Posted at 14:44 by Mark Mackay with 49 comments
Anyone who read the Tales of Vesperia review recently will know that I felt the game played a lot of like JRPG legend Final Fantasy VII. It would be true to say many of the Final Fantasy games since VII played a lot like it also, but I mentioned VII because it's the one most people have had a 99+ hour love affair with.
I remember when Final Fantasy VIII was released; I ran to the shop to buy it, got it home then promptly sat on and broke the disk which was on my bed. I immediately ran back to the shop to buy another copy and ran home to play it. Who says gaming isn’t good exercise? I got home, fired it up and my Playstation packed in after about 15 minutes. Sheesh. I went back to the shops, bought a new Playstation and ran home to play it.
Now, FFVIII didn’t turn out to be all that hot. But my love for FFVII was so strong, (almost as strong as my love for running to the shops) that I spent the better part of £200 to play it as soon as possible.
There was something about the game world in FFVII which was so enchanting. The combo of beautifully rendered spell effects and contemporary-looking swords and guns was truly imagination capturing. The characters were flawed and believable - a bunch of rag-tag heroes from the slums who you could really identify with.
The materia combat system allowed you to build up your spells to obscene levels of power and created an incredibly deep and tactical turn-based combat system which was finished off by awesome animations. Epic end-game content was provided in the form of WEAPONs, huge monsters that could only be beaten by the most cunning combos of the most powerful materia in the game. There was a lot of incentive to keep on playing, and playing and playing.
Every 18 months or so I find myself returning to FFVII, and about 18 months ago I bought a sealed copy of the game for the PC and played it through. Often going back and back and playing games from your past can be disappointing and while I’ll concede that I longed for it to properly fill my widescreen display, I enjoyed it every bit as much as I ever did. I bred a Golden Chocobo, collected all the materia in the game and spent hours messing around in the Golden Saucer. I just couldn’t be happier than I am engrossed in a good session of Final Fantasy VII.
I remember when Final Fantasy VIII was released; I ran to the shop to buy it, got it home then promptly sat on and broke the disk which was on my bed. I immediately ran back to the shop to buy another copy and ran home to play it. Who says gaming isn’t good exercise? I got home, fired it up and my Playstation packed in after about 15 minutes. Sheesh. I went back to the shops, bought a new Playstation and ran home to play it.
Now, FFVIII didn’t turn out to be all that hot. But my love for FFVII was so strong, (almost as strong as my love for running to the shops) that I spent the better part of £200 to play it as soon as possible.
There was something about the game world in FFVII which was so enchanting. The combo of beautifully rendered spell effects and contemporary-looking swords and guns was truly imagination capturing. The characters were flawed and believable - a bunch of rag-tag heroes from the slums who you could really identify with.
The materia combat system allowed you to build up your spells to obscene levels of power and created an incredibly deep and tactical turn-based combat system which was finished off by awesome animations. Epic end-game content was provided in the form of WEAPONs, huge monsters that could only be beaten by the most cunning combos of the most powerful materia in the game. There was a lot of incentive to keep on playing, and playing and playing.
Every 18 months or so I find myself returning to FFVII, and about 18 months ago I bought a sealed copy of the game for the PC and played it through. Often going back and back and playing games from your past can be disappointing and while I’ll concede that I longed for it to properly fill my widescreen display, I enjoyed it every bit as much as I ever did. I bred a Golden Chocobo, collected all the materia in the game and spent hours messing around in the Golden Saucer. I just couldn’t be happier than I am engrossed in a good session of Final Fantasy VII.
Comments (49)
Discuss in the forumsFFVIII, on the other hand, had me hooked. I must have completed that twenty times over the years - in lots of different ways (No Junction Challenge!) There was an interesting bug in the PC version where sometimes the Weapons Monthly magazines weren't needed to upgrade weapons in the Junk Shops... I managed to get Squall's Lionheart before I even went in the Fire Cavern with Triple Triad and Card Mod. :D
The SNES Final Fantasy games were awesome too - FFIV, FFV and FFVI were all enjoyable. :)
If you've got a PS2 and can find it, a very good game is Shadow Hearts (and it's sequel, Covenant)... they're significantly different to the Final Fantasy games, but remain some of the best JRPGing I've ever done. The stories are... epic.
I want a redone version for PC. Trying to get it to work in Win7 has been a joke. Anyone who has that answer, please LMK.
