This Game is Overrated

[The Man]

Re your second point: its a weakness because the characters are a major reason listed when people say why they like this game, often in relation to the story. When your characters aren't driven by, or even related to the overarching story, then perhaps that's an overestimation of the quality of the storytelling, don't you think? An "overrating," if you will.

As I stated, this is a weakness of the series as a whole. Every single character in FFVII apart from Cloud and possibly Aerith has the same problem, for example, and nearly every character in FFIX has the same problem. You are singling out FFVI for this because you don't like it.

Anyone who thinks that the gameplay of VI isn't the weakest of the series, possibly bar IV, is kidding themselves.

Not even close.

That you can pick and choose what characters and therefore what classes you have access to, weakens it further in regards to the other more traditional jRPGs in the series which force your hand.

Apart from entries like FFVII and FFIX and FFX, the latter of which allows you to swap out characters in the middle of battles.

You can say whether you like the Materia system or Junction system or Gambit system all you like, or how broken they are, but those systems have depth, whereas VI has none.

The Materia system is just the Esper system with the bells and whistles rearranged. The sphere grid is literally a linear progression until the end of the game (apart from in the international version). And I could go on. Not to mention that FFVI's characters are not interchangeable until such point as it is possible to gain enough AP to teach them all the spells, which, unless you do troutloads of grinding, won't be possible until the second half of the game.

We had this talk about the Colosseum the other day, too. Regardless of how insignificant it is, it's all the endgame content offered by VI, and is a pathetic excuse for not offering an actual reason to use the full extent of VI's endgame.

Lambasting FFVI for having a shallow side quest is like lambasting FFVII because some of the minigames are stupid. No one is playing the game because of the endgame. FFVI has tons of optional content that is easily among the best of the series, and it allows a sense of freedom in its latter half that, as I have pointed out in the past, is unrivalled amongst the series.

You've misinterpreted what I mean by being well crafted - you could have a well crafted stick, for example, with all manner of intricate details carved into it, but what does that stick offer that others don't? VI has the prettiest parts, but none of the additions that make it worthwhile above any other stick, so to speak. Your ornate stick is overrated because people are suggesting it has dohickeys which it doesn't.

...no one is suggesting that though? People acknowledge the battle system isn't the strong point of the game. There is a six page thread about how people would fix it. However, an RPG is much more than the battle system. Some people value the other parts of the game much more than you do.

And for your final point - so you think VI is good and VII is trout.

No, you're misinterpreting me. FFVII is my fourth or fifth favourite game in the series. That's far from being "trout". I'd give FFVII a rating of about 85% or 90% to FFVI's 98%. This is in comparison to something like FFII or FFXIII which would probably get around a 60% from me.