When I first played Final
Fantasy VII, I think I was six or seven years old playing on my uncle’s
PlayStation. Of course, I was a little too young to fully understand what was
going on so I played through the first five minutes of the game and called it a
day. As I grew older, I never understood how Final Fantasy VII had such a huge fan base. Sure, I played Crisis Core and I bought Advent Children on DVD but I still
didn’t get what was so cool about it. Well, now I can proudly say that I get
it. I bought Final Fantasy VII on
impulse a while back on PSN while waiting for Dragon’s Dogma to be released. As I played the first few hours, I
realized a few things that few RPGs that have been released lately haven’t been
doing.
One major thing is a villain you can connect with. There is a
reason why everyone loves Sephiroth. No, its not because he has kick ass battle
music (He does but that’s not the reason).
People love him because they can relate to him. Sephiroth was a normal
SOLDIER living his life until he finds out he was created by the very people he
works for. So he vows to take control of the planet. Think about it. If you
found out you weren’t who you thought you were and were in fact some hell spawn
created from the genes of an alien named Jenova. Yeah, you’d be pretty pissed.
There were actually some parts of the game where I actually felt sorry for
Sephiroth. That is, until a certain event happened at the end of disc one that
I knew was going to happen but didn’t think it would happen that soon. The
problem with villains today is that they’re just normal bad guys. Villain A
wants take over the world because he can? Villain B wants to kidnap the
princess because it’s something to do on a Saturday night? Sephiroth actually
has a motivation that we all can relate to. You know you’re hooked on a game
when you’re sympathizing with the villain.
Its not just Sephiroth that keeps me interested, it’s the
whole cast. They all have backstories that not only touch your heart but also
make you care about them. My favorite character, Cid, for example, had his
dreams crushed right in front of his eyes. It was either go into space or
basically kill some scientist on the way. Yuffie may seem like a bitch
(especially when she steals all your materia at one point in the game) but in
reality she’s just trying to bring her town back to its former glory. Barret
has so many issues he could have his reality TV show on BET. My point is I
haven’t felt this close to a group of characters since Persona 4.
I stopped playing Final
Fantasy VII briefly to play Atelier
Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland. A friend brought it to my attention and I
thought I’d try it out. I’ll have a separate set of thoughts for this later.
While I liked the characters and quirkiness of Atelier Meruru, it lacked the connection I felt in Final Fantasy VII. I didn’t yearn to
help Meruru develop her kingdom as much as I yearned to help Cloud regain his
memories. I didn’t care about Rufus and Lias’ relationship as much as I cared
about whether or not Tifa told her true feelings to Cloud. I know Atelier Meruru is a different kind of
RPG entirely but, in my opinion, All RPGs should make you feel attached one way
or another especially for its characters.
While my favorite Final
Fantasy still belongs to Final
Fantasy XII, I now finally see why everyone loves Final Fantasy VII. It’s deep, it brings you in, and it surprises
you when you wouldn’t expect it. The characters are intriguing and relatable
while the gameplay is simple. Why can’t we have more RPGs like this?
