Forum:What do you guys think of FFVII?

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Honestly, I think it's really overrated. The game just felt so totally awkward from beginning to end. It had aspects of a kid's game like the art style is really over the top and exaggerated and the blocky character designs and occasionally a silly, goofy light-hearted moment like the dancing chocobo's on the chocobo ranch. But there's way to much swearing, gore, gratuitous violence, and just plain bad messages. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a kid's game with a dark edgy theme or an adults game with a childlike innocence to it. It's just so awkward. Take the scene where Cloud has to dress up like a chick to save Tifa from Don Corneo for example, see; the reason I didn't laugh at this scene is because there's really no charm to it. The characters act as if this is a really important mission that they're on and their friends life is at stake. And by a certain point it just becomes ridiculous. For example; in one scene during the cross-dressing side-quest (yeah, I know it's an essential part of the game but come on, it's a frickin' sidequest.) you have to sneak in to this gay bar where a bunch of gay, horny, half aged men all wearing underwear come in and you have to perform group sex with them against your will. And they reward you with a pair of bikini briefs... WHERE'S THE HUMOR?!? Seriously, I was near god damn speechless at this point. This isn't charming, this is downright bizarre, not to mention creepy. What the fuck, Japan? And this game is just filled with really awkward scenes like that. And parents let their kids play this, yeah... I'm a little disturbed by that.

But okay, awkwardness aside... What else don't I like about it? Well, the characters... Yeah, I know I'm sorry but I just don't like these characters.

Well, okay, I take it back.

Vincent - Is awesome

Aeris - I like her, okay

Cloud - I don't really care about

Red XIII - I don't really remember much about him

Barret - Hate him

Cid - Hate him

Cait Sith - I hate

Yuffie - I hate

Tifa - HOLY FUCKBALLS I hate this character!! I hated her when she first came out. I was absolutely dumbfounded by the fact that she out of all Final Fantasy characters got the most attention. She's annoying!! and bland and dumb! When I think of what a cool character Vincent was; I go online and see everyone else talking about what a cool character Tifa was... Wha?...WHY?!? Ugh, FUCK Tifa!

I surprisingly don't have a problem with the villain either. I mean, Sephiroth isn't a great villain but he's good... He has a bit of an interesting background and I can kind of resonate with him on an emotional level. But yeah, his motivation is really confusing. Like, what was the reason he wanted to destroy the world again? Because mommy said so? Also, his design is a bit awkward too. In fact, I never liked the way he looked. He looks like an androgynous elvish looking samurai who lost his fashion taste and carries a 7 foot long blade to compensate for what a ridiculously small dick he must have, how is that threatening?

Everyone also says the story (or, should I say... STORIES) is really good... Eh, I kind of agree that it is a good setup but the way they executed it was very underwhelming I thought. For example, there is this whole subplot where Cloud realizes that he's a just a clone and he has to learn to accept it. See, that idea is very creative and I'm totally behind that. What I'm NOT behind though is that Cloud (obviously not the brightest of the two clones) actually starts to oblige for a while until he realizes "Hey, I'm not a clone after all!" Yeah, sounds kind of stupid when you put it on paper doesn't it? What exactly is he supposed to realize here? That all of his memories that he was absolutely certain of really did happen... Actually DID really happen? And where the fuck was Tifa in all this? Nobodies even on his side or supporting him throughout all of this. Until he realized that he IS a real boy after all. So... I guess the moral of the story is to: Never accept that your different unless it turns out that your not different after all? Yeah, how exactly is he becoming stronger because of this? This is a past that never happened (or at least I think it didn't happen, the game didn't explain it very well) so we shouldn't care. But even when he thought it WAS true. The game didn't support him... Almost as if the game itself is saying that if he IS different, he deserves to suffer for it.

