FFVII wasn't that good

[LittleBlondeGoth]

I suppose I'll get it out of the way quickly and say that I love VII. You could probably call me one of those rabid fangirls and I wouldn't really be able to object too much. I admit it. I've got a whole wall full of the statues and action figures (they are not dolls, thankyouverymuch), plushy cactuars, art books, OST albums... In unrelated news, I am 32 years old.

And it's not just VII either. I've played every Final Fantasy game I could get on the PlayStations and PSP, with the exception of XIII. And I've got it, just been too busy with work these days to get round to it.

I adore VI and IX as well. X had a really good battle system, and I found the dress sphere concept of X-2 a nice throwback to the job systems of the early games. Drawing magic in VIII did suck... Alright, I hated that bit. But for me, in each game there's been something to enjoy, whether it's the story, the character interaction, the gameplay... I appreciate that Square have tried to move the franchise on and try out different things. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't.

But here's the thing: I don't expect everyone else to love these games as much as I do.

People are different. I love Final Fantasy, but you might hate it. I'm not a fan of CoD, but I'm not going to say it's shit just because I'm not keen. It might be right up your alley. If you like creating your own main character and moving through a sandbox, then FFVII might not be for you. JRPGs generally aren't geared that way, I can deal with it.

It hasn't necessarily aged well and the graphics are looking clunky now. But the Materia system is still one of my favourites for setting up character builds. I still play my old PS1 version, but if Square remade VII tomorrow, I'd be first in the queue down at Game. Hell, I'd even wear my Tifa outfit.

@s69-5: I always used a lot of Mime materia for the Emerald Weapon fight. Good times.

 

[Chibz]

For people who still think that Final Fantasy 7 has "revolutionary/great visuals for its time" I WILL now be posting comparisons every time this idea is brought up.

Spoiler: Final Fantasy 7, ugly Cloud Sprite

Holy black on a Popo that is ugly.

Spoiler: Beautiful game from that era

There we go. Stop my eyes from bleeding, NiGHTS.

To be fair, even NiGHTS into Dreams hasn't aged particularly well. But it was better when it came out then FF7 was. Oh, and it came out a year earlier.

In all fairness, this is probably due to how overall feeble a system the PS1 was...

 

[technoted]

Essentially it's one of these games that can be described as both popular to like and popular to bash.

A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon of saying it's the best game ever made after a lot of people all agreed after playing it that it's the best game ever and of course that had an opposite reaction and got a lot of people going on about how crap it is becaus so many people like it so they want to try and stand out, all in all it's just a really silly practice that people will be doing for a lot more years to come.

And finally, complaining about it's graphics making it an inferior game is just retarded, I'll put it simply, which is a better game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Castlevani: Lords of Shadow, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Sonic Unleashed? Better graphics do not mean better game...

 

[Chibz]

A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon of saying it's the best game ever made after a lot of people all agreed after playing it that it's the best game ever and of course that had an opposite reaction and got a lot of people going on about how crap it is becaus so many people like it so they want to try and stand out, all in all it's just a really silly practice that people will be doing for a lot more years to come

Yeah. I don't really HATE it, that's... really a much more powerful reaction than the game deserves. It isn't AWFUL, it just isn't particularly good. And is the point when FF started to go, rapidly, downhill in quality. A nose dive if you will.

Also, my boyfriend will probably bust a testicle if anyone tries to praise its visuals again. Seriously. Stop it. You know the visuals of FF7 weren't amazing/revolutionary. I know they weren't. You aren't fooling anyone.

 

[technoted]

A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon of saying it's the best game ever made after a lot of people all agreed after playing it that it's the best game ever and of course that had an opposite reaction and got a lot of people going on about how crap it is becaus so many people like it so they want to try and stand out, all in all it's just a really silly practice that people will be doing for a lot more years to come

Yeah. I don't really HATE it, that's... really a much more powerful reaction than the game deserves. It isn't AWFUL, it just isn't particularly good. And is the point when FF started to go, rapidly, downhill in quality. A nose dive if you will.

