Final Fantasy VII $72.00 Am I missing something?

[-_-Nintendo-_-]

Funny story about Final Fantasy 7.

Back when the PS1 was in its prime I went to my Local EB to pick up a Final Fantasy game because of all the hype. Now there were 3 games on the Shelf, Final Fantasy 6,7 and 8. I could not remember which one was recommended to me so I took Final Fantasy 6.

I was disapointed when I got home and it was all in 2D, but 30 hours later I was glad I made that mistake :)

I did get to play Final Fantasy 7 some years later, infact I have played it a couple of times. Not once did I finish it though, It always lost steam towards the end of the first disc, I never had the motivation to keep moving through it. But I could see why many people did like it when it was released, it was pretty epic in scope graphics and story line (which I thought was a little dull) I guess it was just not my kind of game.

Does this mean I am not Human according to psychic1? :o

[evil_genius]

Just who the fuck are you to talk to fellow forum members with such a lack of respect?

Enjoy your seven-day break from the forums. Come back with a bit more respect for your fellow posters, or don't come back.

pwned

[calthaer]

And yet, how is "navigating a bunch of menus" any LESS playing a game? Sure, it doesn't rely on your hand-eye coordination and ability to make precise leaps and sword-cuts, but instead it relies heavily on your ability to plan an effective attack, defense, and manage your resources. Granted, recently a lot of RPGs seem to be little more than cutscenes with gameplay thrown in just to justify calling it a video game, but I've seen that happening in just about every genre since the PS2.

I think difficulty-level has a lot to do with that. The thing is that so many RPGs (unless they're "tactical RPGs", which are virtually all combat with no exploration and such) have combat that is so ridiculously easy that there's little required in terms of managing resources / attack / defense. FF4j (the "hardtype") was a notable exception. Every fight felt like it could be your last, and the battles were actually exciting. Most other ones just feel like you're pushing some buttons to go forward.

[jb143]

That can be true. My main stradegy for playing RPG's is in the fight scenes to hold the controller in such a way that I can shake it with one hand to repeatedly push buttons. It was a really fast way to get past them and worked most of the time. All I wanted to do was to get back to playing the game instead of killing off a blob for 100'th time from an unprovoked attack.

[Dreamc@sting]

Those prices don't surprise me at all, especially for FFVII. When Advent Children came out, it launched a whole new love for the game amongst the younger generation gamers who never got to experience the PS1.

I still have a sealed NON GH version and I been debating putting it up, but I don't feel like parting with it, being the huge FF fanboy that I am

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

meh

Now if they raised the price for complete Final Fantasy 2/4 and 3/6 ex Way better than FF7 IMO

[InsaneDavid]

I think difficulty-level has a lot to do with that. The thing is that so many RPGs (unless they're "tactical RPGs", which are virtually all combat with no exploration and such) have combat that is so ridiculously easy that there's little required in terms of managing resources / attack / defense. FF4j (the "hardtype") was a notable exception. Every fight felt like it could be your last, and the battles were actually exciting. Most other ones just feel like you're pushing some buttons to go forward.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy Grandia so much (favorite RPG in fact), the battle system. You have to think your way through your timing and positioning for each battle without all the tactics grid borefest. (my opinion) Grandia II was way too easy and the characters were boring but I've been playing Grandia III and there have been a few times were I was stomped into the ground for a misjudgement.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I've been playing Grandia III and there have been a few times were I was stomped into the ground for a misjudgement.

I can't remember how many times I had to fight the final battle before I won. There were soooo many times when I got very close but then some attack would come out of left field and stomp me.

I never did finish Grandia Xtreme. Not really sure why.

JY

[chrisbid]

Eh, don't mind me...my first post was one of those "shooting from the hip without fully using my brain" type things. Plus just a few days ago, I was at a place out of state that was selling some common 2600 games for $15 apiece, so I just assumed (insert tired statement about assumptions).

Like I said, I'll give it a looksee the next time I make it up that way :)


i personally price the 2600 games based off of AA's rarity guide, 99 cents for an R1, 1.99 for an R2, 3.99 for an R3, 7.99 for an R4, and anything higher is individually priced.

not super cheap, but not 15 dollars for combat either

[chrisbid]

FFVII was a good game, i was on hiatus from gaming since 95, and FFVII convinced me to buy a playstation.

however, there is a lot of stuff that is/was better.

[James8BitStar]

I think difficulty-level has a lot to do with that. The thing is that so many RPGs (unless they're "tactical RPGs", which are virtually all combat with no exploration and such) have combat that is so ridiculously easy that there's little required in terms of managing resources / attack / defense. FF4j (the "hardtype") was a notable exception. Every fight felt like it could be your last, and the battles were actually exciting. Most other ones just feel like you're pushing some buttons to go forward.

