Is Final Fantasy VII overrated?

[S.E.P.H.I.R.O.T.H.]

Look, Final Fantasy VII is not in any way over-rated, its a fact it has a superb unique storyline with very interesting characters to help you finish the story at hand, the gameplay and music were amazing but I gotta admit, the graphics werent the best but if you play a game just for the graphics then you are very sad, the backgrounds are really nice and sharp to look at though. So, FFVII is not over-rated!

 

[der Astronom]

Think of it this way. If this thread was an attempt at making people enjoy FF7 less, or thinking less of it, then it will probably fail. That's because some things are just a matter of personal taste. That's with the way characters look, the graphics, the gameplay and the music. Some people like it, and some people don't, for one reason or another. Some people like the materia system, and see merits in using them, and other people don't. You can't convince people to think otherwise because they'll always believe it's fun, or they'll always believe it's boring. It's an instinctive kind of feeling that tells you it's fun, or it's boring, and nothing can really change that. And some people like the graphics because of the backgrounds, but don't really notice or care about the blocky polygons, and other people do. And some people like the music perhaps because they like that kind of style, or have never heard of it before and grow to like it, and some people just don't like it. Music is highly a personal taste. Love it or hate it, you'll just have to accept the fact that people don't like it for all the same reasons, and telling them it's overrated doesn't change their view of the game much. They'll still go on enjoying the game, just as you can't force someone who finds it boring to enjoy it.

 

[Tomara]

You seriously think I have the time and lack of intelligence to try and chance a fanboys mind?

Don't bring up the "everyone has his or her opinion!" crap. Final Fantasy VII has a certain reputation, this is a discussion focusing on the question: "does Final Fantasy VII deserve that reputation?". Or, to put it differently: "is Final Fantasy VII overrated?"

 

[der Astronom]

Oh, then fine, we're clear on what you wanted to do with this thread.

If you're asking whether or not FF7 deserves the attention it garners, it may as well be fanservice. But if you look even closer, you'll see that there was more than enough reason to do AC and the rest of the compilation, fanservice aside, since some of the storyline was ambiguous. There's a lot you can do with this, since not much is said. This is in comparison to trying to do a movie based off of the storyline of FF8 because it comes to a complete conclusion. FF7 leaves us hanging.

As for its status as a classic, there was a time when it was enjoyed as a game that lots of people liked to play. Perhaps there are better games out there that make better use of innovation, but I don't believe FF7 to be that bad of a game. I've already explained my points in a previous post, so you may see my reasoning behind it. More often than not though, it's not necessarily the good games that get labelled as classics; the most popular games get labelled as classics, and even good games, albeit sleeping hits, sometimes never get recognized.

I've already explained why I think FF7 is overrated. It could also be because fans praise FF7 for all the wrong reasons. Being part of a Sephiroth club on a large forum, I would know. Things tend to get overrated and abused easily because they are appreciated for all the wrong reasons, or for reasons that don't really justify making a character or game worthy.

 

[Son of Sephiroth]

Come on FF7 was on PS1 were the graphics are verey lame which all the games were like this.

And you can't have a game perfect cause were not even perfect..The game was a very good simple game if it was like high-tect or something it wouldn't seem right untill the PS2 comes out.....

 

[Tomara]

I've already explained why I think FF7 is overrated. It could also be because fans praise FF7 for all the wrong reasons. Being part of a Sephiroth club on a large forum, I would know. Things tend to get overrated and abused easily because they are appreciated for all the wrong reasons, or for reasons that don't really justify making a character or game worthy.

I agree, the game is praised for the wrong reasons. Some things are blown way out of proportion, pretty bubbles about to pop. There is nothing wrong with being a fan of a certain game or character (*points at personal Fire Emblem obsession*), but people often forget they are fans because of (very) personal reasons. You can't expect someone who is new to the game to feel the nostalgic feeling you get when watching the opening.

BTW you can make beautiful games with less than stellar hardware Son of Sephiroth. PSone games like SaGa Frontier II, Valkyrie Profile and Legend of Mana looked very nice, didn't they?

 

[der Astronom]

Ah, I guess we agree about SaGa Frontier II. I for one thought it was a sleeping hit. Actually, they did a really nice job of it, since it was mostly 2D water color backgrounds and such, except for the battles. Nonetheless, it was a nice touch.

One of the things that drew me to FF7 graphically was the background scenes. They felt and looked nice, and gave the game a nice touch. The biggest complaint about the graphics would just have to be the blocky polygons outside of battle. Other than that, it's not tremendously horrible. I know that the later games like FF8 and FF9 fixed this problem, so it's not an entire loss, but you have to remember that FF7 was quite early in the history of PS1 games.

 

[Tomara]

I remember losing my Cloud (or whoever was in the lead) in some of the areas. The backgrounds were pretty nice, but sometimes the characters were so far of, you could barely distinguish them from the rest of the screen. That really annoyed me and it's one of the reasons why I'm not fond of the graphics.

IMO pre-rendered backgrounds work better in games like Valkyrie Profile. It played somewhat like a 2D Castlevania, it had lots of puzzles, jumping etc.

