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A Contrarian View of FFVII
This week is seeing the commercial release of Advent Children, so it's appropriate to see Jeremy Parish discussing the original game. However, he's got a slightly different take on the game than you might be used to. Seen via GameSetWatch. From Parish's article: "What better way to sell to people than by speaking directly to them? Cloud Strife is the everynerd -- wrapped up in delusions of greatness when allowed to take things on his own carefully-selected terms until he sees the world for what it is and is forced to come to grips with the fact that he's actually completely pathetic. That's your average game-obsessed message board dork in a nutshell: the petty tyrant of a tiny little niche of the Internet but a failure in real life. It's the kind of parable Jesus would have been proud to have shared with the hungry masses between bites of magical fishloaf, the cigarette ad of nerd coming-of-age stories -- a promise to nerdlings that if you face down your demons, accept your failures and struggle to move beyond them, you'll save the world and your childhood crush will fall madly in love with you."
Yah it was certainly no FFI...now there was a game with a deep story line and amazing character development.
Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of the Final Fantasy series, and have played most of them to the end. However, they have always been kind of cheesy in alot of departments.
Actually, my main problem is that they seem to have become alot more movie-like since around VII. The first several hours of some of them is just like watching a movie with very little actual interaction beyond running the battles.
I long for them to bring back the feel of the old games, like I, II, and III (US release numbers, never went back for the japanese release versions).
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
the only real reason I enjoyed this game was because of the setting.
I got so sick and tired of seeing the EXACT same setting for every RPG, is there some rule when it comes to making a good RPG that says "You MUST set this in times of dragons and dungeons!"? I understand that they are all based off the D&D games but come on, do they ALL have to take place in the same time frame?
Earthbound, Secret of Evermore, Final Fantasy VI (III in the US), VII all these use the same formula but they exsist in the steam universes (where they are set in the past but have future tech) which is perfect for RPG's.
That's my reasoning for people jumping on FFVII, is that the market was getting saturated with RPG's that took place in the same time frame no matter what...kind of like now, the most popular MMORPG's seem to all take place in the same time frame when there are so many other routes they can go (and there are some that are giving it a shot).
Amano (Artwork for 1-6) is long gone. Yoshida (FF Tactics) is designing the new FF XII. Uematsu (music composer) is also gone.
Maybe I'm too cynical, but I think SE is the EA of RPGs now.
Cthulhu Saves.
The author's a little flamebait-astic, but he's right about a lot of things, particuarly FF7's popularity being driven by 'firsties'. Though I have to wonder, if he hated FF7 how much he must despise the trainwreck that was FF8!
It's like he crawled into my head and managed to coalesce a lot of the things I hated about FF7. I never liked it much; it was okay but it never engaged me like the previous FFs did.
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
Great, a person who's only concept of RPG is tabletop RPG. Couple that with a lack of metaphysical understanding, and value system that says what he likes in a game is what everyone should like in a game, and you've got one person who has no standing in reviewing games period.
On top of that he's seriously emotionally repressed. Apathy is about as emotionally stable as death is medically stable.
Also, he's reading a lot into the game. I never thought that Tifa was Zack's girlfriend, and besides Cloud and Tifa grew up together.
Then there's his stereotype of the average Final Fantasy player. On what basis is he judging the success or failure of a life?
He calls FFVII a winnowing rod. Well I honestly believe that generally those who like the game to varying degrees are better off than those who don't.
Do you all remember the age at which you could state, in all seriousness, that people aren't smart? And say it as a straight-forward comment, as if this is a great discovery? I think everybody goes through this period. Especially geeks. Especially geeks who may have had a hard time in the teenage years. But then, after you get done picking on the expected targets: mainstream culture and society, you have to prove yourself "geekier than thou" by picking on things in your own sub-culture, until only the very narrowest is good for you. I think we have all seen this and taken part in it.
The thing is, in places, FFVII is indeed stupid. It has the same hardcore hero who gets better and more magical powers, living everyone's dreams of power fulfillment. And of course he is surrounded by the same group of magical beautiful women. Of course it has a villain that you save the world from. The game mechanics are often repetitive. There are certain holes and inconsistences in the story. The world only has ten or so towns, and the planet is shaped like a Torus. There is an Evil Corporation(TM) running things. And many more. So, yes, like all human endeavor it has lots of stupidity. But it also has many, many smart and engaging things about it: the gradual, spooky peeling back of Cloud's character, the mixture of cute nostalgia and gothic elements, the look at the inner machinations of Shinra, the gigantic amounts of literary references, the sometimes understated dialogue, the design of the geographic locations you visit, and of course the music and graphics.
So, yes, while in some ways stupid and repetitive, it seems somewhat snide to dismiss it out of hand. He could say that he doesn't like playing it, or that its legions of fanboys and fangirls sometimes treat the game as the greatest thing ever. But I think Final Fantasy VII got its reputation for a reason. Lots of people who are not stupid at all think it is a great, great game.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.