Final Fantasy VII has aged extremely well
- Thread starter jon bones
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Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
I replayed a lot of the FFs last summer, many for the first time in years. My opinion on the games have changed a lot. FF7 wasn't really high up for me in terms of favorite FFs, but since replaying it, it is now probably top 3. The translation is pretty crappy, but I can appreciate everything else. I love the soundtrack a lot more than I used to do, and the materia system is great with some of the crazy combinations you can make.
On the other hand I was sad to see that FF6 did not hold up quite so well. It's been my favorite FF, and one of my favorite games of all time, but after playing through the GBA version, it just feels like it's missing something. Still a great soundtrack though.
On the other hand I was sad to see that FF6 did not hold up quite so well. It's been my favorite FF, and one of my favorite games of all time, but after playing through the GBA version, it just feels like it's missing something. Still a great soundtrack though.
tirkaroKujo
Member
Am I too late to join the pre-rendered background gushing bandwagon.
Seriously, I don't think any game since has had environments as absurdly detailed and unique as FF7's. My favorite part about it is that absolutely no models or textures are reused (the main limitation of tilesets and whatever the 3D equivalent is) giving each area its own completely unique identity.
FF8 and 9 also had some amazing pre-rendered backgrounds, but FF7 by far had the most interesting setting. And by that I mostly mean Midgar. To this day there hasn't been a setting quite like it, like a weird mixture between fantasy RPG, steampunk, and a dark cyberpunk anime. You had your beautiful churches, your seedy red light districts, and this...thing.
Fuckin' A.
Seriously, I don't think any game since has had environments as absurdly detailed and unique as FF7's. My favorite part about it is that absolutely no models or textures are reused (the main limitation of tilesets and whatever the 3D equivalent is) giving each area its own completely unique identity.
FF8 and 9 also had some amazing pre-rendered backgrounds, but FF7 by far had the most interesting setting. And by that I mostly mean Midgar. To this day there hasn't been a setting quite like it, like a weird mixture between fantasy RPG, steampunk, and a dark cyberpunk anime. You had your beautiful churches, your seedy red light districts, and this...thing.
Fuckin' A.
Slappers Only
Junior Member
FF VII makes a great punching bag for people who are embarrassed about how much they used to love it. There's still much internet cred to be gained from publicly bashing the game. It's a goldmine.
GenericUser
Member
Am I too late to join the pre-rendered background gushing bandwagon.
Seriously, I don't think any game since has had environments as absurdly detailed and unique as FF7's. My favorite part about it is that absolutely no models or textures are reused (the main limitation of tilesets and whatever the 3D equivalent is) giving each area its own completely unique identity.
FF8 and 9 also had some amazing pre-rendered backgrounds, but FF7 by far had the most interesting setting. And by that I mostly mean Midgar. To this day there hasn't been a setting quite like it, like a weird mixture between fantasy RPG, steampunk, and a dark cyberpunk anime. You had your beautiful churches, your seedy red light districts, and this...thing.
Fuckin' A.
no boy, you are not to late. It seems that this is one of the least stressed topics on this forum. pre rendered stuff looks so damn amazing, decades after it has been released. Pre rendered backgrounds are perferct for rpg's since they are relatively easy to make (=cost effective) and provide an unmatched amound of details. Just experienced the playground scene 2 days ago, it was even better then it was 16 years ago.
No way, I can't do those DUPLO arms anymore, your lack of Rose tinted glasses were mitigated by those beautiful OLED glasses the Vita put on you.
I probably just over played it when it was contemporary. I'd love to see an update with battle models in every scene. and uncompressed/better compressed backgrounds. Who knows if those assets are even accessible anymore.
I probably just over played it when it was contemporary. I'd love to see an update with battle models in every scene. and uncompressed/better compressed backgrounds. Who knows if those assets are even accessible anymore.
Fixed.
Should have been first post. This game aged poorly from both a graphical standpoint and menu organization standpoint.
I can't say I agree. I've tried to replay it but I just can't. I think part of the reason is I've just fallen out of love with the characters and story.
Edit: I don't disagree that the world is fantastic though. I did thoroughly enjoy Crisis Core, and actually managed to like the characters in it.
Edit: I don't disagree that the world is fantastic though. I did thoroughly enjoy Crisis Core, and actually managed to like the characters in it.
I really don't see what's so bad, especially considering some stuff we got on DS last gen.
Then again this is Gaf, there are people that as soon the next gen comes in, they decide the old one is unplayable and ugly.
