Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Everything Old is New Again, Part 1: FFVII

Again, sorry for the lack of posts lately; I've been pretty busy with some music stuff over the last week or so, and there hasn't been much to play.

That will soon change, however. Today I'm announcing a new, hopefully recurring feature called EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, wherein I (and Gred, if he so chooses) play classic games for the first time. This feature is especially timely because when I get home from work today I'm charging up my long-dead PS3 controller to play a borrowed copy of Final Fantasy VII, which (as you may have guessed) I've never played.

I'm doing this because I'm starting to get excited about next year's FFXIII for reasons I'm not sure I can explain - especially since my experience with FF games is strictly limited to a few hours with III and IV on the DS. For one thing, I've been getting a little burnt out on turn-based RPGs, especially since so many of them end up being quite similar. I haven't even necessarily played that many,* but I've played enough to spot an annoying cliche from a mile away. I would imagine that my experience playing FFVII for the first time, in 2009, is going to be quite different than everyone else's, especially with regard to annoying cliches, but since everyone insists the story is one of the greatest of all time, I'll do my best to keep everything in the right context.

...It occurs to me that I might not be able to play tonight after all, being that Lost is on (and then my wife will want to watch Top Chef). Hmm...

*JRPGs (and other turn-based non-strategy RPGs) I have played (that I can remember off the top of my head):
  • Skies of Arcadia, Dreamcast (adored it)
  • LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth, Xbox (hated it - the computer cheated all the goddamned time)
  • Blue Dragon, 360 (didn't finish it, meh)
  • Lost Odyssey, 360 (finished it, was quite impressed)
  • Eternal Sonata, 360 (liked it, but didn't finish)
  • Eternal Arms, 360 (wanted to like it, but lost interest)
  • Final Fantasy III, DS (didn't finish... got the general idea and got bored)
  • Final Fantasy IV, DS (see FFIII)
  • Chrono Trigger, DS (still technically playing, although I'm stuck)
  • Star Ocean something, PSP (got insanely bored in about 10 minutes, which probably isn't fair)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Square really knew what they were doing back in the day. I feel like they set the standard for what RPGs can be with great story lines, characters, and game play. Nowadays the genre seems to fall terribly short, maybe I’m just nostalgic, but Final Fantasy XII is a great place to start Everything Old is New Again. If you’re not to Squared out after this and Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana is worth playing as well.