XANDER CAGE
Member
I actually know quite a few people who bought it for reasons similar to this and were deathly disappointed that the game was actually a turn based RPG.
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Final Fantasy VII and its huge success and popularity
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
I actually know quite a few people who bought it for reasons similar to this and were deathly disappointed that the game was actually a turn based RPG.
It was the first FF with 3D
It was on a super popular new platform that was bringing in new gamers who'd never played FF, old gamers that were once Nintendo fans that already knew and loved FF and Sega fans who always wanted to play FF, All to one system.
It was a mind blowing experience for any gamer at the time..
It came out in the right time and on the right system and it was good.
It was on a super popular new platform that was bringing in new gamers who'd never played FF, old gamers that were once Nintendo fans that already knew and loved FF and Sega fans who always wanted to play FF, All to one system.
It was a mind blowing experience for any gamer at the time..
It came out in the right time and on the right system and it was good.
SirCrush
Member
So all the other jargon aside...this post pretty much epitomizes why FFVII is such a classic and so well regarded.
It's the experience, folks. It was one hell of a wonder when it came out, aided by the "3D" graphics. It did things that FFVI couldn't do. It took you to a place...transported you there. No game had really done that before. And its gameplay stands the test of time. It is STILL an enjoyable experience to PLAY.
manzoman96
Member
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
Why FFVII???
Because its head and shoulders over the rest of the games in the series.
Scratch that! Make that head, shoulders, torso, waist, legs ankles. THE GAME IS THAT GOOD!
The only game that comes close to touching it in terms of greatness is its predecessor, FF6.
The way the game came together with its incredible characters, storyline, music, universe, themes, etc just made for the ultimate RPG experience.
Because its head and shoulders over the rest of the games in the series.
Scratch that! Make that head, shoulders, torso, waist, legs ankles. THE GAME IS THAT GOOD!
The only game that comes close to touching it in terms of greatness is its predecessor, FF6.
The way the game came together with its incredible characters, storyline, music, universe, themes, etc just made for the ultimate RPG experience.
Maybe it's just me, but if I was going to buy anything at all being the seventh in a series, I would at least take a look at what the first six were like.
It's not my favorite Final Fantasy, but I had never anticipated a game like FF7 before and I haven't anticipated a game like it since. I pre-ordered that baby at Babbage's more than a year in advance and kept the reserve stub my bank. I almost wore the ink off it because I checked in on it pretty much every night before bed.
Manmademan
Member
Is that why FF VIII had amazing early sales, and why FF IX didn't do so well?
Not "early" sales, 8 outsold 7, until 7 was re-released years later on psn.
9 not doing well is a combination of being released VERY late in the lifespan of the ps1 as well as possibly some franchise fatigue with ps1 era rpgs.
XANDER CAGE
Member
Well hey, maybe it was just one of those games that starts with a number. Like how Persona starts with 3 and Call of Duty starts wi... okay you know what I can't even do this.
Random Painted HIghway
Member
It was also a greatly simplified in a few areas to make it easier for new players. Not mystic quest levels, but reducing active players to 3 and greatly simplifying the weapons and armor choices made it very first jrpg-friendly.
Yeah, see, I was there. I read about the game in GameFan way before release, saw some import footage at a local game store that brought in a copy, the whole bit. I should think the part of my post after what you bolded made that clear.
Yes! Star football players and muscle heads were coming to school after buying the game and going "WTF, the characters line up in battle, I press attack and the guy runs up and numbers come of the enemy. Then he'll run back in line."
People who just played sports games and Mortal Kombat were buying FF7 just for the commercials. They didn't know what the hell to make out of the turn based battles.
Abstruse Moose
Member
9 seemed like a step back for me. 7 had the cyberpunk style going for it. 8 had a modern/futuristic feel for it. It seemed like the FF series was heading away from the typical castles and medieval settings seen in pretty much every RPG to date. Then FFIX comes out and boom, back to Ye Olde Castle.
manzoman96
Member
i meant to direct what I said towards everyone. but yeah your points are valid. not sure if Legend of Dragoon came out after FFVII but if it did I'm guessing it just got overshadowed by FFVII's already big popularity. same has to go with the Wild Arms series and even other Square RPGs like Xenogears and Chrono Cross.
Reallink
Member
I specifically remember recording this commercial off MTV on my VCR and rewatching it over and over leading up to launch.
Well the advertising and hype made me go out and buy a PS1 with it, my first experience ever with an RPG and I loved it.I was never the slightest bit interested in the genre before...even thought Mario RPG looked like garbage when Iwas always a big Nintendo/Sega fan growing up and honestly at the time viewed the PS as a joke system along with the 3DO etc. So ya marketing I guess?
It did come out after, and it opened the door for a lot of RPGs on the system -- not just the heavy hitters you name but the Lunars, the Breath of Fires, stuff that was fringe before but became much more standard on the PlayStation and really set the tone for Sony's software strategy in North America from that point on.
