Why is FF7's shocking moment considered the most shocking *spoilers*

[swyggi]

twesterm said:

swyggi said:

twesterm said:

Edouble24 said:
The way it was done is shocking. Aeris dies and does NOT come back. She seemed to be the main love interest in the game and the primary party healer with no replacement. Sephiroth also destroyed an entire village in the same exact game, killing Cloud's mother and Tifa's father, yet it's not as big of a deal because we didn't spend any time with them. We just know that event helped shape Cloud and Tifa into the characters that they are, Aeris we got to know and love/hate. It's also FFVII.

THe thing with Sephiroth burning the village, it just didn't seem to matter.  The act of burning the village was overshadowed by other things and you just didn't think about that, you were thinking about Sephiroth what the fuck he was up to and what was Cloud's past.  You were just so disconnected from it.

With Kefka and Doma, it was purely focused on Kefka and his horrible act.  Later, you directly experienced the aftermath of that act and it was just an incredibly moving piece. Everything you did, Cyan in Doma, the camp, and the phantom train, was all because of what Kefka did.

Watch my above link if you don't believe me.

The aftermath happens, but regardless we didn't get to know Cyan's family that well; nor Cyan to feel any impact on a personal level.   

After all, how can we as humans be moved to something we haven't had enough time to become attached to?  It doesn't just instantly happen, it takes time to build these important moments and then finally let them explode.  Interactions are what generally build these moments, and while FFVI did indeed have a lot of good moments, most of them happened too soon.

 

Did you even play those parts?

True, you never got attached to Cyan's family and barely knew Cyan, but the scene at the train station is just *incredibly* moving and the way it's laid out is one of the most moving scenes in *any* game.

You don't have to be super attached to a character to still feel for them.  I'm not trying to say Aeris' death wasn't an emotional scene, I'm just saying there are many more much more emotional than that one.

Most of the FFVII emotional scenes just didn't have any heart or soul to them and were so two dimensional.  Yeah, it sucks that Aeris died or that Sephiroth decided to burn a village, but the way they were written and presented...it just wasn't very good.

Then you get a game like FFVI and a scene like the train station where every little piece of that is put together so perfectly you pretty much just don't have a soul if you aren't moved by it even if you aren't super attached to the characters.  That's the difference between good writing and direction and FFVII.

I've played FFVI several times over.

 

To sympathize on a relative human level (ex: car crash victims, burnt victims, etc) you don't need to be too attached, but to really feel for a character on a personal level you do need those interactions and it is ESSENTIAL that you know the character well before then.

Would you break down and cry for a woman you just recently met whom died a day later? 

 

Good writing involves great interaction.  FFVI has a lot of good moments, but their executions relative to what we already feel from the current cast leaves a lot to be desired.  FFVII filled that gap with a lot of unique, good moments combined with a huge depth of dialougue.  

 

BTW, can you explain to me why you feel for that train scene?  It's unique, I'll give it that, but I only have relative sympathy for Cyan at that moment.  It's not just the moments themselves either, there are several elements needed for any moment to have impact.  And Cyan is the most important element in that moment.  With him being focused on, it loses it's attachment.  It's not incredible, it's just unique: like so many FF events.