Things That Bother You About Gaming

[Foggle]

I don't hate the game or anything, but I find the character writing to be a bit lacking and the gameplay to not have aged particularly well. I think FF 4-6 and 9 hold up much better as far as classic Final Fantasy games go. 7 is certainly worth playing for fans of the series and genre, but I believe that its quality has been a bit exaggerated due to it being the first RPG a lot of people played as kids.

[talonmalon333]

I don't hate the game or anything, but I find the character writing to be a bit lacking and the gameplay to not have aged particularly well. I think FF 4-6 and 9 hold up much better as far as classic Final Fantasy games go. 7 is certainly worth playing for fans of the series and genre, but I believe that its quality has been a bit exaggerated due to it being the first RPG a lot of people played as kids.

VI is certainly better. I think everyone agrees on that by this point. But i do think its a bit more than nostalgia with VII. Midgar was something special and the game took itself just serious enough without going overboard. And as for Aeris... of course any gamer knows the twist. Its the Darth Vader of game twists. But i do think its worth still taking a step back and looking at how good a moment it is regardless of whether or not you know it. She's both a likable character and a dependable fighter, and the game preys on those.The twist is a massive moment for both story and gameplay.

Is it the best game ever? Of course not, but is it still treated that way? The old debate of "Best game ever! FFVII or Ocarina of Time?!" ended as time passed and people saw OoT hold up extremely well and FFVII age some.

[Foggle]

It's a legitimately good game, I'm not disputing that. But Cloud doesn't really work for me as a protagonist, and I think it falls prey to a lot of the same problems people complain about in the later Final Fantasy games but overlook in the SNES and PS1 era.

[Spark Of Spirit]

VII is a good game whose only fault is dated graphics (mostly field character models) and the amount of rip offs it caused.

I still remember Breath of Fire IV's Sephiroth rip-off angsty villain, Xenogears' mess of a "deep" story, and Squall Leonhart taking all the worst aspects of Cloud Strife and none of the better ones to form a party of some truly irritable characters. All as a result of trying to outdo VII's different aspects without trying to do something new with their characters or story.

Divorced from all that, VII is a good RPG.

[gunswordfist]

"Consider dis the divorce."

[Foggle]

I'm glad to finally find someone who agrees with me about Xenogears. I've played the game for 25+ hours, and it has done absolutely nothing for me in terms of story, characters, or gameplay.

[gunswordfist]

I keep on hearing about Xenogears not being that good.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The game was absolutely overrated back in the day and hailed as a brilliant masterwork. It hasn't held up at all. It wasn't even that good back then.

I'm glad to finally find someone who agrees with me about Xenogears. I've played the game for 25+ hours, and it has done absolutely nothing for me in terms of story, characters, or gameplay.

As weak as the story is in the first disc, it gets worse in the second. I've never made it to the end as much as I enjoy the on-foot battles because everything else is just so bad.

My favorite RPGs and action RPGs from the era are the ones not inspired by FFVII at all. Suikoden 1 and 2, Brave Fencer Musashi, Wild Arms, Vandal Hearts, FFIX, Breath of Fire III, Valkyrie Profile, Threads of Fate, Legend of Mana . . . it was a good era for the genre outside of all the wannabes.

[gunswordfist]

I've only played VIII, IX, Brave Fencer Musashi's demo and a few minutes of Breath Of Fire III via bad emulation a few years ago.. I really don't think I've played any of RPGs from that era.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If you enjoy the genre, the SNES and PS1 eras are probably the best with quite a lot of quality and quantity.

[Foggle]

Be sure to check out Vagrant Story, Alundra, and Tales of Phantasia as well!

As weak as the story is in the first disc, it gets worse in the second. I've never made it to the end as much as I enjoy the on-foot battles because everything else is just so bad.

And here I was thinking that it had to get better eventually. Some of the cutscenes borderline on an entire hour in length with snore-worthy dialogue and horrible localization. I don't even like the gameplay due to the lengthy unskippable battle animations and lack of difficulty (I'm terrible at JRPGs and, without grinding, have only died once - to a gimmick boss).

[Spark Of Spirit]

Be sure to check out Vagrant Story, Alundra, and Tales of Phantasia as well!

Forgot about those. Also the first Tales of Destiny is pretty good, too.

As weak as the story is in the first disc, it gets worse in the second. I've never made it to the end as much as I enjoy the on-foot battles because everything else is just so bad.

And here I was thinking that it had to get better eventually. Some of the cutscenes borderline on an entire hour in length with snore-worthy dialogue and horrible localization. I don't even like the gameplay due to the lengthy unskippable battle animations of lack of difficulty (I'm terrible at JRPGs and, without grinding, have only died once - to a gimmick boss).

It gets even more convoluted afterwards. The worst part is that the second disc starts off with a long incoherent story sequence that goes right into a really hard boss battle. Better hope you're leveled right otherwise you're in for an annoying treat!

Difficulty spikes in RPGs annoy me, too. It's why I've never gotten all the way through Final Fantasy Tactics. Well, that and the slow crawl text wrapped in a slow as molasses story that takes too long to do anything.

[Rynnec]

While we're on the subject of Xenogears:

The supposed events behind the scenes of this game are some of the most notorious in videogame history. As the stories go, halfway through the game's development, Square Soft took a big chunk of the development team out of working the game to work on Final Fantasy VIII. This explains the game's extremely linear and narration-heavy second disc. Many fans speculate the game would have been even more of an epic classic had the development team not been castrated this way.

[Foggle]

It gets even more convoluted afterwards. The worst part is that the second disc starts off with a long incoherent story sequence that goes right into a really hard boss battle. Better hope you're leveled right otherwise you're in for an annoying treat!

While we're on the subject of Xenogears:

The supposed events behind the scenes of this game are some of the most notorious in videogame history. As the stories go, halfway through the game's development, Square Soft took a big chunk of the development team out of working the game to work on Final Fantasy VIII. This explains the game's extremely linear and narration-heavy second disc. Many fans speculate the game would have been even more of an epic classic had the development team not been castrated this way.

[Spark Of Spirit]

"Even more of an epic classic."

That's some way of putting salad dressing on a turd and calling it a salad.