straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2017-05-18 08:52 am
straightforwardly) wrote2017-05-18 08:52 am
139 | all Final Fantasy VII, all the time
► Two days ago I beat Final Fantasy VII for the first time. I’d been interested in playing it for a long time now, but the price of a used copy held me back when I was younger, and then, after picking it up during the Christmas sales on Steam a few years back, I just… didn’t get around to it? But when the remake was announced, I made a personal goal to play the original before it came out, and so about a month ago I finally started on that.
I didn’t take notes while playing, and I have a memory like a sieve so I’ve already forgotten many of the smaller details that stuck out to me, but one thing that struck me was how, despite how much of the game I’d been spoiled for* (whether through friends telling me about the game, reading other people’s discussion of the game, watching and then slowly forgetting everything about Last Order, reading Kingdom Hearts fanfiction focused on the Final Fantasy characters back in those long-ago days when I was actually in that fandom, watching and then slowly forgetting almost everything about Advent Children, and that period seven years ago now, holy shit, when I found myself obsessively reading Vincent/Yuffie fanfiction**), there was still quite a bit that took me by surprise, plot-wise? Both because of things that hadn’t been mentioned in my vicinity, and because of things I’d misunderstood or partially-forgotten.
A prime example of the latter was Cait Sith. I remembered that he was actually a part of Shinra, and I remembered that his name started with the letter “R”, but I couldn’t actually remember who he was... so when Rufus showed up I kind of assumed that he was Cait Sith? Whereas when the actual truth was revealed, I only vaguely remembered who Reeve was;;;; I spent a lot of time wondering about Rufus’ motivations/wtf was going on in his head because of that.
On the other hand, my opinions on the various characters were mostly set in stone, and didn’t really change after playing the game. The only ones I didn’t have much of an opinion on before playing were Barret and Nanaki, and I ended up really liking both of them. But my favorite character was still my favorite character (Yuffie! ♥), and so on.
As for the actual gameplay… I liked it? The minigames were The Worst, especially the submarine one (though I feel an intense dislike for the marching ones as well), but I loved the materia system, and I always like turn-based RPGs. Most of the bosses were fun too, with the exception of the Emerald Weapon. I did so much grinding to beat that boss, and tried so many times. And when I finally did beat it, it was more out of luck than anything. ._. I like a good, challenging boss as much as the next person, but that went straight passed that to the “not fun anymore” category. The only reason I persisted with it was because I’d decided upon starting that game that I’d get max achievements (since when I looked at the achievement list, I realized that everything looked very doable). (That’s also why it took me so long to beat the game— I could have done it somewhere between 2-3 weeks ago, but then I got caught up in grinding materia / limit breaks / for the Emerald Weapon / gil for like 20-30 hours.)
Anyways: It was a fun game, despite some of the frustrations along the way, with good characters and a good story. I don’t think it’s The Best Game Ever, liked I’ve heard some people over the years claim, or even The Best RPG Ever, but I did enjoy playing it, and definitely think it’s worth playing.
* This is not normal for me, btw. I usually avoid spoilers like the plague unless I’m 100% sure that the thing being spoiled is something I have zero interest in and will never check out. This was never the case for FFVII. I think it was a combination of most people considering the plot developments in this game as common knowledge/not something in danger of being spoiled and me giving into the inevitable.
** Still ship it with the passion of a thousand suns, tbh. Maybe they didn’t really interact in the game, but their personalities slot together in a way that really works for me. There were a lot of pairings I found myself idly interested in*** while playing, but this is the only one I feel any real urge to seek out fanwork for.
*** Those pairings were: Barret/Tifa, Cloud/Tifa, Cloud/Sephiroth, Cloud/Zack, Tifa/Aerith, Yuffie/Potentially A Million People, Sephiroth/Aerith, Rude/Tifa, and others I can’t remember at the moment.
I’d already decided before beating it that I was going to continue on through the compilation. I know there are mixed feelings about it, to say the least, but I want to form my own opinion on it. Plus, I already own Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. (I bought DoC many years ago in GameStop when it was on sale; it was the first FFVII game I bought, and quite possibly also the first Final Fantasy game I ever bought. I got Crisis Core essentially for free when, about 5-6 years ago, my best friend at the time sold me her PSP, and gave me all the games she had for it.) I wasn’t quite sure which one to start with first (DoC is shorter, but Crisis Core is portable and, since I’m mostly unspoiled for it, I actually have a stack of promising-looking-but-unread fic piled up to read after I beat it), but DoC won out because of length + Vincent & Yuffie.
