FF7 - Is it just me...

[Final-Fan]

Borkachev said:

I mean... it'd be hard to find a more straight forward piece of literature then Hamlet. Maybe Last Action Hero the novelization.

The only reason some critics argue about some aspects of Shakespeares plays is that they weren't meant to be read. They were meant to be performed... and it's been a long time since they were performed and Shakespeare could instruct the actors what emotions they were directly supposed to be displaying. Had videotapes existed when Shakespeare and his gang put on his plays there would be no debates.

You have a point to a certain extent, but it's a little more complicated than that. Hamlet's plot is very straightforward; the depth comes from ambiguity in things like motivation, symbolism, and meaning. There's a lot more to it than just "Hamlet is supposed to be angry when he says this." There are questions like "What do these events and this dialogue really mean?" "Is Hamlet hesitating because he's afraid, or does he represent modernity rebelling against the ancient ways? (or insert any x versus y symbols)" "And what the hell is up with him and his mother?" Even with Shakespeare alive to answer these things, that doesn't mean that there's only one valid interpretation, or even that Shakespeare's is it (but now I'm getting in a little too deep for a gaming forum).

FFVII, by contrast, has more of its ambiguity in the events of the plot itself. "Why did Holy fail?" "What exactly was Aeris' involvement in the events of the last chapter?" "Was humanity wiped out?" Both of these approaches add depth and value to the narrative.

But it seems to me that you're equating "But what's the deeper meaning?" with "But what the fuck just happened?"