It's time for...Pointless Nostalgia! (Modem unfriendly)

[Dahne]

Welcome, to Dahne's brand new, completely unsanctioned by anyone feature! Inspired by all those times a random game pops into my head and I think, "hey, I'd like to wax nostalgic about that for a while", this block o' text written by me and picutres yoinked from various places (mostly www.megalixer.net) is schedualed to appear once every period of time in which I feel like it! It shall most likely contain many, many spoilertastic tasty treats, but it shall also be more than likely that you already know them. Today's Object of Nostalgiapalooza:

http://img122.echo.cx/img122/1081/ff7logo6pv.gif
Final Fantasy VII

Remember back in the day, when the 20% of the internet that wasn't porn consisted mostly of really bad fansites for this game? I do. See, I came into my own as a full-fledged gamer just before the Playstation hit the shelves. At the time, I was a die-hard RPG nut, due in equal parts to me being a sucker for a good story and also in possession of very poor reflexes. In those days, men were real men, women were real women, and hard games were really fuggin' hard, so having more patience than hand-eye coordination made RPGs a perfect fit. Considering the period, it goes without saying that I quickly swore allegience to Square. I would follow anything with "Final Fantasy" on it to the ends of the world, which is, by the way, of a perfectly proportioned rectangular shape.

http://img246.echo.cx/img246/7703/rememberthis5ff.gif
Remember when graphics like this blew people's minds?

I was quite young, really. In fifth or sixth grade. Young enough that the Teen rating seemed racy enough to cause me to move the Playstation into a room with fewer passers-by than the living room in which it had previously held sway. I would be thankful for this decision come Wall Market.

http://img181.echo.cx/img181/8262/goodolwallmarket4qz.gif
Good ol' Wall Market.

But besides the occasional deeply disturbing sidequest, there was the boss.

http://img223.echo.cx/img223/6701/sephiroth1lg.gif
Yeah. THE boss.

Before the little black blob, really hot girHOLY SHIT, and whatever the hell Ultamecia was, (but after the deranged kabuki clown), there was this guy. He was an adherant to, though not the instigator of, the Ghaleon Law - All the world's problems can be solved by finding the right long-haired bishounen and beating the crap out of him. This may be where I began my long, ill-fated habit of liking the bad guy a lot more than the good ones. It's easy to forgive the whole cloning thing, which by the end of the game made absolutely no sense, as it's greatly outweighed by several metric tons of sheer coolness.

Though the last battle is popularly agreed upon as being far too easy, it's a spectacular one. I'm a sucker for anybody who transforms into a giant flying angel-thing, complete with personal choir and weirdly mistranslated name (Safer Sephiroth?).

Which brings up another unique point of this game: it marks something of a turning point in translation. 7 is perhaps the last Final Fantasy to include those odd little quirks of translation that give older games their exotic, squid-ink-pizza flavor.

http://img242.echo.cx/img242/5229/offcourse1ro.jpg
I remember having to stare at this for a while before figuring out which one meant 'yes'. Yeah, I wasn't an awfully bright kid.

Remember back when everybody's lifelong quest was to beat Emerald Weapon? That's one thing I never did. A completist I'll never be. Do you even get anything good for beating it? I'm inclined not to think so, considering that the best spell in the game can only be acquired through the carnal relations of giant birds (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=72).

My personal favorite aspect of the game was all the minigames that popped up all the time. Gotta love that motorcycle chase. Man. Or the slap-fight with Scarlet. More often than not they barely affected anything, which is a pretty good thing, considering how bad I invariably am at them.

Another spot where FF7 shined was sheer variety of characters. You had the typical male-between-the-ages-of-17-and-25-with-a-mysterious-past-he-can't-remember. Then you had the flower girl, Mr. T knockoff, quiet caped guy found in a coffin who turns into a demon from time to time, pilot with a harpoon, orange dog-lion thing, and a remote controlled cat-and-moogle. (Could you imagine a scene like the introduction to the Shinra president in, say, FF8? "I'm a teenager with emotional problems!" "I'm another teenager with emotional problems!")

Since this was pretty much the first RPG to secure a more mainstream audience in the US, it's gotten a lot of backlash over the years. First there was the trend of everybody loving it, then everybody hated it because everybody loved it, then some people went against that trend and talked about liking it, then people went against THAT trend, and so on until the end of time.

Or, well, so on until the discussion died out. Nowadays the talk about games that exist has faded away, to be mostly replaced by speculation on games that have been seen only in the form of previews. It's a mixed bag, really. You don't get the conversations you used to. But then again, you don't get people asking how to revive Aeris anymore.

