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Post by Sarge on Jan 3, 2022 13:10:58 GMT -5
Yeah, around 40-ish hours sounds right. Not sure if my old save ever got backed up, but it's not insanely long unless you start diving into trying to take down the optional Weapon superbosses or the chocobo stuff.
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Post by toei on Jan 3, 2022 13:43:48 GMT -5
I got my Final Fantasy VII CDs out of my closet and booted it up again on my 20 year old PC. At first it refused to work, telling me "Insert Final Fantasy VII disc 1, 2, or 3" even though I tried all three of those in my CD-ROM drive. Thankfully I was able to make a copy of my save file from my original install, uninstall the game, reinstall it, then get it working again with my old save file intact. According to my save file from last year, I made about 8 hours of progress. This figure made me curious how long this game lasts. Google tells me it's 36 hours for a "bare minimum" run and upwards of 80 hours for more thorough players. Yikes. I'm definitely feeling this game was designed for young people with tons of spare time back in the days when people didn't have as many video games as we do now, so players wanted to wring as much value as possible from their games. But I'm determined to finish this anyway. RPGs have only become longer since, not shorter. Same for games in general. That said, 80 hours is vastly exaggerated for a normal playthrough. 40-50 is more like it.
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Post by anayo on Jan 3, 2022 13:49:49 GMT -5
Google tells me it's 36 hours for a "bare minimum" run and upwards of 80 hours for more thorough players. 35-40 hours sounds right for a basic first run of the original FF7. Perhaps you will greatly enjoy FF7 as most do.
I have finished FF7. About a decade or so ago I finally got around to it. I certainly enjoyed the "Midgar" portion of FF7, but after that portion the scenario/world design dwindled quickly for my tastes. If I had been between the ages of 11-13 and played FF7 when it first released in 1997, I likely would have a much higher opinion of it today - as most nostalgic FF7 lovers do. But in 1997 I was 18 and playing Fallout instead. I was still very much into PC gaming at that time. Many years later when I finally played through FF7, I understood what the big deal was from a technological perspective given its release year and platform. Technically FF7 was impressive. That said, the game's writing and plot were fairly awful for my tastes. I was unable to get into FF7's plot at all, despite the game having four writers listed in the credits. That said, I ended up giving the game a 7/10, so it has other merits. Perhaps you will come away from the experience with a laudatory disposition.
And if anyone is wondering, yes there are mainline FF entries I loved. Those would be FF6 and FF12. That's reassuring. Everyone online seems to praise FFVII to high heaven. So when I just wasn't "getting it" it made me question my own sanity. I feel like if I had been a teenager in the 90's who couldn't get enough of Squaresoft on the SNES then FFVII would have been my dream game. But I'm not so it makes me feel like an old person trying to watch anime.
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 3, 2022 13:50:20 GMT -5
Remember that the original PC version has midi music which sounds pretty terrible. The Reunion mod is the way to go, vastly superior translation and the characterizations even lined up with the recent FF7R. I replayed FF7 that same year with this translation and it was cool. ff7.live/features.htmlFF7 is a mess, but damn I love it. I think more than half the characters and ideas FF8 went for are watered down versions and almost a strange rip off of FF7. But I still like FF8 a fair bit more than FF9 and others though. But for FF7, even in the original translation, I think Tifa and Barret are some of the best FF characters in general. Cloud's background makes Solid Snake look like a wimp kind of, but I understand not everyone will care enough to really dive too deeply into it and of course, he's more chalk full of that Japanese melodrama. I just adore the Materia system, some of the characters, Jenova is a straight up Cosmic Horror alien from space, the gritty post apocalyptic vibe and awesome backgrounds, the weird dated soundfont sounds like chiptunes still but is very charming, etc. I've beaten FF7 I think 3-4 times now. I thought I was kind of over it again, but FF7R hit me so good it reminded me that I love this game more than most. But I get the flaws and it's not for everyone. The Midgar arc is indeed a major highlight and only a few short hours of the main game, lol. The way I put it: Original Midgar = OVA FF7R = Full TV version of the Midgar arc. I like FF7R even more than the original to be honest. But I don't know if they can keep that high note going. Shall be interesting. FF7 wasn't even my first either, so I'm not blinded by nostalgia or whatever. I had devoured SNES JRPG's via emulation before getting to the PSX entries. I take the lazy way out and just say FF4-FF7 are my top favorites for various reasons and FF7R is right there too. After that, it's probably FF12, FF10, FF13-2, etc maybe some others. The only one I'd call actively bad is probably FF2. I think FFT is absurdly overrated though. I'll never get it, I beat it a second time out of spite to see if my thoughts would change, but nah. For me Tactics Ogre and especially Front Mission games bodyslam FFT. It's not a bad game, but it falls apart in the back half narrative wise, is littered with special units that break the game and make it boring, and I think Matsuno did way better with TO, Vagrant Story, FF12, etc.
