FFVII characters = Playmobil

It's hard to blame Square for the technology they had available, but in retrospect, is anyone disappointed about the way they handled the characters in FFVII?

To me they came off as straight out of a Playmobil playset. The look definitely, but also the amount of emotion the characters portrayed "on screen" amounted to that of a plastic toy.

In the previous games in the series, despite relying on lower graphical capabilities, the game-controlled actions of the characters in in-game cutscenes contributed to the emotional impact of the scene in addition to the words that were being spoken. They bounced up and down when they got excited, gave a firm head nod to indicate assent and determination, hung their heads in sadness or shame, walked away when they were conflicted, collapsed to their knees in despair, or even turned to the "audience" and gave an exaggerrated laugh.

This sort of character "acting" lent a charm to those characters that gave them a depth they otherwise wouldn't have had from dialogue alone.

Yet FFVII relies (with a few exceptions...ie Aeris in the church, etc.) on dialogue and some waving of the arms in circles for its in-game cutscenes. It makes the characters feel as plastic as they looked IMO. Only during the actual in-game movie sequences were they really consistently able to succeed in conveying more than what they wrote in the dialogue.

It's a beautiful looking game background-wise, with a great story that's far more personal than one normally expects from an epic rpg, this little fault just struck me in the course of playing the series all the way through as making the game feel a little "not right."

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Originally Posted by Ender

In the previous games in the series, despite relying on lower graphical capabilities, the game-controlled actions of the characters in in-game cutscenes contributed to the emotional impact of the scene in addition to the words that were being spoken. They bounced up and down when they got excited, gave a firm head nod to indicate assent and determination, hung their heads in sadness or shame, walked away when they were conflicted, collapsed to their knees in despair, or even turned to the "audience" and gave an exaggerrated laugh.

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You can find just about all of this in FFVII, actually.

Honestly, I preferred the FF7 models to the FF8 ones, which instead had a crapload of jaggies, and incredibly irritating stock motions, like Squall's arm slash, which just really, really irritated me. FF7 instead relied upon the dialogue and far simpler model motions to express the emotions of the characters, and did it far more impressively.

once im playing the game i dont really notice stuff like that, i just get used to the dialouge, i dont thinik theres really any need to add things like jumping up and down to show their emotion,(at least not in vii;) ) the dialouge helps us understand how the character feels if you can read it right

I love FF7...havent played 6 but I think the dialogue makes up for everything!!!

I far prefer the character models of VII to VIII, and I never felt that character animations were limiting the conveyance of emotion. In fact in the more realistic looking games (VIII and on) I find any awkwardness of motion to take away from game immersion. With VII and any sprite based games even though the motions aren't always completely realistic they don't seem to take away from game immersion (to me at least).

As for describing their motions as simpler than predecessors, I would have to disagree, though there is not much I can argue unless I show the initiative to quantify all the motions characters perform.

When it first came out, and I was pretty young, I thought the graphics were the koolie-kool with a freakin' K. It wasn't until I played Metal Gear Solid that I even thought it looked crappy at all. But I said to myself it was much longer than Metal Gear Solid, and a different type of game, so it's not possible. But then VIII and IX came out and I found out it was afterall, not to mention playing Chrono Cross in there which totally blew me away.

Personally, I'd prefer the VIII engine. I think it looks much better. Or better yet, go for the IX sheen, as IX is a ridiculously beautiful game for a playstation title. I don't "mind" the graphics, but that doesn't mean I would say no to them getting a nice gloss up.

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Originally Posted by Spatvark

Honestly, I preferred the FF7 models to the FF8 ones, which instead had a crapload of jaggies, and incredibly irritating stock motions, like Squall's arm slash, which just really, really irritated me. FF7 instead relied upon the dialogue and far simpler model motions to express the emotions of the characters, and did it far more impressively.

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I totally disagree. :nonono:

I didn't think FF7 had really any emotion, not like FF8...:love:

And I love Squall's arm slash!!! :love: :jess: At least the FF8 characters didn't look like walking polygons...:rolleyes2 :p

well i would personally have to say that when FFVII first came out and me and my neighbour played it constantly over at his house we were always like wow! i cant believe the awesome graphics and stuff ......
so i think for its time it was brilliant i mean the detailing to to the story and size of the game was no where near as good but it was still awesome. (I THINK POLYGONS ARE COOL!!)

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Originally Posted by Ender

To me they came off as straight out of a Playmobil playset."

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What playmobil set has Tifa's brests. Or a guy with a gunarm, or a metal claw.
:choc2: :tongue:

I dunno theres something about FFVIII that makes me go ick, after playing FFVII for so long then going to FFVIII ok you could tell that they were realy people but i just didn't liek the story as much. And you say there's no emotion, Have you not played the game?
You can always tell when Barrret is pissed of, When Yuffie is gettting into trouble and when Cloud is sad.
Oh well im slightly biased being as I love Final Fantasy VII =DD <3