Favorite moment: Doing really bad in Rufus' parade at Junon. "Send that soldier a bomb or something!" *Received 'Grenade'*

Thank you for reading these disjointed little ramblings on an ancient favorite of mine. I'll be making another installment sooner or later, depending how many exploding packages I get in the mail as a result of this one.

[kainemaxwell]

Very cool article/review!!

[sisko]

GAH! Use spoiler tags next time please :(

[K3V]

GAH! Use spoiler tags next time please :(

Protip: Darth Vader is Luke's father too. :P

[Cthulhu]

Ahh, FFVII, those were the days. I got the JP demo of the game along with Tobal No. 1 (I imported Tobal just for the demo, acutally :D ) and I was AMAZED. Entranced. Astounded. I couldn't understand anything they said other than "yes" and "no" (I learned those words from my Japanese SNES games - "no" was the long one LOL ) but that didn't stop me from playing the demo over and over and over... I played it at least 3 or 4 times.

The game turned out to be pretty much everything I wanted too. It had enough fantasy to still be "Final Fantasy" but added some cool sci-fi elements as well. Lots of unique characters and interesting battles. Ahh, those were the days. FFX was great but easy, and X-2... it didn't feel like Final Fantasy to me. Actually, X-2 felt more like FF to me than FFXI, but that's another issue entirely.

Thanks for the nostalgia. :D

[Graham Mitchell]

I agree that FFVII was a pretty pivotal game. I was 19 when it came out, and I'd only seen RPG's that operated in square-tile worlds. When I bought the game and everybody got off the subway, I just sat there watching. When everything stalled, I said "hey what's going on...the cinema stopped!" So I started pushing buttons. When I realized that I was CONTROLLING Cloud in that Resident Evil-esque perspective, I almost lost my mind. I couldn't believe that somebody made a fully 3-D RPG that wasn't some dungeon crawler like Might and Magic.

While that was all great, I'll also say that FFVII was the last great Final Fantasy game, in my opinion. The stories have gotten repititive and half-baked, and too much of the games were devoted to CG. (The full-motion video is the only reason that any of those PSX games were multidisc.) FF has become a cash cow that needs minimal milking to achieve maximum profits, so they probably don't try very hard anymore. (Note-I haven't played IX, and people have told me that it's better. But looking at VIII and X...blecch.)

Anyway, nice rant Dahne! I enjoyed reading it.

PS--VII was the first FF with profanity in int.

[link1110]

Final Fantasy 7 was an OK game, but in no way can it hold a candle to Final Fantasy 5. Now THAT game was fun, it was my first import back in 1996, and it cost me $90. Worth every penny. There are just so many secrets you can do in that game, every boss has a cheap way to kill them that you can figure out and exploit, whether it's CoinToss for the 4 seal guardians, or just turning everyone into toads before that one boss in the last dungeon so she turns the party from toads to humans, not the other way around, discovering everything takes multiple playthroughs, and this is the first Final Fantasy with the 2 impossible bosses (Omega and Shinryu.) It even had a playable character die about halfway through (Though it's far from the first FF to do that, 2, 3, and 4 all did it first.) People say that the story isn't as good as other FF's, but I found it good enough, this game isn't about its story though, it's about gameplay. The creator of FF even said in an interview that theodd numbered FF games concentrate on gameplay while the even numbered ones concentrate on story. Seems to fit.

And if you like Final Fantasy 5, Final Fantasy 3 (Not 6) is the game that started the whole job system thing. You can import that for Famicom or wait for the upcoming DS remake.

[Jorpho]

Dude, FF5 was released in the US in the PSX Final Fantasy Anthology.


He was an adherant to, though not the instigator of, the Ghaleon Law - All the world's problems can be solved by finding the right long-haired bishounen and beating the crap out of him.

Wooaahh... It's all becoming so clear to me now!

Did the term "Sephiroth" have some sort of meaning before FF7? I have seen suggestions to the fact, but never anything concrete.

[link1110]

Dude, FF5 released in the US in the PSX Final Fantasy Anthology.

Yes, in 1999. As I said, I first imported it in 1996, 3 years prior to that. I have since bought Final Fantasy Anthology.

[Cryomancer]

Dude, FF5 was released in the US in the PSX Final Fantasy Anthology.


He was an adherant to, though not the instigator of, the Ghaleon Law - All the world's problems can be solved by finding the right long-haired bishounen and beating the crap out of him.

Wooaahh... It's all becoming so clear to me now!

Did the term "Sephiroth" have some sort of meaning before FF7? I have seen suggestions to the fact, but never anything concrete.

