See, I really can't take this person seriously. Not after statements like this:
Did anyone actually feel this? Does this person actually know what made VII enjoyable at all, or even "moving"? It certainly was never because of the blocky character models. They're just as silly now as they were in 1997.Yes, Final Fantasy VII will always be remembered as the classic entry in the series, but let's be completely honest here - it hasn't aged well. Its jagged backgrounds and blocky character models make it harder to feel the same rushes of emotion now that you did when playing it back in its heyday.
Here is where I stopped reading:
I get the Tidus hate because he's absolutely insufferable but we're straying into some pretty stupid terrain with this kind of thinking.Meanwhile, even the madcap chef Qu has more personality than Final Fantasy X's brainless Tidus.
My own opinion of IX is complicated. I really, really wanted to like it for all these years. Just looking at it, it's wonderful. But I can't get past how overprotective it is about its story progression. FFX and XIII are very linear to the point of literally being uninteresting straight lines, but IX can get pretty agonizing in its own way. I realize that the story is important, but even playing the game back in 2000 I'd ask myself, my god why does the game have to keep splitting my party up? Why do I have to be stuck with a thief and three mages when I've already been building up a badass knight? Why do I feel like I'm being interrupted by dialogue boxes (albeit well written dialog in amusing boxes) in each screen? The Alexandria scenario at the beginning is a great beginning to the game, but why do I have to keep running back and forth talking to NPCs in Evil Forest before I can get a nice chunk of uninterrupted playtime in?
My problem with IX is that I feel like it just won't let go of me and let me play it. The throwback thing really is kind of BS, because older FF games never stuttered like this. Sure, IV did the member swapping thing quite a bit, but IV had a ton more flow than IX, which stops you at every opportunity and loads battles in no fewer than 15 seconds a pop. IX is actually more like VIII than a lot of people like to admit. I'd argue that if you really want an old-school styled FF game with PSX pre-rendered graphics then your best bet is actually VII. VII has some kick-ass pacing that only really falters in a few sections (reasonably forgivable considering the size of the game). On top of that, it only gets really verbose on two occasions (the Kalm flashback and the Mideel Lifestream sequence) and both times the most important element of the game's plot are on display - a plot that has been slowly building from the beginning, mind. IX just has a tendency to chip away at my patience with moderately-long talking parts far too often. These sections are certainly charming and full of "character" but I still feel like they don't add up substantially enough to justify being so pervasive. The ATEs are a great idea, but I also wish I could just stumble on my party living it up in towns (think of Costa del Sol) instead of having to relinquish control lest I miss the admittedly charming character- and world-building. Dali is a beautiful little location but an old school FF would have me buying weapons, recharging my resources and moving on sooner rather than later. Instead, IX's first real town in a huge production that ends with an airship taking off and a battle against a murderous black mage.
None of this is inherently bad of course. Hell, I don't really think FFIX is a bad game. I recognize that a lot of people like it and I've played it probably more times that I should have in order to be able to enjoy it in the same way. Thing is, I just can't really. A lot of FFIX is for me, but at the same time too much of it isn't.