EOFF Summer 2011 Census!

[Wolf Kanno]

The final entry is best cutscene/story scene. Originally this was meant to be just for the FMV sequences but we got so many pre-VII votes it seemed like a shame to throw them out so we allowed them. This entry actually has a 6 way tie for first place. Each of the winners getting two votes which is pretty astounding when you consider the quality the series has put out. So here's the guys who are simply runner ups:

Atmos destroys Lindblum

Favourite cutscene - There are so many from IX to choose from. However, I'll go for the destruction of Lindblum by Atmos. Even though it's short, it made such a huge impact for me, with FF finally showing some real devastation and death within the wars they've depicted.

Dollet Communication Tower

Escaping the Black Waltz #3

]Favourite cutscene
Escaping Black Waltz 3 on the airship in FFIX - thrilling sequence, edge of your seat, and with a triumphant outcome.

Sahz looks up Vanille's skirt

Favourite cutscene ~The one in FFXIII where Sahz is looking up Vanille's skirt

Yuna's Sending in Kilika

Crashing Yuna's Wedding

Favourite cutscene
The cutscene in X of the party flying into Bevelle. It's damn awesome. The opening scene of X is also pretty good, thanks to the music.

Crisis Core Ending

Entering Eden

VII's intro

Favourite cutscene: VII intro. (This is my favorite because I think it's the best directed. It starts off with space and what you later find out to be the cries of the planet, which fades into one person's face, and from that one face, the camera slowly pulls back to reveal an alley, a street, a block, a district, and an entire amazing city, the likes of which (again) you've never really seen before. The title logo comes up with the killer soundtrack accompanying it, as flashes of a moving train are interspersed. The cutscene closing with a seamless transition into the gameplay is the cherry on top for me.We've debated FFVII's merits and innovations to death, but the seamless transition between cutscene and gameplay is the one original contribution that critics can't deny. It's something that western developers on the cutting edge of high definition gaming today still struggle to achieve. The use of this technique as soon as the game begins made it very clear what kind of experience you were getting yourself into; you're never really sure where a cutscene ends or gameplay begins, because the action is happening across all of it. It was the birth of the cinematic RPG and the advent of the video game set piece. Other games at the time may have told a better story, while others perfected gameplay, but in 1997, Final Fantasy VII showed us where gaming was headed, 10 years and two generations before we really got there. It was a watershed moment and my favorite cutscene in the series.)

Yuna and Tidus' kiss

- Favourite cutscene
Perhaps Yuna and Tidus's kiss? ~ I don't really have a solid idea for a favourite scene though. I chose this one cause of its visual beauty, and semi-awkward japanese song.

Genesis vs Sephiroth

IX's ending

Setzer's Airship Battle

Favourite cutscene - FFVI, Airship fight in FFAnthology...

Kefka betrays Ghestal

Favourite cutscene
Yuna and Tidus laughing...naw just kidding. I'll cut anyone who picks that awful scene. For my choice I will go back to FFVI to the scene where Kefka betrays Ghestal and moves the statues to destroy the world. Pretty epic scene and if you didn't bring Celes she also comes to save the party, showing her true loyaly (I guess she does that even if you do bring her).

We're going to do the six winners one at a time to build suspense, so start guessing who the winners are now.

[Slothy]

Is this a bad time to point out that you missed favourite overall art direction? Or do I just forget doing it because I woke up 20 minutes ago?

[Bolivar]

This thread and all of its ten pages are already invalidated and rendered pointless because FFVII's intro did not universally win for best custcene.

Good to know I just wasted ALOT of my time.

[Wolf Kanno]

Is this a bad time to point out that you missed favourite overall art direction? Or do I just forget doing it because I woke up 20 minutes ago?

Well then do it quickly man! Its not like I wasn't going to make the last announcements take awhile.

Bolivar: You should have known better, though most of the winners simply won by two votes. Personally I was a bit surprised by some of the winners myself. At least two of them threw me off.

[Del Murder]

The FFVII opening is a universally recognized and epic scene, but is it really a cutscene? To be a cutscene you have to cut away from something and you haven't even started the game at that point!

[Jessweeee♪]

I hate it because the very first time I played it I didn't actually have a memory card so I just played the beginning over and over and it got boring

[Madonna]

VII's opening sequence is really great, I admit. In speculation, the fact it is an introduction to the world is what makes it inherently weaker to other cutscenes. There is less emotion to tie you to the Planet, Aeris, and the train in the beginning of the story simply because they are not known to you. Later on, it breaks your heart to see Lindblum get sucked up, it scares you to see Squall get chased by X-ATMO92 (replace Squall with Vivi and X-ATM092 with Black Waltz #3), you get pumped when your crew crashes Yuna's wedding, and all of these votes are understandably due because of the emotional investment you have given the characters already. Granted, Squall is a dick and liberating Dollet is among the first things you do, but pretend you know what I am talking about. VII's intro is epic, the music is fantastic, the visual presentation is superb, but the bond is not quite set.

I expect Cloud's amazing air-leverage skills to be one of the contenders, as well as IV's intro, which paradoxically is awesome. Also, I am totally hoping not seeing my vote show up in the runner-up section means someone else voted the same way and am delighted at the prospect.

[Bolivar]

^ You could be right about that, there definitely needs to be a build up, I guess I just played FFVII enough times where I had tat attachment, but at the same time I feel the scene was more memorable than the atmos attack or crashing the wedding, maybe because of what it did at the time, or the direction. I almost voted for this and I hope it ends up being there:

Final Fantasy VIII - The Landing on Dollet - YouTube

(and very funny, Del...)

