...But do our old favorites really hold up to such scrutiny?

by Thad "X" Boyd

I'm not going to lie. I am looking forward to Final Fantasy Anthology far more than I am to Final Fantasy VIII. ...I've barely been able to hold back from busting out with my copy of FF3US for a good ol' summer replay with the rationalization that I'll be replaying it in a few short months anyway. With FF8, it's more of a matter of "I'll buy it when it comes out, but I'm really not thinking that heavily on it".

So, in principle, I agree with Jean-Guillaume Paradis' editorial. However, he says a few things with which I can't help but take issue.

First of all, on general principle, I think a lot of people are swept up in anti-FF7 mania just because it's the hardcore-RPGamer thing to think. But is FF7 really THAT bad...?

It's not quite so dear to my heart as Final Fantasy VI, I must admit, but looking back over it a bit, I know I'VE been unfair in my assessment of it at times. It's easy to say harsh words when you haven't even opened the box for nine months or so, but I think most of us enjoyed it our first time through and would probably do so again if they replayed it.

...And I STILL maintain that Aeris' death is the most moving scene ever in a video game. And, badmouth the graphical focus if you must (...actually, to Paradis' credit, he didn't, and I'm grateful for that), but that scene would never have carried the weight it did if it had looked like something out of FF6.

But here's where I begin to diverge from Paradis' viewpoints in earnest:

He holds up FF4 as a shining example of character balance.

Don't get me wrong, equipping a Master Summon <=> MP Absorb on Cait Sith after not using him since the Gold Saucer is a far cry from the strategy element of "Okay, have Rydia summoning Bahamut; hopefully if anyone attacks her it'll be physical so Cecil'll guard...toss in a Cure 3 from Rosa for good measure...but that won't work on Kain, because he's in midair...". But in pointing out that little discrepancy, Paradis misses a couple of key components in FF4...

Namely, FuSoYa and Tellah.

...Hmmmmm, let's have a magically perfect character in your party for about FIVE MINUTES and then get rid of him, leaving you frantically wishing you would EVER possess the time or patience to build Rydia and Rosa up high enough to use some of those spells.

Or how about Yang? He's a good, strong-but-magically-weak, balanced character when you first get him...but by the time he rejoins your party in Baron, he's fallen behind to the point that he's not good for a whole lot.

Now, an issue that Paradis leads up to but doesn't quite go in-depth on is the Command Materia system specifically. ...I was disappointed to get Yuffie with a Throw Materia equipped only to find that I could toss it on Cloud at the drop of a hat. In earlier FF's, each character had his own unique special.

...Still, to keep with the title of this editorial =) , were all those specials all that helpful? ...I mean, sure, Sabin's got Blitzes that can do damage like nobody's business...but then there's MOG. To use his special, you have to relinquish control of the character to a set of random variables, which can be all right...but say you accidentally do a dance that heals your opponent. You've little recourse but to KILL the little bugger. Gau's the same way. ...Umaro, the single least useful character in the game, will at least never, to my knowledge, heal an enemy.

And then there's Edward. ...HIDE?! Excuse me, but WHAT is THAT?! Hello, I think I just heard somebody volunteer for the Most Useless Character Ever In a Final Fantasy Award...

Perhaps an acceptable alternative to the "anyone can pick and choose any abilities built up by any other character" method of special commands is FF5's class system. Any character can learn any special talent any other character has...but they can only use one ability from outside their own class at a time. Usually (not always -- sometimes you just gotta throw in four Monks and relentlessly kick the crap out of a boss) this will result in a good diversity in your characters.

And Paradis complains that Knights of the Round makes characters far too powerful. No argument here. But come on, is that REALLY such a new thing? I mean, there aren't a whole lotta enemies who could stand up to Terra casting Quick and then Morphing and then attacking a coupla times when she's got an Offering, a Genji Glove, the Atma Weapon, and the Illumina.

Or when someone with an Economizer and a Gem Box casts Quick and then seven Ultimas, whereupon Gogo Mimics four times, with the end result of eleven Ultimas for 8 MP...

