The month of August is here and with a new month we have a new topic here at Concept Crucible. This month Jim and I are going to talk about video games, specifically some of the games we like to play and how we like to play them. We’re each going to do a post about the same game every week and It should be interesting to see how each of us views the topics in question. This week (and for Jim next week) we’re going to talk about one of our favourite classic games. About a month ago I was wandering around Steam minding my own business (as I often do) and trying desperately not to spend money (as I often don’t) when I saw something I just had to buy: Final Fantasy VII. Yes that’s right, this classic RGP has now become available on Steam. I played the game in it’s original incarnation on the PlayStation, and again a few years later on a PlayStation emulator I had for PC but I haven’t played in years and couldn’t wait to get started.
I am by no means any kind of Final Fantasy expert, and in fact I am bit of a Final Fantasy hipster. My favourite game is still the first one and while I have played all of the early games extensively I have not played anything beyond about the first half of Final Fantasy VIII. Partly this is because it was at about this time that I stopped playing games on consoles and partly because it seems to me that it’s at about this point that the series started to get kind of silly. I still have many fond memories of the series from my childhood including trying to figure out how the original Final Fantasy worked when I found it in our game collection one morning. If you’ve never played any of the games before they pretty much all feature a group of heroes who travel around the world completing quests and saving the planet. The battles are turn based with your group laid out on one side and the monsters on the other. The Final Fantasy games are known for their complicated, compelling, and memorable story-lines.
Final Fantasy VII is often regarded as one of the very best in the series, and although it isn’t much to look at these days it was renowned for its graphical innovations when it came out. The use of 3D polygons for the character models and the extensive 3D environments were absolutely amazing. I first played this game when a friend of mine got it for his birthday. What he didn’t get however, was a save card. This didn’t stop us from playing the game, it just means that I have played the first 8 or so hours of Final Fantasy VII substantially more than the rest. Eventually I was able to save up some cash (we were poor teenagers at the time) and get us a card. I never owned the game myself but I was able to play it entirely on my friend’s system. The game itself takes hours and hours to play and was full of all kinds of secrets and hidden things to find and do. This was one of the first games for which I actually had to look things up for on the internet, which is something we certainly take for granted now.
The first thing that I noticed when I downloaded the game was it’s size. At only 1.5G it was absolutely tiny by today’s standards. At the time it game out the game took up 3 whole disks and was considered very big. The Steam version also comes with achievements (which are always fun) and all the other Steam community features. Some of the graphics have also been updated and soothed out a little. As I started playing I was a little worried about whether there would be any real replay value for me or if maybe it was mostly the nostalgia talking but I didn’t worry for long.
I am absolutely amazed at how much of the game I actually remember. I remembered where some of the loot was hidden as well as many of the tricks and puzzles. Rather than just fast forward through the dialogue (yes this game was before voice acting) i decided i would play it through and read it all. While I do remember most of the story, it does get kind of complicated in the middle and there are some of the finer points that I’m pretty sure I was never too clear on. Even after all this time the game does still have a tremendous about of replay value especially once you add in some of the achievements and a need for perfection that has been honed by games such as Fallout 3 and anything Elder Scrolls. The characters are still well crafted and compelling and I found myself getting excited as some of my favourite parts came up, as well as dreading some of the parts I didn’t like (super long Nibel flashback I’m looking at you).
Of all the games from the past that I replay I think that RPG games like Final Fantasy VII (I’ve replayed the earlier ones as well) often resonate the best. Because they are dependent mostly on story and characters, and not game-play innovations or graphics, they retain a lot of their value. Old shooters like Doom are fun to replay too, but not being able to move your gun up and down, and the fact that everything is so flat makes them much more noticeable archaic. I find that it’s also fun to reply old games because I get to relive some of my favourite gaming moments as well as create new ones or try to improve on old milestones. I mean, I never would have maxed out Aeris if there hadn’t been an achievement for it.
D.
