Why love Final Fantasy VII?

[Bolivar]

Story is inferior to the old school games. Sorry fanboys it's true. Any educated college students would agree with me, especially those that have taken Literature courses.

Um, I'm an educated college student, with a well rounded liberal arts background now mostly under my belt.

Even if I hadn't taken literature courses, I would still say to you - I don't see how you could discuss the "old school games" stories on any scholarly level at all.

We agree on alot of stuff; I'm just curious as to where this is coming from.

You can find many themes in the old games. Many of which are the very types of subjects people like Shakespeare would use in his stories. There's plenty of epic moments in the older games. Everyone was all sad when Aeris got killed. Nothing new they did that once before in IV with Tellah. Only he died in battle using a spell that he knows will accomplish a task, but he also knows it will kill him. The sacrifice was worth the price in his eyes to defeat evil. Also with 4, the whole scene about becoming a Paladin. Leaving behind your shameful ways and looking to a brighter future. Celes states a line in 6 that I always liked. "Power only breeds War, I'd Wish I'd never been born." One can write a whole paper on the meaning of that statement and her character. Terra was a representation of diversity. I say this kind of stuff, because I actually did a few Papers on FF in a few Lit classes. One extensive one on FFX. I analyized each character. Here is a brief summary if interested http://forums.eyesonff.com/general-f...ml#post2425948 They said pick a movie or book, and I asked if that would be ok, and my professors were ok with it. One even commented back to me, that they had no idea that such themes existed in video games. Got all A's on those too.

I wouldn't go around telling people you're a liberal arts major. As in all my classes that major is a common joke. We all get stressed out for a Bio or Chem test, then someone will blurt out jokingly that they will change their major to either Liberal Arts, Communications, Business, etc.. The phony majors. And we all laugh, and almost every time even the professor joins in with their own insults of those majors.lol. It takes a good education to pick up on these themes in these games. And there are many more. 7 not as many as others though. Which is probably why so many liked it. The masses are stupid people. And yes I know I'm a snob. Damn proud of it too. I have no respect for anyone without a degree or someone in school studying to get one.

Well, you brought up literature, what do you think liberal arts encompasses? And believe me, in liberal arts classes, we have our own jokes about "hard science" majors. I'm in a class on the history of the scientific revolution and they come up everyday.

What you described for the older games aren't really themes, they're simple techniques that exist even in the most juvenile of stories. Not only is your argument weak on that point, but your summation as VII for stupid people, containing "not as many (themes)" further reveals how little you're actually using literary analysis for your points.

Anyone with background in those classes can easily point out that VII falls under the classification of modernism, or post-modernism. The game employs many Dadaist and Marxist themes throughout. This especially puts the story worlds apart from the games you mention. It also throws in a little Romanticism with the combination of the mystical with the secular.

The only previous game that comes close to being placed in a literary category is VI, being somewhat similar to romanticism, with its use of music and drama of the characters, also with magic coming back to exist in the same world with machines.

However, all of this is really irrelevant - no, you definately do not need to be very well educated in order to pick up on what these games are trying to convey. But, if you really want to bring in higher analysis to compare them, there's very little merit in proclaiming the previous ones surpass VII at all. The characters are consistently 2 dimensional and the dialogue is elementary. Everything is presented on the surface and the conclusions drawn at the end are little more than common knowledge that would be universally accepted across cultures. VII's critique of industrial capitalism, on the other hand is a little more thought provoking and is not easy to digest for some who live in such societies.