But my broader point is if all it took was marketing or being in the right place at the right time, this thread could be about Legend of Dragoon or Battle Arena Toshinden. And yet few people get nostalgic about those games.
XANDER CAGE
Member
Yeah, it takes an adult to appreciate the nuances of a story about a dude with a yellow fern for a haircut, BA Baracus with a gun for an arm and a talking catdog and their quest to stop The Crow from killing the planet with his mom's head
I think that has very little to do with it. FFVII sold something like 9 million copies in the initial run. The majority of people that played that game likely never heard of or played FFVI.
I'm also sure this is incorrect. FFVII was already the best selling FF game worldwide before the PSN release. Someone with better access to numbers could probably confirm via a link or something.
Edit:
It had sold 9.8 million by December 2005. This is from a link on Wikipedia. That's about a good 1.5 million more than FFVIII prior to the PSN release.
Abstruse Moose
Member
manzoman96
Member
I guess Sony felt confident in backing up FFVII as much as they did since Square did have a pretty good reputation up until that point. Plus Sony probably saw it as making the statement that they are very much in the console race with Nintendo and Sega. Like saying hey, we can even get FF to switch to our platform and it's gonna be the biggest thing the industry has seen up until that point.
BobbyRobby
Member
The setting and characters had more mainstream appeal that VI, VIII, and IX.
disastermouse
Banned
FFVII was a Big Leap Forward. Even for classic JRPG fans like myself, FFVII made you take notice.
Some games just do that. My friend HATED 'high fantasy' stuff but loved Fallout 3. He couldn't understand why I was so psyched for Skyrim. Until he played it. I don't think Oblivion would have had the same effect, just like FFVI didn't in relation to FFVII.
Some games just do that. My friend HATED 'high fantasy' stuff but loved Fallout 3. He couldn't understand why I was so psyched for Skyrim. Until he played it. I don't think Oblivion would have had the same effect, just like FFVI didn't in relation to FFVII.
JRPGs were a very important genre at the time. Final Fantasy was the biggest name in the genre, CDs were a big jump from cartridges and meant big games. Put the biggest name in a genre where the size of content is an important characteristic on not only 1 CD but 3 CDs worth of it, it's going to get attention. Sony and Square knew they had a hit on their hands and so they went full-stop with the marketing. It worked.
Shadow_FFVI
Member
I'm right there with you man. There is not a single game out there that has come close to replacing this game as my favorite of all time. I was floored when I first played it.
I remember I used to get up at something like 3:00 am in the morning and started playing. When I heard my mom was about to get up to get to work, I turned off the tv, covered the ps1 under a blanket so she wouldn't see it was on and went back to bed.
When she left I'd continue playing up until she came back from work, and did the whole process again.
I would then proceed to ask my mom permission to play videogames for a while and she would oblige.
I disagree. People only really knew FFVI as FF3 and while FFVI was a good seller, it never was as popular as VII turned out to be. Coupled with the new seemingly endless CD medium and a very different stylistic approach, FFVII simply had more appeal to average gamers. For the real hardcore RPG fans, it probably had more people asking, "Where the hell is FF4,5, and 6?"
FFVII was a beautiful game and redefined how RPGs would look. It was also well made and it sill holds up very well today, despite the blocky character models.
Marketing is one thing, but it never would've been so revered based on marketing alone. I just think it is a legitimately fantastic game. Whether or not it's the best in the series is a matter of personal opinion, but I don't think I've ever been as blown away by a videogame as the time I realized that an entire world existed that could be explored beyond Midgar.
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
1. 3D JRPG
2. Nintendo Betrayalton
3. Modern Setting
2. Nintendo Betrayalton
3. Modern Setting
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
Personally it was 100% the TV commercial that got me. I didn't know anything about the game besides that commercial, but man, was I pumped to get it.
http://youtu.be/t9pF9BJQBLo
The initial success was due to reasons already mentioned, but the reason why it's still popular and loved has a lot to do with Advent Children, the updated redesigns, and all the spin-off games that were announced and came out during the PS2 era. I know a lot of people who never played FF VII got into it by coming across Advent Children online and then getting into the games after that. I don't think any other game in the series has gotten that much extra love post-release. The combination of its initial success and its revival during the Internet age in the early 2000s is what makes it stand out IMO.
This also demonstrates the power of CGI in advertising the game. You could show scenes with graphics way beyond any actual gameplay and people would be impressed.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
Well, sure, because FF7 in 2D would be an entirely different game. Everything about it was designed the way it was precisely because of the wild leaps in presentation offered by the PS1. FF1-6 all have medieval settings and hey, guess what, that's pretty easy to render in 8 or 16 bits. Blocky castles, simple villages, etc, all viewed from directly overhead. Without 3D there wouldn't be Midgar. There wouldn't be a Gold Saucer. We wouldn't have the unforgettable shot of Sephiroth walking through the fire.
I mean, I get your meaning here, but it's not as simple as [3D: YES/NO]. You can't discount the incredible work that Square put in to create something wholly original in what was almost a completely different medium.
