Can you be Overated and Underated at the same time?

[MJN SEIFER]

Because FFVII certanly is.

Ever since the game came out, the fans and haters have always been very strong with there opinions and many refused to even hear the other story. As time went by there where multiple debates, on FFVII.

A hater of something will always notice praise on it and will never understand why anyone could like it. Likewise, an obsessive of something will be very upset to see anyone express hate over something so good. This is where flame wars come into it, and POVs and opinions become exagerated. Games like FFVII will always seam underated to its biggest fans, and overated to its biggest haters. A good example is when it was reviewed in PLAY (UK Playstation magazine) it was awarded 93% - one of the top scores (though not what I would have given it). However, the readers of PLAY had mixed reactions, and every so often a letter of complaint was sent to them; 93% was concidered too low a score by the fans - too high by the haters, such was the devided opnions of FFVII

So basically I think it's just a game you either like or dislike. I personally love it, and rate it as one the most epic games of all time. So to me, it is underated, but only because as a fan I notice the negativity surrounding it more. But that's just me.

[Heath]

Of course it's possible. Overrated and underrated don't necessarily need to refer to the entire of the gaming community. By FF fanboys, I'd probably say that the game is overrated, but I'd also say that some people are unfairly critical of what is a good game. It's hardly the pinnacle of human achievement. After all, such judgements are entirely subjective anyway and it depends on whether you like the game or not.

I'd say the game is more overrated than underrated, but it's certainly possible to be both provided you mean by two different groups of people. Or people with multiple personalities.

[Bolivar]

Well, I think it's overrated in some ways by people who blindly acknowledge it as being great, or people who have false memories of it, or people who in general just lack knowledge about rpg's or video games to make informed opinions of it.

At the same time, a lot of its impact is being forgotten today, and its role is being rewritten by gamers who were too young to remember video games at the time, and by people who were angry at its impact in the first place, whether they loved the original FF's, hated the playstation, or both.

[Wolf Kanno]

Its difficult to say objectively that a game with a massive fanbase and critical acclaim could ever be considered underrated. Its possible to say a game is both but I feel the validity of your stance is questionable. By that I use the PLAY magazine score as an example. How could one say 93 is a bad score? How can you justify a statement of the game being underrated when its received a high score and is still critically acclaimed to this day?

You could always reverse the question, is it possible for a disliked game to be overrated?

A similar issue happens with VI fans who always feel VI is underrated;yet when looking at scores and media exposure, the game could be easily argued to be the second greatest title in the series. It may not be #1 but its not like its despised by the fanbase like FFII and XII, once again it seems somewhat childish to believe your favorite has to be number one.

I feel VII is an overrated title but I feel most of the series is to some degree. I agree the game probably gets slammed due to a negative bias against it but it can also be argued the game is given greater praise than it deserves due to a positive bias. Its one of those titles that will be haunted by this til its memory is gone completely from society.

[Jessweeee♪]

I've always been surprised by all of the hate against FFVII fans. There never seemed to be more obsessive fans of FFVII than any other Final Fantasy game, but maybe I just started in on the series after it died down.

[MJN SEIFER]

I use the PLAY magazine score as an example. How could one say 93 is a bad score?

The reaons people thought it was "bad" was because they simply thought it was less than FFVII deserved, even though at the time of that issue anything between 90% and 100% was conciderd the best by PLAY. Also PLAY is an unofficial magazine, so maybe people felt they could argue by stating there opinions on the game? It doesn't matter really, there are a few occasions where PLAY have given scores I didn't agree with (40% for Chocobo Racing?!), but I am mostly ok with the FFVII score, I would have awarded it more, but I think 93% is still a score to be proud of.

[Laddy]

Final Fantasy is underatted as a story, overatted as a game, IMO.

[RedPouch]

Final Fantasy is underatted as a story, overatted as a game, IMO.

Do you mean Final Fantasy in general? You didn't specify which one you meant.

