Just finished FF7...

[theaveng]

(1) The story was so sparse as to be boring.

(2) The characters had no personality... they were flatter than the old Super Nintendo sprites.

(3) The materia system sucked, because it allowed any character to be anything. I had Barrett as my healer. Does that make any sense??? Of course not, but the game is so seriously flawed that it allows anyone to cast any spell... thereby erasing any character variety.

(4) I played the entire game with only three characters: Cloud, Barrett, Tifa. What were the other characters for??? They might as well have not existed.

(5) The game was *way* too easy. I beat the last 3 bosses with virtually no effort (call 8 summons, then ultima/fire3 to finish off the bad guy). Why play a game that is so ridiculously un-challenging?

I'll probably dump my copy of FF7 on ebay. I don't plan to waste any more time on it. Nor do I understand why everyone drools over such an astonishingly, poorly designed rpg when much superior rpgs (chrono trigger, ff6, ff9) exist.



In contrast, I've already played FF9 twice and FF10 thrice. Those are well-designed games. To quote a FF9 reviewer on gamespot.com, "The game play was much more innovative and better thought out than the previous materia and dreaded Junction systems of battle. The old style of having characters with certain abilities and responsibilities, such as healing and protecting or attacking, is much more tactical and intuitive than having the ability to make anyone what you want him to be."

[theaveng]

NOTE: This thread originally started here:
http://www.psxnation.com/Forum/cgi-b...t=ST;f=1;t=473
Here's what the folks at psxnation.com said:



BLUM14
I never even got on the 2nd disc of FFVII. Traded it in already. Anyway I thought I was the only one who thought that FFIX was a masterpiece. On of the best games I ever played.



CARKMOUCH
it was cool



&
I can't say I can agree here. I loved the materia system because it did allow so much flexibility for characters. I hated FF8, 9, and 10, all of which were way to linear, to slow or just plain bad. I'm really picky when it comes to RPGs, they have to be something really different.
The only RPG's I've enjoyed:
Suikoden
Suikoden 2
FFVII
Front Mission 3
FF Tactics
Vandal Hearts
Vandal Hearts II
SoA
Jade Cacoon
I've played a ton more but none of them stood out like these...



MR_THICK
FF7 was the best FF ever. The story line was amazing and oh my, how can you not like it?? I think I am going to go out and buy FF7 for 15 bucks. I love the game that much. Thanks everyone for the idea!



ST.ALCOHOL
I really liked FFVII, i thought the story was good, and i enjoyed the materia system because though yes, you could make any charachter any class, (but some charachters were better at some things) you could give charachters abilities specific to their "role" It was a MUCH better customization system than junctioning
I think a combo of the Sphere Grid / Skill system in FFX and the Materia System in FFVII would be great. I really like some of the Summon spells in VIII like Gilgamesh and Quetzacotl, but who ever can beat Knights of the Round?.



_JEAL_
>>>>>(2) The characters had no personality... they were flatter than the old Super Nintendo sprites.
>>>>>

That's the main reason why I hated this game. I could stand the lame story but the characters were just...yuck...

>>>>>(3) The materia system sucked, because it allowed any character to be anything. I had Barrett as my healer. Does that make any sense??? Of course not, but the game is so seriously flawed that it allows anyone to cast any spell... thereby erasing any character variety.
>>>>>

That's also true. It really didn't matter which character you had in your party. The only difference between them was their stats (and Cloud's limit breaks).

>>>>>(5) The game was *way* too easy. I beat the last 3 bosses with virtually no effort (call 8 summons, then ultima/fire3 to finish off the bad guy). Why play a game that is so ridiculously un-challenging?
>>>>>

While I didn't finish the game (due to boredom), it was pretty easy beat.