Also, my boyfriend will probably bust a testicle if anyone tries to praise its visuals again. Seriously. Stop it. You know the visuals of FF7 weren't amazing/revolutionary. I know they weren't. You aren't fooling anyone.

Allow him to bust a nut, saying the graphics were not spectacular for the time is really, really silly. Sure the characters are immensely blocky but the terrain and effects were well ahead of it's time that is not an opinion but a fact. And comparing the character graphics to the graphics of another genre such as platformer also defeats the point because it was all down to the scale of the games back then.

 

[Danny91]

ha ha...ahh Im sorry....

In fairness though, it seems positively a feat of witchcraft that just about every Final Fantasy released past number one has been the one thing that "killed the series" or "marked the downfall of Square." Square-Enix at this stage seem positively zombie-like.

I am perpetually worried that I came to the Internet later than everyone else, and as a result seem to be mistaken in every opinion I have about the series. My favorite FF games in order are:

1) VIII
2) X
3) VII
4) XIII
5) IX

...VII is there in the middle somewhere, and aside from XIII I played all of these fairly close to one another. I am of course fully aware that I am now wrong, but at the time I decided this (and it was a very close contest, trust me, all of them, not just those in my top 5, have wonderful merits) by seeing which one I had the most fun playing. Fun is nice. I like it a lot, and if you kind fellows have had a lot of fun playing I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, or even XIV; I wish you the very best and many hugs and kisses to all

 

[nyysjan]

8 was my first FF, 7 was my favorite though.
6 was otherwise nice but the constant jump between pov characters was jarring, and the sheer size of the cast left them rather flat, not to mention that the final dungeon managed to defeat me by making me quit in frustration of constantly running back and forth.
9 was otherwise goodish but i found the characters annoying, Zidane especially fell flat to me.
10 had some of the worst characters to date, and i missed the open map travel, but it gave us Auron, and for that i am willing to forgive a lot.
12 had some nice ideas in it, but it was too short, and ended abruptly.
13 i played for 17 hours and quit out of boredom.

Now, my favorites are 7 and 8.
8 had decent graphics, nice playability and good storyline and interesting characters.
But 7, it had great characters (some might call them flawed, i would go step further and call them downright broken, and large part of their growth, and story, comes from them pulling themselves together), epic storyline (and all in all, the threat to the world often feels more like a backdrop for the characters personal stories than the main event) and awesome world with realistic villains (shinra is not that different from many of todays large corporations, only difference is scale) and Sephiroth (not realistic), and "heroes" that often seem heroes less out of any morals and more due to pure change (Barret just wants to lash out against those that have hurt him in the past, Cloud is only after money, Tifa is only interested in Cloud, Juffie is trying to steal weapons to start a war, Vincent is after revenge, etc...).
And that's not just nostalgia, my last play through was this year.

 

[Chibz]

Allow him to bust a nut, saying the graphics were not spectacular for the time is really, really silly. Sure the characters are immensely blocky but the terrain and effects were well ahead of it's time that is not an opinion but a fact. And comparing the character graphics to the graphics of another genre such as platformer also defeats the point because it was all down to the scale of the games back then.

Actually, NiGHTS Into Dreams was probably a HARDER game to make look good. There's a LOT more to animate than a simple JRPG overworld. And my god did they drop the ball on that one.

And since someone mentioned its visuals being good time for another game that craps all over FF7, visually.

Spoiler: Obligatory FF7 screenshot

I really wish I wouldn't have to keep looking up more and more examples of FF7 being ugly. It's not pleasant to look at the images.

Spoiler: This is also harder to animate

Enemies on screen, you shooting and dodging. Lots of shit goin' on. This was done TWO YEARS PRIOR TO FF7.

 

[Suicida1 Midget]

Its been a long time since i played it, and recently i tried to replay it, ill give you the graphics suck,(todays standard kinda does that, plus the widescreen probably dosnt help) the stroy has me again, just cause theres chunks i cant remember. Its still emersive, and now i need to find a new ps cause mine wont read memory cards now.