I did want to rewatch Advent Children first, because basically all I remember about it is a fun fight between Tifa and someone (named Loz?) that made me fall in love with her, just a little, and a vague impression of Cloud talking to Vincent at one point. And motorcycles. But it’s not on Netflix, and I’d have to pay extra to stream it on Amazon, which, no. But I was pretty sure that at least one of my brother’s friends would have it, and asked him if he’d ask one of them to borrow it. I ended up not having enough patience to wait before starting DoC, but he did succeed: he handed me his friend’s copy this morning. So I’ll probably watch it soon.
► So, Dirge of Cerberus. I started it yesterday, and while I'm not very far yet, I do have some initial impressions: I have to say, the opening cutscene did a lot to butter me up. Vincent/Yuffie interaction! Yuffie worrying about him! Yuffie rescuing him! (And looking vaguely motion-sick in the process.) This was honestly the best thing this game could have done, because it gave me so much goodwill / hope for what the game may bring further on.
I’m partway through Chapter 3 at the moment. The writing is kind of laughably bad at moments (the conversation between Reeve and Vincent in the truck…), but I did really like the scene when Vincent thought for a moment that Reeve had been shot. Also, wtf is with Shalua’s outfit? I have the vague impression from osmosis/vague memories of Vincent/Yuffie fic I’ve read in the past that she’s important? somehow? Which is a shame— not because I have anything against her (I don’t really have enough of an impression of her character to have an opinion), but because that outfit genuinely horrifies me on a subconscious level.
Speaking of laughably bad, that also describes my skill-level at this game! That first chapter was an absolute disaster for me, haha. I’ve improved a little bit (and discovering the melee combat was probably the best thing that’s happened to me so far, gameplay-wise), but I’m still not very good at it. It’s always amusing when the game switches from my inept attempts at hitting things to a cutscene where Vincent smoothly and competently takes things down.
tl;dr I can’t really say that it’s a good game so far, but the Vincent/Yuffie interactions in the beginning genuinely delighted me, and I’m more amused than irritated by the flaws so far. I do wish I was better at the actual gameplay, though.
(A note on tagging: apparently, Dirge of Cerberus breaks the character limit when I pair it with "video games" and "final fantasy", even before "vii" gets into the mix, so... I'm just going to leave it under FFVII's tag for now? I'll figure it out later.)
► I’m still playing Mystic Messenger, though I did take a break for a few weeks. I just don’t have too much to say about it right now? I’m mostly just collecting endings. Though, I did have a very belated realization about Saeran’s hair? That is, it just hit me (and by “just”, I mean since my last entry; this realization actually happened a few weeks ago) that the pink tips in his hair is probably his original red poking through, and not a conscious hair-coloring choice.
I didn’t take notes while playing, and I have a memory like a sieve so I’ve already forgotten many of the smaller details that stuck out to me, but one thing that struck me was how, despite how much of the game I’d been spoiled for* (whether through friends telling me about the game, reading other people’s discussion of the game, watching and then slowly forgetting everything about Last Order, reading Kingdom Hearts fanfiction focused on the Final Fantasy characters back in those long-ago days when I was actually in that fandom, watching and then slowly forgetting almost everything about Advent Children, and that period seven years ago now, holy shit, when I found myself obsessively reading Vincent/Yuffie fanfiction**), there was still quite a bit that took me by surprise, plot-wise? Both because of things that hadn’t been mentioned in my vicinity, and because of things I’d misunderstood or partially-forgotten.
A prime example of the latter was Cait Sith. I remembered that he was actually a part of Shinra, and I remembered that his name started with the letter “R”, but I couldn’t actually remember who he was... so when Rufus showed up I kind of assumed that he was Cait Sith? Whereas when the actual truth was revealed, I only vaguely remembered who Reeve was;;;; I spent a lot of time wondering about Rufus’ motivations/wtf was going on in his head because of that.
On the other hand, my opinions on the various characters were mostly set in stone, and didn’t really change after playing the game. The only ones I didn’t have much of an opinion on before playing were Barret and Nanaki, and I ended up really liking both of them. But my favorite character was still my favorite character (Yuffie! ♥), and so on.
As for the actual gameplay… I liked it? The minigames were The Worst, especially the submarine one (though I feel an intense dislike for the marching ones as well), but I loved the materia system, and I always like turn-based RPGs. Most of the bosses were fun too, with the exception of the Emerald Weapon. I did so much grinding to beat that boss, and tried so many times. And when I finally did beat it, it was more out of luck than anything. ._. I like a good, challenging boss as much as the next person, but that went straight passed that to the “not fun anymore” category. The only reason I persisted with it was because I’d decided upon starting that game that I’d get max achievements (since when I looked at the achievement list, I realized that everything looked very doable). (That’s also why it took me so long to beat the game— I could have done it somewhere between 2-3 weeks ago, but then I got caught up in grinding materia / limit breaks / for the Emerald Weapon / gil for like 20-30 hours.)
