Is Final Fantasy important anymore?

[Paul_Warren]

"...except games aren't plays. Nor are games movies or books. Games are games. A game can still have the "unified vision of its creators" with branching story paths. In fact, I'd venture to say that it takes a far more visionary developer to create a game with branching dialogue trees and such than it does to create a wordy cutscene-fest. There's a reason why there's so many of the latter and so few of the former."

Well, the Final Fantasy games are more like operas at any rate. Your entries lead me to believe that you would think that Mass Effect has some kind of good story. However, Play magazine that was known as Diehard Gamefan in the mid nineties said that Mass Effect has a cookie cutter storyline and cardboard characters and awarded Mass Effect an 8.7. I have already posted a link to their review of Final Fantasy XII where they give the game a 10 and say it has an amazingly restrained story that one never really wishes to leave.

Half-Life 2 and Planescape: Torment have amazing stories? One is just an alien invasion narrative like your typical episode of the X-Files. I guess it makes for a good story but I doubt it would have the depth of a Shakesperian play or Final Fantasy X for the care and identification that one can come to feel for the characters. And Planescape: Torment's story may win points for the fact that it is quirky with odd characters, but the same can be said for Incredible Crisis, Grim Fandango, and any of the children's cartoons that they show on the Cartoon Network during the day.