Haunted
Member
I blame the proliferation of Sephiroth fansites on geocities.
http://www.geocities.jp/lune_monogatari/boom/sephiroth.html
congratulations internet, I guess
http://www.geocities.jp/lune_monogatari/boom/sephiroth.html
congratulations internet, I guess
I definitely witnessed first-hand the mainstream appeal FF7 had (likely due in no small part to the marketing campaign)
I remember my freshman year of HS. I was a shy, nerdy kid and made no secret my love of video games and anime and related hobbies. I remember sitting in English class, when the big popular football jock sitting behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I expected him to ask me to help him cheat on a quiz, or to make fun of me about something. To my surprise he asked me if I had played FF7, and if I could help him beat a particular boss he was stuck on. It was one of the undead bosses so I told him to throw a phoenix down at it, which would kill it instantly.
Needless to say, I bought myself some positive karma from one of the cool kids that semester!
I remember my freshman year of HS. I was a shy, nerdy kid and made no secret my love of video games and anime and related hobbies. I remember sitting in English class, when the big popular football jock sitting behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I expected him to ask me to help him cheat on a quiz, or to make fun of me about something. To my surprise he asked me if I had played FF7, and if I could help him beat a particular boss he was stuck on. It was one of the undead bosses so I told him to throw a phoenix down at it, which would kill it instantly.
Needless to say, I bought myself some positive karma from one of the cool kids that semester!
Great post. Exceeding expectation is a major reason for success for many of the biggest titles. This is why the lack of HD towns was such a joke for FF whateverthefucknumberIdon'tremembercuzIdon'tcareaboutthatgame. Totally did not meet expectations.
Sectorseven
Member
I remember seeing this commercial and thinking "how did I miss 4-6?"
Wow. Same exact thing happened to me in 11th grade. I'm like "Does this guy want to beat me up?" and then he talks to me for an hour about breeding chocobos.
For me, it was all about the exploration. The pre-rendered environments were so gorgeous and inviting. I replayed it probably a dozen times, and it was always just to be in those environments again.
It wasn't my first RPG either. But it was the first that drew me in and made me want to keep going.
It wasn't my first RPG either. But it was the first that drew me in and made me want to keep going.
revolverjgw
Member
Marketing. The ads were ubiquitous (and extremely misleading).
It was an awesome game, but the money and hype machine behind it is really what made it a sensation.
It was an awesome game, but the money and hype machine behind it is really what made it a sensation.
Precisely. Remember that a lot of games that made the transition to 3D well have a place in history. Metal Gear Solid, Mario 64, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto. All those franchises made the 3d transition well while stuff like Castlevania and many others failed the move to 3D spectacularly.
Tack on the huge ad budget given to FF7, the rise of the Playstation in general and the fact that it was the best RPG released at that time in the gen by far (IMO and many others) and you have a perfect storm.
FF7's decent game with alot of variety. the first disc is full of minigames and has a really interesting tone. it doesnt take itself too seriously and is full of humor. the second disc is where people usually start to dislike the game. it's overblown. it's overrated, but it isn't a bad game either. it's fun and if you can distance yourself from fabula nova crystalis bullshit (advent children) and the deviant art fanbase it's a pretty decent, quaint little rpg.
why? because its a great game, nothing else
I'm from europe and FF7 is pretty much the first FF to come out here, but hear me out, FF7 is my favorite game ever, and heres how it became so, i never saw commercials, never read articles on it, no one said to me how great the game was, i simply went to a friends house, and i just simply put the disc in my friends ps1, turned it on and started a new game, that intro blew me away, and i didnt even reached the first boss and i imediately fought that i had to buy a copy for myself
sure compared to now the game looks bad graphically, but no one can say its not a great game, it has a pretty good story, with very accessible, fun and challenging gameplay, with lots of side stuff to do, its not really hard to see how a game like that became so popular, wether you were informed about it or not
I'm from europe and FF7 is pretty much the first FF to come out here, but hear me out, FF7 is my favorite game ever, and heres how it became so, i never saw commercials, never read articles on it, no one said to me how great the game was, i simply went to a friends house, and i just simply put the disc in my friends ps1, turned it on and started a new game, that intro blew me away, and i didnt even reached the first boss and i imediately fought that i had to buy a copy for myself
sure compared to now the game looks bad graphically, but no one can say its not a great game, it has a pretty good story, with very accessible, fun and challenging gameplay, with lots of side stuff to do, its not really hard to see how a game like that became so popular, wether you were informed about it or not
There's no denying FFVII broke into a different sphere of consciousness than FFVI -- this accepted fact is the foundation of the thread -- but to deny FFVI had a role in its success is ridiculous. The press and the grassroots fans wouldn't have paid nearly the same attention to it and Sony would not have spent what it did on the game if it didn't have the confidence lent by FFVI. Hype simply was not manufactured in the industry that way at the time.
And I wasn't claiming FFVI was the only reason FFVII was successful, just that it was a major reason, and one that didn't involve marketing.