LeMaltor - yeah, I both loved and hated the end to FFVIII - right up to the last minute of the credits I was completely hooked... and when they finished I sat there with, "No! It can't be over yet!" running through my mind. ;)
It's worth doing, though... if only for the hilarious video that accompanies the credits rolling. :)
i have spent more time on this this than a wow addict who bought it on day one
from lvl 99ing all your chars to the first time you sell a lvl 5 all materia from the game before you get pheonix and the fun getting a golden chocobo
i feel very privilaged to have been around when this was released
I'm not too impressed with the latest FF's, I think it went downhill after X (meaning X-2-12) they seem to be concentrating a lot more on graphics than gameplay now which makes me sad, FF games always had epic stories and great gameplay, unless it's just me? More graphical technology advances the more people concentrate on it I guess =\
OFF TOPIC: Also why do I feel like every post I've posted is a negative one, me so sorry bit-tech lol
I wish!
(Literally a good excuse to buy a PS3 then...)
Sadly, only ever a techdemo.... I would literally kill for a version of FFVII with up-to-date HD graphics...
I can honestly say that this is probably my favourite game ever. The storyline took some time to build up steam, but all the while it was slowly digging it's hooks into me.
It took me over 5 years before I completed the game fully (i.e. did everything there was to do), and I damn near failed my GCSE's because of this game. Even now, I have no problem picking it up and diving in.
Makes you wonder, FF1-6 have all had remakes and ports but none of the sony FF's have =\
I wonder if they ever will T_T
hahaha
Anyway, i can say that i too was properly hooked to this game. I once skipped three nights in a row just to play this. I can confidently say that i put 1000+ hours into it. Seeing scenes from it STILL gives me goosebumps, and i just bought a logitech controller so i can play it on the PC again.
I bought the game twice (damaged disc), and once for the PC. However, i find that the 'naughty' version is easier to get working, so i always use that :p
I'm very 100% positively going to play the "hard mode" that storm2020 mentions.
On a sidenote, what names did you guys usually give your characters? Here's what i had:
Cloud: Xtrafresh (duh)
Aeris & Tifa: Sylvia & Rachel (oh to be a teenager again :o)
Barrett: Dax (i just thought i sounded cool)
Red XIII: Storm (pretty proud of that one, always liked it)
Yuffie: Melanie
Cid: Kirk
Cait Sith: Poof
Vincent: Vincent (they just chose that name too good)
/// drifts away to memories...
Don't forget better translation =P
I'm a huge RPG nut in general (i have nearly every 360 RPG going) but i've just never got into the FF ones.
I think a fair bit to do with it is the utterly ludicrous sword the main character has, i know jRPG's aren't exactly known for realism, but at least a slight nod towards the laws of physics would have been nice. the sword would still be stupidly large if they reduced it's volume by 33% or more. the trailers for the newer FF games and watching the film just made me whenever the main character was shown
That said, this article is enough to awaken my interest again, the next time i run out of games to play i'll give it another go :D (forcing myself to ignore the main character ;) )
Off course ;)
It's like the meme that was spawned by the horrible translation "all your base are belong to us" in Zero Wing. :D
Interestingly, swords like that did exist - "zanbatou" (literally 'horse-chopping sword') - they weren't sharp, and they were designed so that infantry could combat horsemen. It's said that due to their weight, no one has ever used one to it's fullest effect (not exactly surprising that, eh?) but I agree that Cloud flings it around far too easily. Then again, he was supposed to be a genetically altered super soldier, so suspension of disbelief is doable. Just. ;)
...
I'd love to see a remake of FFVII on the PS3. And FFVIII, for that matter. :D
However, after moving from that to "proper" RPGs like Baldur's Gate and TES etc, I realised just how limiting it really was, and how much more fun WRPGs were.
However, it is easily my favourite JRPG of all time. The materia and weapon slot systems were amazing fun, and very complex. The amount of possibilities was staggering. I was so disappointed to find FFVIII used a totally different system, and even more disappointed to find that Square(Enix) never went back to materia.
I'm enjoying Crisis Core: FFVII right now on PSP, but I'm disappointed that they decided to go with the Advent Children style of combat in the cut scenes. the game doesn't feel at all like a final fantasy, but it's fun to get a background on Zack and how sephiroth was before going awol and all murder-y.
I think my favourite is IX, it must be PS1 graphics perfected, still looks darn good to me. The system is the best so far IMHO. Junction kinda sucks, makes you never wanna use magics.
+1
When I saw the tech demo for the PS3 I almost literally needed an emergency change of underwear. It was a very close call.
I'm not sure why they dont do it. Surely it would get the sales?
We tried it once, couldn't work out what was going on (manual? pah!) and played other stuff.
A few months later, bored, I tried playing it again, this time after at least glancing at the manual.
From then on, I was playing it at every opportunity, which as it was my year out was most of the time.
Eventually, after probably 2-3 months of 8 hours/day I got all the way to the last boss, and promptly got my arse kicked so hard, this being my first jRPG I had no idea the amount of grinding I should have done to level up, I was probably a level 40 or so by the end, with only the equipment you get on the main quests.