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Post by Ex on Jan 3, 2022 14:00:27 GMT -5
I'm not so it makes me feel like an old person trying to watch shōnen anime. FTFY I think FFT is absurdly overrated though. / It's not a bad game, but it falls apart in the back half narrative wise and I think Matsuno did way better with TO, Vagrant Story, FF12, etc. I agree that VS and FF12 are better than FFT, but I don't agree TO is. I respect that TO came first, but FFT outclasses TO in every way except difficulty. I'll admit TO is the harder game, especially its final "Hanging Gardens" section. I think TO is very respectable given the precedents that it set in the SRPG genre, it was a hugely influential game. But FFT is more polished, has more interesting gameplay, and a more intriguing plot. Especially if you play the PSP version with the superior localization. My reviews for both... FFT: TO: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/999440-tactics-ogre-let-us-cling-together/reviews/164717
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Post by toei on Jan 3, 2022 14:02:25 GMT -5
I'm in the "FF7 is overrated" camp too, have been from the start. Like Ex, I liked the Midgar portion the most and think it sort of falls apart after that. I think I like the game a little more than him overall. Also, I wouldn't say "despite" having 4 writers! Having a bunch of writers working more-or-less separately is the reason why FF games almost never live up to their early portion. It's always this weird disjointed patchwork. I like FF9, though. Best FF is 6 to me. Never played any past the PSX. If I ever decide to, 12 is the only one that sounds interesting to me.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 3, 2022 14:07:14 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm also in the "overrated" camp, but I still think it's good. It was definitely a letdown after FFVI and Chrono Trigger for me, especially since I had to wait so long to finally play it. I don't anything could have matched those expectations.
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 3, 2022 14:08:32 GMT -5
Really wished you played Tactics Ogre SNES Ex . The PSP version sounds like a completely different game. For the SNES version, I thought it was mighty impressive that it has three main branching paths depending on your alignment with other characters and the path I went (Neutral Good or something) was pretty good. It was all way better than FFT. I liked having 10 units to work with per map, rather than FFT's measly ~3-4 for most of the game. Nor did TO have anyone with Dark Sword and whatnot that made the game a joke. Or that one broken boss battle with solo Ramza that everyone hates for good reason. And who even is the main boss? The ending is terrible. It might have higher peaks than TO, but the issues tank it for me. TO was a consistently fun experience from start to finish for me. I even did a fair chunk of the optional end game dungeon that was like a hundred floors I think. Sunk 50-60 hours into that beast. Nothing will change my mind. I take pleasure in how defensive people get about FFT over the last decade or two. At least you and some here have played other SRPG's, but I get the vibe that it's the only one most of its ardent fans have ever played.
Arc the Lad 2 is better as well.
FFT has great music, won't deny that. But it was insane what Hitoshi Sakimoto could pull off on the SNES and Genesis with his custom drivers and such. Dude slayed it.
EDIT: See that's ~4 people thinking FF7 is overrated here. So someone's gotta stick up for it. While taking a dump on FFT.
I have nitpicks for FF6 too, cause I've played it so much. But it's still probably a 10.
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Post by Ex on Jan 3, 2022 14:15:01 GMT -5
It was all way better than FFT / dump on FFT
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 3, 2022 14:17:07 GMT -5
I'll wrap FFT into this, but for better and worse it is very commendable how experimental Final Fantasy has been as a whole I'd say. They stick to some tropes and carry over mechanics throughout, but yeah. Easy to see how wild and varied fans are about certain entries.
Let's say FF6 is the base line though. Anyone who doesn't like FF6, can't be trusted.
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