I think the "Sephiroth Tree" is a part of Kabbalahisic mythology.

[Kroogah]

FFVII's most amazing moment, is forever ruined for future generations, much like Psycho or Alien, or the aforementioned Empire Strikes Back, because everyone assumes it's a given.

Man I remember when this came out. In 6th grade, I traded my SNES in for a Playstation (because they were out of N64s, GEE WHAT ROTTEN LUCK) and most of my Nintendo whore friends mocked me for it. Until 7th grade, when the mighty FF7 was released. One of my friends bought the game and he didn't even have a Playstation. He of course immediately came over to my house and we watched the classic opening FMV with that great segue, picked our jaws up off the floor, and continued to the 2nd reactor or so.

This game still sits in my collection, waiting to be played through again every couple of years when I get a serious case of nostalgia for materia, limit breaks, Gold Saucer, and chocobo sex.

[shvnsth]

the same place in people's hearts that ff7 occupies for psx people, zelda oot fills that same void for the people who had n64s. i just beat ff7 last summer after hearing about how awesome it was for so many years from every gamer on the planet, and i must admit, it is as good as everyone says it is. ive tried playing some other "classics" that i just cannot get into, but ff7 is def a game that everyone needs to play.

[Dahne]

Dude, FF5 was released in the US in the PSX Final Fantasy Anthology.


He was an adherant to, though not the instigator of, the Ghaleon Law - All the world's problems can be solved by finding the right long-haired bishounen and beating the crap out of him.

Wooaahh... It's all becoming so clear to me now!

Did the term "Sephiroth" have some sort of meaning before FF7? I have seen suggestions to the fact, but never anything concrete.

I think the "Sephiroth Tree" is a part of Kabbalahisic mythology.

Yup. The Sephiroth, or Sephirot, is a symbol in the Kabbalah. It also appears in the sky in Evangelion at one point for no real reason.

[Jorpho]

I guess I'm the only one who started with the PC version? Sadly, the minimum system requirements (a P100) were more than a little optimistic; you needed something pretty powerful to keep the FMV from going out of sync with the music or overlayed sprites. (That majestic intro sequence becomes a little too surreal if you see soldiers flying through the air near the end.)

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Yup. The Sephiroth, or Sephirot, is a symbol in the Kabbalah. It also appears in the sky in Evangelion at one point for no real reason.


Wow I never knew that, Thanks for pointing that out. Heh, it's actually kinda funny seeing as Final Fantasy 7 also had some Evengelion cameos in it. I know the FF ones were intentional (mostly due to Evangelion being older), but it's kind of neat how both had semi tie-ins to one another.

[Promophile]

the same place in people's hearts that ff7 occupies for psx people

What about us Saturn people? :angry: yeah i was one of the few people that only had a saturn as my "next gen" console for over 3 years. Looking back its not bad since i got to experience games like Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga but I missed out on alot of great games for a long while.

Great piece though, I thought it was pretty good. Personally I'm not TOO horribly attached to FF7. My FF7 would be FF6(3). I still can't hear the overworld theme without my eyes tearing and feeling a tingle in my gut :) .

[NE146]

Wow.. who'd think we'd already be reminiscing about a game that to me just seemed like it came out not all that long ago at all. Man.. psx??! this was only one short console generation ago! :P

FF VII is the game that killed RPG's to me. I loved FF and had played it since I had come out in the U.S... (although I still think Phantasy Star was the better game). Anyway, once FFVII came out, I was so disgusted with the polygon graphics. You couldn't see anything! Anyway.. I tried it, didn't like it. Dumped it about 20 hours in.

I still have 2 sealed original copies of the game actually along with my opened one (because my friends and my girlfriend knew I liked the game and each bought one for me when it came out. LOL

[kainemaxwell]

Here's some Sepiroth info and One Winged Angel translation:
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff7/text/info/sephmean.txt
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff7/text/info/owainfo.txt

[s1lence]

FFVII was the second RPG I played, first being Dragon Warrior on the NES. ( I wasnt in to RPG's at the time) It was the game that really introducied me to the world of RPG's. I remember spending hours apon hours trying to find everything in the game and how much it pissed my girlfriend off at the time. I havent returned to it in about 3 years, but I will say that the game is still on my bookshelf and that girlfriend is long gone.

[Cirrus]

Great piece though, I thought it was pretty good. Personally I'm not TOO horribly attached to FF7. My FF7 would be FF6(3). I still can't hear the overworld theme without my eyes tearing and feeling a tingle in my gut :) .

I know what you mean, FF6(3) was the best, wasn't it?