[charliepanayi]

I don't know about that line of thinking, I love FFVIII's opening sequence for instance (mind you, I love most FF intro sequences, cutscene or not).

[Carl the Llama]

I know one of the top answers, simply because its my answer and also not in the runners up list ^^

[Fynn]

Neither is mine

[Slothy]

Well then do it quickly man! Its not like I wasn't going to make the last announcements take awhile.

You all heard the man, let's get this tit finished!

Favorite Overall Art Direction

For once you fools managed a distinct top 3. No ties, no fifteen goddamn picks for third place, just three distinct games comprising the best of the best. So how far off the mark are you all?

Third place: VI (4 Votes)
Party_Artwork.jpg

Congratulations on picking the best by far for third. It's as close as you poor saps come to success most times so enjoy the feeling while it lasts. What can I really say about this game. Easily some of the most gorgeous sprite work that ever appeared on the SNES. A game with instantly recognizable characters, beautifully drawn monsters, and a world that you got to experience not once, but twice when you revisit familiar areas post-apocalypse and experience the slow decay of the world through the power of visualization, and in your cases, occasionally malfunctioning eyeballs.

Second Place: VII (5 votes)
Highwind.jpg

It's no FFVI, but it's hard to argue this game suffered from poor visual design. Each place was unique and carried with it it's own character. From the oppressive Midgar, to Cid's broken dreams perfectly embodied by a leaning rocket ever threatening to topple over and crush what little he has left. The fact that it was also done by Nomura in his pre-belt fetish days is also a point in it's favour.

FFVII. I feel like all of the places you go have a distinct feel to them, each with a diverse subculture. From Midgar to Cosmo Canyon to Wutai, each area has its own distinct quality and its own relevance and I liked that.

What this guy said.

Favourite overall art direction: VII (It's the most unique in the series to me. I've never really seen anything like Midgar, I've never really seen anything like Shinra HQ, none of the other airships nail the concept quite the way the Highwind did, and the reactor interiors are just as creepy in portraying an industrial dystopia as the accompanying music is. It also took a lot of archetypes and made them interesting, like the eastern/asian village of Wutai, the mining town of Corel, the vacation spot of Costa Del Sol, and the reservation/ecologist's refuge of the Cosmo Canyon. Like other FFs, VII has you fighting dragons one minute and driving cars the next, but it balances the two with the rest of the art in a way that you don't forget the futuristic aspects like FFI or V, but you don't forget the sword/sorcery tone either like in FFVIII or X. All of this variety and depth makes it my favorite overall art direction.)

Haven't seen anything like Midgar? Didn't play Deus Ex: Human Revolution I take it? Sure it came out recently, but it'd be hard to miss the reference if you did.

And finally in first place we have: IX (8 votes)
Bahamut-Alexandre.jpg

Can't really complain here. In fact, many of the reasons I like the art direction in FFVI apply to FFIX as well.

Favourite overall art direction
IX - I think the oldschool theme really worked for this and I don't want to say XIII.

That's good, because if you said XIII I would spend the next year making fun of you every chance I got. Speaking of...

Favourite overall art direction ~FFXIII The characters didn't look overly-ridiculous and when it comes to visuals graphics help.

Someone needs a lesson in the meaning of the term art direction. And not just because you said the characters in a game featuring a Frocobo didn't look overly ridiculous, or even because you voted for FFXIII. Simply because in a discussion of what game has the best art direction, graphical quality isn't really a factor.

Not to mention that in terms of graphical fidelity FFXIII looked more like a launch title than something that is essentially contemporary with the likes of Uncharted 2, or Mass Effect 2.

Favourite overall art direction
FFXIII. In pretty much every area ever I found myself stopping and moving the camera around just so I could admire the architecture or the landscape. The lighting was especially nice.

You know, I found myself stopping a lot in every area too. It was mostly to get a fresh kleenex to sop up the blood that was spewing from my eyes if I spent too much time trying to look at the terrible monster designs, or if I fell asleep while traversing such bland locales as Gran Pulse.

Full results:
Favorite Overall Art Direction
IX (8 votes)
VII (5 votes)
VI (4 Votes)
XIII (3 votes)
VIII ( 2 votes)
XII (2 votes)
I
XIV
Tactics

There, that's it. I'm done with you knobs until next time. Bring it all to a close WK.

PS: I actually have that picture from FFIX on a bass drum head of mine. Sadly I no longer have a bass drum in the right size to use the damn thing.

[Del Murder]

FFVI is my favorite game ever. But in terms of art direction I found many of the towns to be pretty similar looking. Certainly not of the diverse quality of FFVII's areas.

[Slothy]

While most of the towns certainly reused the building sprites to make their houses and shops, I think I'd disagree that they weren't still diverse. Even using the exact same building blocks for the most part, South Figaro with all of it's nooks and crannies to explore felt very different from places like Nikeah, Kohlingen, and certainly much different than areas like Narshe or Zozo. Each place was still injected with it's own personality and sense of charm, despite being forced by the hardware limitations of the day to recycle a lot of graphics. In fact, I can not only immediately recognize these towns when I see them, but I can even picture most of them clearly in my mind even after all of these years.

If anything, I think it impresses me more that they managed the diversity that they did simply by rearranging things in a different layout than the diversity of areas in a game like FFVII do where they were relatively unhindered by the hardware.

[Remon]

No one else voted for Tactics