Final Fantasy 7, officially 20 years old as of today, 09/07/2017

[te72]

Thread title pretty much sums it up. The game that popularized the RPG genre in the west, is now two whole decades old. I still have issues of EGM covering the development of it, from 1996. I'm listening to the soundtrack as I type this (grooving to "Oppressed People" at the moment), and it still holds up really nicely.

 

I know it will be a while before we get to play it, but man... I'm excited for the remake. I'll be buying a PS4 specifically for this game, if I haven't already bought one by then for some other game.

 

So what about you? I know it's a divisive game these days, and to those discontent with the game for whatever reason, I still highly recommend you search out a Let's Play by a fellow named Elentor on the somethingawful LP archive. As for me, I think it was the world map reveal that really solidified how much I enjoyed this game. You go through all of the Midgar section of the game, this massive, diverse city, only to find out that it is but ONE city in the world that you're suddenly free to explore. Blew my mind as a kid.

[kitsunebi]

I was already in college when it came out, so it definitely didn't popularize console RPGs for me, as outside of the materia system it was more or less the same as all the other console RPGs I'd been playing for years (gameplay-wise).  The only new thing it brought to the table was loads of pretty pre-rendered graphics, which looked really good in TV commercials.  Within the game itself it could be argued that they contrasted a bit too much with the in-game graphics, both in quality and in art style, but no one really cared and sales flourished.

I admit to being impressed at the time, not by the graphics, but by the setting and tone of the game.  I'd recently played through Wild Arms and the first disc or so of FFVII just seemed like a much more rich and interesting environment to explore.

Of course, as much as I enjoyed the opening act, I eventually lost interest in the meandering and at times incomprehensible storyline.  I believe I was nearly to disc three before I gave up and put it away to play something else, and I've never picked it up again to this day.  This obviously means I'm not the right audience for the remake, so my opinion probably doesn't matter, but from what I've seen, it doesn't appeal to me at all.  The character designs are really bland now, making the graphics (once FFVII's biggest selling point) its biggest drawback for me.  If they had made the entire game in the style of the original game's pre-rendered videos, that would have been great.  Instead they went with a more realistic style that does nothing but remind me of horrible Final Fantasy movies and the more recent artistically-uninspired entries in the series.

[Phillyman]

FF7 was the first FF game I ever played and the first RPG that I beat. I have a PS2 memory card laying around somewhere with my 97+ hour game on it. Every few years I would resume right before the last fight and just unleash all my summons upon Sephiroth. One day I hope to beat the Ruby and Emerald machines and also to finally get the Knights of the Round.

[Ethereal Dragonz]

I remember the prototype N64 Final Fantasy VII being shown in EGM and then I felt really cheated when they ended up cancelling it and releasing a different game on PlayStation the next year.

I was not able to play the game until much later, but I thought it was pretty great. Although I still liked FFVI more because every character seemed to matter and the focus was not generally around a single person.

 

[te72]

19 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

I was already in college when it came out, so it definitely didn't popularize console RPGs for me, as outside of the materia system it was more or less the same as all the other console RPGs I'd been playing for years (gameplay-wise).  The only new thing it brought to the table was loads of pretty pre-rendered graphics, which looked really good in TV commercials.  Within the game itself it could be argued that they contrasted a bit too much with the in-game graphics, both in quality and in art style, but no one really cared and sales flourished.

I admit to being impressed at the time, not by the graphics, but by the setting and tone of the game.  I'd recently played through Wild Arms and the first disc or so of FFVII just seemed like a much more rich and interesting environment to explore.

Of course, as much as I enjoyed the opening act, I eventually lost interest in the meandering and at times incomprehensible storyline.  I believe I was nearly to disc three before I gave up and put it away to play something else, and I've never picked it up again to this day.  This obviously means I'm not the right audience for the remake, so my opinion probably doesn't matter, but from what I've seen, it doesn't appeal to me at all.  The character designs are really bland now, making the graphics (once FFVII's biggest selling point) its biggest drawback for me.  If they had made the entire game in the style of the original game's pre-rendered videos, that would have been great.  Instead they went with a more realistic style that does nothing but remind me of horrible Final Fantasy movies and the more recent artistically-uninspired entries in the series.