Anyways: It was a fun game, despite some of the frustrations along the way, with good characters and a good story. I don’t think it’s The Best Game Ever, liked I’ve heard some people over the years claim, or even The Best RPG Ever, but I did enjoy playing it, and definitely think it’s worth playing.
* This is not normal for me, btw. I usually avoid spoilers like the plague unless I’m 100% sure that the thing being spoiled is something I have zero interest in and will never check out. This was never the case for FFVII. I think it was a combination of most people considering the plot developments in this game as common knowledge/not something in danger of being spoiled and me giving into the inevitable.
** Still ship it with the passion of a thousand suns, tbh. Maybe they didn’t really interact in the game, but their personalities slot together in a way that really works for me. There were a lot of pairings I found myself idly interested in*** while playing, but this is the only one I feel any real urge to seek out fanwork for.
*** Those pairings were: Barret/Tifa, Cloud/Tifa, Cloud/Sephiroth, Cloud/Zack, Tifa/Aerith, Yuffie/Potentially A Million People, Sephiroth/Aerith, Rude/Tifa, and others I can’t remember at the moment.
I’d already decided before beating it that I was going to continue on through the compilation. I know there are mixed feelings about it, to say the least, but I want to form my own opinion on it. Plus, I already own Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. (I bought DoC many years ago in GameStop when it was on sale; it was the first FFVII game I bought, and quite possibly also the first Final Fantasy game I ever bought. I got Crisis Core essentially for free when, about 5-6 years ago, my best friend at the time sold me her PSP, and gave me all the games she had for it.) I wasn’t quite sure which one to start with first (DoC is shorter, but Crisis Core is portable and, since I’m mostly unspoiled for it, I actually have a stack of promising-looking-but-unread fic piled up to read after I beat it), but DoC won out because of length + Vincent & Yuffie.
I did want to rewatch Advent Children first, because basically all I remember about it is a fun fight between Tifa and someone (named Loz?) that made me fall in love with her, just a little, and a vague impression of Cloud talking to Vincent at one point. And motorcycles. But it’s not on Netflix, and I’d have to pay extra to stream it on Amazon, which, no. But I was pretty sure that at least one of my brother’s friends would have it, and asked him if he’d ask one of them to borrow it. I ended up not having enough patience to wait before starting DoC, but he did succeed: he handed me his friend’s copy this morning. So I’ll probably watch it soon.
► So, Dirge of Cerberus. I started it yesterday, and while I'm not very far yet, I do have some initial impressions: I have to say, the opening cutscene did a lot to butter me up. Vincent/Yuffie interaction! Yuffie worrying about him! Yuffie rescuing him! (And looking vaguely motion-sick in the process.) This was honestly the best thing this game could have done, because it gave me so much goodwill / hope for what the game may bring further on.
I’m partway through Chapter 3 at the moment. The writing is kind of laughably bad at moments (the conversation between Reeve and Vincent in the truck…), but I did really like the scene when Vincent thought for a moment that Reeve had been shot. Also, wtf is with Shalua’s outfit? I have the vague impression from osmosis/vague memories of Vincent/Yuffie fic I’ve read in the past that she’s important? somehow? Which is a shame— not because I have anything against her (I don’t really have enough of an impression of her character to have an opinion), but because that outfit genuinely horrifies me on a subconscious level.
Speaking of laughably bad, that also describes my skill-level at this game! That first chapter was an absolute disaster for me, haha. I’ve improved a little bit (and discovering the melee combat was probably the best thing that’s happened to me so far, gameplay-wise), but I’m still not very good at it. It’s always amusing when the game switches from my inept attempts at hitting things to a cutscene where Vincent smoothly and competently takes things down.
tl;dr I can’t really say that it’s a good game so far, but the Vincent/Yuffie interactions in the beginning genuinely delighted me, and I’m more amused than irritated by the flaws so far. I do wish I was better at the actual gameplay, though.
(A note on tagging: apparently, Dirge of Cerberus breaks the character limit when I pair it with "video games" and "final fantasy", even before "vii" gets into the mix, so... I'm just going to leave it under FFVII's tag for now? I'll figure it out later.)
► I’m still playing Mystic Messenger, though I did take a break for a few weeks. I just don’t have too much to say about it right now? I’m mostly just collecting endings. Though, I did have a very belated realization about Saeran’s hair? That is, it just hit me (and by “just”, I mean since my last entry; this realization actually happened a few weeks ago) that the pink tips in his hair is probably his original red poking through, and not a conscious hair-coloring choice.