Xuna

I see you've discovered the blog.
I think the reason a lot of people dislike the romance aspect of VII is because of how much it's overplayed. What made VII a great game when it came out was the surprise in the story. It had been advertised for about two years before it came out, without a single mention of Sephiroth anywhere. People were expecting the same "kill the baddies, save the world" story that they'd had before. But then most of the story is about this guy you know nothing about aside from the fact that he's pretty much gone crazy and is extremely powerful. It was a wonderful experience for first-time players. The fear and awe were genuinely felt by the player. I'm assuming all the romance was simply added to give the side stories and characters more depth, to make them more relatable. Yet it turned out to be what people mostly focus on now. Maybe it's because, do to its success, people who play the game nowadays already know all about Sephiroth and JENOVA before they even pick up the game. Or maybe the romance was more than what I thought it was. But even after replaying the game recently, the romance didn't seem like a big part of the story to me. Guilt was far more of an important theme than love, which was kind of unusual for fantasy games at the time. "Love will overcome all" took a back seat to "smurf I messed up, how do I fix this?" Hell, love was locked in the trunk, and Sephiroth melted the key with his mind. Remember seeing the Midgar Zolom on that stake? Makes you feel sorta helpless, doesn't it? That was to sell the point of "you're not going to be able to beat this guy" directly to the player. Which makes your reason to beat Sephiroth personal, not just connected to the game's storyline.

I have to agree with Tigmafuzz, I feel like people focus way too much on the romance, when the entire story was really all about Cloud coming to terms with not meeting the standards he set for himself as a kid (which were brought about by his idolization of Sephiroth)

Originally Posted by Tigmafuzz

I see you've discovered the blog.
I think the reason a lot of people dislike the romance aspect of VII is because of how much it's overplayed. What made VII a great game when it came out was the surprise in the story. It had been advertised for about two years before it came out, without a single mention of Sephiroth anywhere. People were expecting the same "kill the baddies, save the world" story that they'd had before. But then most of the story is about this guy you know nothing about aside from the fact that he's pretty much gone crazy and is extremely powerful. It was a wonderful experience for first-time players. The fear and awe were genuinely felt by the player. I'm assuming all the romance was simply added to give the side stories and characters more depth, to make them more relatable. Yet it turned out to be what people mostly focus on now. Maybe it's because, do to its success, people who play the game nowadays already know all about Sephiroth and JENOVA before they even pick up the game. Or maybe the romance was more than what I thought it was. But even after replaying the game recently, the romance didn't seem like a big part of the story to me. Guilt was far more of an important theme than love, which was kind of unusual for fantasy games at the time. "Love will overcome all" took a back seat to "smurf I messed up, how do I fix this?" Hell, love was locked in the trunk, and Sephiroth melted the key with his mind. Remember seeing the Midgar Zolom on that stake? Makes you feel sorta helpless, doesn't it? That was to sell the point of "you're not going to be able to beat this guy" directly to the player. Which makes your reason to beat Sephiroth personal, not just connected to the game's storyline.

Yeah. You're right too. The romance thingy was just added to the story. After all the theme of the series was heavily focused on the theme guilt. Zack's death. Aerith's death. Cloud couldn't forgive himself when he lost two important people in his life. After all he did enter soldier to become like Sephiroth who save people that's why he idolizes him until he goes berserk where the person he himself idolizes was now gone. Replaced with someone who wants to destroy the world.
I too believe that the whole game was created for Cloud to come to terms with the past and to move on to the present. Which took him quite a long time.
The last series of the FF games certainly focused on love. But VII was different. It was more on, the Guilt of not being able to protect someone you Love. Platonic or romantic, failure to save someone is still a failure.

But since people focused more on the LTD, the whole purpose of the game was somehow shove down the drain. It became something like,"The journey of Cloud who wasn't able to protect the love of his life" or something like that instead of, "Cloud's journey to overcome the past with the aid of his friends and defeat Sephiroth who is his darkness."

And because of those thinking the whole LTD controversy came in a boom.

^Wow. Lengthy post. Does it make sense?

*And yes I found the blog. Somehow it's the same with Mys2scans.

Originally Posted by Edge7

I have to agree with Tigmafuzz, I feel like people focus way too much on the romance, when the entire story was really all about Cloud coming to terms with not meeting the standards he set for himself as a kid (which were brought about by his idolization of Sephiroth)

Yeah. That's why it has been my focus too. Since knowing about FFVII it has been my focus because of a video in youtube. If only I didn't see that. And if only I didn't research so much about it.
My heart wouldn't have been broken.
But I'm sure when SE put some closure into the LTD in the game itself with nothing left to question even if it only takes a little bit of the screen time, the LTD controversy wouldn't have over shadowed the true pupose of the game.
But at the same time, I know it would be hard to fit it in the plot because of the theme 'Guilt'.

But still for me, it's the best game ever. And SE agrees with me. After all it has AC as a proof that FFVII is well loved.