And I'm sorry, but this is a VERY serious flaw... This game didn't teach me to accept that I was different, it taught me to convince other people that I wasn't different; that way I can get a happy ending. Why couldn't they just keep him as a clone? Why did they need to keep him as a human in the end? It practically made this entire story sequence pointless. It would of made Cloud's character a million times more interesting! Did they just think that people couldn't handle the fact that the main protagonist wasn't human? Did they think it was too much for them to handle? Okay, usually I'd understand except for one major flaw; THEY FUCKING KILLED AERIS!! Seriously, if they aren't afraid to kill off Aeris, one of the main characters and the biggest contribution to the story, then this really shouldn't be that big of a deal to them. I might be thinking too hard about this, but I feel as if there's a really smart and inventive crew behind this game and I'm sad to see this really smart and creative concept get totally botched like that. Oh well, at least I can take some comfort in the fact that a decade after this game came out, Bioshock would FINALLY have the guts to pull this off right ;D

Okay, so. Ranting aside... What DO I like about this game? As much as I'd hate to admit it. The combat system is really, really good. I really like the materia system how you have to go around collecting magic rocks in order to access magic and you actually have to level up your magic as well in order for it to become more powerful. And also, admittedly. I really like the minigames too. My personal favorite is the chocobo races (granted, I hate the process of raising chocobo's) but the game itself is a lot of fun and I like how you can get sweet rewards from it too. The battle arena is also really fun. I also thought the motorbike chase at the beginning of the game was pretty cool too. But I absolutely DREAD the snowboarding minigame and the other pointless minigames too (like giving an under aged Brazilian girl CPR and pressing X to slap Scarlet) at the end of the day, if your tired of watching these boring characters do boring things and talk about boring shit and progressing the long and linear storyline, you can relax at the golden saucer and access some of the more positive aspects of the game.

But my favorite part of this game by far has GOT to be Aerith's death. It's such a sad death scene and it's the only scene that I can honestly say with great pleasure, still holds up very well today. It is THE only thing that kept this game from being forgotten about years and years later. The music is nice and the fact that the characters don't speak makes it all the more fitting and let's the emotion sink in a lot more. If they re-did this scene today with voice acting I don't think it would be nearly as emotional. It is honestly, in my opinion. The only thing worth getting invested in. I could sit through the awkward, excruciatingly painfully dull story all over again were it just to watch this scene all over again. Hell, you could just cut the rest of the game out entirely and just show people this scene and slap the words "The end" on it and I would still be satisfied. Hell, I would be happier. I don't care about how Barret is feeling guilty about abandoning his hometown and now he is shunned for it, I don't care that Cloud is living in someone elses shadow, I don't care that Tifa is having a hard time competing with Aerith as a rival for Cloud's affections, I don't care that Cid wants to go into space, I don't care that Cait Sith is an undercover spy, I don't care that Red XIII hates his father. The only thing I care about is that Aerith dies.

So, my general consensus is: Final Fantasy VII isn't bad, but it's definitely dated. There are some good stuff in it, and the stuff that works, REALLY works. But the rest of it feels kinda awkward and out of place. And the only real game changer was the graphics, but that's aged HORRIBLY.

I rate this game - 7/10

What about you guys?Jayking116 (talk) 02:15, April 24, 2015 (UTC)

User Comments

Not to be rude, but I'm more interested that all this energy went into a more than five paragraph essay to a game you consider to just be "mostly okay". For a game filled with so many details you consider to be uninteresting, it certainly has made a powerful impression on you. --BlueHighwindツ 04:00, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

I think it's overrated, but not so much. the game is actually very good. the game didn't age well though, because of its Lego character models. I can replay the old 2D FF from the SNES era and have no issue with the character sprites. FFVII char models on the other hand, I don't feel right seeing them in cutscenes where they supposed to be taken seriously. 8/10 for me. Monterossa (talk) 04:12, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

@ BlueHighwind Are you kidding me? What exactly is your argument here, your surprised that I showed so much interest in reviewing this? Well I gotta know what I'm dealing with, don't I? I could of just as easily said "Eh, this game sucks." but that wouldn't of nearly been as intellectual or intriguing to the reader. Maybe I put so much "energy" into this review because I love talking about a game that I feel really don't deserve the hype that it gets. And I've especially wanted to critique this game for a long time. Just because I think it's meh doesn't mean I don't have to be passionate about it. It's not like it's my homework or anything. Jayking116 (talk) 04:19, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

