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Square-Enix, why can't you make a game that's better than Final Fantasy VII?

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They sold their souls to the devil and wrote their death sentence in the fictional blood of a moogle around the time of XIII with Microsoft. It all went downhill from there, along lots of other Japanese companies.
 
Vagrant Story and FFXII came after VII, and I find both far superior. VII was good, but it wasn't all that amazing.
 
Looking only at the mainline FFs... FF5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 10-2 are all better than 7...

And aside from the blocky graphics, FFVII's music is just as outdated. It may have good compositions, but dear god, the arrangements are terrible. Such low quality synth.
 
This site has so much love for X, I will never understand it.


Legend of Mana came out after VII so they did top themselves.
 
The answer to me is quite simple: the literal obsession of graphics and visual cutscenes over gameplay mechanics and character depth.

FF7 was cool because that was the groundbreaking game; it's the first time we saw cutscenes like that. But despite the cutscenes, it wasn't the primary reason people continue to revere the game in such high regard. I personally believe it is due to several factors:

1) Square could have adopted Cloud Strife as their mascot, and no one would have debated it. Overall he was a well-crafted character with just enough backstory to make him likeable.
2) The music was legendary. Themes present within the game are remade and remastered to this day. Music is so extremely important in video games it isn't even funny. Music is one of several major factors that ruined The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, for example, but added enough to make Shadow of the Colossus a masterpiece.
3) Length/content/scope. FF7 was vast....successive entries were downplayed for being less so.
4) Gameplay/Materia. Materia was so dope as a battle system, if it ain't broke don't fix it, but that's just my opinion.
 
GaimeGuy said:
Sphere Grid is awesome. Awesome is Sphere Grid.
Click to expand...

No, it isn't. It is rather linear. The only fun part about it was moving to other characters grids. Otherwise it was just a tedious leveling they should have just done automatically like the previous entries did.
 
FF7 has been topped numerous times.

* Tactics (same year as FF7, and already it was surpassed)
* FF8 (has some flaws, but is innovative and has aged very well)
* FF9 (despite the tedious battles, thoroughly useless limit breaks, and inferior card game)
* Xenogears (falls apart both story- and gameplay-wise in the second half, tho. This desperately needs a retranslation)
* Vagrant Story (so much atmosphere, and it began the tradition of beautiful English translations)
* FFX (a genuine fantasy world that was beautifully imagined)
* FFXII (the best thing SE has ever made, bar none)
* Tactics Ogre PSP (this is how all remakes should be)
 
SaviorX said:
The answer to me is quite simple: the literal obsession of graphics and visual cutscenes over gameplay mechanics and character depth.

FF7 was cool because that was the groundbreaking game; it's the first time we saw cutscenes like that. But despite the cutscenes, it wasn't the primary reason people continue to rever the game in such high regard. I personally believe it is due to several factors.

1) Square could have adopted Cloud Strife as their mascot, and no one would debate it. Overall he was a well-crafted character with just enough backstory to make him like able,
2) the music was legendary, themes present within the game are remade and remastered to this day. Music is so extremely important n video games it isn't even funny. Music is one of several major factors that ruined The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, for example, but added enough to make Shadow of the Colossus a masterpiece.
3) Length/content/scope. FF7 was vast....successive entries were downplayed for being less so.
4) Gameplay/Materia. Materia was so dope, if it ain't broke don't fix it, but that's just my opinion.
Click to expand...

The music pales in comparison to the adjacent titles in the series (6 and 8). It's shorter than 8 and 10. Its scope is MUCH less than 6 and 8 (especially 6)... Yes, Midgar was awesome, but the rest of the game was typical RPG fare, and 6 and 8 did it bigger and went further.

Materia was just an extension of the Esper system (Though well executed).


You can tell that FFVI and FFVII underwent development at the same time.
 
For me, VII is special, but VI, VIII, IX, & X are all equally good. Everything else after has been an embarrassing let-down. I guess that's what happens when you bleed all your talent away and build a business strategy around milking past successes.
 
My question would be why can't you make a game that's as good as your PS era games.

FF XII was pretty good, now my hope rests with Nomura.
 
Because FF VII is overrated, and they can't live up to these impossible standards.

Also western devs are developping on full force on consoles now, Japan can't compete anymore.

they've also topped FF VII twice with FFIX and FF XII
 
The game doesn't even hold up that well. I played it this year for the first time and liked it but come on... All those shitty minigames everywhere.
 
SaviorX said:
The answer to me is quite simple: the literal obsession of graphics and visual cutscenes over gameplay mechanics and character depth.