So in the end I've never finished it, but I still remember the way the storyline just gets bigger and bigger. At the start of the game you're just running around in the slums, by the end you're jetting around the whole world in a jet propelled zeplin.
So, was the PC version any good then?
Or did I miss a trick to shortcut them? (on PS1)
"......100 Ultima attached to Elem-Def makes you immune to just about all magic damage..."
Any other good tipps?
"...Lionheart, Shockwave Pulsar and Quick Shot..."
Haven't managed those yet...and am in disk 3 of 4
Xir
...
Man, it's been ages since I played FF8. I can hardly remember all of the tricks I used to use. Although, this blog post has made me want to go back and play it again. A lot. :D
And it played in like 800 x 600 resolution so you could have it as a tile surrounded by black or stretched over your screen. Personally I opted for the former :)
The fan-made high res packs keep drawing my attention, but every time I've tried them, they haven't worked for whatever reason. :(
As far as the backdrops go, they just ported the Playstation versions over to the PC - this is why they looked so crappy on 640x480. IIRC, the Playstation resolution was 320x200, so the backdrops would have been rendered to this resolution - no way were they going to re-render all those backdrops for the PC version's higher res. The battle screen and anything to do with polygons looked amazing on the PC version.
I shall have a look for these fan-made packs...Though again, I doubt they can do much for the pre-rendered backdrops...
Why oh why won't Squeenix remake this game with modern graphics :'(. They can keep the scrolling text boxes, they don't have to have voice acting... (because they probably wouldn't offer the option of japanese voices and english subtitles - instead they'd make a hash of the english voice acting... Just look at what they did to Cait-Sith in Advent Children!)
You'll want to check out...
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14329
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=137851
http://qhimm.com/
http://forums.qhimm.com/
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5731.0
For info on getting FFVIII and (with a little more surfing) FFVII in higher resolutions or generally 'prettier'. :)
I'd like FFVII and FFVIII remade on the PS3 (or PC for preference, although that's unlikely) actually. 'Twould be awesome. :D
Wikipedia indicates the PlayStation supported resolutions from 256x224 to 640x480, but I guess either it couldn't handle the 3d graphics at 640x480 or Square didn't think the higher resolution was worthwhile considering composite output and CRT televisions. (the latter might also explain why they didn't upgrade the graphics for FF Anthology and FF Chronicles)
There are some legal uncertainties with using emulators like ePSXe, but I think I had the 3d parts of FF8 (running from the PSX discs) looking even better than the so-called "PC version", because it can render at resolutions as high as the monitor supports, though even that couldn't do much with the low-res backgrounds, and I didn't play very far. I think FF7 crashed ePSXe the last time I tried it, but I think that was in Vista, and I only tried it with one set of plugin choices; in XP with different plugin choices, it might work. I also have yet to try running it on my PS3.
Cool, cheers for the links.
You can't watch a foreign language film in an English dub, has to be the original languaqge all the way. However, I put the English dub on for a laugh... Never again. Even the subtitles on the DVD release suck, the fansubs are so much better.
well...it's the PS1 variant, so no F and A.
Skipping is not possible?
Cheers Xir
It might be possible on the PS1 - the F and A keys for the PC version are probably just mimicing the functions of buttons on the PS1 controller, but it may be tricky to figure out which buttons.
I believe you hold a shoulder key and then bash away on X or something like that :p
If you're using the default button config, you have to hold down "select" and mash "square". As soon as you press Select, the menus & stat bars disappear. If you do it during a GF sequence and you've taught them Boost, a little hand appears in the bottom right: if it's solid, mash away; if there's a cross over the hand, don't touch square - you'll lose the boost you've gained so far; if the hand is flashing, the GF summon sequence is about to end.
The highest you can boost is up to 255. Not all GFs will go that high though... unless of course you're using an auto-fire pad, but that's just not cricket - you can get GFs to 255 boost without an autofire pad....
Yup, that's it.
I can only get Eden up to 255, I can't get any of the others. I've managed some of 'em as far as 210, though... through luck rather than judgement. ;)
Ahhh, nostalgia.... :)
I liked the materia system in VII (although it was far too easy to abuse the hell out of it and powergame to a ridiculous level...) it was harder to abuse the junction system in the same way, although Sphere Grid abuse was fairly simple as well if you could be bothered to grind for hours.
I liked the levelling system in Final Fantasy II a lot. Stats improve as you use them. Unfortunately, it did have the tendency to make you hang around at the start of the game attacking your characters... that increases HP, Def and Atk. :D In one play through, I got my characters so beefed up that it took the bosses to do any damage to them at all. (Although poison attacks from things like hornets could still inflict status effects... :()