 

[Gabranth]

Well one thing that was bad is clouds arms -in the middle it looked like it was about to fall off lol

 

[Davey Gaga]

A friend of mine posted this rant almost two years ago. He is one of those people who never got into Final Fantasy VII. After trying to replay the game I understand why. Final Fantasy VII has not aged well. The graphics look dated and were never of particular beautiful design to begin with. High polygone count does not make a game pretty.

Back then, the graphics were revolutionary. Yes, now it looks awful, but the graphics are not why fans love the game.

The gameplay is not deeper or more original than various newer and older RPGs have to offer. It's your basic turn-based battle system with a twist. Yes, Materia was a nice twist, but it's not a perfect system. When playing the game normally, the player is never forced to consider what the best options are, just pick the best materia you have. It is no system with depth, leveling is the only true option to optimize your equiped materia.

Nothing in this world can suit everyone, just the majority. The majority of FFVII players loved this system, grasped it easily and used it accordingly. Squaresoft has achieved it's purpose with the Materia system. Maybe not with you, part of the minority, but with us, the majority.

The story? Yes, it was interesting, but most of the characters are huge clich?s or at the least very flat. What depth did Barret offer? He was a tough guy, but also had a soft side. That is all. That is not depth.

Not everyone has to be deep. Not all characters have to have another side to them that we know nothing about. If that happened, the game would quite literally go on forever. Do you need every single character to be deep?

Don't take me wrong. I enjoyed the game when I first played it and it has it merits, but it is no second coming. There are many games that aged better and still manage to capture new fans. I'm getting pretty sick of the attitude of rabid fans towards other gamers who do not like the game. I agree with Rodi's little rant, some of the Final Fantasy VII should let go of their nostalgia and enjoy other games, they are missing a lot of excellent games.

There is a huge fan-base for VII. I like to call most of them "false fans", where a movie was released and they know nothing about it. They discover it is a sequel, and try to indulge themselves in it's roots. Like it or not, they become screaming fangirls and fanboys ... "ZOMG CLOUD WAS SO HOT AND COOL WITH SPIKEY COOL HAIR!"

That isn't a fan, it's someone trying to catch up on what they missed.

You have to see that not every single player can love all of the products of Squaresoft. Saying it was a "great game" is an opinion. Having millions of fans does not mean it is good, it is subject to an individual opinion.

Whether you like it or not, the fanbase will always be there because it is a fantastic game, and I will always be part of that fan-base.

I do think that SE can milk the title by giving it too many sequels and prequels, but it wont lose any fans, it will just spoil the originality and magic that was FFVII.

 

[Tomara]

Nothing in this world can suit everyone, just the majority. The majority of FFVII players loved this system, grasped it easily and used it accordingly. Squaresoft has achieved it's purpose with the Materia system. Maybe not with you, part of the minority, but with us, the majority.

IMO good gameplay in RPGs is gameplay that makes you think, forces you to take advantage of weaknesses and strengths. Yet, there is more than one solution to the problems the players faces. The materia system was very limited, throught the game there wasn't really that much you could do with it, the only time you needed something different than just your strongest materia is when fighting some of the optional bosses. It does it's job, but it also gets boring very fast, you won't replay the game for it's gameplay.

Not everyone has to be deep. Not all characters have to have another side to them that we know nothing about. If that happened, the game would quite literally go on forever. Do you need every single character to be deep?

Well, they travel together for months, they save people, but also see a lot of destruction, but the party never seems very close. Aside from Cloud, Tifa and some others there is barely any character development. More details would have been nice (like in Grandia or Lunar).

 

[Gabranth]

squall? im assuming you mean cloud
Cloud and tifa are the ones mainly because they are very close to each other.
Vincent's development should be clear in ff7 dirge of cerberus
sephiroth has a deep charater develpment.
Also if too many people had a deep charater development then the storyline would be confusing cause you would have loads of charaters past lifes thrown at you and you wouldn't know which one to focus on and get confused.
Red XIII,Yuffie,cait sith and cid can not really have a chracter development cause theydon't know cloud and the rest of the gang well enough to make one. Each of them would have a totally different storyline and they wouldn't link together.

 

[Freya1]

To me this game isn't over rated. This was the third RPG I played for my Playstation when they were the " hot item ". I enjoyed this game due to many aspects. The character development was a plus. Each of the characters had unique backgrounds and traits that defined each of them. Indeed the graphics are mainly box-type but we have to remember that this was one of the first of many RPGs to hit the Playstation so the people at Squaresoft (at that time) were still experimenting on what they could and couldn't do with the PS1. I loved the storyline - it had me hooked from the very beginning and the fact that they used #$^&$^ for the cuss words was hillarious. Barrett and Cid are the top two cussers in the entire game. Yes as you go throughout the game you meet more exciting characters - I enjoyed your meet with the TURKS. The other characters do not have any chances to really get to know Cloud due to all of events happening. Come on people think about it - if Meteor was about hit earth would you care about learning who this 'Cloud' guy is? I certainly wouldn't I'd want to know what I can do to stop it. I was also amazed with the game because of the music we were introduced to. Each piece of music was meant for that individual part which made the story whole and the music just makes it more dramatic. A lot of people complain about the gameplay with the materia and all of that but I enjoyed the materia - it was interesting to see what combination was just right. Sure I didn't like the fact that you couldn't learn all of the spells without that materia but it was still an interesting new factor. Well there you have it in a nut shell.