FFVII has been surpassed from my personal standpoint by them years ago (FFX, X-2, XIII, XIII-2), however the impact it had on the industry and the genre obviously wouldn't be able to be matched or redone. Was like catching lightning in a bottle.
Limit Breaks being pretty different is a big difference, which were considerably more useful than the Limits in FFVI would be a big factor in determining what character I had in my party. Characters in VI had their own abilities but they were largely useless beyond the early parts of the games.
I played through this again a few months back on the Vita. One thing I noticed that worked well with the Vita's OLED was FF7's use of more "saturated" or bright colors (like the lifestream). It really struck me on this playthrough, makes a big contrast to a lot of the brown and grey in most of the towns.
CharminUltra
Member
You know someone is really reaching when they spin customization as a bad thing. Yay internet!
LOL
Yeah, the blocky-ness has always been super endearing and inoffensive for me. There's so much uglier out there.
The game has aged decent, but wasnt really that great in the first place. Its a solid rpg for sure, but nowhere near the hights of games like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger. Music and a lot of the prerendered backgrounds are great, story and characters is a mess, and the materia-system is nowhere near either the job-system or esper-system, but easy and since you wont have to commit to anything, it should still be accesible even today. It probably aged better than FFVIII with its complicated junction-system though, even though the graphics are much better there.
blankempathy
Member
I hope FF7 never gets remade. Yea I said it. I can't imagine the current Square-enix doing justice to the original in a remake. I mean look at ffxiii. The games have an overly serious tone to them. The quirkiness of past ff games seem to be gone. Can you imagine them trying to recreate the quirky scenes from the honeybee inn or Cloud dressing up in drag? They probably would just come off as incredibly awkward or cheesy. I think a ff7 remake on paper would look prettier and more "epic" but would lose a lot of what made the game good, essentially its soul and charm.
Nymphae
Banned
I know, and it's not that bad looking for their first attempt at 3d models on a new system, 17 years ago. Art direction will always trump raw graphical performance, and that's part of the reason so many people love 7 I think.
hipsterpants
Member
When I played VII for the first time 2 years ago (and immediately fell in love with the entire FF series) I looked at it as a kind of a 3D version of a SNES game rather than a fully 3D game like VIII and IX. I think it made the blocky graphics a lot easier to look at (though I didn't really mind them in the first place).
Not really sure how I'd rank the FF games because they love them all but what really stood out to me was the speed of the combat. Whenever people complain about the battles in VII I always have to wonder if they were playing the same game. VII's speed is part of what makes the game so incredible and why other random-battle JRPGs can seem like such a slog to play through. The materia system is also a fantastic way of giving the player customization, though it is extremely broken when you learn how to use Enemy Skill. I loved being able to create my party however I wanted without being truly limited by a character's abilities (or lack of abilities).
The story is a bit of a mess but it doesn't really fall apart into the second disk. Even then, it contains one of my favorite moments in any game
probably on of the few times when you can call a character a legitimate bad ass.
Not really sure how I'd rank the FF games because they love them all but what really stood out to me was the speed of the combat. Whenever people complain about the battles in VII I always have to wonder if they were playing the same game. VII's speed is part of what makes the game so incredible and why other random-battle JRPGs can seem like such a slog to play through. The materia system is also a fantastic way of giving the player customization, though it is extremely broken when you learn how to use Enemy Skill. I loved being able to create my party however I wanted without being truly limited by a character's abilities (or lack of abilities).
The story is a bit of a mess but it doesn't really fall apart into the second disk. Even then, it contains one of my favorite moments in any game
the revelation that Cloud was only a regular soldier at Nibelheim
Pinko Marx
Banned
Put me in the camp that says the character models look horrible. Even for its day the character models were ATROCIOUS.
Everything else about the game is gorgeous and still holds up if you give it a little leeway, but there is absolutely no excusing the character models.
Everything else about the game is gorgeous and still holds up if you give it a little leeway, but there is absolutely no excusing the character models.
turnbuckle
Member
Not a big fan of ffvii (big step back from the Snes ones imo) but the game is definitely helped playing on the Vita. It's not a remake, but I think I'd rather play the original in Vita than whatever uggo up-ressed ios version comes out. Controls really nice with the Vita analog. It's still obviously limited to digital 8-way directions, but it works well. Better than trying to play Mario 64 DS on the analog slider.
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Agreed. I've been able to replay it several times in recent years without much issue outside of the graphics. Everything else really works well. ^_^
Someone hasn't played A Realm Reborn.