@Monterossa Yeah, I agree. At least the 2D sprites had actual face emotions/movement. Whereas the block people had to convey emotion through motion capture body movement. Though, to be fair; most characters from FFVII have the exact same blank facial expressions in every FF game that they're in. Even newer ones. And ESPECIALLY in AC... Jayking116 (talk) 04:28, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

Can you review FFXV too? from what we have seen so far. Monterossa (talk) 04:52, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

Since when can you not be passionate about homework? I turned a rather dull essay about diversity into a thing about FFXIV's soundtrack once, and it was amazing. C A T U S E 05:03, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

@Catuse167 Can we please try and stay on topic? Jayking116 (talk) 02:15, April 24, 2015 (UTC)

No, I will not stay on topic. C A T U S E 05:54, April 26, 2015 (UTC)

@Catuse167 ._. Please, go away... Jayking116 (talk) 02:11, April 29, 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, I've already played through the demo. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to say about it at the moment other than I'm not really expecting it to be a strong game (even if the summons do look frickin' awesome!) so I'm probably not gonna be on board the hype train. But I'm willing to reserve all judgement until it comes out. Jayking116 (talk) 05:36, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

FF7 ranks pretty lowly on my order list of Fave FFs but I do see its appeal and don't agree with it being overhyped. to FF7s credit, it did catapult the JRPG genre into mainstream gaming and paved the way for the success of the genre for a western audience. it's technically superior visuals and music were unparalleled at its release, and the story was relatively ambitious and adult for its time (the truth is most kids who played FF7 for the first time wouldn't have known how deep or dark the themes were when they first played it years ago). The game does have very notable flaws, but they are less a problem with the game per se than they are a mark of the times. To wit, it is unfair to judge FF7 on those flaws without also taking into account the era of gaming it was released in. Hindsight is 20/20. Ive mentioned graphics so far. The genre had only begun to adopt mature themes so they were still struggling with how to present them with more gravity. As for the twisted/creepy humor, swearing and bad messages, that comes from a time when people weren't too conscious about things being politically correct (for a classic western example, watch Looney Tunes).

If you have played the Compilation of FF7 spin-offs you'll note how they've refined everything, from visual to sound, to music and storytelling style to accommodate the "intended" tone that FF7 would have taken if it were technically possible back then - and each entry follows through consistently. Crisis Core also shows a good attempt at crafting a backstory for some of FF7s most memorable characters (in particular Sephiroth, and i liked him so much more after playing CC) so that it would make more sense. All in all, FF7 was one of the best games of its time, and was also groundbreaking on so many levels. However, it didn't age very well - for a better PS1 era example of that, we have FF8, which was probably the first FF to seriously contemplate an overarching visual style and presentation and set the standard for the series, but that is best left for another discussion. my 2gil --Arciele Spira (talk) 16:56, April 19, 2015 (UTC)o

@Spira Okay, I understand where your coming from. So what your saying is, it's unfair to say it's overrated. But is it fair to say that it's DEFINITELY dated? Jayking116 (talk) 02:15, April 24, 2015 (UTC)

yup pretty much--Arciele Spira (talk) 04:59, May 4, 2015 (UTC)

I think that whatever you watched before and have experienced before pretty much makes up your thinking on the subject of Final Fantasy VII. Hell, Final Fantasy VII was the first thing I've ever seen of its sort, and this was when I was a child back in its early days of being released.

