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Ten Years of Final Fantasy VII

FFVII defined a wonderful time in my life. It was the first time I had bought a game with my own money and I remember playing the demo every day in anticipation. 1997 was such a great year for games too, I haven't even come faintly close to saying anything like that in recent times since 2003.

The fanboys subsequently ruined it for me for a long time, following the long swaths of irrational fanboyism that dominated the time around when FFVIII was released. I kinda reached the age though where I can distance an awesome game from it's significantly-less-than-awesome fanbase; it's not as if poor Cloud came out and told us to hate every game that wasn't his. Oh and sometimes the people still bitter over that shit go overboard with the hate. It was never perfect and never the best FF, even when it was released, but, even if Skies of Arcadia IS probably better, it's a solid member of the series...

and don't even get me started on how badly it rapes FFXII.
 
These are the kinds of threads that make me dislike GAF more and more lately. If you didn't like FFVII, just gtfo. It's a retrospective thread for a ten year old game, and it seems like we do this it sucks/it rocks bullshit at least five times a day for this game alone. Most of the trolls in this thread...your opinions are already pretty well documented in other threads. Why have you made it your life mission to point out how much you hate this game every time someone makes a thread for it? Don't you have anything better to do?
 
I don't even like the game, but this topic is specifically about 10 years ago..not that hard to leave the crap out for a day!
 
echoshifting said:
These are the kinds of threads that make me dislike GAF more and more lately. If you didn't like FFVII, just gtfo. It's a retrospective thread for a ten year old game, and it seems like we do this it sucks/it rocks bullshit at least five times a day for this game alone. Most of the trolls in this thread...your opinions are already pretty well documented in other threads. Why have you made it your life mission to point out how much you hate this game every time someone makes a thread for it? Don't you have anything better to do?
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Well QuickKick did make a point to ask us what our feelings were on the game. I feel that it was an incredible waste of time for my money spent and the attention it receives is completely undeserved a decade later. Okay. It had pretty movies when it first came out. It's only aged more and more horribly as time has gone on, and none of the spinoffs were any good either.
 
Red Scarlet said:
I felt dirty doing the Chocobo breeding, I think I bred the black one with its great grandpa or something.
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Yeah, I felt really dirty with that.

I had a female chocobo give birth to a blue and green one, then I got the brothers and sister to mate to make a black one. That is like hardcore incest.

Red Scarlet said:
I will agree with Anihawk that SoA was better than OoT though.
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You have Rin as some of your avatars, you have at least SOME taste.
 
Red Scarlet said:
I will agree with Anihawk that SoA was better than OoT though.
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I'm not a big fan of SoA and think it's highly overrated by a lot of people here, but I'll agree there as well.

Man this thread is going places! I'm trying to think, does this kind of shit happen with any other game? Seriously.

Hcoregamer00 said:
I had a female chocobo give birth to a blue and green one, then I got the brothers and sister to mate to make a black one. That is like hardcore incest.
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I laughed WAY too hard at this. I must need to sleep or something.
 
Hcoregamer00 said:
Yeah, I felt really dirty with that.

I had a female chocobo give birth to a blue and green one, then I got the brothers and sister to mate to make a black one. That is like hardcore incest.



You have Rin as some of your avatars, you have at least SOME taste.
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That may have been it, too.

I only think SoA is better is because I played through it and have a past with Anihawk about OoT. :P

I have so much taste your taste buds would explode if you tried to handle the amount of taste I have. Yeah.
 
SailorDaravon said:
Man this thread is going places! I'm trying to think, does this kind of shit happen with any other game? Seriously.
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It does, yeah, but never to the degree it happens with FFVII. You can't even mention FFVII on this board without being ridiculed by one poster or another for having shitty taste.

It's always been a problem on this board, maybe it's just me but it seems to be getting worse lately. There's just a certain population of posters out there waiting to lash out at people for liking games they personally hate, especially popular, 'classic' games, or newer games that get a lot of hype here and elsewhere. Maybe they feel it is their noble duty to make sure people know the game isn't universally acclaimed, because THEY sure as hell hated it and think anyone that liked it is an idiot. Who knows.
 
echoshifting said:
It does, yeah, but never to the degree it happens with FFVII. You can't even mention FFVII on this board without being ridiculed by one poster or another for having shitty taste.