[Laddy]

Final Fantasy is underatted as a story, overatted as a game, IMO.

Do you mean Final Fantasy in general? You didn't specify which one you meant.

VII, I mean.

[RedPouch]

Final Fantasy is underatted as a story, overatted as a game, IMO.

Do you mean Final Fantasy in general? You didn't specify which one you meant.

VII, I mean.

Then I completely agree.

[MJN SEIFER]

As do I. I have seen a lot of posts from casual FF players that FFVIIs story either didn't make sense, or left too many things unanswered.

I think that's because it's the sort of game you've got to play more than once, and pay attention to, and not just rush through the story to "get to the action" (I never do this), there are maybe some unfinished-ish stuff, but it's good to leave things open, I don't think it was anything major.

[Depression Moon]

It may not be #1 but its not like its despised by the fanbase like FFII and XII, once again it seems somewhat childish to believe your favorite has to be number one.

XII has been despised? How? I thought if they weren't talking about II then they were bashing X-2 which I see come up a lot more than II.

Any game can be both all you need is two opposing people to bicker over it.

I think VII is overrated myself.

[Rase]

I think the package as a whole is quite overrated. I for one did not find the game play particularly satisfying, mostly due to the fact that through Materia character appeared to be not really important. Toss a Long Range one on Cloud and boom, he's essentially Barrett. Maybe I missed it but aside from weapon options and Limit Breaks there seemed to be very little differentiation, and even those eventually fall away as meaningless. I felt more that I was building Materia sets and then just throwing them on whatever character I liked more rather than picking a party based in strategy of any kind. Doing this the game presented little to no challenge throughout, even without any grinding on my part. I also feel, unlike others, that the music is not overall anything spectacular. I blame this solely on the teams unfamiliarity with the Playstation hardware more then anything else, but the point still stands that I often found the music droning or annoying. I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the story, having played through the game twice and read up on it a bit to see if I missed things. Knowing what I do I would definitely say that it's decent, but hardly anything to write home about. The fact that I thought this only after learning things through other sources that I missed through two full playthroughs says something to me about the original games storytelling.

Anywho, getting to the question I guess I would say yes, of course something can be over and underrated. Anytime two parties disagree on something both will likely feel one way or another toward whatever that thing is. I think that Half-Life 2 is overrated because I have not been able to get into it. Does the fact that it has millions of fans mean I am wrong? No. Likewise, if someone feels that FFVII is underrated despite it's critical acclaim and large following then it is, to them at least. Both terms are purely subjective, so they can both exist regarding any given thing.

[RedPouch]

As do I. I have seen a lot of posts from casual FF players that FFVIIs story either didn't make sense, or left too many things unanswered.

I think that's because it's the sort of game you've got to play more than once, and pay attention to, and not just rush through the story to "get to the action" (I never do this), there are maybe some unfinished-ish stuff, but it's good to leave things open, I don't think it was anything major.

Actually, a good portion of the game's story was left out of the English translation [I'm not sure about the original version though] and can only be discovered through outside sources. There are a lot of things that aren't even explained in the game.

Doing this the game presented little to no challenge throughout, even without any grinding on my part.

Although I agree, I think this isn't something you should bother poining out. RPG's aren't exactly known for their difficulty or challenge, Especially not Square's RPG's..

The fact that I thought this only after learning things through other sources that I missed through two full playthroughs says something to me about the original games storytelling.

This on the other hand, is something worth complaining about. Their execution of translating the story from paper to disc was poor, at least for the English version. Again, I am unsure if the Japanese version has the same problems, but I doubt it.

[MJN SEIFER]

Could anyone please tell me which parts of the storyline where left out/not translated properly? I have seen this mentioned before, and I have always felt I knew everything there is to know about the storyline without the need for "outside sources", but I could have misinterperetted it.

I mean it can't be as bad as what happend to Tekken can it?