Why some people are more attached to the games of the old-school.

by Eddie Doyle

I have to say that Jean-Guillaume's article really hit the nail right on the head, for the most part. Why is it that most of us who played FF2/4 back in the day are more attached to it and its characters over current RPGs despite the lack of stunning graphics and a coherent translation? Why do we get all nostalgic when we hear the phrase, "You spoony bard!" or, "Was it flame? I will show you how!" mentioned? Why don't most new RPGs make as big of an impression on us?

First of all, Jean made a very good point about the lack of character individuality in recent games. I always asked myself why the characters just weren't as much fun in FF7 as they were in FF2, and it's because everyone really can do everything everyone else can and the characters aren't really special. Add that with attacks that do insane amounts of damage, a whole subcast of characters you never use, and a story that never fully develops anyone except Cloud, the game really loses a lot. I must say, though, I think the limit breaks are really cool. Nothing beats Omnislash, that is just badass, and I think those are a good idea. Of course, there were a lot of sorry ones (Cait Sith) so they need to work on that for part 8. I think that the characters can do so much, though, because there are so few of them and they are forced to take on various roles. In FF7 there are only three party members, as opposed to FF2's 5 party members. If Rosa died, you could have Edge and Cecil bring her back and throw a cure 3 at her while Rydia cast Meteo or something and Kain jumped, but in FF7 it's a lot harder to pull that off w/out getting shelacked, so it's easier if all of your characters are able to use life 2.

That brings me to another thing that was wrong with FF7, that Jean also touched on. You really don't care about getting new characters. You are forced to use each one for a little part of the game, and then you never hear from them again. When Rydia returns in the underground castle, that is one of the coolest parts of the game because it is such a surprise and fighting the Calbrena really makes you miss those black magic users. It's especially fun if you know the trick of getting Kain "stuck" in the air while Golbez kills the rest of your party, b/c then he lands after Rydia comes back and makes that fight a lot easier. When I got Yuffie and Vincent I didn't really care about them, it was like I got them just to say I did, and they don't really add much to the game. Not since FF3's notorious airship full of guys have you gotten less use out of characters. At least there were several points in FF3 where they made you form groups, but I mean, really now, what was your main party in FF3? You got Cyan and Sabin and gave one of them the Genji Glove and Offering, had Terra there with the Gem Box and Economizer to cast Ultima over and over again, and then maybe Edgar so you can get that royal discount if you ever go back to Figaro. Other than that you hardly used any of the other characters, right? But anyway, Yuffie is annoying and you don't care about all of that Wutai stuff too much, and Vincent barely has more lines in the game than Darth Maul did in The Phantom Menace. Even if you keep him in your party, he hardly ever says anything since he's a secret character, and neither he nor Yuffie are even in the ending. The ending also stank, but that's a whole different editorial topic, so I won't say anything more about that.

Also, Jean was right-on about the whole Knights of the Round syndrome. We've seen it with Ultima, too, but it seems like there's always one spell that makes the game a piece of cake and takes away from the last battle. Sure, it looks cool, but it makes the game pathetically easy. The only legitimate use for KOR is to defeat Ruby and Emerald Weapon with it (yes you CAN use it on Ruby Weapon) and boy do those battles ever get old quick. W-Summon, mime, mime, mime, mime, mime, mime... *loads gun, shoots self* Watching KOR 12 times in a row is not very fun, to say the absolute least. You almost want to break the monotony with a little Chupon or Hades, but that would break the miming chain and get you killed, so you can't. By the way, when did Chupon get to be a summoned monster, exactly?

