Bond. Azure Bonds.

Another game has been struck down from my Hall of Shame. Goodbye Curse of the Azure Bonds!

Original image located here. Accessed 24th August 2015

Boy has this been along time coming: I recall playing this over twenty years ago on my C64! True it was well and truly on the way out by then but I still played it and enjoyed it. After all, it was in the same series of the legendary Pool of Radiance so it has to be good, right?

This may sound strange but I compare Pool of Radiance to Super Mario Kart in that the first game introduced the concept and did it so well that the successive games haven't really done a lot to add to it. And that is the main problem I found with Curse of the Azure Bonds: It may have introduced two new classes, the Paladin and Ranger, as well as Dual Classing (keep in mind this was based on 2nd AD&D edition rules) but somehow it seems smaller then Pool of Radiance.
I recall Pool of Radiance being full of large areas to explore. In Curse however, the same area size is still present but there seems to be less of them. Also many of the areas are divided up. Case in point: The opening area, which is split between the city of Tilverton (where the PCs start the game) and the Thieves Guild. Now according to the background, Tilverton is a major city - it has a large temple and is visited by royalty. But for such a city it certainly seems small. And the Thieves Guild also seems small - especially when the thieves in question seem organized (one can imagine the thieves in Kovel Mansion in Pool of Radiance sniggering at these guys). True, Curse may have introduced an overworld map but the reduced areas somehow do take a lot of the immersion away from me.

Other things of note is the inclusion of Alias and Dragonbait from the original novel, Azure Bonds (for the unfamiliar, they're the two characters on the box art above). Sure they weren't much help but it was great to see them and have them join my party. It was also great to see Akabar, Olive, and Nameless too.
Also, the last battle was one tough nut to crack. It took me several attempts due to me being swamped by the Margoyles and the Priests of Bane. But when I finally managed to wipe them all out, the Big Bad, Tyranthraxus, turned out to be surprisingly easy to defeat. Anticlimax much?

Grumbling aside, I did enjoy Curse of the Azure Bonds. True it's part of the Gold Box series and I played those games a lot when I was a kid but seeing it now, it holds up surprisingly well. This goes to show that a well-designed game can outlast the march of time.
Also it's fun to see the same party I took all the way through Pool of Radiance return and go to even greater strengths.
Furthermore it's always pleasing to complete a game I started playing over twenty years ago :)

Cursed

Earlier this week, I managed to get the classic Pool of Radiance working again. I dug up my old save game from 2009 and reacquainted myself with the party I used for countless hours. Having spent so much time with these guys I certainly had a sense of attachment to them and it;s been fun seeing them progress.
That progression however won't be going any further: try as I might, I can not make Curse of the Azure Bonds work in Dos-Box. It is indeed frustrating but nothing i can do can make the game work. So I need to type out some complex commands? Pardon me but isn't that the reason why we originally abandoned DOS?

This is not the first time Curse of the Azure Bonds has failed me. When I played it on the Commodore 64, I kept getting stuck in the Fire Knives guild. When I revisited the game in 2009, I made significant progress before a software failure put an end to that. And now, the game has let me down again, meaning I am unable to see my party progress and see how they go facing tougher monsters.

How fitting it is then that I should such problems with a game that has the word 'Curse' in it's title.

Why don't you come join my party!

Here's something I've been pondering on recently: At what point did RPGs drop the player being in sole control of a party of adventurers?

Granted I can understand that RPGs are designed to be purely played through the eyes of a singular character and people would rather prefer an investment (both time and emotional) into one character rather than having such an investment spread across multiple characters. But I do miss the days when you can create a bunch of characters and take them across a journey spanning many, many hours of game time.
It's just like being a father guiding one's children: You create characters, you stay with them through thick and thin, you get worried when they get knocked out, you grind your teeth when there's this one guy who can't hit a barn door (there's always one) and you cheer when your dudes complete the game triumphant. They are six guys you created who each need care and attention to get anywhere and it;s your job to get them there.