NOKO-NOKO
As I would say to anyone's view, I respect your opinion, and it's perfectly viable since your perspective is from the fact that you actually completely finished the game and conveyed this evaluation or opinion.
From my view, however, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Now, this may come from the fact that I was fairly new to the Final Fantasy seires. (I had only played FFVI at the time). Regardless, I enjoyed probably every aspect an RPG provides to the player; story, music, gameplay.. But, looking back to that now, as an older and more experienced gamer, it's not that much extraordinary compared to other RPG's I have played, besides the fact that it was one of the first to give me an awesome experience.
I think what keeps Final Fantasy VII as one of my favorite games in my book, is the atmosphere of the game. I can't really can't elaborate on this, as I haven't played the frickin' game for so many years..but it was that 'not-so-bright' atmosphere that I liked.. The Shinra Co., Sephiroth, people draining Mako energy from the planet, Cloud's later mental state.. It was a little darker and 'depressing'..more than any other games I had played.
I'll play this again and get back to you on my better opinion.. I see these kind of threads often, and I really can't have any say in it much anymore since I don't remember anything from the game. It shouldn't take me long..



MR_THICK
Word to that my good man. Glad your around for this kind of stuff.



ST.ALCOHOL
I can't wait to take on Cloud and Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts.



ETIGORO
You didnt like FF7??? I LOVED it. I never beat it, but thats another story... Anyway, I still think its one of the best RPGs. Characters were awesome too, and Materia was great.



MIKE-SADO
Well, I respect your opinion but I happened to enjoy FFVII myself. Although, for what it's worth, the story definitely had it's problems still, I found the characters to be more interesting and fun. How can you not like them? They did not lack any personality whatsoever.



MATT
This may be flamebait, but when I tried playing FFVII about a year ago or so I was initially interested (alright the materia system is intersting and Tifa and Barret seems to be preaty cool) because the storyline was rather intersting and the gameplay seemed to be okay (FFVII were the bomb and I loved FFI and DW1). But when I first met up with Aeris, I had no motivation to play on (with all of the fanboy hoopla that surrounds her, all of this is for some simple waif?). Maybe the game is about 4 years old when I played it or I already knew most of the storyline back then because I thought I would never of played it. I wasn't too impressed with the materia system even thought it seemed to be cool or maybe it looks so dated compared to the other games I could play on Playstation 2. I would of loved it if I played it when it first came out but hey, this is my opinion and that's how I came about to it.



THEAVENG
I completed FF7 but it felt more like a chore than a pleasure. If it had not been so highly rated by fans, I too would have abandoned it at the end of disc 1. But I stuck with it because I was told it would get better (it didn't).
BTW, there is ONE part of FF7 I like: The final boss symphony music and the disc 3 movie. (Did you see the "500 years later" afterword? ) Unfortunately, those ~30 minutes of highlight do not compensate for the previous 50 hours of tedium.
Oh well. I'll stick with FF9, FF6, and Chrono Trigger/Cross for future RPG excursions. Thanks for your FRIENDLY comments. I was afraid I might be verbally abused, but I'm glad to see that you guys [at psxnation.com] tolerate minority opinions. Thanks.



WISESALESMAN
Just wanted to encourage you to go on and play FF6. I consider it to be the second best of the series (topped just slightly by FF4), so I highly reccomend it. You'll have much more fun with that than you did with FF7. Sorry I didn't continue to defend the viewpoint that FF7 was absolute crap, but you have to remember that, to a lot of those people, FF7 was probably their first RPG, and that blinds them. They feel like you're insulting their history, and they'll always maintain that seven was the best of all of them (even if better ones are released in the future). So, in effect, it becomes like storming the beaches of Normandy, and I simply couldn't be bothered. Hope you enjoy the games!



SHADOW
Exactly! This game is feeling more like a chore for me. Why? Because people say its one of the best games ever. I'm still on disk 1, but its kinda boring. Nothing has happened, nothing BIG has happened to keep me from stoping the game.
I really don't know if I really want to finish this game or not

[Lady Jaye]

You. Are. Starting. To. Be. Very. Repetitive. And. Annoying.

If you don't like FF VII, just play something else and get over it. You're starting to sound like a scratched record. No need to start THREE freaking topics on that.

[Queen Of The Felines]

ENOUGH.

Start this crap again and you will be officially branded a troll.

Kristine