Let me note right now that Kefka has only killed me ONCE. And that was when I was trying to beat the game with only the three necessary characters (Edgar, Setzer, and Celes), plus Locke, who is necessary for virtually all the high-level spells in the game...and one of my party members had died on the previous tier.

Granted the Economizer IS harder to find than Knights of the Round. I've managed to find ONE of the buggers in Lord only knows how many times through the game.

...I don't think Limit Breaks are such a bad idea. ...Sure, Omnislash is a hideous abuse of the kind of power a character should have, but, say, Final Heaven is a bit less slanted. And Chaos, while extremely powerful, is also one of those where you give up control of a character...and if the other two party members die, you're basically screwed. (Rather like the time I discovered that, for some ungodly reason, Gogo's Magic command doesn't work in the Fanatics' Tower...I found myself mimicking Shell or some other such inanity until the enemy killed me.)

I preferred the Desperate Attacks in FF6 over the Limit Breaks in FF7, I must admit...but they were just so rare. I can see why Square would go ahead and make them more easily accessible. But it IS madness to have made them the defining point between characters. Why do I keep Barret and Cid in my party? Because Highwind and Catastrophe hit the enemy more times than the other party members' Limit Breaks.

(Actually, there IS one more advantage to Cid...the fact that he is the only character besides Cloud who can equip a triple-Materia-growth weapon.)

A real damper on the gameplay that I was surprised Paradis did not approach is the party of three. It wasn't so bad a system in Chrono Trigger because of Combos -- true, you had one character less than you had in FF6, but you had a character INTERACTION system not present in any other Square game (well...vaguely in FF4 with Palom and Porom).

But, with the aforementioned lack of individuality, a four-party-member battle really wouldn't make for the kind of variety in FF7 that it did in FF6 or even FF5; CERTAINLY not the kind of variety in the five-member system in FF4.

...With the lack of character originality approached so heavily, my next complaint is going to sound somewhat hypocritical...but I am sick of the one-weapon-type-per-character system, too! When Edgar buys a Regal Cutlass, he can give his Mithril Knife to Locke. When Aeris dies, the only thing to do with her staves is sell them. ...Or throw them.

The ability to equip a weapon on multiple party members isn't NEAR the stripper of individuality that the ability to equip a high-level Materia orb on multiple party member is. ...While the Merit Award is a nice little goody that allows you to equip Cyan with claws...well, come on now, who's going to put claws on Cyan?! The Bare Hands ability you earn as a Monk in FF5 isn't too bad as far as secondary abilities go, but you're not gonna put it on a Mystic Knight.

...Certain characters in FF6, of course, never even USE their weapons. ...I don't care WHAT Sabin's packing, I'm gonna use Bum Rush. Ditto Edgar, but substitute "Chain Saw" for "Bum Rush".

...And one can't deny that FF7 executes its plot nicely. With the notable (and well-explained) exceptions of Sephiroth and Jenova, when someone dies, THEY STAY DEAD. I mean, off the top of my head, the only party members in FF4 who don't "die" at some point or another are Cecil and FuSoYa, but Tellah's the only one who stays down for the count. ...I'm sorry, but that's just ANNOYING.

...In short, no, I don't think FF7 is quite as good a game as 4 or 6. But one must look deeper than "Your characters get too powerful" or "There's not enough balance between physical and magical abilities" (I think for FuSoYa to have the proper balance between his physical and magical abilities, he would've had to have had, oh, say 10 MaxHP) to explain WHY that is. The Materia system IS, as Paradis noted, fundamentally flawed -- yes, Classes in FF5 and Espers in FF6 allowed for something of a homogenization of characters, but at least they weren't TRANSFERABLE from one character to another -- and Limit Breaks are a poor evener of those odds.

But simultaneously...is FF7 REALLY that bad a game? It was not a good sequel. But on its own merits, no, it wasn't too bad at all. While the gameplay was somewhat standard, it had a set of deep characters and a truly moving plot. And the ending didn't just wrap up everything in a neat little package ("...And everybody becomes ruler of their respective realm. The end." - FF4) -- many complain that FF7's ambiguous ending is a copout, but I disagree. IMO, ALL good works leave at least SOMETHING to the imagination in the way they end.

Original Editorial: Why most new SquareSoft RPGs are not as good as the old ones