Final Fantasy VII - 20 Years On!

johnny_ultimate

Retr0gamer wrote: »

the instrumentation used is god awful

I would not change a single goddamn thing about the instrumentation for Fight On!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsLnioY3FVY

Retr0gamer

While the drums and synth sound good but not great the guitar, organ, violins and a few others sound pretty ropey. If the actual composer actually recognises the flaw in his own work well then you know it's flawed. Just compare that to the quality of the samples in FF8, especially the organ and guitar. It's a world apart. I think one winged Angel is the only track where Uematsu actually used higher quality samples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZMWszd5SRk

J Mysterio

I work in the translation industry and I can tell you that what you are saying is entirely correct. Companies pay the translators nothing, adopt interns that are used and abused, and have no real QA worthy of the name. It is quick turnarounds with little room for creative thinking or care.

Retr0gamer

The problem with that example isn't the grammar, it's the fact that the instructions it gives you are the opposite of what you should do.

Also you arent takingb into account squaresoft 16 bit translations were amazing for the time coming to the end of that generation. Ted Woolsey did amazing work on the likes of FF6, Chromo Trigger and Super Mario RPG. FF7 was a massive step backwards to the utter rubbish that passed for localisation for the likes of breath of fire 2 and FF2/4. Saying that, FF Tactics was even worse.

The localisers themselves admit it was awful and should have been better in the polygon article. No need to try and defend it, it's universally regarded as awful.

Thankfully it had one good outcome. It was so awful it made Alexander O Smith apply for contracting work there to make things better and he would later go on to localise the likes of Vagrant Story FF12 and FF10 (laugh at that all you want but read the usgamer article on it. It's a miracle it was coherent at all considering the BS he had to put up with due to awful coding work by the original team).

NoviGlitzko

Funnily enough I thought one game bettered it the year after (or was it two?), Final Fantasy VIII. Still my favourite game after nearly two decades.

Evade

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The problem with that example isn't the grammar, it's the fact that the instructions it gives you are the opposite of what you should do.

It's a bad sentence break but it's not like it doesn't tell you it will counter attack in the next window.

Retr0gamer

Evade wrote: »

It's a bad sentence break but it's not like it doesn't tell you it will counter attack in the next window.

Well it's not how I ever interpreted it. For me it was:

Barret: 'Attack while it's tail is up! It's gonna counter attack with its laser!'

One turn later

Cloud: '**** you Barret'

Evade

I always read the counter attack in the second sentence being caused by attack in the first sentence.

One thing that does really annoy me in the game is enemies that are weak to wind with no obvious wind magic available.

EDIT: There's tornado in the contain materia but that's practically end game and the first enemy that's weak to wind is in Midgar.

YouSavedMyLife

Evade wrote: »

I always read the counter attack in the second sentence being caused by attack in the first sentence.

One thing that does really annoy me in the game is enemies that are weak to wind with no obvious wind magic available.

EDIT: There's tornado in the contain materia but that's practically end game and the first enemy that's weak to wind is in Midgar.

Aren't all flying enemies weak to wind? Not sure if its listed when you Sense them but its kinda been common knowledge in JRPG for some time. Also doesn't one of the Contain magic spells do %based HP damage? Maybe the wind one?

Vicxas

God Damnit now i want to play this again.

I've played this a good 20 ish times, still always stick with the 3 guys every single time.

Cloud, Barret, Vincent.

gimli2112

Cloud, Tifa, Barret

Taylor365

No love for Yuffie and her high luck?

gimli2112

Yuffie had a limit break called the End. It was really really rare as all the times I played it I only saw it once. It just killed everything and there was a camera panning over a hillside full of flowers.
Or else I dreamt it.

Evade

I usually had Cloud, Cid, and Yuffie in my party.

Vicxas

Taylor365 wrote: »

No love for Yuffie and her high luck?

Never, ever bothered with Yuffie. Same with Cait Sith.

Could never get into them, and i didn't really want to.

Retr0gamer

gimli2112 wrote: »

Yuffie had a limit break called the End. It was really really rare as all the times I played it I only saw it once. It just killed everything and there was a camera panning over a hillside full of flowers.
Or else I dreamt it.

No dream. It was brilliantly bonkers. Only move in the game that one shots anything even the final boss.

YouSavedMyLife

gimli2112 wrote: »

Yuffie had a limit break called the End. It was really really rare as all the times I played it I only saw it once. It just killed everything and there was a camera panning over a hillside full of flowers.
Or else I dreamt it.

It was actually Selphie from FF8 that had that Limit Break. Easy to get the two of them confused though.

For those of you on PC and thinking to replay the game check out a mod called New Threat(NT) I got as far as the Shinra tower before i stopped playing as i was sidetracked by some other new release but its well worth a look if you are looking for a real challenge. It rebalances the game in many ways, plus it adds a new leveling mechanic for each character so you can have them develop through certain archetypes (Like Mage, Fighter, Tank and so forth)

Retr0gamer

I'd also recommend the fan translation for the PC version. Makes the story a whole lot easier to follow and gets rid of the awful translation errors. The story is actually pretty simple once the English in the game actually makes sense!

pablomakaveli

Playing FF7 as a kid is one of my fondest gaming memories. I remember getting it at around 8 or 9 years old having never played an RPG before. Took me a while to get the hang of it and to understand how to correctly use materia but once I did I was absolutely hooked.

It was the first game I ever played that had that "epic" feeling. It was the first game that made me actually care about the characters. Sure after all these years it shows its age and flaws more glaringly than it did for a young me but theres few games that have managed to engross and capture me the way FF7 did.

chopperbyrne

The worst of the three numbered PS1 FF games, but still a pretty damn good JRPG.

The game went downhill after you left Midgar, and the story took a nosedive.

Lots of memorable characters and a great soundtrack

For those of us who had played US imports of the SNES FF games, it was a bit of a step back though. Smaller party and far less diverse characters.

Xenji

chopperbyrne wrote: »

The worst of the three numbered PS1 FF games, but still a pretty damn good JRPG.

The game went downhill after you left Midgar, and the story took a nosedive.

Lots of memorable characters and a great soundtrack

For those of us who had played US imports of the SNES FF games, it was a bit of a step back though. Smaller party and far less diverse characters.

I enjoyed 4 and 6, far more than 7.

Retr0gamer

Listening to the recent retronauts FF4 episode makes me want to play that game again. It's magnificent and so well paced.

Xenji

It looks like S-E has taken development away from CyberConnect 2 and have moved it in house with Naoki Hamaguchi ( Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns ) taking over as development leader, sounds like development hell going on at the moment, not that it is surprising with Nomura involved.