at any time, I spent the next hour or so trying to get my PC to display these "amazing" graphics, eventually I found out that the world enviroment did actually look this bad.

Still I played and loved it, it always makes me smile when people say the graphics were amazing. Some parts were, but be fair most of the time you are watching that god awful polygon Cloud which was just terrible.

I was going to post a rambling reply, but just read the FF/JRPG section of this article from gamesradar:

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/why-games-fail-at-storytelling/a-20081009144024109077

Winckle wrote:Yes, JRPGs are trash.

GTFO!

I haven't actually played FFVII though, so maybe it is overrated.

Hexx wrote:
Final Fantasy VI, for instance, can easily be classified not only as the best Final Fantasy game, but one of the best RPGs of all-time."

VI is 6.

PostRe: Is Final Fantasy VII Overrated? by **Rebus** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:36 pm

KKLEIN wrote:It was certainly one of the most returned games of 1997/1998. I know a lot of people didn't even get past the opening 20 minutes.

Yeah I heard that too, and it didn't really come as much of a surprise as it's seemingly a genre that you either love or hate. It's certainly not a genre that is going to go down well with your average casual gamer that has a diet of sports, shooting and racing games, either.

Zartan wrote:A friend told me about this amazing looking RPG game that I had to play. So I bought it on the PC.

I remember installing it, starting it up. To be presented with some of the worst graphics ever seen at any time, I spent the next hour or so trying to get my PC to display these "amazing" graphics, eventually I found out that the world enviroment did actually look this bad.

Still I played and loved it, it always makes me smile when people say the graphics were amazing. Some parts were, but be fair most of the time you are watching that god awful polygon Cloud which was just terrible.

The PC port not only came out ages after the PS1 version, it was also a terrible port. Pin-sharp AA'd 3D characters didn't sit well with low res pre-rendered backdrops, and the midi music was laughable. Oddly enough though, it was a PC Gamer review that brought the game to my attention, leading me to finally pick it up on the PS1. :wub:

My age definitely had something to do with it, but I absolutely adored FFVII at the time. With only pocket money and presents to rely upon for new games, an eighty hour (with sidequests) epic came as something of a revelation. I found the story utterly absorbing, and an angsty teenage hero is far less annoying when you're, well, a teenager. The music's still amazing too.

KKLEIN wrote:It was certainly one of the most returned games of 1997/1998. I know a lot of people didn't even get past the opening 20 minutes.

I remember one review lambasting the game for being nothing but a dull quest to blow up eight identical Mako reactors. :lol:

Mogster wrote:angsty teenage hero

The man's 21, and cool as strawberry float when he's not spazzing out.

jiggles wrote:
Mogster wrote:angsty teenage hero

The man's 21, and cool as strawberry float when he's not spazzing out.

Crikey. Well, he acts like an angsty teenage hero.

Maybe the years haven't been kind to the game as it may not be that great a game to play today but it's still one of the only games I'd like to go back in time and have the initial experience of all over again.

For me it's not overrated.

As much as I love Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VIII humps it into the ground. Squall > Zack > Cloud.

It was the first JRPG I played and I couldn't get on with it. I got to the second disc I think and gave up. I tried again with VIII, and the same thing happened. A couple of years later I gave VI a go and liked it much more, but didn't quite finish it.

FFXII was the first RPG I ever finished - and it's still me favourite RPG ever. I think it must have been the combat system and the random battles that pissed me off. Having said that, I'm really loving Lost Odyssey right now, so either my tastes have changed or JRPGs have become much more refined in recent years.

suzzopher wrote:As much as I love Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VIII humps it into the ground. Squall > Zack > Cloud.

You must be joking. Squall is probably the dullest character Square have ever come up with.

Is Final Fantasy VII Overrated?

Who is online

Affiliates