 

[Tomara]

squall? im assuming you mean cloud
Cloud and tifa are the ones mainly because they are very close to each other.
Vincent's development should be clear in ff7 dirge of cerberus
sephiroth has a deep charater develpment.
Also if too many people had a deep charater development then the storyline would be confusing cause you would have loads of charaters past lifes thrown at you and you wouldn't know which one to focus on and get confused.
Red XIII,Yuffie,cait sith and cid can not really have a chracter development cause theydon't know cloud and the rest of the gang well enough to make one. Each of them would have a totally different storyline and they wouldn't link together.

God, I'm an idiot. Yep, I meant Cloud. My head often does two things at once (in this case: this topic and another discussion about FF8 characters on ICQ) and the results aren't pretty

Anyway, character development is more much more than revealing pasts. It would have been nice if there had been more interaction with the other party members, something that went beyond the stereotypical comments (ea cussing) most of the characters made. They don't have to sit down and have an intense group therapy session, but just something that makes them less flat.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

Cloud and tifa are the ones mainly because they are very close to each other.
Vincent's development should be clear in ff7 dirge of cerberus

You shouldn't need an outside source to explain something that happened in a game you play, especially one that has come so far after the original story.

sephiroth has a deep charater develpment.
Also if too many people had a deep charater development then the storyline would be confusing cause you would have loads of charaters past lifes thrown at you and you wouldn't know which one to focus on and get confused.

Final Fantasy VI was amazingly done with very rich characters, good and bad, main characters and side characters, and nearly all of them have very deep character development. There was also many more characters in that game. Never once did I feel confused at all. The same could be said about Final Fantasy IV as well as Final Fantasy Tactics. Having good character development for every character is just a sign of good storytelling, something which FFVII sorely lacked.

Red XIII,Yuffie,cait sith and cid can not really have a chracter development cause theydon't know cloud and the rest of the gang well enough to make one. Each of them would have a totally different storyline and they wouldn't link together.

That's why you write a way for it to link together. It's not hard. Novels have been doing it for thousands of years. By not doing it, you make useless characters, which detracts from not only the gaming experience, but also the reason behind enjoying the story. It doesn't mean they have to have similar storylines or anything. On the contrary, having various different points of view makes for a more interesting story, as there will be different reasons for each character to be there. But having them there for no reason is worse than not having them at all. Why bother?

 

[Gabranth]

Well cocidering they meet them later into the game they do share a small bond with each other.
Cait sith is not liked cause he spyed on them
cloud and tifa have the deepest stroryline because they knew sephiroth in their past life,and their misson was to destroy sephiroth and the rest of the gang don't really know and are not connected to sephiroth iin anyway like cloud is.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

Well cocidering they meet them later into the game they do share a small bond with each other.
Cait sith is not liked cause he spyed on them
cloud and tifa have the deepest stroryline because they knew sephiroth in their past life,and their misson was to destroy sephiroth and the rest of the gang don't really know and are not connected to sephiroth iin anyway like cloud is.

So they're just hangin' with Cloud because he has a big sword and Spikey hair? Just because they are not connected with Sephiroth doesn't mean they can't have character, or a backstory, or any growth through the game. The game could have been just with Cloud and Tifa then. The other characters were superfluous and had no reason for being there, which does not make for good story when including them.

 

[Gabranth]

Well cid was only hanging out with cloud and the gang cause he had no other choise but then they became friends.
RedXIII wanted to go with cloud and gang to cosmo canyon then leave them but bugenhagen told him to go.
Yuffie wanted to stay with them to steal their materia but then when cloud helped her she became friends
Cait sith was their to spy on them but he can't really have a storyline.
Aeris DOES have a storyline herself
Tifa and barrat go with cloud to defeat sephiroth and put an end to shinra.
Can't remember why vincent went with them ?
So most charaters went with cloud just to some point then leave him but they changed their mind.
Also barrat has a past life where his village burned down by shinra and thats why he wants shinra dead.The game itself doesn't focus on other charaters it focuses on the main 3 characters
cloud tifa and aeris

 

[Tomara]

Yes, there is something, but it's all very limited and shallow. Sometimes it's as if they simply forgot about certain characters and developments. You mentioned Cait Sith, the traitor, after his little scene they kinda forget about everything he has done, positive and negative. He's just there. That's a waste, tension is usually very important to character development. Cait Sith screams tension, yet he is pretty much ignored after his part.

They should have added more detail. Look at Star Ocean 2 and it's Private Actions. The party would split up in town and your character could interact with them, opening various tiny quests and stories that aided the development of the characters. The cast of Grandia often eats together during the journey, they talk during dinner.

Details can make a huge difference.

 

[Gabranth]

They were trying to concentrte on the misson then so they fogot about him.