The contrast of the graphics was merely a limitation of the hardware, unfortunately. Still... at the time? I really appreciated everything. The atmosphere and music just meshed so well. I had finished Wild Arms the prior summer as well. That game actually had a bigger chasm in graphics, with the 3d battles with the 2d overworld and dungeon maps, but I still loved that one too.

 

As far as the modern graphics... so long as they lend to the atmosphere of the game, I'll give it a chance. I think it's what the developers would have done had they done if the tech was able to keep up. Although... it was rather manga-inspired in the cut scenes.

15 hours ago, Phillyman said:

FF7 was the first FF game I ever played and the first RPG that I beat. I have a PS2 memory card laying around somewhere with my 97+ hour game on it. Every few years I would resume right before the last fight and just unleash all my summons upon Sephiroth. One day I hope to beat the Ruby and Emerald machines and also to finally get the Knights of the Round.

It's funny, having spent soooo much time as a kid trying to beat the optional super bosses in the game. Finally beat Emerald through attrition and a good defensive strategy. I don't believe I ever managed to beat Ruby. If I did, it didn't leave much of an impression on me for whatever reason. Watching people who know what they're doing beat them is almost an art form.

 

1 hour ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

I remember the prototype N64 Final Fantasy VII being shown in EGM and then I felt really cheated when they ended up cancelling it and releasing a different game on PlayStation the next year.

I was not able to play the game until much later, but I thought it was pretty great. Although I still liked FFVI more because every character seemed to matter and the focus was not generally around a single person.

 

You should be able to find video of that N64 prototype if you poke around a bit, it was neat to watch.

 

FF7 borrowed SO much from FF6 that it isn't even funny, yet made it seem fresh all the same. Much as I love 6, I think 7 was able to better convey characterization, if only due to the 3d models. Plus... the battle system was a lot more entertaining to watch, again, due to the increased horsepower of the system.

[Data]

23 hours ago, te72 said:

So what about you? I know it's a divisive game these days, and to those discontent with the game for whatever reason, I still highly recommend you search out a Let's Play by a fellow named Elentor on the somethingawful LP archive. As for me, I think it was the world map reveal that really solidified how much I enjoyed this game. You go through all of the Midgar section of the game, this massive, diverse city, only to find out that it is but ONE city in the world that you're suddenly free to explore. Blew my mind as a kid.

 

It was divisive in 1997 because Square Enix abandoned Nintendo for Sony's prospective optical media and 3rd party friendly business environment.  The game data was at least 2GB spanning 3 CD-ROM, while the average N64 game at the time was  between 4 and 24 Megabytes.  This would take between 83 and 500 game cartridges.

Square made the correct choice to develop their games on Playstation going forward, no question.  Just look at Final Fantasy 6's renowned opera scene.  To me this is painful to watch.  Square did a magnificent job displaying the emotion of the scene with only a phony MIDI voice and a square like sprite representing a female but this story would have been that much better with a full toolset of FMV and other technological advancements.

N64 was the console that everybody either owned or have played in abundance as well as the Sony Playstation but it was the release of Final Fantasy 7 on the Sony Playstation that became the landmark which signaled which way mainstream videogames were headed and ultimately Nintendo in at least some way was left to suffer for their choices.

[te72]

52 minutes ago, Data said:

 

N64 was the console that everybody either owned or have played in abundance as well as the Sony Playstation but it was the release of Final Fantasy 7 on the Sony Playstation that became the landmark which signaled which way mainstream videogames were headed and ultimately Nintendo in at least some way was left to suffer for their choices.

Nailed it here. I firmly believe that had this game not made the jump to the PS, we might not even have had a PS2, much less any of the other systems that Sony made since. Up until then, it had some good games, but not many that were selling the system. Tekken, perhaps, Namco was doing some solid arcade ports at the time, but still... FF7 was the first big system seller for Sony.