I love Final Fantasy Six. In the same manner as most FF fanatics love Final Fantasy Four. Nobue Uematsu hit the heights of midi entertainment with six, and this was the last good FF game that wasn't at all touched by Berserk.
That's a side note right there. Berserk features main character good-guy Guts who's out to fight against Godhand Femto, formerly Griffith of the Band of the Hawk. Guts weilds the Dragon Slayer, while Griffith is a nancy boy with a katana.
This was an idea spawned during the 1980s. Way beyond the idea of Cloud and Sephiroth were brought to conception. Coincidence? There aren't that many consipracy theories that attempt to link Berserk to FF VII, but hell, I'm sure Guts and Griffith influenced the characters of Cloud and Sephiroth. One-winged angel? I mean. c'mon. Seven was good, but FF IX went beyond VII in terms of story and originality, and that's reality. So no, VII was only groundbreaking because of the 3D, and the RPG Arc the Lad was actually a better RPG in terms of breadth and scope. So boo hoo to the recent FF games. Except for the tactics series.
No, I'm no hypocrite. I enjoyed VII just as much as the next guy, and even wasted enough of my time with the silly game that was FFVIII, which demoted the super cool ragnarok into a ship that didn't even scratch the coolness factor of FFVI's Falcon (whih was 2D) and FFVII's Highwind (which was cool because of its pilot, Cid).
But there's not enough character development. I mean, sure. You've got all the new games and animes / movies that help bring breadth, width, and candour to the rest of the FFVII crew (such as the Dirge of Cerberus series that makes Vincent Valentine more than just your average playable character, or the prequel celphone RPG that went in depth with Yuffie's character. Let's not leave out Advnent Children that was cool because you see a lot of CGI ass-kicking, which was the ONLY FRICKIN THING the movie was about.
Nothing much about secondary characters like Barret and Red XIII. No story about what the friggin hell ever happened to Cid. These were two really cool characters. First of all, Barret was a salute to the Band of the Hawk's Pippin (sans the quiet, cool atitude). And Cid, for a geriatric, was really cool. He uses a friggin harpoon to spear Bahamut through in Advent Children. He owns the bloody Highwind, a jet-propelled airship.
Cloud owns a sword, had a traumatic childhood with Sephiroth and Zack, and weilds a huge blade (whose name I can't even remember anymore).
Oh yeah, and he nearly screwed Aeris and most likely screwed Tifa, the only two playable females in FFVII.
Oh, did I mention that he wanted to kill Sephiroth because of his demented love for all children of Jenova? (Yeah, it wasn't a demented love, but by the end of FFVII I wanted to puke so much because of the attention the whole Cloud-Sephiroth love triangle was getting. It was insufferable. It was an insult to the relationship between Guts and Griffith. And Sephiroth never even fuckin spoke. At least, not enough to matter).
Let's get down to business. All you CGI kids are FUCKING SPOILED BRATS THAT CAN'T HANDLE A GOOD STORY THAT DIDN'T DELIVER ANYTHING VISUALLY BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH TO KICK SPIDERMAN 3'S ASS. Funny thing, I meant every word. I hardly even play CGI games anymore. I quit at Divine Divinity (do you kids even KNOW the game?). I'd still occasionally play Grand Theft Auto, and I'd like to try Baldur's Gate and even Neverwinter Nights, but that's not because its 3D. I'd play it because it was based on a really good RPG that I happened to play once before.
And also because Baldur's Gate has a character named Boo. Who is a hamster.
My point is, half of the CGI games you have out in the market are technically eyecandy games that cater to people who hardly even think when it comes to the difference between a right mouse button click and a left mouse button click in Half Life. Hell, you can reprogram the controls. Why not make it that you can go berserk and still have good results?
Fucking spoiled kids.
FF VI features a game that has an operatic theme, a stat character development that you can actually develop to level 99 (yes, I've done it for every character in FF VI, and actually enjoyed the experience no matter how tedious it eventually became), a character story development that, whichever ending you end up with, won't leave you with a question going somewhere along the lines of "So what good was so-and-so for in the game?"
I personally think that good RPGS died with FFVI and Chrono Trigger. Chrono Cross was good as a game, but there wasn't enough character development to make it worth finishing the game twice or thrice. I enjoyed Saga Frontier II because of the way the game generally played, and also because the story spanned literal generations as far as the story was concerned (you had characters that died, thus destroying the "level up" sickness that most roleplayers are rife with). I enjoyed FF Tactis (both versions) and Front Mission, as well as Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars because of the gameplay (ZOE would have been horrible without the gameplay). I played Boktai because it was a good Zelda successor.
But still, RPG's always tend to pale in comparison to FF VI and Chrono Trigger for me. I played these two games repeatedly when they first came out. It was an amazing addiction. I can't recall playing any other game as much as I played these two. I collected almost everything that I could in FFVI. I even broke the cursed sheild curse, and even gauged the difference between the Illumina Sword and Ragnarok. I even tested the urban legend that another Atma Weapon could be stolen from the final boss. In fact, I'd think that the one thing I never tested was whether or not you can have a good ending with Shadow.
Call me a fanboy. I'll take it wholeheartedly. But unless FFXII can break free from the sickness that's been killing most of the FF games recently - at least for hardcore fans - then I'll still say that the world began with Square, and ended with Chrono Trigger.
