Now for the record, it has been a long time since I have played this game a very far distance. This time I will play through it all; and keep a journal of it right here at the Shrine in this thread. Those who are interested in following along, please do. I am also going to do Final Fantasy 8, 9, and 10. I just recently played both, but I didn't finish 9, and I want to finish it. Then perhaps I will do Xenogears, and Breath of Fire 3, over again as well.
Why am I doing this and starting with 7? Well, I want a fresh adventure; and FF7 will be fresh for me, once I finish it, I certainly will enjoy playing FF8 again, even though I think I know every bit of the 1000 pages or so of dialogue off by heart; the game has a special place in my heart.
Anyways, starting Final Fantasy 7, it was a bit of a shock. I don't care if people try to claim that the graphics aren't Super Deformed, I do believe that characters with block hands as large as their torso's, and heads larger than their torso's are SD style. A lot of the characters are also overly fat, Barret is the same dimensions as Steiner from FF9, and has the same facial expressions. The characters also lack any form of muscle in their arms or legs, they remind me of Dr. Robotnick aside from the fact that they do have large shoulders (just no biceps).
On the music, it is very close to Final Fantasy III's style, and so is the menu system. The music has sort of an old school feel to it.
The graphics, one thing that will take a bit getting used to is that the graphics are not presented in as pretty a manner as Final Fantasy 8 or 9's. The characters scurry accross a 2D background, which does look nice, but the angle viewing the characters from is not very nice, sometimes the character on the screen can get incredibly small until you can't see what you are doing; the character then resembles 3 triangles. There are also times when you have no idea where to go, Square has not had this issue with FF8 or 9.
Load times seem to be not as bad as I remember them being, but I am playing on the new model PS2, and I am still not very far yet.
Anyways, the Journal:
ENTRY #1 - Terrorists blowing up reactors
Alright, so the introduction passed, and we jumped off the train. First thing I noticed was that enemies barely scratch you, and they could be destroyed with ease. So we ran a bit forward, and dialogue is sort of like this:
"Wow!!!! You used to be in SOLDIER alright!!! Not everyday you find someone like you in a group like Avalanche!!!"
"Hold on. He WAS with soldier and quit them to become one of us!"
Bad translation I think =P At this point the dialogue quality was still similar to the later SNES Square games. By the time Xenogears came around it had improved quite a bit.
Anyways, we moved forward and broke into the reactor with relative ease, the security they had was all very low in strength. We defeated the final boss of the area without losing very much HP, and made our ways out. On the way out I bumped into this strange looking girl selling flowers, and I essentially told her to get lost. I fought and killed about 15 soldiers. Jumped on a train and headed down to the Under City. Which is where I stopped and saved the game.
All in all, so far from what I have played, the game feels very different than what I remember it being. It does have an old school feel to it, and FF9 being the one that was supposed to have an old school feel to it actually feels more modern and much closer to FF10 than FF7 does. Anyways, I enjoy this part of the story in FF7, being a terrorist organization in Midgar City.
I think the character of Cloud right now seems very much like Zidane with social issues. Like he got raped in prison or something. Barret seems like a wad, he reminds me a lot of Steiner right now (even though I know his character changes later on). I named Cloud Ragnar after my favourite 1950's movie character, and Barret has become Booker T after the FIVE TIME! FIVE TIME! WCW Champion.
It kind of makes me think for a moment. What if Squall and SeeD met up with Cloud and Avalanche, I think the two groups would hate each other =)
You have Squall and SeeD which are elitest blue bloods, and Avalanche who are undercity terrorist scum. The two would NOT get along. How Garden would be towards Shinra? I think that they would have an uneasy peace, SeeD is sort of like SOLDIER in a way; that they are both elistest fighting groups; but SeeD has a different sort of mission, and are independent of nations. Now if Shinra Corp and Galbadia got together, I think they would thrive.