And so I think I what you think about Final Fantasy VII is pretty self entitled, because I feel you're the kind of person who has been inspired by what you enjoy, but are not doing anything constructive with your inspiration other than pretty much publicly permanently posting how you feel. ie good day pedantic person and I hope I don't catch whatever you experienced to get you to do this Mask no Oni (talk) 18:38, April 19, 2015 (UTC)

@Mask no Oni "Final Fantasy VII was the first thing I've ever seen of its sort" No offense, but you need to get out more often...Jayking116 (talk) 02:15, April 24, 2015 (UTC)

Legit question: what is it about this game that produces such an "extreme" of opinions with no gray area, and what possesses those holding critical opinions to try and outdo the 'fanboys'/'fangirls'/etc. in regards todevoting excessive energy to a single piece of media? I honestly don't understand, and the fact that I haven't played may be related to this. Lord G. matters. Talk to me. 00:33, April 24, 2015 (UTC)

@Lord Grammaticus I explained my reasons already... Feel free to scroll up and see why I feel this way.Jayking116 (talk) 02:15, April 24, 2015 (UTC)

...I don't think you actually read my question. Lord G. matters. Talk to me. 09:24, April 25, 2015 (UTC)

Do you have any actual opinions about this game or not? I'm not interested in answering any more of your non-trivial questions.Jayking116 (talk) 10:31, April 25, 2015 (UTC)

I'm too lazy to write about half a book about the game, it isn't worth the effort. So, in short:

• Tifa: She's dumb in FFVII, she's dumb in Dissidia, she's... well, I HATE her.
• Vincent: Fucking awesome.
• Red XIII: Well, WHO?
• Rest of the cast: Don't really care.
• Sephiroth: Highly overrated. He doesn't even say a single word in the entire game, except for this flashback stuff, and in Dissidia, he is about the most unimportant and uninteresting character, so HOW ON EARTH can a character like this be so hyped? Oh wait, he has this sword. Nuff said.
• The story: I had to play it in two different languages to actually understand it halfway, and even now I have more questions than answers...
• The game mechanics: One of two reasons why I still play FFVII - the other one is Vincent.

Oh, and Jayking, no one forces you to answer anything ;-) -- Flüstergras 12:14, April 25, 2015 (UTC)

@Flüstergras I know, It's just that I consider it rude not to reply to people. Btw, I agree with the points you made :-) Jayking116 (talk) 02:11, April 29, 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, there is really no need to be belligerent about a question I didn't oibligate you in particular to answer.

That, and you certainly didn't read my responses, or you'd have seen that I think this game is polarizing in regards to reception for reasons I'd like to understand much better than I currently do (see BlueHighwind's first comment if that helps).

Not wanting to answer is one thing, but I feel like you're cherry-picking which aspects of a question most suit you or your bias. Not cricket, last I checked. :v Lord G. matters. Talk to me. 17:12, April 25, 2015 (UTC)

Not only that, you're quite a jerk. "U GOTTA GET OUT MOAR" Too bad, I have an imagination and I like having fun. I am already out there. Too bad this is pretty much the only attention you got outside of your real life. And well, I don't gotta know if you don't wanna take the effort to know me. so *raspberry* Mask no Oni (talk) 04:41, April 26, 2015 (UTC)

@Mask no Oni Woah, calm down bro. I'm not trying to make enemies on this wiki or anything... I'm just saying that there are literally thousands of games like FFVII that came before it. The only new thing it brought to the table was the 3D graphics. Jayking116 (talk) 02:11, April 29, 2015 (UTC)

Wow there is so much unnecessary bickering among users over this. But it was almost inevitable, heaven forbid anyone ever say anything bad about FFVII *blessed be thy name*. Although, personally I agree that it isn't a fantastic game, ambitious for its time perhaps, but I do feel the story never pays off what it promises and definitely didn't deserve all the spinoff attention it got (I haven't played them but they should probably be amazing to justify their existence). Being a scientist I got really into the ethical side of the whole genetic manipulation theme but that wasn't until playing again much later. I played it because I heard it was good, and it was but nothing deep and mesmerising. Plus like a lot of FFs the battle system just has carbon copies of characters equipping materia and the same commands so it doesn't really matter who you pick, just helps that some of them are long range. Maybe if I'd have played it in '97 when it came out I would have appreciated it more but I played it just after X came out when it was really starting to show its clunky mechanics under the generally thin veneer of quality. It's not the worst FF I've ever played but not the best either. AdeusValcross (talk) 06:41, April 26, 2015 (UTC)