It's always been a problem on this board, maybe it's just me but it seems to be getting worse lately. There's just a certain population of posters out there waiting to lash out at people for liking games they personally hate, especially popular, 'classic' games, or newer games that get a lot of hype here and elsewhere. Maybe they feel it is their noble duty to make sure people know the game isn't universally acclaimed, because THEY sure as hell hated it and think anyone that liked it is an idiot. Who knows.
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The irony is that if you take away all the people that the haters are yelling at, they wouldn't hate on FF7 anymore. It's cool to hate whatever's popular.
 
This is my most favorite game of all time...reason being that it was my life when I played it, and I haven't felt anything as epic since then.
 
What's up with the trolling? GTFO!

I was 23 by the time the game came out in '97, nearing the end of my college days. I remember the massive advertising blitz that accompanied the game, especially off hand, positive remarks from my non-gamer mother, my sisters because of said commercials.

I really enjoyed the game back then, and regularly replay the game every year or so, either on the PC or on a PS2. What WOW'd me, and continues to do so, is the music, simply brilliant. The battle system, the materia system, the personalities, and it's overall epic grandeur, I enjoyed all of it.

I liked the character art, thought it was a fresh take on the series and it worked well with the artistic flow of the game. The blocky cast of characters are a sight for sore eyes, but they never broke the illusion the game presented. The backgrounds, the QTmovies throughout the game was another nice touch, and at the time, I had no problems with the game's cinematic focus because it was different and refreshing.

Would I like a remake of FF7? No. Move the fuck on SE. How I long for Squaresoft of the SNES and PSX days. Good times.
 
ffvii09.jpg
 
My only problem with FFVII is that Sephiroth is my favorite character on pretty much any game i've played and i ended up having to kill him.

FFVII is the best RPG of all time IMO.
 
I just want to add that the entire opening Midgar part in FFVII is quite possibly the greatest five or so hours introduction of any RPG in existence.

I remember anticipating this game way before the US release, slathering over every single picture released for it.. conjuring up stories to myself about the gritty RPG style it had. God how life has changed.


As for the FFVII universal hatred it cops.. I just see those people in the same light as the game's version of Pitchfork blind fanatics. Full of toffy wankers.
 
speedpop said:
I just want to add that the entire opening Midgar part in FFVII is quite possibly the greatest five or so hours introduction of any RPG in existence.
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Wholeheartedly agree. It was so perfect, and yet it was cut short. If there ever is a remake, I can only hope that there are some additional areas to explore in the city.
 
Really? I hated Midgar and Kalm and keep a save after that to skip that part. I don't mind the game that much if I start from there. Different strokes I guess.
 
Red Scarlet said:
Really? I hated Midgar and Kalm and keep a save after that to skip that part. I don't mind the game that much if I start from there. Different strokes I guess.
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word, I think the game really picks up after you leave Kalm.

the Midgar section at the beginning really drags for too fucking long and it's boring on replays imo
 
Oh, how I love this game, it will forever have a special place in my heart. It was at a key pinpoint of my growing teenager years in which my obsession with videogames have never quite managed to top or even reach that level ever since.

10 years....damn I feel old.

I remember like it was yesterday when I was mesmerized by the commercials and completely blown away the first time I got my hands on it. A key presentation of being in the generational change going from the 2D sprite based era to 3D and CGI. Playing something that wasn't on a Nintendo or SEGA system after so long was part of the surreal feeling I had going in. The visuals and presentation was not quite like anything I've seen before and was completely utterly addicted and drawn into it's world. Midgar as an introduction visually and gaming experience for the first several hours for me was incredible and the rest is history.

I hadn't had that feel for a game in such a long time, what was mindblowing back then is simply old hat now I guess when advanced 3D and presentation are the norm and FFVII looks archaic in comparison...but I still want to go back to it.

Square are sons of bitches for making that PS3 Final Fantasy FFVII technical demonstration, cause for a brief moment I was teased by that feeling I hadn't felt since I was a teenager.
 
AniHawk said:
Thinking back... yeah. You're right. Skies is only better in a few categories like exploration, gameplay, graphics, style, music, characters, story, and atmosphere.

But FFVII's voice acting TOTALLY kick's SoA's voice acting's ass.
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lol @ those incredibly lame Lunar-esque characters being "better" than FF7's cast.

Ramirez is such a Sephiroth wannabe.

Plus they totally ripped off FF with the airships!!
 