It's kind of interesting to read about Final Fantasy 7 and not want to click it closed right away... I guess it was the pretty pictures. :) There is so much "this was my first time" quality for this game, especially with the younger gamer crowd. It just gets out of hand sometimes. But, it was a nice read.

Final Fantasy 8 on the other hand... blech. I never liked that. I had a very good time playing through VII, or at least I seem to remember doing so. 8 was like purgatory. Not quite excruciating enough to turn off outright, but it just seemed like busy work.

Thanks for the writeup. What's next?

[Gzilla23]

this article is great thanks for posting it. FFVII was the first Rpg I really got into and I remember all my friends and I played it constantly and always had to update each other in the morning while waiting for the bus on what was gonna happen. It was a great game and now that I'm thinking about it prolly worth a replay.

[slip81]

I remember FFVII was the reason I bought a PSX. I had to save up all summer to have enough money to get it, since I was 15 and didn't have a real job yet.

And then when I finally had the money in August I pre ordered the game the same day I bought the PSX.

[ClassicGameTrader]

FFVII to me was the last great FF game. After FFVII, FFVIII seemed so stupid to me. The characters seemed so plastic and uninteresting. All the emphasis was on how much FMV you could watch and how cool the summons were. Every other FF game I have ever played sucked you in from the first second as where FFVIII seemed like it started out on the second disc so to speak. I first played FF2 (IV) on the snes in 1992 and it pretty much changed my life. It wasn't about graphics back then, it was all about story, I wanted to know what happened to cecil, kain, ect.

My belief has always been that while FFVII was a terrific game, it kind of opened the door to the more cinematic FF games. The problem is that all of the emphasis was put on cinema and much less on story past this point. I picked up FFX and just couldn't get into it. FF games to me were always like reading a good book, a book that makes you feel like you are in control, a book that makes you want to be that character. After FFVII I always found myself less interested in these characters.

The one thing I have always asked myself is has the fact that I have gotten older made these games less interesting to me? I mean, I was 10 when FF2 came out, Im 23 now. It just seems that older FF games just had a special presence to me. I mean, I probably am more into gaming now then I ever have been but after FFVII it just didn't do it for me anymore.

[Tachikoma]

Excellent topic, Dahne! Final Fantasy VII was very epic. It's been over 5 years since I last played it, but when I did, I enjoyed every bit of it. I hope you choose to write articles about more games. I love videogame nastalgia. :-P

[kainemaxwell]

I still got my copy of FF7 pc, never finished it though.

[Graham Mitchell]

The one thing I have always asked myself is has the fact that I have gotten older made these games less interesting to me? I mean, I was 10 when FF2 came out, Im 23 now. It just seems that older FF games just had a special presence to me. I mean, I probably am more into gaming now then I ever have been but after FFVII it just didn't do it for me anymore.

I often wonder the same thing, but I've reasoned it in my head a billion times, and I think the older games were just better, because you actually DID stuff instead of watching a movie. I also think that the length of an RPG is critical to making it an epic or a bloated, overblown piece of shit. In FFX, something screwy is going on with Yuna every half-hour, whether she's getting married or questioning her faith or whatever. By the 80th hour, (and you will still be playing at 80 hours) you'll be so sick of her shit that you pretty much just want to drown Yuna and toss the disc out the window.

FFVII was the first console RPG to clock in 40 hours of required gaming time. That's the longest RPG I've ever finished, and I feel that any longer than that is just too long. The laws of probability alone will tell you that anything over 30 hours is going to be totally non-substantive gaming time, whether it's watching really uninspired cinematics, or (and this is what current-gen RPG's love to waste your time with) navigating through a web of menus to upgrade your characters or their weapons every 5 minutes.

The whole reason I preferred Dragon Warrior to getting out the hex map and the dice was that the computer really managed all that for you. The newer Final Fantasies have gotten rid of the essential intracacies of story and dynamic gameplay, and brought back the irritating minutiae. Screw that. :/

[SoulBlazer]

I'm a huge FF fan and finally broke down and bought a PlayStation (my first non-Nintendo system) in January of 1998 so I could play FF7 and Final Fantasy Tactics. Also got Persona when I bought the system and games. All of the games kept me entertained for a long time.

I recall being amazed by the graphics. The music was also very good, the gameplay was fun, and it felt like a FF game to me. The story is very confusing, though.

In hindsight, I don't love FF7 as much as the fanboys do -- I consider 8 and 9 much better games -- but I still enjoy it. I'd rank it sixth in the ten (single player) games of the series.

And the PC version IS much better then the original PSX release.

[Overbite]

FF7 was the first RPG i finished. It was good, so I played through it 4 more times.