@AdeusValcross Lol, I expected people would be upset. But there are surprisingly a very small amount of people who are actually frantic about me critiquing this. In the end, I find myself in complete agreement. I do wish some of the other games released in 1997 got more attention than it, but I appreciate what a legacy it has made on JRPG's and many other forms of media. But in the end, it's really not a masterpiece like everyone says it is. But I don't think it was meant to be. The only real game changer was the graphics... But even that's starting to look incredibly dated. Jayking116 (talk) 04:00, May 2, 2015 (UTC)

It's the nature of the beast - people - and fans like what they like and some will go to greater lengths than others to defend their position. I really like XIII but I know that's a REALLY divisive game as well, but someone else's opinion won't change what I think about the game. I can appreciate the game in its chronological context; the world had substance and depth, places changed their feel depending on the disc you were on, the backstory was great but the overarching story was confusing up until the reveal and still was pretty poor. I prefer VIII to VII though as it does the modern-fantasy world better than VII and would much prefer a remake of VIII to VII as VII has been given more than enough sequels and spinoffs now surely. However we know the power of the fans to bring Type-0 to Westerners now so maybe we will see some remake of earlier FFs and I don't think VIII has a big enough backing. But I do think a remake of VII would put it out of its context and just wouldn't be as groundbreaking today regardless of how much you polish the looks. Tomb Raider Anniversary was a remake of TR1 but had to do more than just make the original but with better graphics, they changed the backstory and plot to be more in tune with their own vision (the developer changed from Eidos to Crystal Dynamics). And I feel anything less than a complete remake true to the original wouldn't go down well in VII's case. AdeusValcross (talk) 09:40, May 4, 2015 (UTC)

BIG STAFF WARNING: I know that some people have been attempting to bait Jayking into flaming them. If it continues after his latest block expires, baiters will be getting blocked too. We get it, he's a very caustic individual with an unpopular opinion. That does not mean you have the right to provoke him. -- Some Color Mage ~ (Talk) 07:41, April 26, 2015 (UTC)

Understood, plus at least I have something resembling an answer to the question now. Though I have to wonder if it can't be explored further. -- Lord G. matters. Talk to me. 15:22, April 26, 2015 (UTC)

@Lord Grammaticus To answer your question, you didn't ask me anything to do with what you thought of the game in particular. You even admitted to never playing it before. When I made this topic I wanted to hear what other people who have played this game before thought of this game like characters and story etc before targeting the general public (I am going to review this and many other Final Fantasy games on my Youtube channel eventually once I get a better mic). I'm not interested in anything unrelated to that or in anyone who has little knowledge of this game. And the reason I replied to you in the first place as I mentioned above, is because I consider it rude not replying to people. I just thought I ought to tell you how I feel. Jayking116 (talk) 02:11, April 29, 2015 (UTC)

I like the game, it's pretty fun. I love the materia system for some reason. Still, I think its a bit over-rated. Don't get me wrong though, I still think its among the best games ever made, but Final Fantasy 8 is superior in my opinion. That being said I prefer to judge games based on themselves, not other games. In that regard, I would reccomend it to basically everyone. Especially since the more people play it, the greater chance we have of figuring out what exactly it was that Sephiroth wanted. FarRealm (talk) 14:20, June 29, 2015 (UTC)

@FarRealm Are you serious? Dude, I frickin' LOVE Final Fantasy VIII! And here I thought I was the only person in the world who thought it was better than FFVII. I mean, sure it has it's flaws and the characters were pretty annoying in it, but FFVII had flaws too and I didn't really like the characters in it too (except for two). Also, My complaints I had with this game is mostly based on it's own personal downfalls so I think it's fair to say that this game has some genuine errors. Jayking116 (talk) 23:05, June 29, 2015 (UTC)