I can't think of when the idea was dropped. Baldurs Gate may be last game I can think of that employed the traditional D&D six man party and even that had a structure that required participation from NPCs - well you could create a complete six man party but only one will be required to carry the narrative all the way through.
And whilst there have been party-based games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and the Final Fantasy games they don;t really count because you have a selection of party members available - if you don't like someone you can not choose to use them. Its not the worse idea but there's something satisfying about having a character start out useless only to eventually turn out awesome.

Considering the processing power of gaming machines these days it does raise the question of whether this idea will be revisited. Both MMPORGers and Divinity Original Sin has proven that RPGs can work with multiplayer and people will eagerly embrace such an idea.
Besides, who wouldn't want to create multiple characters and go with them on every step through an incredible journey?

Not as forgotten as we thought

I've heard that, in the wake of the success of the Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition games, another game from the Forgotten Realms will be given the same treatment.

Now when I hear the words 'Forgotten Realms' I immediately think of the Gold Box - the RPG series that appeared on 8-bit and 16-bit computers in the late eighties and early nineties that pioneered D&D for the home computer. Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Hillsfar, Pools of Darkness - all associated with the Gold Box and very fondly looked upon by veteran gamers such as myself.
So could this be? Has someone decided that a revamp of Pool of Radiance and it's successors was in order? Did someone revamp these games so modern gamers can experience what their older comrades did years earlier? Does mean I play through this massive saga of games with the same party and complete it this time?

Oh wait, the game in question is Icewind Dale.
Oh well, never mind then.

Pool one's resources

Today I want to talk about a game that I’ve played in the past and thoroughly enjoyed: Pool of Radiance!

I have previously made mention about this game but this time I will give it the full lowdown about my history with this game.
If, like me, you grew up in the age of the Commodore 64, you would know of a series referred to as the ‘Gold Box’. This series consisted of a series of Dungeons and Dragons-inspired games that took place in the same region of the Moonsea region of Faerun. This titles within this series included Curse of the Azure Bonds, Hillsfar, Secret of the Silver Blades and, of course, Pool of Radiance (there was also Heroes of the Lance, a game inspired by the Dragonlance Chronicles but the less said about that the better).  The four games mentioned above all connected together to form a series with a connecting storyline (although Hillsfar was more of a side-step) with Pool of Radiance being the first one in the series.

Pool of Radiance was made in 1988 and showed a lot of ambition for the time. For starters, the entire game was built around the rules of Dungeons and Dragons meaning that matters like alignment, Thaco, and encumbrance had to be taken into account when playing. And when the game started, the player had to build a complete party of six warriors and guide them all throughout the entire game (and beyond…more on that later).
And once the game began, much of it was spent moving the party around environments in a first-person perspective. And when combat arose, the view changed to an isometric interface where the party of PCs could move and fight the enemies encountered.
Plotwise, the party found itself in the city of Phlan, a ruined city whose glory days were long gone and was overrun with monsters. One civilised area remained and it was ruled by the City Council who handed out quests and provided payment to party upon returning from a successful quest. It was therefore up to the party to take back the city of Phlan, block by block, and claim it for the council. And quests weren’t confined completely to the city area –later quests required the party head out into the wilderness to find allies or face down a particular threat.

For me Pool of Radiance was my gateway drug to Dungeons and Dragons (and dungeon crawlers). Whilst Pool Radiance may not have been the first attempt to replicate DnD in an electronic form, it was however one that made a large splash, introducing many people to it. Indeed, I recall spending many hours in front of my computer invested in this 8-bit game. Now I hear today about how many people have got into RPGs through the likes of World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 7 and subsequently invested countless hours into it - but for me, such a similar experience came from Pool of Radiance and it fills a place in my heart that no other game can dislodge (seriously where else you defeat 100 kobolds with a single fireball?!).

The game wasn’t perfect however. There were only four classes, there was no level cap and combat required everyone involved to take a turn - meaning if you faced a horde of foes, each and every one in it had to take a turn making it very tedious very quickly. And the game’s economy was catastrophic, as in later levels the party found themselves weighed down with so much gold and little to spend it on.  But ultimately the game had plenty of very good writing (for its day) and certainly had a whole lot of personality that many other 8-bit games can only dream of.