Let's look at some other recent RPGs really quick and see how they compare. Legend of Legaia: nice graphics, interesting story, but absolutely 2 dimensional characters. Your main character doesn't even speak! That was the only thing I really didn't like about Chrono Trigger, b/c when Chrono dies, the only thing you miss about him are his attacks since everyone else does the talking. At least in CT there were a pretty good number of characters to keep things interesting, but in Legend of Legaia you're stuck with 5 year-old-like Noa and boring-ass Gala. Also, they are heavy on repeating enemies and just coloring them different and adding "Dark" or "Evil" to their name (i.e. "Knight" becomes "Dark Knight" in the next dungeon, and then "Evil Knight" in the next...ooooooo). The random battles take forever, too!! Parasite Eve: good, even though it was more of a Resident Evil-ish type game. However, it was very short, the regular ending was terrible, and I refuse to believe that anyone can make it through the Chrysler Building in the EX game without the use of a Gameshark. That was so tedious and hard it made the game extremely unfun to play. Also, the ending you get after that is nowhere near worth the amount of effort you would pump into it. Suikoden: Almost rediculously ghetto graphics, fairly simple dialogue, and yet you just like it for some reason, don't you? It's got a good story and the army battling feature was pretty neat, as was the collecting the 108 different characters. On the other hand, if you thought the FF3 airship of people you never used was bad, it absolutely pales in comparison to Suikoden, and that's an understatement. At least you knew the names of the guys back in the airship. FFTactics: Really similar gameplay to FF5 (with the job system, not the strategy part), a very deep story, but a very bad ending. I suppose it wraps everything up, but you certainly don't feel like your time has been well spent since you're all depressed. And why the hell are they riding around on Chocobos for no reason? Xenogears: I have to say that this is an all around excellent game. Completely enthralling story in which they eventually explain everything so you're not left in the dark about 50% of what happened (like with the whole Jenova deal in FF7), great gameplay and graphics, good characters even though they lacked just a bit in personality, and a really wonderful final ending sequence that wraps everything up and makes you feel like you spent your time on something worthwhile. Also, I just recently got the new Star Ocean, but you know what game I can't stop playing? Lunar: Complete. I don't think I've liked an RPG as much since FF2. It's not a very deep and intellectual game, but it has great dialogue in which you really see the difference in the personalities of the characters, there's tons of little stuff thrown in that's kind of amusing (anyone find Austin Powers in the trial cave of Vane, or Nall talking about choking chickens?), the story is great, and you really do start to care about the characters a lot more than most RPGs today. I couldn't figure out why that was, but I think Jean solved it for me. In Lunar, the characters each have different tasks, so to speak. Alex and Kyle are the big attackers, Luna and Jess are the healers, and Nash and Mia are the big magic users. They each have their own identity and I think it further develops their character. The last game that I have played to really do that was FF2. Quest64: I haven't played it myself, but everyone says it's the best RPG known to man!!!!!

In closing, I would like to say that I am very worried about FF8. The Demo with Brave Fencer Musashi was negative fun and did not look cool at all, except for the FMV. This new magic system just plain sucks, the spells were very unimpressive (and what was with those names? Tundarra? Blizarra?? What?), I was not drawn into the story at all, and the dialogue was dreadful *shudder*. I mean, what in the hell was Seifer talking about with the whole, "I love battles! You get closer and closer to reaching your goal! That is my ultimate dream!!" Then that baggy shorts guy is like, "What's he talking about?" and Squall ambiguously says, "It's a subject we don't like to discuss." or something else that just doesn't make any sense. Oh, and Riona is just a chatterbox, too. I can already tell I'm going to like her character a lot, based on what a big part she played in the Demo. Just to be fair, though, it is a demo, and maybe they'll fix some of this stuff up. The Demo for FF7 was confusing and didn't explain much, either, but the actual game was much better. All I know is that I can't even complete the FF8 Demo. The spider thing keeps on jumping in front of me and catches me and I run out of time fighting it, and the only way I can stay alive against it long enough to fight it in the first place is to spend about 20 minutes stocking up on cure and thunder spells over and over again from random enemies. But, whether I'm just FF8 inept or what, the Demo was still not fun to play and didn't impress me.

So to summarize, I agree with Jean, but I'll go one step further b/c I am not anticipating the release of FF8 with much except a small feeling of dread mixed in with some apathy. In fact, I think I might be more excited about Chocobo Racing coming out.