Final fantasy 7 is so good

Waaa a lot of love for XII. Did everybody forget how boring the character development was in that game? If everyone is being nostalgic about the fighting/hunting system, then I understand. But everything else in that game is mediocre by FF standards, even FF13 had a better story.

I really like Aeris - she's my favorite character. I think I've formed some kind of bond with her. I know it sounds silly, but I just feel like she's more human than the rest of the characters. Love is a strong word, but yeah maybe I'm in love with Aeris. I don't think that's weird.

I'm hope I get to level her to the end of the game, I love buying her new weapons and armor. I always keep her HP full and let the others in the party die first. I just don't want to see Aeris in pain. Honestly, if anything ever happened to her I think I'd do something really bad.

OK now I'm pretty sure this is a troll.

I never stopped loving it, even though it slowly but surely became just as popular to hate on it than it once was to label it "the best game ever". Both extremes don't hold up, obviously.

Time for my contribution to every single FF7 thread; PLAY PHANTASY STAR 4!

@gamefreak9: I'd say it had one of the best worlds too. But yeah, characters, story and dialogue were all terrible.

I replayed this a year or two ago. The systems hold up alright. Definitely was amazing for its time.

The part where there's a mind-controlled cat riding a marshmallow, that's fucking dumb though.

I think it was great for its time. I'll play it again when they remake it.

Hell yeah it is! Kind of ugly character models though. Needs a remake more than most games.

I've only ever played minor portions of that game :/

Hey, I just bought the new PC version digitally and assuming that customer support ever gets back to me about literally the worst password reset system I have ever seen, I'm interested in these mods you're talking about. Is there a central repository you'd recommend?

@petiew:
Really? I'm pretty sure FFXII is the only FF with good dialogue ever.

@veektarius: Sorry, I guess the way I worded it made it seem like I was stating my opinion as a fact. Personally I didn't like the dialogue, I felt like the characters talked a lot without actually saying anything. The Empire characters were the worst at this, to me it seemed like all style but no substance.

Spoken dialogue also has the effect of making things seem much more cringeworthy. I could have handled that stuff better if it was just text I think.

I've been attempting to play through and record FF7 with a friend. Using my original PC discs, for all that delicious midi music. Considering we only have the chance to get together to record every fortnight though, and usually only manage an hour or two at once, this could take a very long while. We had a minor panic this weekend too, when we discovered that for some reason my friends new graphics card can no longer cope with old versions of DirectX, but luckily there's an openGL patch that still allows us to have the high resolutions.

I have the double-unpopular opinion that FF7 is good, but I think FF9 is my favourite. Though since I'm not American, and therefore not exposed to the old Nintendo systems in my youth, that's only out of 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13.

@petiew: Didn't mean to come across that way. I just was surprised at the opinion. Not that FFXII has Coen bros. quality dialogue or anything, it's just that for FF games, the bar is so low, and so much effort was made in localizing that stuff to English and finding good VAs.

Ah, the endless Final Fantasy debates. As partisan as modern politics, about as pointless, and for some fucking reason I can't help but throw my two cents in. It's fun to debate things.

As far as VII, it still holds up for me. Yes, the graphics are dated, but I don't care. The underlying story is very good, although the script is poorly localized and rife with silly dialogue and awkward racial/gender stereotypes. The battle system was fantastic at the time; it's still good today but definitely feels a little lighter after so many years of tweaks and improvements to RPGs.

It takes some nostalgia goggles, no doubt, but no more so than most other games from the era. It's just the hype that makes the haters. Hype breeds naysayers who just want to be contrarian. It's a great game. Definitely showing its age, but I'd still recommend it to an RPG fan who's trying to go back a little bit.

I cant believe anyone likes the complete plot humping that was 8 or the utterly forgettable and bland 9. 8 has a good sound track... the end.

@obcdexter: Yup agreed. Weird seeing the swing over the last few years to people giving it crap. It's not a perfect game and I'm not saying there aren't valid criticisms but for me it's still one of my favourite games. Cid and Red XIII were rad.

I think it's pretty cool.

http://www.giantbomb.com/final-fantasy-vii/3030-13053/forums/festive-final-fantasy-vii-572321/

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/fattony12000/blog/fatbomb-november-edition/97923/

Yup. I really like it, too.

Yes, it's a good game, but what's the relevance? Wouldn't this make more sense in a Chrono Trigger or Phantasy Star II(I) thread?

It's the greatest game ever made.