Two points here.

First is, you mention exploration. Most of the time when RPG gameplay comes up people--again--take a default position on it (and again I'm not criticizing anyone at this forum, I'm just saying what I've observed). That position is usually that RPG gameplay means combat. Yet, could we not say that exploration is as much a part of the gameplay? No one can argue that searching out locations and finding treasure isn't itself a game (unless you consider hide-and-seek, scavenger hunts, or finding easter eggs to not be such either). You could probably make the arguement that finding stuff doesn't really require skill, but the whole "skill" thing is something I'll touch on in a moment.

Personally when I play RPGs, Action-RPGs, and other such genres, I tend to find the exploration is the main draw. Combat honestly annoys me in RPGs, because really I want to find all the treasure chests and get to the end of the dungeon, and they seem to always pop up just as I'm about to get to the end of a hallway (it especially sucks when it turns out the hallway is a dead end).

Now for combat difficulty... yes, a lot of RPGs are easy as pie, especially nowadays. But then... in every genre, the majority of games are easy. I've played almost a zillion platformers, shooters, and puzzle games that I could beat in my sleep.

Also gotta remember that that easiness is probably due to experience. I remember the first RPG I ever played--the US version of FF6--and back then, it seemed so hard, and I had trouble staying alive against basic enemies.

The difference between menu-based combat and reflex-based one is that once you learn a strategy that works against computer opponents, you generally don't forget them, whereas your reflexes need to be constantly tested to keep up. Honestly, fighting that snail at the beginning of FF6 is probably actually a lot more difficult than, say, fighting the Cyberdemon in Doom--after all in the latter all you have to do is shoot the sucker then dodge his rockets--but the latter SEEMS harder because you're worried about screwing up, and action taking place in real-time has a way of making a task seem more difficult than it really is.

[WanganRunner]

FFVII is a fantastic game, the materia system is great and the characters involved you, at least relative to the competition at the time, i.e. Wild Arms.

Anyway, I've got like 4 copies, at least 2 of which aren't GH. I'm going to hang on to those, I guess. I can't imagine prices dropping....

[lendelin]

I dont want to contribute to the discussion if FF VII is a great game or about the definition of a RPG.

For me the real puzzling question goes back to the original post. Why did FF VII go up in price so dramatically? Why not FF VIII or IX? For me it was never FF Advent Children, and it can't be the production numbers, and it can't be the the always popular FF series, and it can't be the availability.

Why did the demand for this game and therefore the price increase so much at this point? I have no answer.

[Blitzwing256]

it was a revolutionary game (love it or hate it) and got sooo many people into gaming and more so rpg games , so now quite a few years later those people are quite nostaligic over the game that got them into it all (plus that cgi movie thing and that cartoon helped as well)

[Jorpho]

For me the real puzzling question goes back to the original post. Why did FF VII go up in price so dramatically? Why not FF VIII or IX? For me it was never FF Advent Children, and it can't be the production numbers, and it can't be the the always popular FF series, and it can't be the availability.

A lot of people really, really hate FFVIII, and I can understand why. I don't think it's just that people had overly high expectations for it after FFVII, and I don't think it's just some sort of backlash against raving fanboyism (like some of the FFVII hate often seems to be). Despite being well put-together, it really is rather lacking, and it doesn't even have what I shall refer to as the brazen craziness of FFVII to help it along.

As for FFIX, I don't know. That really was a very nice game. Maybe people paid slightly less attention to it because it came out later in the life of the PS1? Maybe there are more copies of it readily available since it was released more recently?

[Graham Mitchell]

A lot of people really, really hate FFVIII, and I can understand why. I don't think it's just that people had overly high expectations for it after FFVII, and I don't think it's just some sort of backlash against raving fanboyism (like some of the FFVII hate often seems to be). Despite being well put-together, it really is rather lacking, and it doesn't even have what I shall refer to as the brazen craziness of FFVII to help it along.



I had some issues with FFVIII which were very specific, and most people I talk to these days agreed to having the same issue. I played about half way through it when I realized I hadn't powered-up my weapons even once, and I was getting killed left and right. The reason was that I refused to learn and play the card game. I thought it was lame, and I REALLY don't get off on trading card games. But if you don't play and get reasonably good at the trading card game, you won't upgrade any weapons or armor. By that time, I was essentially stuck. I couldn't get out of the genie's lamp, and I couldn't survive the battle inside it. I basically was being forced to start all over. I said "fuckit" and never put the game back in my machine. Maybe I just didn't understand what I was supposed to do, but the whole thing really irked me--to the point that the game was no longer fun.