Wakka would be incredibly angry at everyone for daring to use the Forbidden Machina. Though Wakka would get along fine with Avalanche, and probably would enjoy blowing up the Midgar reactors. Though he would try to fight Barret no doubt, since Barret is part forbidden Machina.
Why am I doing this and starting with 7? Well, I want a fresh adventure; and FF7 will be fresh for me, once I finish it, I certainly will enjoy playing FF8 again, even though I think I know every bit of the 1000 pages or so of dialogue off by heart; the game has a special place in my heart.
Anyways, starting Final Fantasy 7, it was a bit of a shock. I don't care if people try to claim that the graphics aren't Super Deformed, I do believe that characters with block hands as large as their torso's, and heads larger than their torso's are SD style. A lot of the characters are also overly fat, Barret is the same dimensions as Steiner from FF9, and has the same facial expressions. The characters also lack any form of muscle in their arms or legs, they remind me of Dr. Robotnick aside from the fact that they do have large shoulders (just no biceps).
On the music, it is very close to Final Fantasy III's style, and so is the menu system. The music has sort of an old school feel to it.
The graphics, one thing that will take a bit getting used to is that the graphics are not presented in as pretty a manner as Final Fantasy 8 or 9's. The characters scurry accross a 2D background, which does look nice, but the angle viewing the characters from is not very nice, sometimes the character on the screen can get incredibly small until you can't see what you are doing; the character then resembles 3 triangles. There are also times when you have no idea where to go, Square has not had this issue with FF8 or 9.
Load times seem to be not as bad as I remember them being, but I am playing on the new model PS2, and I am still not very far yet.
Anyways, the Journal:
ENTRY #1 - Terrorists blowing up reactors
Alright, so the introduction passed, and we jumped off the train. First thing I noticed was that enemies barely scratch you, and they could be destroyed with ease. So we ran a bit forward, and dialogue is sort of like this:
"Wow!!!! You used to be in SOLDIER alright!!! Not everyday you find someone like you in a group like Avalanche!!!"
"Hold on. He WAS with soldier and quit them to become one of us!"
Bad translation I think =P At this point the dialogue quality was still similar to the later SNES Square games. By the time Xenogears came around it had improved quite a bit.
Anyways, we moved forward and broke into the reactor with relative ease, the security they had was all very low in strength. We defeated the final boss of the area without losing very much HP, and made our ways out. On the way out I bumped into this strange looking girl selling flowers, and I essentially told her to get lost. I fought and killed about 15 soldiers. Jumped on a train and headed down to the Under City. Which is where I stopped and saved the game.
All in all, so far from what I have played, the game feels very different than what I remember it being. It does have an old school feel to it, and FF9 being the one that was supposed to have an old school feel to it actually feels more modern and much closer to FF10 than FF7 does. Anyways, I enjoy this part of the story in FF7, being a terrorist organization in Midgar City.
I think the character of Cloud right now seems very much like Zidane with social issues. Like he got raped in prison or something. Barret seems like a wad, he reminds me a lot of Steiner right now (even though I know his character changes later on). I named Cloud Ragnar after my favourite 1950's movie character, and Barret has become Booker T after the FIVE TIME! FIVE TIME! WCW Champion.
It kind of makes me think for a moment. What if Squall and SeeD met up with Cloud and Avalanche, I think the two groups would hate each other =)
You have Squall and SeeD which are elitest blue bloods, and Avalanche who are undercity terrorist scum. The two would NOT get along. How Garden would be towards Shinra? I think that they would have an uneasy peace, SeeD is sort of like SOLDIER in a way; that they are both elistest fighting groups; but SeeD has a different sort of mission, and are independent of nations. Now if Shinra Corp and Galbadia got together, I think they would thrive.
Wakka would be incredibly angry at everyone for daring to use the Forbidden Machina. Though Wakka would get along fine with Avalanche, and probably would enjoy blowing up the Midgar reactors. Though he would try to fight Barret no doubt, since Barret is part forbidden Machina.
-Insert Inspiring Quote-