Water Temple itself was not bad. What was bad was having to pause to switch boots. There are mods nowadays to allow equipping boots to the d-pad and it makes the temple much more fun.
It’s really gameplay vs story. Ott heavy on game play where ff7 can be like reading a book. nothing really revolutionary about its game play some beautiful backgrounds and a deep storyline. Ott has some seriously revolutionary 3d interactions.
I didn’t love 7’s story. There’s a bunch of fluff with every side-character having their own mini-story. The amnesia plot line in particular was annoying.
I generally like the whole lifestream stuff. But I think the whole story is pretty mid compared to the storylines of other Final Fantasy games.
Agreed, as a game, as in fun, ff7 wasn’t very good. That music, those visual designs (the pre rendered stuff), and the story (though it suffered from bad localization) were compelling. But random encounters, fights filled with mostly waiting to be able to do things, the best attacks doing too much spectacle which was nice the first time, but pretty boring on repetition… The materia management became frustrating as you got more party members and no way to arrange or search, even with in game dialog mentioning how it was a pain…
Chrono Cross actually had significantly better game design, with enemies on screen and no standing around waiting for some characters turn to come up before anything would happen. Wish ff7 had clipped the “no action allowed by either side” time and that would have helped immensely. Then it just becomes a matter of if the player prefers real time adventure to menu driven play.
I’m here to add my opinion that FF9 is superior to FF7.
In general, I prefer when your characters have set classes. It feels like it lets the characters have more fleshed-out personalities.
Without spoiling anything, it allows you to tell story through the medium. Have a character who spent his whole life in one class, relying on specific skills, and he maybe goes through a huge fight to signify that he’s changed for the better? Congrats. You have a class change! Now you’re a level nothing!
Maybe someone traumatizes a caster, and now they can’t concentrate, giving them a chance to fail their spells!
When I was a kid, I didn’t really get into RPGs until after 7 was already out. I got into Arc the Lad, Jade Cocoon, and FF8 on the PS1. When I tried to go back and play FF7, it looked so ugly, I had a hard time connecting with it.
As an adult, the story and mini-games were frustrating. The obsession with the game is annoying as well. Although it’s undeniable the impact it has had on gaming.
For the record, I’ve beaten 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 13-2, 15, 16, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Dissidia 012, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line
Copied from another comment of mine, I have beaten 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 13-2, 15, 16, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Dissidia 012, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line.
I love a lot about IX. However the combat is much slower than the other games. IIRC, an attack has to complete entirely and the character returns before the next character goes. While in VIII, the next queued attacker starts moving before the last one finishes their movements. Additionally, IX has 4 characters in battle. If you’re bring strategic, it can be very slow moving. Also, every boss has a valuable steal, but chances of stealing it are low. So if you take the bait, you will spend a lot of time repeatedly trying to steal. Also, your abilities are tied to your equipment unless you grind out enough points to unlock them, meaning you either keep bad equipment, upgrade and abandon abilities, or grind until the abilities are unlocked.
Also, the chibi-style art isn’t for everyone. I had more issues with 7’s style. But it’s a preference.
I love the music for both and both games were part of my teen life, and I replayed Ocarina of Time a lot more… but I agree with FF7. Nobuo Uematsu is incomparable.
I would switch mechanics and atmosphere myself, but I agree overall that it is 2-2. Both are good for different reasons and they weirdly do not overlap on any of them with the exception of music which both were only slightly above average. With that said the OoT soundtrack is much more memorable. There is only a single FF7 track that I actually remember well.
You already know which one is better. You know. Everybody knows…and those that disagree with me are trying to start a civil war!!!
(Guys, I’m doing this new thing where I cause so much division, and threats of civil war that the concept of division loses all meaning, and nobody has any more hate in their hearts. That way we can go back to having nightly anal orgy surprise parties!)
It was a toss-up at the time but I’d argue FF7 has aged much more gracefully. Sure, you’ve still got the Lego figures and messy navigation on pre-rendered backdrops, but the battles still feel snappy and dynamic even with the low framerate. It isn’t a slog like FF8 and especially FF9 turned out to be when they started pushing the hardware.
OOT is objectively bad in hindsight, despite having played it like 20 times myself because of the place it holds in my memory as being something I’d never experienced before. Here’s the argument: youtu.be/XOC3vixnj_0?si=xnuSdmY942tBQGpp
FF7 has its flaws but IMO is a better designed game
Thing is those criticisms also mostly apply to FF7.
Disconnect between combat and exploration? I see that for Zelda, but ff7 goes harder, with a random encounter jolting you into a different game engine for combat.
To much time in combat waiting while nothing happens? FF7 battle system is mostly waiting for turns to come to with lots of dead time.
Exploration largely locked to narrative allowing it? Yeah, FF7 had that too, with rare optional destinations a very prescribed order and forced stops. It opens up late in the game.
The video generally laments that OOT was more a playable story than an organic gameplay experience, and FF7 can be characterized the same way. Which can be enjoyable, but it can be a bit annoying when the game half of things is awkward and bogs things down a bit. Particularly if you are getting subjected to repeated “spectacle” (the slow opening of chests in oot, the battle swirl, camera swoops, and oh man the summons in ff7…)
They both hit some rough growing pains in the industry. OOT went all in on 3D before designers really got a good idea on how to manage that. FF7 had so much opportunity for spectacle open up that they sometimes let that get in the way. Also the generally untextured characters with three design variations that are vastly different (field, battle, and pre rendered) as that team try to find their footing with visual design in a 3d market.