Revolution my ass.Originally Posted by .:][AngeluS][:.
Being accepted as a good game does not mean it's overrated. Seeing it as revolutionary is what makes it seem like people are overrating it.
Halo had revolutionary AI. Most games try to follow this, so that the team-mates behave realistically.
Quake and Doom 3 had revolutionary graphics engines. Fast, while looking materialistic. Volumetric shadows in Doom 3 add another layer of realism.
FF7 on the other hand. Let's see. It's a role-playing game, right? I'll put the fact aside that most RPGs on computers or consoles are far from what they should be, not mentioning that virtually any game can earn the action/adventure/strategy/RPG title nowadays.
So, a splendid little adventure game it is. Characterized by random encounters, leveling up, and most of the time, the ATB battle system. It's just another FF game, more precisely. What has changed significantly in the series, looking at episodes, say, from the SNES ones to the PSX ones? The graphics are considerably improved, but that's natural, as time passes, more powerful hardware will be able to support better graphics. Same for sounds and music. Even though it didn't have voice-overs. The SNES games Tales of Phantasia managed this in 1994, the PSX version four years later further improved on that.
Okay, so it's not that great in the tech department. It's not an RPG's job to reinvent graphics. On to gameplay.
This has remained almost constant through FFs 4-9. The world map is there, you wander in pre-rendered towns (except for the SNES was, but you get the idea, the towns and world map are clearly dividable), fight random battles, level up, go to the dungeons to advance the storyline, buy newer equipment from the loot, finish the bosses, and after some 30 hours of play, the game.
So, FF7 plays like any other FF, basically. Comparing it to other episodes in the series reveals what's different in the game, that could potentially make it stand out. The battles are now in 3D, a potential for new kinds of battles. Which goes unused. You get great camera movement and good animations, but it's just the same old 2D stuff with an extra dimension of graphics. Battle skills aren't that new, but the magic system has changed somewhat. Still, leveling up materia (in essence, individual spells you use), is nothing even worth mentioning, it's as standard as it gets.
And, when all else fails, we have the storyline. A bad story can't usually kill a game with great gameplay, but a good story can make a so-so game memorable. The characters aren't particularly original. We have Cloud, the handsome (how many times have I seen the protagonist actually NOT get involved in a romantic relationship with a party member?), strong, lonely hero. Aeris, the angelic, pure, and unreachable female character (she dies, as a sacrifice. Who would've thought of that?) Tifa, the embodiment of beauty, applying a considerable force on male instincts. Barrett, the rough, burly guy, who's kind at heart. I won't continue, but basically, 2 minutes after you meet a character, you know his personality.
The interesting stuff is Sephiroth, and his influence on Cloud. He's the classic evil older brother character, with some pretty good twists. He starts as just another SOLDIER, one Cloud aspires to be. Another good plot element is that Cloud's successes turn out to be nothing more than a lie, a stolen life from Zack. And then it starts going downhill. Sephiroth is driven insane by his power. This would be fine, if it wasn't done the way it is. He has evil power from an evil being, consequentially, he's evil. That's that. Jenova's a monster that only wants to destroy the planet, and it takes control of a poor guy. But you can't really feel sorry for him, at least, I didn't. And in the end, the party of heroes go defeat the root of all evil, and everyone's happy. Or at least, saved.
So, if the character's motivations were a bit more realistic, it would make up for the usual "save the world from annihilation" storyline. It could be that I liked the storyline when I was 6 years younger, but now I've played more games, and it definitely isn't THAT special.
Angelus, name the thing that makes this game revolutionary, and explain why it does so. I've clearly made my point, I think FF7 is a good game, but far from being revolutionary.
