Final Fantasy
General Gaming

I remember that! For me it was different, since FFVII was my first. I had no idea that there would even be a world map. I just thought the whole game took place in Midgar. Then.. BAM.. you're outside with the main theme!



I disagree, and while you can easily accuse me of the same, I think you're just being nostalgic. Actually, I think most of this argument boils down to a certain amount of nostalgia on both sides. I think FFVI totally wouldn't have been as big of a success had it not released on SNES and been delayed for PSone, released in place of VII.

At that time, people were jizzing themselves over the (now laughable) polygon-based graphics of PSone and Saturn games. The crusty visuals of VI would have doomed the series, in my opinion. Or at least set them back a fair few pegs in consumer brand-awareness. I played a touch of VI today on my PS3 (now have V - IX from PSN), and looking like that it wouldn't have made much of a splash, in my opinion!

Maybe you actually meant VI being released in place of VII, but with all the same graphical standards etc. Well, my answer to that is that's kind of a bizarre way of looking at it. Had VI been done like that, it wouldn't in any way shape or form be the game you love now. VII wouldn't be the same. Neither would any of the successive titles.



Firstly - don't get annoyed. You're better than that. Who cares if loads of people want to go around saying "Game X from Series Y is the best in that series"? Doesn't effect you, or anyone. I can't imagine anyone saying your last two quotes there, honestly!



You're letting your anger cloud your judgement, Supes! Think - why do people I know only ever revere FF games from VII and onwards? The answer is - you live in the UK. In your region, Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the series to be released. In 1997, most people in the UK didn't have a PC, and for sure nobody in the world was playing SNES games on emulators.

Thus, to have played prior FF games, you had to be one of those slightly-worrying import gamers. You had to have the right power setup. You had to have a TV that supports 60Hz at the very least, and if you weren't using RGB/component inputs, your TV also needed to understand an NTSC colour signal. Not to mention an imported Super Nintendo/Famicom and what have you.

You couldn't just refer to eBay for any of that stuff, either. eBay didn't exist. Etc etc. None of your friends give a crap about older FF games because they weren't available for sale in your region until years after the fact. So many years, that everyone but the hardest of core gamer, or died-in-the-wool FF nutjob simply didn't care.



Well, you've gotta respect the fact that they're awesome to you. If Square/NoE (whoever is at fault) hadn't totally ignored Europe in the years from the first FF game up to VII, maybe those games would be more highly thought-of, and/or well remembered. You shouldn't berate people for turning their noses up them now. They were fucking old when we first got them on PSone, and that was over ten years ago. V just looks gash (really bad with the square people), and VI looks like it's pushing the SNES, but in this day-and-age that's not much to write home about.

Although you have my interest piqued. Perhaps instead of moving on to VIII after my earth-shattering first ever completion of VII, I will go to V and/or VI. You say VI has a much better story and characters than VII. If so, then I'm in for a treat! I think I can just about stomach the visuals in VI (in fact, I find them quite charming in a way). V just looks like a pile of wank, though.

One thing that confuses me with VI. In the intro, the woman in the robot is blonde. In the game, she is purple/pink. What's up with that? Be pink or blonde, not both. Way to epically confuse me in the first 5 minutes of the game. I was watching the intro unfold, etc etc. Then I'm suddenly put in control of this pink-haired thing, and I'm thinking "Wha..? Who am I, then?"