The fact that discussions still seem to pop up about this ancient game nearly every month is amazing feat in itself. I don't think there's another one like it, in that way.

For a minute I thought this thread was going to stealthily restart the FF7 endurance run fanfic. I remember VII fondly but in retrospect it's my least favorite of the PS1 FF games. Whatever, I'll bet it'd still be novel to play today. I've played it too many times already to want to try again.

I agree, I have and still am a huge fan of the game. It's different playing it at the time and really falling into it like I did. Seeing the ads and reading about it months before it came out and then finally playing it and being blown away was such a cool thing. I'm glad you're having a good time with it, so many people have such differing opinions now when at the time it came out it was pretty universally acclaimed.

I really like FFVII, but have NO IDEA why people liked the Gold Saucer stuff. I thought that whole section was wierd and unneeded.

Still, yeah - fuck the haters, FFVII was awesome.

I like X and VIII better though, personally.

Going through my replay right now and honestly...my opinion of her is sort of changing. I used to think she was the sweet, kind, girl next door who wants to do good and save the world. Now I sort of think she's this selfish passive, aggressive bitch. This is really on display when you first arrive at the Gold Saucer, after Barret goes through some tough stuff at Corel. She basically brushes him off and is all like "heeeeeyyy let's go have some fun gaizzzz!!!" Even Tifa calls her out on her harshness and eventually Barret just gets pissed and runs off. Add to that the way she openly says things to Cloud, with Tifa around, knowing full well there's something going on there and yeah...I call bitch. So hey, Sephiroth...you done good.

That's because fuck Cait Sith. Awful character him and Yuffie both.

I certainly get why people say that, but there's something endearing/charming about the character models.

I know people will now hate me but I really hate 7. For me 7 and 9 are the worst FF games ever made. I liked 7 until the end of Disc 1 but after that just MEH..... I could not stand emo cloud and his while story over and over again..... And 9 had just such bad and boring characters but not only that I never liked the battle system either.

My all time favorite will always be 8 and 10. But maybe Versus can beat them who know at this point^^

The escape from the Shinra Corporation was my favourite bit.

I always group these two together because of the "gateway drug to how great JRPGs can be" reputation that FF7 has with a lot of people. My inner fan-boy can't help but bitch about how PS4 came out first, was the way better game, and just doesn't get the attention my child mind thinks it deserves. Plus, - spoiler block for a fifteen year old game - Alys dying was a million times more gut wrenching than Aeris.

7 was good until you left Midgar, then it all just kinda falls apart.

@oldenglishc:

I'd say Sigurd beats them both out, and while I didn't cry or anything when Aeris dies (it's hard to miss a spoiler like that), I read the script over recently, and I have to say that Aeris' death was pretty well executed and it's understandable why people would feel sad about her dying.

Naw, dude, it's the other way around. The game isn't that good until the motorcycle mini-game shortly before you leave Midgar.

I loved Final Fnatasy 7 and would like to go back and play it again. Unfortunately the graphics are just plain ugly at this point so it would be hard to get through. Just remake the thing already Jesus.

@video_game_king:

You know the translation patch is bad when you don't even realize a character is gone half-way through a game. I just thought Sigurd left to grab some beers.

Reno is still my favorite video game character of all time. Never really liked Cloud or Sephiroth, and Aeris's death was more of a shock than anything. Everytime I think of my favorite FF game, VII usually wins out despite having both a horrible main character and main villain, which is pretty amazing.

FF7 is seriously the best fucking game. They should make more PS1 Final Fantasys. They were the only ones I really liked, and I liked em A WHOLE DANG LOT!

Great!

@oldenglishc:

Wait, how do you miss something that major? The game isn't vague about Sigurd being killed off. Alvis very clearly casts Falaflame on his ass. It even says that he "lost his life along the path", right alongside his sister and brother-in-law who die in that very same chapter.

I'd actually like to take a moment and give this thread a pat on the back. Dude says he likes something, and the contrarians are at a minimum!

FF7 holds a special place in my hearty heart for sure. Wouldn't necessarily call it my favorite, but there are definitely aspects of it that I enjoy more than in any other Final Fantasy.

Sorry I missed this post. Here's what you need for all that mod stuff in one spot.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13212.0

I'll say now it's a fairly lengthy process. It's pretty worth it though. Don't expect it to look current gen or anything. The character models are the biggest improvement and you can even have the game use a remixed soundtrack instead. There's all sorts of stuff you can tinker with, which is pretty awesome. Makes replaying it almost seem new and fresh again.

