I'll openly admit that FFVII was one of the reasons I bought a Playstation. I spent many nights cursing Square for abandoning Nintendo, then accepted my fate and got a PSX.

The first time I cranked that game up, I knew something big was happening. The graphics were absolutely incredible, and it simply oozed atmosphere. Midgar was such a perfect cyberpunk heaven. I thought the whole "resistance movement" may have been a bit of a FF6 rehash, but it was different enough to be fresh and entertaining. Cloud showed up and started acting like the SOLDIER badass he should have been, and Barret was quite entertaining. The first few hours were incredible.

Then it went wrong.

The group left Midgar, and everything went back to "green grass, chocobos, and villages of seventeen people" mode. This abrupt move from cyberpunk metropolis to pastures and huts just fucked everything up. It never made any sense. The previous games managed to keep a sense of continuity in the world. The entire game could have taken place in that dystopian maze of technology and I would have been happy. Blade Runner does not transition to Dungeons and Dragons.

Then Square introduced those damn unskippable summons, just to taunt the players with their spiffy new graphics abilities.

Then they fucked up the characters. Cloud starts the game as a solitary, kick-ass-take-names mercenary. He ends the game as a total pussy. "Let's mosey", he says. Then Cid even tells him he's being a pussy. The disgruntled engineer tells the professional SOLDIER how to fucking order people around! That more stupid than that goddamn androgynous cowboy fuck from FF8!

FF8 just took the popularity stick and ran with it. If Tifa was too fucking stupid to understand Cloud's advances, Rinoa is even more fucking stupid for seeing anything in that DiCaprio wannabe Squall. WHY SHOULD I PLAY AN RPG WHERE I WANT TO CONSTANTLY KICK THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE GROIN?! I'd like to beat that Zell fuck with a large stick, while I'm at it.

Ugh.

midgar did kick ass. i don't know why they pick girly guys for main characters. japanese people have a lot of weird fetishes you know. now the summons...where do i begin? your play time would be cut in half it is wasn't for those stupid things. i remember the first time i used one it seemed sooooooo cool. then i found out i had to watch it every time. it gets lamer when they get longer too. you'd think they could've made like 3 different versions of each summon, but no.

the enviorments you ran into were very original and entertaining. are you forgetting about the city where aeris got killed, the haunted house, and the cave at the end? they were all cool as hell

I got it on computer for about 15 $, it kicks ass I don't know why you didn't like the rest of it, it had a sort of comfortable feeling. As for being a pussy its to show his whole: "I refuse to be a part of Jenovah" idea. As for unskippable, usually only bosses did that, you could run away from most else.

no no, he's referring to the summon sequences and a wish to skip through all the eye candy after he's seen it 10,000 times. Golden Sun allows you to do that. Awesome feature.

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Originally posted by SpaceFalcon2001:
I got it on computer for about 15 $, it kicks ass I don't know why you didn't like the rest of it, it had a sort of comfortable feeling. As for being a pussy its to show his whole: "I refuse to be a part of Jenovah" idea. As for unskippable, usually only bosses did that, you could run away from most else.

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your taste for games is a bit skewered, anyways, so I kinda agree with theta. I haven't played the game, but hear me out.
I'm so sick of girly boy characters and bad controls (in any game). MGS2's raiden is a pussy boy, and I wished I was still playing as snake, or they at least made him more... manly. and GTA vice city... great game but what's with the on foot controls? they're terrible, it makes moving a chore, and there's no finesse! I don't like the floral shirt, but I can live with that. and the aiming sucks.
in all, I wish more games (that are supposedly really good) would control like MGS2, but have the freedom found within vice city. when that happens, I'll be quite happy. oh yes, and some cool characters and an intriguing story line, please.

At least with FFVIII you spend the GF videos boosting...and later in the game you dont even bother with the GFs...you hit stuff for 9999 a piece, and you have autohaste...and BANG BANG BANG!!!

By the way, I am the FFVIII Zen master ruler guy, feel free to quiz me on it...its been a year or 2 and no silly q's

I suppose you're right.

From a gamers perspective, you make very valid points.

However, I loved every fucking minute of the game. I remember when I first got outside of Midgar, I thought the same thing you did. Then I got really drunk and kept playing, by the end of the night, I was in love with the slightly bland, fruity, weird world.

And as for the transitions, going from cyberpunk, to "oh, look at the pretty green grass" ..I think thats one of the best parts. The idea that there are people with incredibly powerful technology living right next to people without it, and huge cities, right next to forests.

I mean, its so diverse, thats whats cool about it. You never know what to expect.

There are a few quirks with the newer FF's that have never quite settled in my mind:
1) High tech - Swords and Serpents
They just don't pull it off very well. As compliant as I am with some games and having to seriously suspend logic, I just cannot take a game seriously that throws high powered guns, swords, and other mundane weaponry in the same mix doing the same damage (9999 this, 9999 that, etc)
2) High tech - Low population
The gripe about villages and small populations got me as well. I think the whole population of FFVII may have been something in the low-to-mid 100's (unless you justify this by believing monsters=transformed people).
3) Reiterating the last statement
Okay, so I'm doing okay suspending my belief, trucking along in FFVII, trying as hard as I can to not try and justify any of this stuff and simply get immersed in the picture show. Suddenly, the game tries to offer a justification of all the monsters roaming the plains. What, was that a music box that just attacked me? What kind of experiments are those Jenova people running? Don't corporations need people to hold them up? Or do the Shinra people hold near-to-reality VR machines and have access to some type of near-perpetual energy source so that they don't need people to do anything? Could be, but I really couldn't stand the attempt at trying to justify all of the monsters by saying that they were the result of the Jenova project.
But look at all the pretty pictures...

yea i agree with teh gayety of hte small towns but you gtot o go to the base and that was fun also that bgi casino!(i forget the name) it was the funest. it could of used mroe games but the chocabo races were the funnest!p.s. i liked ff3 Alot because there were no main charecters(terra was kinda) but i could never find the last dragon to get merton.

I just beat FF7 3 hours ago.
Kick ass game, and like someone else said, all my characters were strong enough to dish out 9999 or close to every fucking time and I hardly ever used Summon, or even Magic for that matter.
All you need is a 4x Cut Materia, a Counter Materia, and a Cut-All Materia.

i agree that 4x cut and cut all is a good combo and with (i forget the name) but when u die it casts life on you so ur back with full health. But the thing i used the most was double summon and mime, its the only way i beat emerald weapon, i equipped the summoner with double summon and last attack-revive i think it was(everyone had this) bought lots of mega elixirs, equipped everyon else with mime, double casted KotR, then mimicked it over and over. Anyway, i loved FFVII and had fun at the casino for the longest time