 

[00slash00]

10, 7, and 6 are the only final fantasy games i really liked. your complaints about ff7 dont seem to be talking about the game itself but rather, how it has stood the test of time. while it is still fun to play today, it has certainly not aged well but that doesnt mean the game wasnt great. i didnt play it for the first time until 2005 and despite how poorly it has aged, i got into it more than any other final fantasy game. the game just felt epic and the music really kept me in the moment. i felt much more attached to the characters than in any other final fantasy and it was one of my favorite final fantasy stories. though the gameplay of 10 is what i would consider to be my favorite (10-2 was garbage, i tried really hard to make it through the game but by the halfway point, i just couldnt take it anymore and had to quit). i also dont understand the appeal of 9. it doesnt seem special in any way. i made it as far as the final disk and could not care less about the story or any of the characters.

overall, i do think final fantasy 7 is a great game and definitely one of my favorite games in the series, but it certainly isnt the greatest game ever. i think what kills the game isnt the game itself, but rather, the fanbase who act like insulting the game is on par with stabbing their mother

 

[technoted]

Snip

I would continue to reply with logic, but you don't appear to be actually paying attention to anything anyone is saying and instead just choose to continue your mass rant of "I don't like his game, everything I say about it is 100% right because I don't like it, it's graphics are terrible for the time!". So with that I bid farwell and leave you with these wise words of wisdom. If you let things become clouded by your own opinion then in the end you'll never see what's really there.

 

[Chibz]

I would continue to reply with logic, but you don't appear to be actually paying attention to anything anyone is saying and instead just choose to continue your mass rant of "I don't like his game, everything I say about it is 100% right because I don't like it, it's graphics are terrible for the time!". So with that I bid farwell and leave you with these wise words of wisdom. If you let things become clouded by your own opinion then in the end you'll never see what's really there.

You're not replying with logic at all. The game is an easier to animate compared to the two I posted.

To be fair, the backgrounds in FF7 are fairly well done. But the beautiful backgrounds only serves to contrast with the ugly models. This makes the ugly models seem worse.

I played FF7 in the day. I played it now. At neither point was it particularly good.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

Now, my favorites are 7 and 8.
8 had decent graphics, nice playability and good storyline and interesting characters.
But 7, it had great characters (some might call them flawed, i would go step further and call them downright broken, and large part of their growth, and story, comes from them pulling themselves together), epic storyline (and all in all, the threat to the world often feels more like a backdrop for the characters personal stories than the main event) and awesome world with realistic villains (shinra is not that different from many of todays large corporations, only difference is scale) and Sephiroth (not realistic), and "heroes" that often seem heroes less out of any morals and more due to pure change (Barret just wants to lash out against those that have hurt him in the past, Cloud is only after money, Tifa is only interested in Cloud, Juffie is trying to steal weapons to start a war, Vincent is after revenge, etc...).
And that's not just nostalgia, my last play through was this year.

I'm with you here.

What I really liked about the characters was that their flaws made them who they were. Cloud's head was a complete and utter mess. Tifa was lying to him and herself as well by trying to cover up the truth about the past. Barret uses a concern for the Planet as an excuse to terrorise the company that hurt him. And don't even get me started on Vincent, because if I do I won't stop.

If anything, I wish Square had taken them even further, really pushed them and their interactions. How will Barret react when he finds out Vincent worked for Shinra? The Cloud - Aeris - Tifa love triangle, how does that affect the friendship between the two girls?

I might be reading too much into this.

The thing is, I don't care if the graphics are dodgy nowadays. The art direction, which is something entirely different, is still great. Nobuo Uematsu's music still doesn't fail to send shivers down my spine. My enjoyment of the game isn't lessened by the fact it's old. I'm sure that what I love about it are things that drive other people up the wall. Such is the way it goes. It'd be a pretty dull world if we all liked the same things, wouldn't it?