FFX drove me nuts in a similar fashion with the damn blitzball thing. I'm playing Final Fantasy--what on Earth would make the developers think I like sports? (that's a joke, but there is some truth to it). They didn't force you to play MUCH blitzball, which is good, and you're never really required to play it too much, which is a plus as well. I just didn't dig it.

I guess where the series kind of left me behind is that there's always this push to engage heavily in these distracting little tasks that interrupt the flow of the game. I realize the option has been in the FF games basically since their inception, but they tend to blend in poorly with the rest of the game in later installments. I remember in FFIVj there were caves that were optional where you had to beat those god-creature-thingamajigs and you either got special armor or something for Rydia to call if you did the caves. Those were okay because you were still playing the primary game.

I suppose my complaint comes down mostly to personal preference, but I'm always surprised to find how many others tend to agree with me.

[Blitzwing256]

I thought ff8 was one of if not the best final fantasy, I do see how people had problems with it, but just to clarify a bit, you err um don't even HAVE armour in the game, and your weapon upgrades aren't as necesary as in other games, you also don't need to play the card games at all (it just is an easier way to get stuff earlier in the game) as for the fight with diablos in the lamp you might want to use your draw command and draw his demi spell a few times, then stab him in the face ;-). like many final fantasy games you just have to be smart how you level up your skills, be it materia or junction abilities.

*gets off his soapbox and walks away

[Jorpho]

The reason was that I refused to learn and play the card game. I thought it was lame, and I REALLY don't get off on trading card games. But if you don't play and get reasonably good at the trading card game, you won't upgrade any weapons or armor.

That's a whole new one on me. Whatever else might be wrong with the game, you can still get everything you need to upgrade your weapons without playing the card game. But I suppose the fact that you were led to believe otherwise is certainly something that can be counted against it. ;)

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Thats why I said what I said. Because FF7 is one of the greatest games of all time as decided by the human race. Just who the fuck are you to say you know more about what makes a game good then 20 million people combined? What the fuck do you know?

Fun fact: New Kids on the Block sold over 70 million albums worldwide.

NKOTB = awesome

[Cryomancer]

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9247/fdghhgfdhtn9.png

[strassy]

JRPG = japanese RPG?

what's a WRPG?

[Cryomancer]

western RPG

[James8BitStar]

That's a pretty accurate summary of the difference between JRPGs and WRPGs.

That being said, WRPGs are still better ^__^ (Says a guy who is hopelessly addicted to Dragon Warrior II at the moment).

[Niku-Sama]

yay i found a cheap copy, now i dont know what to do with it because i cant stand final fantasy, its not the game its the storys i dont like, well that and the fact you cant see the enemies before you get sucked into a random battle.

oh well

[carlcarlson]

Haha, I enjoy the graphic. Thank you MS Paint.

I myself absolutely love FFIX. I prefer fantasy rpgs, and it was a nice return to the roots. I loved the characters, the story, and the style. I really enjoyed the skill system where you had to level up different pieces of equipment to draw out their abilities. I dug all of the side quests, like the frogs and stuff like that, and I even really enjoyed the card game.

Despite all of that, I think FFVII edges it out as my favorite PS1 rpg. The main reason for this is the materia system. The best thing about rpgs for me is being able to beef up my guys. I mean, that's what an rpg IS for me. The materia system allowed me to do that to a point that was unheard of at that time. By the end of the game I was countering with Knights of the Round four times every time I got hit, and if I died I automatically cast the Phoenix limit, which would resurrect me. Come on, that's freaking amazing! The inclusion of the weapons and the casino also really helped make the game for me. Even as strong as I was the weapons still put up one heck of a fight, and still required strategy to beat. The casino was a nice break from all of the grinding, something that I hadn't seen in an rpg up until that point. Chocobo racing was the most exciting thing I had ever seen in a game, my buddy and I were on the edges of our seats while we played that thing.

So yeah, the game brings back some fond memories. I think for me, Blitzwing hit the nail on the head of why the value has rocketed. It's all about nostalgia and trying to return to the feeling you had the first time you played a game like this.

[smokehouse]

I'm a little late to this thread but I can understand the current prices FFVII are demanding...

First off...I really do feel it was an epic game. I'm not really a fan of FFVIII or FFIX but VII just had that "something". At the time it was one of the best games I have ever played.

Personally, I feel the game is in desperate need of a remake as it's 3D parts are horribly ugly now but the whole demand driving up price thing is stupid but realistic.

