Filed under: Games & Gaming, Jasmine's Rambling, Reviews, Role-Playing | Tags: Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, Nobuo Uematsu, Super Nintendo
Well now, my fellow followers of He Frag, She Frag…it’s been a while hasn’t it? So here I am to satisfy you of your naughty little voyeuristic habit. As many of you may know, I am a fan of the Final Fantasy series. I don’t tout I’m a supreme expert, but I have played a number of them over the years. Though, one that eluded me was Final Fantasy 6. Although in my defense I will say it’s because I never owned a Super Nintendo.
Moving on, I’ve been having problems with playing my version of Final Fantasy 7 and it had been causing me some distress lately. Mike, being the wonderful husband he is, set off on a quest roaming the internet for anything that might help my dilemma. However, he came across some fan boys arguing over the greatest debate ever: which Final Fantasy is the best? Each installment has their own fan base, though these particular individuals were arguing that Final Fantasy 6 was perhaps the best game of the series.
After the evening rush and rituals involved in taking care of our family, he sat me down and explained to me very gently that he wanted me to try it, since I was visibly upset in not having any games to play. I scoffed at first, but decided I’d give it a try. He went through all that trouble, after all.
It turned out I am pretty much obsessed with the game. Even in all its 16-bit glory, I find it calling out to me in the middle of the night, wherein I awake in a cold sweat to find a glowing beacon by my side. I pat it reassuringly, murmuring promises of the night forthcoming.
Er..that is, I really enjoy the game.
One of the most compelling things about the game is the music. I love Nobuo Uematsu. I know, I am that much of a dork, but this game has a much better quality and diversity of MIDI’s. Yes, MIDI’s they are, but I find myself humming tunes from the games at odd times, and belting out the fan fare after I have done something triumphant. Which happens frequently throughout my day.
The story, obviously, is the biggest selling point. It’s set in an alternate steampunk universe where magic abilities are rare. It’s a rebellious time, as it always is. An evil Empire has fostered a most devious man who wants all power for himself. A patchwork of different rogue’s gallery types develop a mismatched alliance set out to take down the evil once and for all, whilst learning more about themselves in the process. The characters are well thought out and you can sympathize with them, most of the time. The combat system is just as you would expect a game of the series to be. The only drawback, as with any JRPG, is there are way too many random encounters. A minor setback, but always a very annoying one.
Bearing in mind its age, I still think this game stands the test of time. It could possibly become one of those games I play religiously every year from now on.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Interesting Links, Multiplayer, Role-Playing | Tags: fantasy, pen & paper, Role-Playing
Sorry for the delay, it certainly has been a few days longer than I would have liked. I was actually expecting Jasmine to blog about one of the items on her topic list before I got to my next post, but I guess I win!
I have a few things to blog about over the next couple days, but I’ll start from the to top: Fantasy Grounds. Chances are you haven’t heard of it, but it’s essentially a virtual tabletop for Pencil and Paper role-playing games, and all that the concept implies. Roll virtual dice, draw on virtual maps, host games and play as Non-Player Characters and even use mood lighting to accentuate your scenario’s location and various expositions. It’s the whole freakin’ package, and it’s customizable; don’t like a particular rule-set? Fine, create your own (a feature that has me drooling over this thing) – inject your own map graphics, character portraits, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
The full version, of course, costs money – but it’s affordable, and comes in two flavors; ‘Full’ and ‘Lite’ – the former offering the ‘game master’ system and customization tools, and the latter being the player’s edition, allowing them to log into the game master’s ‘room’ and play their characters.
If you’re a fan of role-playing, or simply were too shy to try it, this is your chance. There’s nothing more comforting (and annoying) than the anonymity of the internet – but at least you can have hearty creative sessions over the distance with close friends.
Definitely good stuff.
UPDATE: It’s too much of a coincidence that I made this post on the same day that Gary Gygax passed away. RIP Gary, and thank you for all your contributions to evolving modern gaming. Your work inspired Ultima, which makes me eternally grateful.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Mike's Rambling, Role-Playing | Tags: Final Fantasy 7
Jaz’s post last night reminded me of a blog entry I made elsewhere on September 5th of last year. Rather than paraphrasing it, I decided to re-post it here – so it’d finally get an actual audience. Unfortunately, I no longer know the location of the quotes I used – I believe they were user comments on some b-list game review site. I apologize in advance if any of my actual words (and not those of the review I quoted) seem venomous; it was written at a moment of weakness…
September 5th, 2007:
Bennett Campbell, you’re just some guy who posted a reader review of a game back in 2005 that I happened to find today, but you are my champion. With the exception of one general statement you’ve made, you have managed to express a frustration of mine I feel I’ve been alone to hold and cherish like a Knight Templar and his oath.
Let me back-track before I trudge on; today I was surfing the web, and stumbled upon the blog of Warren Spector while reminiscing about Deus Ex – one of my favorite games. While reading his various posts, I came to realize (again) just how good Deus Ex was – and, more specifically, what made it good.
While on this high, I saw a fanboy remark about Final Fantasy 7. Yes, the usual one; “OMFG FFVII IS SUCH A BETTAR RPG.” Mismatched genres aside, it angered me – and so I set out to find someone besides myself who was less than impressed by this confusing – yet somehow beloved – Japanese Role-Playing Game.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Jasmine's Rambling, Role-Playing | Tags: Final Fantasy 7, JRPG's, Oblivion
Hello all! I am Mike’s equally better half, Jasmine. I don’t really do bad puns, so I will spare you any pathetic attempts made by me. This is my first dive into the world of gaming blogs and I will admit I am nervous. I’m not as zealous about games as Mike is; I often go in cycles where I don’t play much, but I will try to be as active as possible here.
Now my first order of gaming business is to let you know what I’ve been playing recently. To answer said question is: Final Fantasy 7. Some may groan, some may cheer and some could care as much about that as Britney taking a dump, but I digress. It was one of my first adventures into the world of JRPG’s (Japanese Role-Playing Games, for those internet illiterate) and so is nostalgic, despite the Popeye look of the characters and 2D backgrounds.
I’m not really sure exactly what lures me back to this game time and time again. I argue that it is a great game, but I have yet to eloquently put my finger on why. Is it the long hours of gameplay? The mini-games? Chocobo racing? The fateful twist of Aeris? Sephiroth? Cloud? I don’t know. Looking back on the game when I played it in 1997, I was 13 and I was so enthralled with the characters that I was borderline obsessive. Now, however, I’m starting to see how wooden and static each character really is. The storyline is actually quite good with little plot twists hiding at every turn, but I’m finding myself hard to identify with each character the older I get.
So if not the characters, the graphics, the long hours of gameplay then what is it? Well, at this point I have to compare it to other games I like of similar genre. One of those is Oblivion. Now, aside from nostalgia, Oblivion far outranks Final Fantasy 7 in every way on my list. It is arguably a whole other world in which I can immerse myself, and there are very few games out there that can over-ride my neurosis and make me forget about life, at least for a few hours. Final Fantasy 7 has that same effect on me. I can get lost in that world for hours: Fighting monsters and listening to the same MIDI’s repeatedly. Breeding Chocobos and then racing them. Blowing my money at the Gold Saucer. I also have many happy memories playing Final Fantasy 7 with my father, which I think now contributes to the +7 Happiness factor I get when I play it.
For all its shortcomings, I still think Final Fantasy 7 is a solid game worth owning and replaying every few years. Besides, where else can you breed Chocobos and exploit them for GP at the races?