Midgar is/was/can be occasionally boring sometimes, but I think it was only because it wasn't utilized very well. Had there been some more entertaining events and areas to interact with, it could have been a much bigger hit. As it stands, I liked it, but it could have been so much more.
 
Yeah pel.

Even though I don't like the Kalm flashback at all, I absolutely love the lifestream flashback and get chills when Cloud takes the helmet off. I think it also has to do with the exact part of the song they use for it, which I don't think was on the soundtrack (was part of the overworld theme).
 
I don't consider it anywhere near my favorite games, or even my favorite Final Fantasys, but at the time it was really a cool experience. Every gamer I knew was so excited and the buildup was epic. The commercials and the ads and the hype and the constant previews in magazines and the visceral impact of those graphics and cinematics. The game was breathtaking at first, amazing when I was in Midgar, but I distinctly remember realizing that the game was losing steam once I got out. By the end of the game I'd concluded that FF6 was better. Still, FF7 is was and is great. It's a bit of a sacred cow now, and easy target for... ''criticism'', but at the time it really was a watershed event.
 
Lightning said:
Well, for me, this was not only the best Final Fantasy I have ever played but the best RPG I have ever played. This game actually got me into gaming in general, so thanks to Square! :D
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Ditto! FFVII is the game the got me in Final Fantasy, and is my favorite game of all time. :D :D :D

10 years.... remake now.
 
Still has some of the thickest atmosphere around. There's very few games that no matter how many times I play them can continue to get me into that relentless and immersize zone. Deus Ex is the pinnacle example, but on the console - no other game does it for me like VII still does.

I see it has a superb game with some genuine strengths (the most notable described above, another being the music or its -- granted gimmicky -- intrigue) often overshadowed by either: its more stylish elements such as Sephiroth's appearence or the whole one-winged-angel visage, Nomura's further projects, etc or the overzealous dislike for it spawning from a lot of different reasons - genuine disinterest or aesthetic distaste, niche cred, anti-popularity, etc.

It's not quite Deus Ex or Tactics Ogre for me, but it's alongside both VI and XII for my favorite traditional series entries.
 
This game still has the best boss battle theme of all final fantasies.

The best battle theme still belongs to final fantasy 4.:D
 
FFVII is better than SoA or just about every game except for Suikoden II and Xenogears.

FFVII is absolute brillance. Whether it's the fact it made the genre accessible and ushered in the best generation of RPGs ever... or it's multi-layered engrossing storyline... or it's humanized characters... or it's truly memorable moments (death of aeris, revelation that to save the planet may condemn humanity, the breaking down and rebuilding of cloud's psyche or the final battle)... or it's perfect open to interuptation (ignoring the butchering by nomura) ending...

I have such strong memories of this game. I remember the excuse I gave my mom to stay home sick so I could play Final Fantasy VII. I remember staying up really late one night to finally beat Sephiroth and watch the ending. I remember spending hours talking about the game cause I was just so into it.

The only RPGs previous to that where I had the same great memories are Lufia and Final Fantasy VI (FFVI I have this perfect memory of me playing it on christmas and Lufia was the first game one of my friends showed me where it was explained to me that it was an RPG)
 
aw crap tabris posted, everyone take cover. bombs of hyperbole are approaching.
 
PSOne generation > SNES generation > PS2 generation > NES generation

Reason why? Diversity in gameplay, higher production values and greater depth in story-telling. Can you debate that SNES generation had more original games in terms of gameplay? Higher production values? or greater depth in story-telling?
 
Tabris said:
Can you debate that SNES generation had more original games in terms of gameplay? Higher production values? or greater depth in story-telling?
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When it comes to FF? Depends on the category. The first one yes, 2nd no, and 3rd is debatable that the games became full of verbal fluff in the PS1 era.
 
Tabris said:
PSOne generation > SNES generation > PS2 generation > NES generation

Reason why? Diversity in gameplay, higher production values and greater depth in story-telling. Can you debate that SNES generation had more original games in terms of gameplay? Higher production values? or greater depth in story-telling?
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gauntlet.gif
 
Red Scarlet said:
When it comes to FF? Depends on the category. The first one yes, 2nd no, and 3rd is debatable that the games became full of verbal fluff in the PS1 era.
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You're saying that SNES generation had more unique gameplay in it's RPGs? We have Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Saga Frontier, etc, etc. What games would you list from the snes RPG where you can go back to even still and think, wow, this is unique. Act Raiser maybe? I can't think of much

Glad we agree on the second one.