I've had my copy since launch and I'm glad I was at the age to be able to pay for and full enjoy this title when it was new. I've only played it through once but I'm glad I did.

People want it- the price goes up- people want it more- the price goes higher...

Goofy I know but it's reality and for the guys who want a copy and do not have one...I'm sorry the price is so high. As a collector it's a real pain in the ass but it happens.















I wonder what the FFVII demo disk is going for these days?

[Graham Mitchell]

I thought ff8 was one of if not the best final fantasy, I do see how people had problems with it, but just to clarify a bit, you err um don't even HAVE armour in the game, and your weapon upgrades aren't as necesary as in other games, you also don't need to play the card games at all (it just is an easier way to get stuff earlier in the game) as for the fight with diablos in the lamp you might want to use your draw command and draw his demi spell a few times, then stab him in the face ;-). like many final fantasy games you just have to be smart how you level up your skills, be it materia or junction abilities.

*gets off his soapbox and walks away

Yeah, any time I go on a rant there's some inaccuracy involved. I've gotten used to it. lol

It's going on 8 years since I've even touched that game, so my memory is hazy. But this is what I thought was going on.

Cheers

[smokehouse]

I really tried to get into FFVIII but I just couldn't...I'm not sure why but it just didn't float my boat.

[Aussie2B]

By the end of the game I was countering with Knights of the Round four times every time I got hit

Did you go use the bathroom and make a sandwich? :P

Heck, you might even have enough time to start a load of laundry too.

[smokehouse]

Did you go use the bathroom and make a sandwich? :P

Heck, you might even have enough time to start a load of laundry too.

LOL...that was a long ass spell...

[PentiumMMX]

I got lucky and got my first copy of it (Greatest Hits, New) as a birthday gift in 2004 (A few days before I joined DP), and my current copy (Original, complete) for free last year from a friends along with Final Fantasy VIII and IX.

[Jorpho]

Even as strong as I was the weapons still put up one heck of a fight, and still required strategy to beat.

I've never gotten the impression that it was possible to defeat the Ruby Weapon without spamming KOTR, unless you take a really, really, really long time to do it. Is this not the case?


Chocobo racing was the most exciting thing I had ever seen in a game, my buddy and I were on the edges of our seats while we played that thing.

I never thought there was much strategy to Chocobo racing, either.

I guess there's still some things to learn about this game...

[carlcarlson]

Did you go use the bathroom and make a sandwich? :P

Heck, you might even have enough time to start a load of laundry too.

ha, yeah, I only had that turned on for boss/weapon fights because it did get very annoying very fast. it helped that I got a giddy sense of glee every time it happened though.


I've never gotten the impression that it was possible to defeat the Ruby Weapon without spamming KOTR, unless you take a really, really, really long time to do it. Is this not the case?



I never thought there was much strategy to Chocobo racing, either.

I guess there's still some things to learn about this game...


I'll be honest, it's been so long so I beat it that I can't remember all of the details. I'm almost positive we beat all the weapons (4 of them?), but I'm not certain. We definitely were spamming the KOTR though, so maybe we did beat Ruby. As for Chocobo racing, I don't know how much skill/strategy was there, but it was definitely exciting. We had to do a LOT of it to get certain materia, but once we had the black chocobo it got pretty easy. I think the bunny races in Star Ocean 2 are about the only other thing in a game to make me yell at the screen.

[James8BitStar]

How do you "spam" the KOTR? For that matter, how do you do this instant-revival "Phoenix" thing that was mentioned previously?

I must not have experimented enough with the game.

[Jorpho]

How do you "spam" the KOTR?

Oh, just a bit of creative slang for using it over and over and over again. I'm not sure of the details, but Mimic and W-Summon come into play.


For that matter, how do you do this instant-revival "Phoenix" thing that was mentioned previously?

That's just a matter of connecting Phoenix to Final Attack. (Technically it would only work five times per battle - unless you have more than one character with those two materia, of course.)

[Blitzwing256]

if you master the kotr materia several times and link it to counter magic materia it'll go off every time you get hit for every kotr + counter magic you have equiped on that charecter, if you want to be a total dick though you need to attach sneak attack + kotr so it goes off right when the battle starts ;-)

[mezrabad]

What surprises me is that I still see GH versions of games like FF: Chronicles and Anthology for sale, brand spanking new, at places like Fry's and on Amazon. I may be crazy, but I'd also swear I saw FF VIII and IX for sale, brand new, fairly recently too. If the price is so crazy why isn't Square going ahead and reissuing VII at $15 or $20 since that's what they seem to be doing with the other games and since there are so many PS2s out there that would still play it? Of course, maybe they are doing this and resellers and ebayers are just buying up the copies wholesale and selling them for $70+ a pop on ebay instead of letting others get them for retail price.