@kishinfoulux: Thanks man. I think that going through a little extra effort is worth it for this game - the last time I played it, its age was really showing, so it could seriously use a boost.

Having played both FF6 and PS4, I can say with a great certainty that FF7 blows them out of the water.

It was just OK. Really stupid antagonist and characters though. Cyd was cool, but everyone else sucked. Gameplay and materia system was awesome though.

One thing I still don't get about that game: Why is the Aeris scene so infamous? When I saw it for the first time, I didn't know about it, and I didn't even care. I was so glad it happened because she is a dumb idiot and didn't fit the party or the game at all. I just don't get why people actually cried over that. It was so overexaggerated and trivial.

It's one of my least favorite Final Fantasy games, but the combat and systems were great. Just the story and characters were miserable. Music was good too.

I think 13, 6, and 8 are the best.

I just played through it earlier this year. Definitely a memorable experience in a lot of ways, but the character design and translation are both pretty bad.

@zeforgotten:

I always preferred the music they used in to FFVIII demo for that mission.

So I just beat the Steam version tonight. It's my third time playing the game overall, but the last time I touched it was about 13 years ago.

I remember being really into the game when I was a teenager, however I'm generally resistant to nostalgia, so I did not hold any great reverence for the game. Unexpectedly, I still ended up enjoying most of the game more than I thought I would. Especially the first half where it's quite linear despite the illusion of freedom (you get out on the world map, but there's rarely more than 1 place you can go).

However, once you get the Highwind, I think the game actually suffers for it. If you choose to the side quests/optional areas the narrative focus really loses momentum and the game becomes more of a grind. Chocobo breeding in particular is an awful, mind-numbing time sink. That said, I will fully admit that I'm a victim of my own compulsions to do that stuff, but I figured this was probably going to be the last time I ever play the game, so I wanted to see most everything the game had to offer (though I am definitely not going to bother with beating Ruby/Emerald). If I hadn't lost somewhere around 8-10 hours to Chocobo racing and other side activities, I think I would have come out of the game with a very positive opinion. As is, it made me remember why I stopped playing JRPGs, at some point they become more concerned with "testing" the player than being entertaining experiences (which is a problem I feel affects Japanese games in general - I will never understand why people like Dark Souls for example).

Bullet point thoughts because I'm too lazy to keep writing paragraphs:

• I like the characters. I think they're more interesting than those of subsequent Final Fantasy games. Characterization would probably be better with better translation.
• Materia system is still a good mechanic, but has way more complexity and variety than the game ever needs or compels you to use. I went through like 98% of the game simply using attack.
• I had this built up image of Sephiroth being a great game villain, but in reality he doesn't have as much characterization as I thought he should. I guess the act of killing off a party member had more impact in those days.
• Segments of the game that were dedicated to exploring character backstories made me think of Mass Effect 2 :)
• Random encounters were not as bad as I thought they'd be. For the most part the rate of encounter is lower than I seemed to remember and did not become annoying except in one or two areas.
• The game is balanced better than I thought it would be too. You level up enough from the fights just progressing from point A to B naturally that you don't actually have to go out of your way to grind unless you want to make subsequent sections of the game non-challenging.
• I think game is simpler than subsequent FF games, in terms of not having too much side stuff (card games) or obscure challenges (Chocobo breeding exempted), and better for it. Again, you get distracted by side stuff too much and you start to forget and then stop caring about the story.
• The character models didn't bother me too much. I find the simple, chunky "exploration" character models to have a certain charm to them as do the largely untextured, Gouraud shaded battle models. Because they're stylized, they hold up better than games that were attempting some form of realism in that era.
• The backgrounds did bother me, they're very low res and pixelated. Even if the source art is lost, simply passing them through a few Photoshop filters would have done wonders - this is my biggest grip with the new port (apart from the music which is easily fixed with replacement files) - because people have done this via modding the original PC port and it really does wonders for the game. Unfortunately there's no way to use the replacement backgrounds in the new port without basically turning it into the old port and then modding from that point - and that's more effort than I wanted to invest.
• Still has some of the best, maybe even the best boss battle music of any game.
• Cait Sith is dumb.

FF7 Is pretty awesome! Even with a mediocre plot and some dumb characters I think there is a lot to love, and so I love it. I really want a resurgance of the materia system, or at least something similar. Too much fun to play around with.