Is The Story or Graphics

[Yuffie514]

i think what really made Final Fantasy VII the best of the series is the romance in it, such as the love-triangle between Cloud, Tifa, and Aeris. i bet millions of fans were shocked when Aeris died :crying: . she was so loved for her mercy and kindness!

[DJZen]

First of all, you should really mark spoilers. Even if it's something that's fairly common knowledge.

Now, on with my reply....

I wasn't all that shocked by that particular event. I've been playing FF games (and fantasy games in general) for a long time now, so death of a central character is not a new concept to me by any means. In fact, FFVII is somewhat merciful in that respect since it only happens once. In FFIV and II it happens like every 5 seconds it seems. When it happened I was suprised, but I had a very "gee, that sucks, oh well..." attitude about it.

As far as plot vs. graphics, at the time I thought both were top notch. Now, 7 years later, both seem really bad. Not just by today's standards, but by their contemporaries as well. Take a game like Blood Omen, for example. It had an amazing and really fun plot that twisted and turned violently in not so expected ways. In fact, Alundra (which came out pretty much RIGHT before FF7) has a much better story than pretty much ANY fantasy game, just because they didn't hold back when it came to playing with your head.

Games that came out before FFVII had MUCH better graphics. Take Resident Evil. It used the same sort of style (real time 3D characters over pre-rendered 2D backdrops), but did it much better. This is especially sad because Resident Evil came out so far in advance of FFVII that there's really no excuse, and RE had characters that occupied LARGE portions of the screen. Square even bested themselves with Tobal No. 1, which had better graphics on average. Even the FMVs rivaled FFVII's.

FMV is another way they fell short of the mark. The scenes were frequently choppy and used a compression method that left more mpeg artifacts than you could shake a stick at. Again, Blood Omen really shines here because Silicon Knights was doing things that at that time were hard to do on a video game budget. By comparison, Blood Omen's FMVs aren't really a LOT better than FFVII's, but you have to consider that Blood Omen was a first generation PS1 title. It was released before FFVII was even announced. Technologies exponentially improve with time, and Square was working with a LOT of 3D animation studios on a budget that would make Jerry Bruckheimer jealous. Still, all they could seem to manage was plastic looking characters making jerky movements.

I liked FFVII for its gameplay. :D

[redxiiii]

:D The love triangle wasn`t the best aspect of the story for me, personally i enjoyed the flashback in the life stream :D

[Dking'squeen]

I didn't like that triangle. I knew something was going to hapen to someone as soon as I found out about it. I liked almost neither best. They were both good. I liked best the Chocobos (All 6 of my golden ones I haven't seen in a long while) and the summons, esspecially the three bahamuts...

[Captain Maxx Power]

Are you all blind? Do you not see the true reason behind FF7's genius? It is that loveable scamp Cait Sith! He is, like, so the best of the game. I mean, a giant mog with a toy cat on his back? Man, cracks me up just thinking about it! And using a megaphone to attack even though the mog hit them? Pure hilarity!

*hits head against wall* Yikes, sorry about that. Blimey, dunno where that came from...

I freakin' hate that mouthy feline

[Shoeberto]

I personally hate the generic love stories they slap on in the games. It's by no means something new. I'd rather learn about the actual story then the lovey-dovey crap in it.

[Cleric]

ff7's storyline is definatey what makes it the king of RPGs. I mean the graphics weren't that bad, especially if you compare them to those of other games that came out around the same time. But, anyway wether its the diverse cast of characters or that love triangle between Aeris, Cloud, and Tifa, the storyline is really one of the best of any RPG.

[Yuffie514]

ff7's storyline is definatey what makes it the king of RPGs.

right on! where would Final Fantasy be without the basic elements? Romance, it's a part of every story, and so are other stuff like violence and all. Final Fantasy can't just always be about graphics and kicking @$$.

[Wuggly Blight]

I find ff7's so well developed, and the story is so well thought out, its far better then whats created these days, It makes it a better game because its lasted so long and still has amass of appeal.

[Yuffie514]

i used to think that FF was all about the graphics. of course, they do contribute to why FF is the best RPG series ever. but time, and time again, i realize it's the story. i mean, did Square make a sequel for FFX because the graphics was so good? that might have been part of the case, but i highly agree that it's because fans wanted to see Tidus and Yuna reunited. so sad.

[Wuggly Blight]

I found 10 lacking... in every department but graphics.

[feioncastor]

I found 10 lacking... in every department but graphics.
I agree 100%.

Here's my theory on the matter.

Square had a history of wonderful games with wonderful stories, conepts, gameplays, and so forth.

Until FF7.

FF7 was the first one where a LOT of emphasis was put on the graphics. What came out of this was an excellent game with excellent graphics. So what is the problem?

Squaresoft realized that they could use graphics to sell games, instead of using storylines, concepts and gameplay. They stopped trying, if you will, after 7. They'd come up with some good looking graphics, and then throw in a shoddy story with a few new ideas, and call it Final Fantasy 8. They (somewhat) bounced back with FF9, but then regressed yet again when they made FF10.

The point is simple: Graphics sell games now. No one cares about gameplay, story, strategy or anything else. It's really sad.

Let's be honest. Do graphics really matter? Don't you guys think Tetris is a fun game? Or how about Super Mario Bros. 3? Both have awful graphics, but they are still fun. Seriously, Britney's Dance Beat has really good graphics. REALLY GOOD. But the game still sukcs pretty badly.

Feion

[The Man]

Personally, I thought the graphics in FFVII were awful, so it must have been the plot. xD

[DJZen]

FFVII truely was the end of Square's golden age. It really departed from the other FFs in terms of content and setting. The direction had started with FFVI though. Square really started delving into the cinematic direction and upped the pretense with an unhealthy dose of existential nonsense filtered through babelfish. That's where the irritation of many toward this game comes from. I don't dislike this game, but I dislike those aspects of it. I think it's a good game, but it doesn't deserve all of the praise it gets. If you compare it to its contemporaries you'll see why.

[Craig]

I still don't understand FF7's storyline to this day, is it because it was complex and bursting with originality? Maybe. Or is it because i'm slow? Most probably.

[The Man]

No, it really was that vague and ambiguous. The lesson we can draw from this example is that people like a game more when they're not sure what's going on in it.

[DJZen]

I still don't understand FF7's storyline to this day, is it because it was complex and bursting with originality? Maybe. Or is it because i'm slow? Most probably.

It's because it was translated by a team of epileptic Japanese children with a grasp of the English language roughly akin to Ill Mitch.

[Del Murder]

The gameplay and visuals got me hooked at first. The story made it one of the best ever.