I must say that I haven't played FFVI yet, but I need to get around to it at some point. I bought FFIX recently, and quickly regreted after the game almost immediatly pressed me into playing its silly card mini-game. The rules are bizarre.
Actually, I meant to say that the player has little agency in a JRPG. We agree that the genre greatly resembles a novel. Really, a JRPG is just the player manuevering a character along a set path. I can understand many people expressing frusteration with JRPGs because they long for the open-range of MMORPGS. Player control is quite detached in JRPGs, even in combat there's only so much a player can do.
I do love Triple Triad. I will sometimes just break out my copy of FFVIII just to play that mini-game. I was also fond of the Fort Condor minigame, and I think Square should have put that game into the Gold Saucer arcade. Training chocobos proved a nice diversion once in awhile.
Your friend's story amuses me. Did he have the same luck with the weapons? Did you beat them? Watching EMERALD flicker into that red outline and fade away was so satisfying. I probably shot up and roared at that point.
I appreciate your compliment on my defense. I treasure FFVII, but as said before I believe that my attachment to the game is highly personal. Declaring that it's the ultimate game is suspect, but so to would be dimissing it as irrelevant. The game influenced a generation, and it has some redeeming qualities that I think everyone can appreciate.
I have heard criticisms that Square dumbed down the battles around the time that they released FFVII. I haven't played much before that game, but I think that's a reasonalbe assertion. Looking back at the game now, I can see it's really quite easy to win 95% of the combat.
Even aspects of the story seem weak, particularily in regards to Vincent and Yuffie's backstories. I hated how the Turks just felt more irrelevant with each meeting. Cait Sith's monologue at the Cetra temple confused me, since he has another copy waiting to step forward, but I can see that Square just did that to set up the player for true despair at the murder of Aeries (that, I have to admit, made my jaw drop and I almost cried). Sephiroth's behavior didn't always make sense to me either. Granted he's a madman, but a godlike madman. To me it often seems as though he gave Cloud an easy time and made the fight harder for himself. But fantasy bad guys often make counter-intuitive actions.
What were you refering to when you mentioned off-spinning? I guess I do tangent a fair amount.
I can never feel confident saying that FFVII is the ultimate game. I think it's one of the greatest, but my field of "greatest" is pretty broad. I think its more appropriate to say that FFVII is an important game, signifigant. I was a big success for Square, and a leap forward for the JRPG genre. A lot more consumers got into JRPGs, RPGs, and gaming general (not to mention became more interested in Japan) because of FFVII. It's a cultural artifact, something that should be remembered, though not universally lauded.
In my mind, the epitome of a game truly worthy of "greatest" might be Shadow of the Colossus. Few other games can legitimately be called art. Shadow is to video games as Watchmen was to graphic novels (putting concerns about length aside).
And a lot of people bring up Halo in these threads. I like Bungie, and my friend loves them. He introduced me to them long before Halo, he liked them ages before Halo. Everyone seems to forget Myth and Myth II, the most overlooked, underappreciated games of the 20th century. Those games were deep on themes and narrative, contained physics engines way ahead of their time, and challenge players at every turn. Today's gamers would probably whine a lot if they encountered Myth. I just think that's another great.
And yes, I tangented. Sue me.