There's a lot of sillyness in there, like watching your Pugilist Master being knocked back in slow mo by a marmot.
blankempathy
Member
Actually I have and yes I didn't mentioned it even though honestly for the first time in a long time it feels like I'm playing a final fantasy game. Still I don't think the current square enix could make a proper ff7 remake.
93xfan
Banned
I agree! I just wish I could get the better dialog translation from the release PC on consoles and Vita.
cascardian
Member
I replayed it modded to hell and back with the stuff on Qhimm's forum. That way, it not only looks and sounds great and is more than playable with the bugfixes and all, it is also great fun and just as gripping as it was back in the day. A difficulty mod to make the materia and combat system more challenging and less easily exploitable can also be rewarding. The interface is a lot slower and more cumbersome than what you're used to today, but once you're immersed, it becomes a minor annoyance and nothing more.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
It's defining and paced better than most expect. This is while being one of the first "AAA" games in history, you'd think it would age much worse outside the graphics. Maybe cuz it's so divisive? Dunno.
Your cash is needed where your mouth is.
Your cash is needed where your mouth is.
SneakyStephan
Banned
SE would take such a shit on it it's not even funny
People only wanted it to be remade before ff13 was out
Pinko Marx
Banned
I still need to finish the first. Don't know if I should keep playing on Vita or wait for the Steam release.
I am pretty far on the PSP version...
patrickthehedgehog
Member
Place me in the FFVII still looks great camp. I find the original models charming. The only thing I could ask for is to increase the resolution of the beautiful, memorable backgrounds. Sadly, unless they saved the original model data that will never happen. I don't see how HD towns was a valid excuse these days when you see the detail in the modeling work on VII's backgrounds.
Also, thanks OP! I just discovered that I can map dpad only games to the Vita's stick!
Also, thanks OP! I just discovered that I can map dpad only games to the Vita's stick!
It's not a bad thing, but compared to most of the other installments of Final Fantasy (where each character brought a unique skill to the table), it stinks.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Yeah, FF IV is all the other FF games in the series before VII.
crimzonflame
Member
Yuffie's, Red's, and Vincent's final limit breaks all sucked. Also for most damage the best party is Cloud, Cid, and Tifa. A lot of materia because useless once you get summon materia and 4X cut.
CharminUltra
Member
Being able to give your favorite characters the skills you want stinks? How? Sounds a lot better than being forced to use a character I don't like just because they have the skill I need.
I thought those over-world models were pretty abysmal even back in the day, but it really was a minor gripe.
FF6 and FF7 are honestly about on par for me. I wouldn't mind replaying them both though, it's been several years since I've touched either game.
I can't imagine any game being "unplayable" due to dated visuals for me though. I mean I love stuff like HD remakes and updates, but it just seems like an extremely silly reason to outright avoid a game.
FF6 and FF7 are honestly about on par for me. I wouldn't mind replaying them both though, it's been several years since I've touched either game.
I can't imagine any game being "unplayable" due to dated visuals for me though. I mean I love stuff like HD remakes and updates, but it just seems like an extremely silly reason to outright avoid a game.
I'm playin' FF7 for the first time on Steam right now but I can't help feel like I've done something wrong in the config settings lol.
Should it look this bad? The backgrounds that is. Here's a few pics I took: here.
Obviously they look pretty good that small, but I'm playin 1920x1200 on a 24" monitor so when you blow those up it looks pretty terrible.
Like take my shots an increase the magnification on 'em til it fills your screen up.
Should it look this bad? The backgrounds that is. Here's a few pics I took: here.
Obviously they look pretty good that small, but I'm playin 1920x1200 on a 24" monitor so when you blow those up it looks pretty terrible.
Like take my shots an increase the magnification on 'em til it fills your screen up.
sixtyfivedays
Neo Member
Star Ocean?
Totally forgot about Star Ocean! I love that game, the combat was so fun. Time for a revisit.
I'm playin' FF7 for the first time on Steam right now but I can't help feel like I've done something wrong in the config settings lol.
Should it look this bad? The backgrounds that is. Here's a few pics I took: here.
Obviously they look pretty good that small, but I'm playin 1920x1200 on a 24" monitor so when you blow those up it looks pretty terrible.
Like take my shots an increase the magnification on 'em til it fills your screen up.
That looks a bit worse than it does for me, but I emulate the PlayStation version with a filter that smooths out the backgrounds a bit, I don't think you can do that with the PC version can you?
But yeah, there isn't much else you can do about those backgrounds.