That's a side note right there. Berserk features main character good-guy Guts who's out to fight against Godhand Femto, formerly Griffith of the Band of the Hawk. Guts weilds the Dragon Slayer, while Griffith is a nancy boy with a katana.
This was an idea spawned during the 1980s. Way beyond the idea of Cloud and Sephiroth were brought to conception. Coincidence? There aren't that many consipracy theories that attempt to link Berserk to FF VII, but hell, I'm sure Guts and Griffith influenced the characters of Cloud and Sephiroth. One-winged angel? I mean. c'mon. Seven was good, but FF IX went beyond VII in terms of story and originality, and that's reality. So no, VII was only groundbreaking because of the 3D, and the RPG Arc the Lad was actually a better RPG in terms of breadth and scope. So boo hoo to the recent FF games. Except for the tactics series.
No, I'm no hypocrite. I enjoyed VII just as much as the next guy, and even wasted enough of my time with the silly game that was FFVIII, which demoted the super cool ragnarok into a ship that didn't even scratch the coolness factor of FFVI's Falcon (whih was 2D) and FFVII's Highwind (which was cool because of its pilot, Cid).
But there's not enough character development. I mean, sure. You've got all the new games and animes / movies that help bring breadth, width, and candour to the rest of the FFVII crew (such as the Dirge of Cerberus series that makes Vincent Valentine more than just your average playable character, or the prequel celphone RPG that went in depth with Yuffie's character. Let's not leave out Advnent Children that was cool because you see a lot of CGI ass-kicking, which was the ONLY FRICKIN THING the movie was about.
Nothing much about secondary characters like Barret and Red XIII. No story about what the friggin hell ever happened to Cid. These were two really cool characters. First of all, Barret was a salute to the Band of the Hawk's Pippin (sans the quiet, cool atitude). And Cid, for a geriatric, was really cool. He uses a friggin harpoon to spear Bahamut through in Advent Children. He owns the bloody Highwind, a jet-propelled airship.
Cloud owns a sword, had a traumatic childhood with Sephiroth and Zack, and weilds a huge blade (whose name I can't even remember anymore).
Oh yeah, and he nearly screwed Aeris and most likely screwed Tifa, the only two playable females in FFVII.
Oh, did I mention that he wanted to kill Sephiroth because of his demented love for all children of Jenova? (Yeah, it wasn't a demented love, but by the end of FFVII I wanted to puke so much because of the attention the whole Cloud-Sephiroth love triangle was getting. It was insufferable. It was an insult to the relationship between Guts and Griffith. And Sephiroth never even fuckin spoke. At least, not enough to matter).
Let's get down to business. All you CGI kids are FUCKING SPOILED BRATS THAT CAN'T HANDLE A GOOD STORY THAT DIDN'T DELIVER ANYTHING VISUALLY BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH TO KICK SPIDERMAN 3'S ASS. Funny thing, I meant every word. I hardly even play CGI games anymore. I quit at Divine Divinity (do you kids even KNOW the game?). I'd still occasionally play Grand Theft Auto, and I'd like to try Baldur's Gate and even Neverwinter Nights, but that's not because its 3D. I'd play it because it was based on a really good RPG that I happened to play once before.
And also because Baldur's Gate has a character named Boo. Who is a hamster.
My point is, half of the CGI games you have out in the market are technically eyecandy games that cater to people who hardly even think when it comes to the difference between a right mouse button click and a left mouse button click in Half Life. Hell, you can reprogram the controls. Why not make it that you can go berserk and still have good results?
Fucking spoiled kids.
FF VI features a game that has an operatic theme, a stat character development that you can actually develop to level 99 (yes, I've done it for every character in FF VI, and actually enjoyed the experience no matter how tedious it eventually became), a character story development that, whichever ending you end up with, won't leave you with a question going somewhere along the lines of "So what good was so-and-so for in the game?"
I personally think that good RPGS died with FFVI and Chrono Trigger. Chrono Cross was good as a game, but there wasn't enough character development to make it worth finishing the game twice or thrice. I enjoyed Saga Frontier II because of the way the game generally played, and also because the story spanned literal generations as far as the story was concerned (you had characters that died, thus destroying the "level up" sickness that most roleplayers are rife with). I enjoyed FF Tactis (both versions) and Front Mission, as well as Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars because of the gameplay (ZOE would have been horrible without the gameplay). I played Boktai because it was a good Zelda successor.
But still, RPG's always tend to pale in comparison to FF VI and Chrono Trigger for me. I played these two games repeatedly when they first came out. It was an amazing addiction. I can't recall playing any other game as much as I played these two. I collected almost everything that I could in FFVI. I even broke the cursed sheild curse, and even gauged the difference between the Illumina Sword and Ragnarok. I even tested the urban legend that another Atma Weapon could be stolen from the final boss. In fact, I'd think that the one thing I never tested was whether or not you can have a good ending with Shadow.
Call me a fanboy. I'll take it wholeheartedly. But unless FFXII can break free from the sickness that's been killing most of the FF games recently - at least for hardcore fans - then I'll still say that the world began with Square, and ended with Chrono Trigger.