Verbal fluff? I rather have "verbal fluff" than cookie cutter characters with nothing human about them. Literary characters are supposed to have flaws and internal dilenmas (moral, emotional, etc) to overcome; no RPG pre-psone had anything like that except for 2 characters in Final Fantasy VI. If you don't have that, or even that -attempt-, what's the point to having a story in a game?
 
Tabris said:
You're saying that SNES generation had more unique gameplay in it's RPGs? We have Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Saga Frontier, etc, etc. What games would you list from the snes RPG where you can go back to even still and think, wow, this is unique. Act Raiser maybe? I can't think of much
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Well the PSone era certainly had the most diversity from Square/Enix. The PS2 era is definitely the best though. Because you do have stuff like Skies of Arcadia, Valkyrie Profile 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Fire Emblem, Disgaea, and many many others. The SNES may not have had as many RPGs, but there still were a couple unique ones, like Terranigma and Chrono Trigger, as well as what are often regarded as the best in the Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest series.
 
pel1300 said:
lol @ those incredibly lame Lunar-esque characters being "better" than FF7's cast.

Ramirez is such a Sephiroth wannabe.

Plus they totally ripped off FF with the airships!!
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Never played Lunar, but I would expect it to also be superior if its characters are as fun as SoA's. FFVII didn't really have characters. Just lifeless husks with bad dialog. I think the most damning evidence in support of this is how little Cloud cared for Aeris until after Sephiroth did the world a favor. I can't remember one instance in the game before she died that she and Cloud were actually romantically linked, and his grief just comes off poorly.

Ramirez, as a villain, was second-tier. You fight him last because he's the most powerful, but Galcian was the true villain of the game.
 
Tabris said:
You're saying that SNES generation had more unique gameplay in it's RPGs? We have Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Saga Frontier, etc, etc. What games would you list from the snes RPG where you can go back to even still and think, wow, this is unique. Act Raiser maybe? I can't think of much
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What exactly did those 4 games do that was new and unique? There was lots of stuff that was new to me in the pre-NES/NES/SNES era that was later borrowed from in the PS1 era.

I wouldn't even classify ActRaiser as an RPG, nothing comes to mind that was RPG'y. It was a sim+action platformer in my book.

One example that I think still holds up from the SNES era that was pretty unique for what it introduced would be Dragon Quest 6. I cannot think of any title that had dual versions of a world that were not mirror images of each other. The way the job/ability system worked in that was also unique (no ABP, which every FF after 5 has borrowed for their ability systems, be it Magic Points, AP, or LP), but later borrowed from and added onto in DQ7.

Another example is FF4 Easytype. I do not know of any PS1 release that was an adaptation of another release but changed dramatically for an audience strictly to be an easier game.

Super Mario RPG was different from other RPG's at the time with all the varied minigames and timing system for dodging/performing stronger attacks.

Tabris said:
Glad we agree on the second one.
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It is kind of hard to debate something such as production values. They are an exact amount. IIRC FF7 was the most expensive game to create at its time of creation. Does that make a game better? That is debatable.

Tabris said:
Verbal fluff? I rather have "verbal fluff" than cookie cutter characters with nothing human about them. Literary characters are supposed to have flaws and internal dilenmas (moral, emotional, etc) to overcome; no RPG pre-psone had anything like that except for 2 characters in Final Fantasy VI.
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Some PC games had that long before. Try Ultima 5 or 6 for internal dilemmas. Also some NES games had storytelling systems that were never really replicated later on (DQ4's chapter system), and some game systems (like Ultima 4's reagents and talking parser) were not implemented into other games on PC or consoles for a very long time, or still not yet. There are lots of SNES games (and games before the SNES) that had characters with moral dilemmas. Ever play Lufia 2? Chrono Trigger? Lunar? Final Fantasy 2? Final Fantasy 4? Moral dilemma was not something introduced in 1995.

Tabris said:
If you don't have that, or even that -attempt-, what's the point to having a story in a game?
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I don't know, I haven't cared for game stories since the SNES era. Ever since the PS1 era there has been more and more incessant talking that just takes more time to press the O button to get through.

This thread was going pretty well, let's not stink it up with argument.

Cloud and Aerith could kind of be somewhat romantically linked if you went out with her at Gold Saucer. Aside from that...
 
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