To each his own

by Emperor M

To "Ben":

First you mentioned how FF VI "touched on suicide," well, I'll give you that, but did it ever go anywhere past that? Anyone can make a game with characters who attempt suicide, but I'd say big deal. It never went much more in-depth with Celes beyond her actions, and for the game to just "touch on" things like suicide and teen pregnancy are not sufficient for me. In addition, Celes was only one piece of the gigantic plot of FF VI, and individual actions lose their meaning when they have to face so many others. I think it takes much more effort and skill to develop main characters with minds, where you can realte to and understand why each character does what they do. That's what you see in good works of literature, that's what you see in well directed movies, and that's what I saw in FF VII and Tactics.

I think that yes, in some ways, Square did betray fans. They hype their games more than ever, and focus more on graphics then in previous games. I'm one of the few who is pleased by some of their recent releases, in the way that I am, as shown by RPGamer's own sub-polls, which place FF VII as the worst FF next to Mystic Quest, Yuffie as the most annoying character, and the majority of votes on the latest sub-poll found Cloud's psychological problems to be a negative. I think it's partially bandwagon, but a lot of people I think just don't like the game, because it's so unlike the RPGs they loved in the early '90s.

As for contradicting myself, I would have to disagree. I got into RPGs mainly because it was a new kind of game, beyond jumping and shooting. The fantasy aspect was also appealing, as were the elaborate plots. However, with FF VII, I learned that RPGs can be more than fun and fantasy. Even though I liked VII, I would not mind seeing another fantasy Final Fantasy.

Since this rebuttal is not about FF VIII, I will not detail about it, but I will say that it was not do what it tried to as well as VII, and I may even venture to say that Xenogears had a better love story.

To my buddy Pincode:

Why is VII more believeable? I really don't care about graphics. The fact is, the characters act in a way real people do. Although they are stereotyped, they do sure have more relevant problems than in past games. The characters lived in small towns and slums, like many people in our world do. As for the plot, it is fiction, but today we have more and more companies like Microsoft, who seem to dominate the technological scene. They drown out competition to increase profits, as was the Shinra's motive. Just as the Shinra drained the life force from the planet, so do we, with pollution and forest destruction. Of course FF VII is not real, but it is much more analogous to real life than past plots were.

Sephiroth did what he did for a reason. Not a good reason, but he slaughtered out of rage (not mental defect), and interpreted his existence as to destroy the world. I admit that is pretty strange (and definitely not correct), but it's at least explainable.

As for rampant FF VII lovers, if they ever existed, they are now gone, and have been replaced by people who hate the game (See rebuttal to Ben above), and the bandwagon has switched directions.

FF VI touched on several good themes, but had no good central one to unite them all. The characters' sacrifices were mixed in with so many other themes that they never impacted me as deeply. It's a personal experience I suppose, but each character had their own story, and dilluted Terra's and Celes' for example. It's hard to see a consistent struggle in 8 different characters, where each shares as much of the plot as another and has their own biography. FF VII focused a lot on Cloud, FF VIII a lot on Squall. The other characters had purposes, but did not steal as much of the plot as in VI.

I don't know if there really is a new genre of RPGs. Xenogears' battle system was clever, but the main game setup was much like old RPGs. I bet Dragon Quest VII, which I look forward to, will be much like its predecessors.

To summarize: I guess for some people, lots of themes are good, but for me, a central theme that can be summed up by the words "Do good" is much more effective. FF V and VI had little pixellated characters who jumped up as their eyes popped out, and had many other things that just made it seem, to me, overall childish. If you play through it, you don't see stuff like that in FF IV, which would be my second favorite FF. I guess part of it is that I like seriousness, and I'm not a fan of cartoon anime. Now before I get flames, know that I have liked every FF game I've played (played them all), but each for different reasons, and I thought Xenogears and Lunar were both good games, but neither the best I've played. My email address is emperorm@subdimension.com, and if anyone has an honest and mature response, feel free. Thank you all for reading, and Emperor is E-M-P-E-R-O-R with 2 e's.

Original Editorial: Response to Emperor M
Original Editorial: Some thoughts on "Square's Trends (FF and other games) and the Effects on Society (?)"