GRcade

Due to only getting into the series a couple of years back I've never played it. I really fancy doing so though, but the high prices on Ebay and the like continue to put me off (I'm not paying £20+ for a used copy of a 10+ year old game in principle unless it's super rare).

I do hope to stumble across a cheap copy or for them to remake it someday though.

I played through ten hours of the PC version, which I initially had mixed feelings for but did end up liking. And looking back at my time with it, it was pretty phenomenal in some ways (This was only a few years ago). I hated how different it was in tone and feel to the 2D installments, but I've come to appreciate it a little more now. I think I'll play through the PSone version later this year

I'm in the 'didnt know the hype' bracket as well. I happened to pick it up completely by chance to play - I had no idea what to expect. I didnt expect to be taken through the mill!

Everyone can appriciate a good game, but for me a truly 'great' game in my eyes can only be felt in the pit of my stomach, the sort of excitement, a giddy feeling that this is something truly magic. I don't get it very often anymore, so when I do - I know its something special I'm playing.

I got it with Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. Resident Evil 4 brought it out after an awful long time. Recently I was revisited by it for Streetfighter IV. Sonic 2s ending made it happen several times, and Lylat Wars did it to. Metal Gear Solid was one of the more common choices to manage it. Snowboard Kids a less obvious one.

The game that has done it more than any other is easily Final Fantasy VII. Why? Because I just wasn't expecting it. If you break the game down, it becomes very run of the mill, and yet theres absolutely nothing run of the mill about it. It has a special nature all of its own, and thats why it deserves to be revered so much. I don;t understand the attitude of people who LOVE RPGs but dislike FFVIIs success. If it wasn't for this game, the genre would be massively suffering or all but disappeared by now, replaced by Westernised adventure games. Beat-em-up fans should thank Streetfighter II, First Person Shooter fans should thank Doom, and so in turn - RPG fans should thank their lucky stars that FFVII came along because it continues to inspire and certainly fund a whole genre.

Unfortunately, the characters just aren't as memorable or likeable

Have to agree there, though I did still like them and found Squall to be a somewhat believable character.

Lets face it, all the Playstation 1 Final Fantasies are some of the best games ever made. Somtimes its like picking between 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'.

Not really related to the topic at hand, but:

DML wrote:Sonic 2s ending made it happen several times

o/ Good to know I'm not the only one who loves that ending

DML wrote:Lets face it, all the Playstation 1 Final Fantasies are some of the best games ever made. Somtimes its like picking between 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'.

I agree with you about VII and IX, but VIII has too many flaws for me, and is significantly worse than a lot of other RPGS.

Rebus wrote:

DML wrote:Lets face it, all the Playstation 1 Final Fantasies are some of the best games ever made. Somtimes its like picking between 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'.

I agree with you about VII and IX, but VIII has too many flaws for me, and is significantly worse than a lot of other RPGS.

I agree with this man.

I sometimes feel IX doesn't get enough credit actually, it's immense. Quina!

Rebus wrote:

DML wrote:Lets face it, all the Playstation 1 Final Fantasies are some of the best games ever made. Somtimes its like picking between 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'.

I agree with you about VII and IX, but VIII has too many flaws for me, and is significantly worse than a lot of other RPGS.

I thought VIII had an awful lot of strong qualities about it to spite the weaknesses on show. Some people I know seem to play RPGs almost robotically, trying to get everything up to 9999, and to them the game is all about the 'gameplay', in which case then yes, VIII should be considered the weakest. For me though, its all about relaxing and going for the ride, trying things out if I want to, customising my characters in my own way and just enjoying myself. If played like that, FFVIII is a wonderful game, so many great set pieces and little distractions.

Firstly, irregardless of motive or outcome, that's a terribly written article. Truly awful.

DML wrote:I'm in the 'didnt know the hype' bracket as well. I happened to pick it up completely by chance to play - I had no idea what to expect. I didnt expect to be taken through the mill!

Everyone can appriciate a good game, but for me a truly 'great' game in my eyes can only be felt in the pit of my stomach, the sort of excitement, a giddy feeling that this is something truly magic.

The game that has done it more than any other is easily Final Fantasy VII. Why? Because I just wasn't expecting it.

Choice quotes from DML's post that apply to me. It was my first RPG experience and still my best (Planescape Torment came close when I started playing it last year but my goddamn laptop went to the giant silicon melting pot in the sky halfway through, taking all my hours and hours of saves with it...but anyway).

DML hit the nail on the head by saying its the perfect example of a game that's more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give is that even after all these years, I still don't know why it works the way it does, what makes it such a profound experience. The main character is a moody arse for most of the game, the plot frequently goes off on any one of several completely mental tangents and the fight system, even at the time, was hardly new. But still, I can think of no other game that coaxed from me the emotions FFVII did.

It's still my favourite game of all time, and I often look back on my first playthrough and smile simply at the memory of how good it felt.

No doubt it's a great game but it's not even one of the best examples of its time. I was playing Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga at that time which I thought were better.

Tafdolphin wrote:Firstly, irregardless of motive or outcome, that's a terribly written article. Truly awful.

Reminds me of American Dad

Mafro wrote:Yes, yes it is.

Good game technicly with a great story just prefferd some others at the time.

BID0 wrote:

Dangerblade wrote:FFVI > FFVII > FFX > FFV > FFVIII > FFIX > FFXII

I don't remember the earlier games enough to rank.

</can of worms>

What the actual strawberry float!!!

FFX was awful!! The last 'boss'

It was okay until the end bits. I had only reached the end of FF8 before that, so was expecting some kind of insane mega boss, only to be met by an enemy that revived me if I died!! I spent hours leveling up and getting rare items/weapons to help me out

Well, the last boss of a game doesn't make or break a game for me. And anyway, if you want a challenge, then FFX is where its at, with the Dark Aeons and the battle arena thing (don't remember the name) which ended with the 10,000,000 HP megaton that is Penance.

Nope. FFVII is the games industries' Star Wars or LotR. Cloud is THE quintessential RPG hero of the modern age. Sephiroth the quintessential villain. Everything, from the innumerable sidequests to the excellent prerenders screams opus. FFVII is the reason Sony dominated Nintendo for 2 generations and, aside from Mario 64 and OoT the most important game of the 90s.

No VII and no Blue Dragon/Symphonia/Last Remnant/Dark Chronicle/World ends with you.

For me it is in no way overrated.

The story is gripping (and who knows how much better it could have been if some areas of the translation had been handled better), the characters are interesting, it's very cleverly put together, the materia system borders on genius, and the musical score is sensational

But most of all it's that the game is littered with the element that truly makes an RPG - "moments", there are a multitude of parts in the game that on first play through everybody was saying "have you done X yet?", "have you seen what happens at Y?", "I can't believe Z just happened!".

And that's one of the problems with "re-evaluating" a genre like the RPG, it's an experience so tied up in these moments that you can't hope to gain anything objective by looking back on it - either the impact they had initially will be rooted into any new analysis you give, or you won't appreciate the difference that ignorance of those moments makes to that first-play experience.

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.

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 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?

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.