Kenryoku_Maxis said:
jarypo_87 said:
innovation doesn't make a good game. it's a gimmick catch word.
Suikoden II is the only suikoden that can even hold a torch next to FFVII. Tales series is far far under even the worse final fantasies.
Final Fantasy VII did innovate a lot, if you want to start talking like that however.
Full FMV Sequences that blew peoples minds, the awesome limit break system that, to this day has not been beaten by any other jrpg, the materia system which incorperated character customization that streamlined the experience from putting points into each stat and enabled the player to grow his or her character beyond just simple gear upgrades.
Interesting and challenging boss fights like emerald weapon and ruby weapon that went a little outside of what was normally expected from a jrpg at the time.
I agree that the story had loopholes, but they all do. Story has never been a strong part of japanese rpgs. I cannot think of a single one that actually has a good plot. The games you mentioned certainly do not have good storylines or plots, tales is almost like a joke plot. Final Fantasy VII is pretty good though, loop holes or not. If they changed even the slightest bit other than translation it would be ruined.
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Frankly, while I will acknowledge that full FMV sequences and the use of pre-rendered backgrounds (while not the first use) did inspire many future JRPGs, it wasn't exactly a positive inspiration. In fact, I'd say it set back a lot of good gameplay and etc elements for RPGs for the future and set many JRPGs down the path of 'graphics are more important than gameplay'.
As for things such as Materia and bigger bosses, that's why I brought up examples such as Seiken Densetsu and Suikoden specifically. If you actually go back and play the first Suikoden (which predates FFVII by a year), you might find more than a few similarities to the 'Rune' system in Suikoden and the Materia system. Plus, there's already more than a few similarities to the Materia system to previous FF games such as FFVI and its 'Magicite'. Its not hard to put 2 and 2 together.
As for boss fights, I don't think I need to point out that previous RPGs have had 'Interesting and challenging' boss fights. Heck, its arguable that Dragon Quest has always been one step ahead of Final Fantasy in difficulty AND boss size. I mean, by the time Final Fantasy came up with 'Emerald and Omega Weapon', you had already fought the equivalent of 3 Demon Lords, Satan and a Sephiroth Prototype named Psaro in Dragon Quest. And those are just the main end bosses.
In the end, I think we can really count the major achievements for Final Fantasy VII being its visual upgrades and influencing western audiences into being more interested in RPGs. But as for all those points I mentioned, gameplay, character development and story, it was severely handicapped, even for its time compared to other RPGs on the SNES and PSX. A remake could really improve these things....or it could just be more of the same with a graphical upgrade.
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