FF7 was cool because that was the groundbreaking game; it's the first time we saw cutscenes like that:
Click to expand...
I think it's like this more personally. To me FF VII was this perfect storm of all these new technologies and techniques all on one title that was both pretty amazing at the time and was an exciting taste of what could come. CG, CD quality audio, a new sorta futuristic setting in Final Fantasy, on top of what was still more or less a traditional Final Fantasy, it was exciting. Having tried to play it again recently I think it's just "good," I think it's been topped, let alone equaled many times over now by other companies including Square Enix, but that moment it came out, that can never be recreated. Square Enix can never match Final Fantasy VII for those who think so highly of it because never again will the visuals be so much better than they were previously(assuming you like polygons over sprites otherwise I'm sorry), never again will audio quality receive such a huge jump, never again will we be shocked that a character dies(which of course Final Fantasy VII wasn't the first to do this or even the first Final Fantasy to do this), and never again will Square Enix be literally one of, if not the only, developer at the time capable of doing it. For Square Enix to match or exceed Final Fantasy VII's power of nostalgia they would have to send that mythical game back in time 20 years along with hardware capable of playing it to the present for it to have that same feeling of the future that Final Fantasy VII had.
 
The honest answer would probably be budged and talent..
I dont even want to imagin how much just a faithfull FF7 remake with up to date graphics would cost lol probably more than 2 times as much as FF13 and i dont even have faith that SE could pull it off with its current people. Its basically the fastest way to kill current SE and that is "just" the remake of the best FF and one of the best games ever and now imagine SE tries to beat it....lol They KNOW they cant match it and they know a faithfull FF7 remake would be a nearly impossible feat and would likely kill them in the process.
On the other hand you have statemants like from the FF15 Trailer like " The legend meets its match. But.. The world is ever changing.. For the Fifteenth coming." So maybe SE finally tries to beat it with FF15 who knows..
 
I still remember ff7 pretty well, even after almost 20 years. The chocobo races, the snowboarding game, those two ultimate bosses, knights of the round spell that took an hour to finish, putting materia gems in your weapon, Aeris, Sephiroth, Tifa, airship, the 7 discs, so much content, what a game. To remember all these things after almost two decades is really something special. I don't play jrpgs, there's barely any on pc, but geez that game was an experience I'll never forget. I'd love for Square to make another game like that.


E: And FF7 has never been topped.
 
they put out a number of gams that are on par with ff7..
the real issue is....
ps3 se is a sham...
last good game from them, and mind you good but definitely NOT GREAT, was last remnant..
after that as developers what have they done?
lord of vermillion (..), crystal bearers (.....), ffxiii (ahahahah), kh:bbb (really decent game, but great??), star ocean (jesus christ..... they ruined the serie to a level i thought was unthinkable, apart from bs the whole game is trash, from story to VA..), ffxiv (and we all know how WELL it went... maybe ARR will take the pieces and craft something worth, but launch ffxiv was bullshit), 3rd birthday (sigh.. parasite eve was GREAT, second was not really worth it.. 3rd game is.. terribad), dissidia (decent as a sort of action battle game, but not really an rpg for me), ff type-0 (those who played it report that it's definitely a good game, but no release date in western world so i don't consider it), ffxiii-2 (miles better than xiii, but still miles away from psx/ps2 se..), dragon quest x (mmo... really square? how about single player jrpg??)
and these are all games (lest i've forgotten someone) that square has DEVELOPED and PUBLISHED from 2011 onward..
if i have to rate 2 years of SE.. i'd rate it as shit as it can get...
 
You made a mistake of thinking that anyone on NeoGaf shares the same opinion as you :P

because Final Fantasy XII is where its at.
 
FfVII isn't anything to write home about... It's kind of like X, they're not bad games, but pale in comparison to gems like VI or IX.
 
Lol. This is dissapointing, everyone has a favourite Final Fantasy, just because you prefer one it doesnt mean everyone else is wrong and should prefer your choice.

Reread some of the comments and realise how silly this thread is.
 
Persona86 said:
Lol. This is dissapointing, everyone has a favourite Final Fantasy, just because you prefer one it doesnt mean everyone else is wrong and should prefer your choice.

Reread some of the comments and realise how silly this thread is.
Click to expand...

It all boils down to that, really.

IX is the only FF where the gameplay was so slow I stopped playing, but I'm not gonna say anyone who think it's the best thing ever is wrong.
 
SpoonyBard said:
Vagrant Story was so damm ugly I couldn't enjoy it. PS1 just couldn't handle those graphics.
Click to expand...

whaaaaaaaat?

It looked damn amazing back then. And the artwork and the entire design was brilliant. Not to mention the god-like battle and weapon creation system. Even those completely out of place crate puzzles were fun.
 
Acrylic7 said:
FF9 is hands down the best Final Fantasy, easily.

What is going on.
Click to expand...

FF9 was CACA ARSE.

FF7-8-10 FOR life! (gotta play 12 and beat 13-2 too)

YOLO

FF9 had the most weaksauce characters of any FF, unmemorable ass locations, Jesus. I hated it.

The music was ok but it didn't even touch 7 or 8 or 10 when it came to that.
 
Manu said:
It all boils down to that, really.

IX is the only FF where the gameplay was so slow I stopped playing, but I'm not gonna say anyone who think it's the best thing ever is wrong.
Click to expand...
Yep. XIII is a special case thou, I can accept that some people love XIII even thou I hated it. But at the same time many people can see that it is damaging to the series, its been almost 10 years without an alternative Final Fantasy, a lot of the hate Lightning gets is because of this, because of what she represents. The quicker we move on to XV the better.
 
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