When it comes to RPGs, I typically stick with what I’m comfortable with. I like old-school Final Fantasy games (I-VI), the Tales series, and some RPG-lite titles like Paper Mario. I’ve never played Final Fantasy VII, but I’ve always had this urge in the back of my mind to give it a try. With the release of Crisis Core on the PSP (a game I really want to play), I decided I’d put my fully backward-compatible PS3 to good use. I originally tried playing using my PSP and the remote play function, but it turns out that lag is too annoying, even for JRPGs. I got about twenty minutes into the game before I tried saving and realized that saving isn’t possible unless you’ve created a virtual PS1 memory card on your PS3 HDD before you start. Basically, the whole process is much more complicated than it needs to be.
After getting through the first hour or so, I have very mixed reactions and I find myself wondering how well FFVII was originally received following I-VI. The graphics are certainly amazing for the standards back in 1997, and I’m certainly not one to nitpick about visuals if the gameplay mechanics are well implemented. But I find the primitive polygons in FFVII very disorienting. Without analog control, it’s very difficult to judge where your character is standing or in which direction to move in order to reach a desired point on the screen. It’s certainly not a game-breaker, but it is a noticeable annoyance.
It’s also very difficult to recognize FFVII as a Final Fantasy game. Since I’ve never played any Final Fantasy that didn’t originate on a Nintendo system, I’m not accustomed to this style. Obviously, I recognize the text boxes, potions, and battle mechanics, and I can already see the beginnings of a great storyline. But I can’t help thinking that Final Fantasy VII was too ahead of its time. The visual design simply cannot accommodate such an epic story, and it’s very difficult to convey the types of emotions necessary with so few polygons. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the game. I simply need to put more time into it.
When I hear people talk about how great Final Fantasy VII was and how influential it was to the JRPG genre, the two things discussed most often seem to be the quality of the story and the accessibility of the title. It introduced the role-playing genre to an American audience that otherwise hadn’t seen very many of these games from Japan. Does anyone who’s played FFVII have anything more they can add? Why is this game so universally adored?
FFVII was a pivotal title for two primary reasons. Firstly, it signaled the era of Nintendo dominance to be over. Nintendo and Square Soft got into a gigantic spat about media for the new “3d” era, and while Square wanted to utilize discs for more data (which required Loading screens), Nintendo wanted to keep cartridges for the N64. Nintendo arrogantly said “my way or the highway” leading Square to eventually get it’s new title on the previously somewhat minor new “Playstation” system. This was one of the integral factors behind PS1′s meteoric rise in popularity.
The FF series was still riding high off FFVI (or III, depending on what side of the pond you’re on), as many in both Japan and the US considered it (and still do probably) the best RPG ever made, on par with Chrono Trigger. Because of that, many people bought a PS1 simply to play this title. I got some time to play it and my issues with the new-ish 3d interface were similar. Because so many people purchased it, and at times got a new system for it, they were eventually opened up to the PS1′s other titles of note, like Chrono Trigger’s sequel Chrono Cross and the other titles in PS1′s library.
All of these things contributed to the epic fail that was the N64. Then of course, because PS2 came out a full calendar year before the Gamecube, people didn’t even think of going back to Nintendo, leading straight away to the 3rd place finish of the Game Cube, and the shifting of Nintendo’s market strategy from graphical prowess to the new interface and it’s current position of market leader.
Rock on Brian.