Final Fantasy vs. Oblivion 141
An anonymous reader writes "bit-tech has up a short comparison between Final Fantasy VII and Oblivion. While Oblivion is touted as the latest and greatest PC-based RPG, Final Fantasy VII is held in the minds of many gamers as the best RPG of all time. From the article: 'At the time of its release, nearly ten years ago, FFVII received rave reviews from the press and the public, and it has a claim to being the best loved Final Fantasy game ... In a Top 100 Games of all time, it would be up there in the single digits. It is, by all accounts, Sergeant Pepper-Citizen Kane great. If something is great, it should be great whenever you pick it up -- buy a fresh copy of Pepper or Kane now and they'll still blow you away: they were great in '67 and '41, and they're great now. Is the same true of FFVII?'"
KOTOR (Score:5, Interesting)
Heh (Score:3, Interesting)
What? (Score:3, Interesting)
I enjoyed both games, but non-linear games don't really do it for me. First of all, I don't have time to put a million hours into a single game when there are so many out there to play. That's why I decided to give up MMOGs completely - or if I try one I only play the trial month and then quit (as I did with World of Warcraft and Everquest 2).
Also I just personally prefer linear games over non-linear ones - especially when it's an RPG and the story is the reason that I'm playing. Everything can be so much tighter and efficient in a game that has you follow the story closely.
For the record, I liked FF7 more than FF6 but not as much as FF9.
Citizen Kane comparison... (Score:3, Interesting)
So, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for FF7 to be the same way, afterall when something is hyped up so much, it is bound to be viewed down a bit too...
Re:FFVII the greatest? Please. (Score:3, Interesting)
But lets not mix apples and oranges. FF & Oblivion are not the same type of RPGs. They're both beautiful games (in terms of graphical eye candy - for when their time anyway).
Oblivion is more about freedom, exploration and interactivity while FF is more about your classical RPG where the hero saves the princess from the raging dragon.
But i have to admit that square enyx has done a good job at disapointing me with some of their latest installments, notably, FFVIII and FFX (and x-2) I havent played the online game and not quite looking forward to play FFXII, because they've become shallow - compared to my beloved 4-5-6-7-9 whose story was quite compelling.
Re:Short answer... (Score:1, Interesting)
The character interactions are still there, but they're VERY dependent on who is in your party at a given time. It's conditional. Try it some time. Once you get the second airship, pick up a character somewhere (Locke is an easy choice, as is Mog.) Then go after one of the side quests that affects that character. Then reset (I hope you used an emulator with freeze states) and go do that side quest without that character. There's usually a difference in what is said and done in the side quest.
That effectively takes the game off its rails and makes it (potentially) different every time you play it. And all the while, it doesn't derail the main story. It reflects the destruction, disruption, and chaos that comes about due to the "end of the world" that happens in the middle of the game. It doesn't just give you a bunch of side quests to finish simply to get all the cool stuff/stats for the end of the game(bring back character X, acquire esper Y, find item Z, etc.), but rather it wraps those functional side quest components in personal backstories and even further development of the main plot. Yes, main plot developments in optional side quests. It's kinda like how real life doesn't wait for you to finish something before other things happen.
All this adds up to not only a plot climax, but an emotional peak as well. You see 14 characters' reasons for hating Kefka and doing what they're doing. If you're not totallysuperpissedreadytokickassandremoveheads at Kefka by the end of that game, then you haven't been paying attention. Kefka is the only Final Fantasy evil mastermind that ever made me want to torture, demoralize, and kill him rather than just being happy to rip into him with a sword like a side of beef. Not Chaos, not Zeromus, not Exdeath, certainly not that pansy Sephiroth, nor any of the rest. Only Kefka. The rest are amateurs compared to him. His deathtoll reflects this as well. Chaos killed a few elves. Zeromus waxed a king, some soldiers, a mage or three, etc. Exdeath didn't really do much killing, he was more into enslavement and the sucking-everyone-into-the-void thing. Sephiroth just stood around and looked pretty and tried to wipe out a planet. We'll give him points for trying. But Kefka wiped out entire kingdoms by military (everything around Vector), poison (Doma), and fire (the laser weapon on his tower in the second half). He killed fellow generals and even the emperor. He oversaw labs for weird genetic research on live humans (and espers). He invaded a parallel dimension and killed some of the magical beasts that lived there. He caused a world-ending catastrophe. Then he practically declared himself "god" and maintained a world of chaos. He killed millions.
I just don't see how you can say that isn't a cool game. The mechanics are great, and the story is the best of any FF game.
Re:Now this is spin at its best/worsed (Score:3, Interesting)
2) You miss the point; in Oblivion, you have the choice not to play the "main quest" *at all*. When you "win" the "main quest", the game doesn't end... the only reason it's really even the "main quest" in the first place is that it's a long quest chain that happens to start with the very first quest you receive. If you want, you can play Oblivion as if the assassin's guild quests were the "main quest", beat that chain, and declare it won. That's true freedom. And the fact is, Oblivion is pretty much equally fun whether or not you even participate in the "main quest."