Post by Ben Shapiro on May 24, 2020 16:42:38 GMT
So yeah, with everyone going nuts over the Final Fantasy VII remake (some who love it others who hate it and view it as a major betrayal to the original) I decided to play the original for myself to see what the fuss is all about. I did play the remake and while it is hardly one of the best games I have ever played and there are major issues with the gameplay and pacing of the game I did find my enjoying the setting and the visuals as well as the story even if it was a bit cheesy, so with that in mind I decided to give the original ago and see what I was missing.
For reference FFIIV is considered not only one of the best RPGs ever made but this game is also constantly found at the top of many best games of all time lists. I know that it has been over 20 years since the original was released and it would be unfair to judge the game based on today's standards, and while I know it is impossible to go back to 1997 to put my mind in the mindset of somebody who only just got this game at the time it was released I can at the very least compare it to games that were released around the same time and that even came before it, with all that in mind I was not prepared to be blown away by how amazingly crap this game is!
Now perhaps I am being a little unfair due to it being a game that is 20 years old, however looking at the period that the game released in, with games like Ocarina of Time and Baldur's Gate being released only a year after and games like Chrono Trigger being released a full 2 years before it I really do not see why this game got such favourable reviews, the graphics are ugly, the combat is shallow and uninteresting and I just find myself bored out of my mind playing the game. While I know it is unfair to judge the graphics of an older game based on the standards of today and while I know there is some jank to be expected in the early days of 3D games I just look at this game and wonder why it had to be 3D? There is no gameplay benefit to shifting to 3D as all the movement still happens on a 2D plane (and turned based games where all of your actions are selected from a menu recieve no benefit from 3D) and with the primitive polygons everything just looks uglier as a result, even worse is the environment around the characters is just a blurry 2D image that has more detail than the blocky 3D characters running around over the top of it just making them look incredibly out of place.
I just look at a game like Chrono Trigger that is far superior to this game despite having almost identical gameplay and being released 2 years before it and wonder why this game was so critically acclaimed, not to mention games that were released only a year after this game like Baldur's gate that leave the game completely in the dust. I am not here to start a flame war I just want to know why this game was so critically acclaimed? What did people see in this game? Is there something I am missing?
For reference FFIIV is considered not only one of the best RPGs ever made but this game is also constantly found at the top of many best games of all time lists. I know that it has been over 20 years since the original was released and it would be unfair to judge the game based on today's standards, and while I know it is impossible to go back to 1997 to put my mind in the mindset of somebody who only just got this game at the time it was released I can at the very least compare it to games that were released around the same time and that even came before it, with all that in mind I was not prepared to be blown away by how amazingly crap this game is!
Now perhaps I am being a little unfair due to it being a game that is 20 years old, however looking at the period that the game released in, with games like Ocarina of Time and Baldur's Gate being released only a year after and games like Chrono Trigger being released a full 2 years before it I really do not see why this game got such favourable reviews, the graphics are ugly, the combat is shallow and uninteresting and I just find myself bored out of my mind playing the game. While I know it is unfair to judge the graphics of an older game based on the standards of today and while I know there is some jank to be expected in the early days of 3D games I just look at this game and wonder why it had to be 3D? There is no gameplay benefit to shifting to 3D as all the movement still happens on a 2D plane (and turned based games where all of your actions are selected from a menu recieve no benefit from 3D) and with the primitive polygons everything just looks uglier as a result, even worse is the environment around the characters is just a blurry 2D image that has more detail than the blocky 3D characters running around over the top of it just making them look incredibly out of place.
I just look at a game like Chrono Trigger that is far superior to this game despite having almost identical gameplay and being released 2 years before it and wonder why this game was so critically acclaimed, not to mention games that were released only a year after this game like Baldur's gate that leave the game completely in the dust. I am not here to start a flame war I just want to know why this game was so critically acclaimed? What did people see in this game? Is there something I am missing?