They've reissued I through VI on different platforms, what the hell are they waiting for with VII? Anyway, I wouldn't call it the best game ever, but I would say that the right type of person in the right mood could get very emotionally attached to the characters and confuse their "my favorite game of all time" feelings with "best game ever, f-this, f-that, everyone can die" feelings. These people are merely confused and need lots of medication before becoming easier to get along with.

[Eggman]

What surprises me is that I still see GH versions of games like FF: Chronicles and Anthology for sale, brand spanking new, at places like Fry's and on Amazon. I may be crazy, but I'd also swear I saw FF VIII and IX for sale, brand new, fairly recently too. If the price is so crazy why isn't Square going ahead and reissuing VII at $15 or $20 since that's what they seem to be doing with the other games and since there are so many PS2s out there that would still play it? Of course, maybe they are doing this and resellers and ebayers are just buying up the copies wholesale and selling them for $70+ a pop on ebay instead of letting others get them for retail price.

They've reissued I through VI on different platforms, what the hell are they waiting for with VII? Anyway, I wouldn't call it the best game ever, but I would say that the right type of person in the right mood could get very emotionally attached to the characters and confuse their "my favorite game of all time" feelings with "best game ever, f-this, f-that, everyone can die" feelings. These people are merely confused and need lots of medication before becoming easier to get along with.

Three or so years back I bought my GH copy of FF7 off of Square-Enix's website for 15 dollars, and they were actually new reprints done by Squeenix. All the copies they had are long gone, but they reprinted this game as well as another print run of Xenogears, so they have done recent reprints.

[Jorpho]

If the price is so crazy why isn't Square going ahead and reissuing VII at $15 or $20 since that's what they seem to be doing with the other games and since there are so many PS2s out there that would still play it?

For that matter, why aren't they releasing Chrono Trigger for the DS and raking in even more millions?

I guess when a company's products become that ravenously popular, it has to be careful about its marketing and public perception.

[Volcanon]

I guess the fact that Japanese FF7's commonly sell on Y!J for $20 makes me feel that years of studying Japanese meant something. Too bad I dont have a Japanese PS1. PS2 runs PS1 games, I think though.

[James8BitStar]

I guess the fact that Japanese FF7's commonly sell on Y!J for $20 makes me feel that years of studying Japanese meant something. Too bad I dont have a Japanese PS1. PS2 runs PS1 games, I think though.

A Japanese PS2 will run Japanese PS1 games, yeah.

[Megadrivefan1]

A few weeks ago I went to my nearest gaming store just to chat with my buddy who works there. After I walked in some 13-14 year old came in the store demanding to buy all the Final Fantasy titles that was in stock. He purchased a whole lot of FF RPGs including a resealed GH FFVIII for $50. He paid everything by cash. That was crazy.

[Wolf]

I stopped by "Play It or Trade It" video game store north of OSU campus on North High this last weekend to find a used copy of Playstation (greatest hits even) FF VII for $72.00. Ummm...am I missing something here. Dude said that since Advent Children came out no one is trading it in anymore and it has become very hard to find so the price shot up. These guy have got to be on crack. They also had used Rayman 2 for PSX for $61.00, Atari 7800 bundle with 10 common games for $60.00. NES toploader for $108.00. Am I just out of it or are these prices common?

Consider the source, used game stores ( mom n pop or chains ) mostly sell in demand games for ebay prices.

Secondly $72.00 for a game is really not that high, go on ebay or look at the prices for imports that are new and you see that alot retail for 50-69, considering the popularity of this game and the shape of it $72 is really nothing unless you need tires for your house, hell when we were kids the prices of many popular new snes games were much higher than this, I know I know the media is cheaper and blah blah but it is just something to also consider.

If you go on ebay at any given time you will see many varied prices for VII among other so called rare psx titles, the ones that do sell for prices like this normally are near mint or 100% complete, quite often you will see a ton that are 10-40 that would be middle of the road when it comes to their shape, you will see alot with just the discs etc, same with valkyrie profile. FF VII seems to be a rare case where a greatest hits fetches much higher than what a GH would normally fetch, psx games are not really sold that much anymore in game shops other than indy stores, I don't agree with this guys prices to begin with but it does explain the situation a bit.

I picked up a GH ( square not se version ) for $15 usd back in 2003 at a walmart in the US while camping, I also picked up a superb near mint complete copy of FF VII international for 40 last year, I never plan to sell them but I would easily pay $50-70 if they were original and near mint if I needed them for my collection.