But one thing of particular interest was the character export feature. The sequel, Curse of the Azure Bonds, allowed characters from parties that had beaten the game to be imported over into this new game. This allowed the same party to be used against some tougher monsters. Now whilst this did allow for a head start and subsequently reduce the challenge offered, it was nice to see the same group of characters you’d grown attached to and show that they’re still being quite capable of kicking all kinds of arse. It was a great idea and one that no one has managed to replicate, or even better, since.

Recently, as in back in 2009, I managed to revisit Pool of Radiance with the DOS version. And this time I managed to complete it all the way through. I will admit it certainly has some appeal twenty one years since it’s first release and it was fun to see quests and areas that I was unable to see when I was a kid. I did take the same party into Curse of the Azure Bonds but sadly I wasn’t able to progress any further due to a software failure. It is indeed s shame and I hope, in future, the Gold Box series gets a proper reworking (are you reading this GoG?!).

So yeah Pool of Radiance was my first RPG I played and my first step into DnD. Since then I’ve played other RPGs but honestly it is hard to think any of them existing without Pool of Radiance (mind you there was that sequel/remake but the less said of that the better…). It was a game I loved and one day I hope to sit and play the series all the way through using the same characters.
And one last thought in parting: I recall many times playing Pool of Radiance in front my Commodore 64 in my bedroom whilst across the hallway my sister played Pearl Jam’s Ten album on her stereo. That may sound like a strange combination but whenever I hear Ten now I still recall, years later, fighting my way through a dungeon of monsters.

Cursed Gate

Baldur's Gate 2 and I have something of a history. I love it, regard it as one of the finest games ever made Bioware's finest moment and the best representation of Dungeons and Dragons made in the history of gaming. It however doesn't seem to appreciate me as the player.

Now I've spoken about games that seem to resent me as the player but this is a different case. It would seem that everytime I want to play this game something happens that gets in the way. Could be it some kind of curse? I'm not so sure but no other game I've played has had so much bad luck attached to it.

Firstly, I purchased BG2 as part of the Baldurs Gate collection - the one that had both games and the two expansions (Tales of Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal). At the time I was really excited to play these as I'd heard a lot about them and wanted to see an update to the D&D system I was familiar with through Pool of Radiance. But I foolishly purchased it online - thus when I finally got the collection itself, it turned out the main games were on DVD. A drive I sorely lacked.

Secondly, I finally got my claws on a DVD drive and burned up many, many hours in both Baldurs Gate and Baldur's Gate 2. Alas, the extensive use of the latter led to the disc getting damaged: A crack appeared along the side of the disc and only got bigger. So, however reluctantly, I had to throw it into the rubbish bin.

Thirdly there was that moment in BG1 where the game crashed at a particular moment but, as game's crashing is nothing new, there isn't much there to dwell upon...

And finally, I did eventually get a replacement disc for Baldur's Gate 2. Again it was a DVD but this time it didn't work: The entire game may be on a DVD but it still keeps demanding another CD-Rom!

So what now? I suppose I could get another disc of BG2 (making it my third) but considering the string of misfortune I've had, one would wonder why I'd bother...

Unlucky Seven

...blah blah big news blah blah Final Fantasy X blah blah PS3 remake blah blah....

Now that we got that out of the way, reaction this surprising announcement seems to be a mixture of delight and disgust. And whilst people getting irate over decisions made by SqueeEnix is nothing new, the loudest voices of disgust come from those who wanted a VII remake. Good lord are people still demanding this?

Okay firstly, FFX for the PS3 is not a remake. No, it's a straight up port only in HD.
Now we got that out of the way....
Secondly, as SqueeEnix have said before, remaking FF7 would involve starting over from scratch and a large budget. Conversely revamping FFX in HD thus seems more easier and less costly on their end.
Thirdly, no one's really missing out on anything: FF7 is still available on the PSN the last time I checked.
Fourthly FF7 is pretty much lightening in a bottle: It happened and it's probably never going to happen again - no matter how much the fans want it to nor how hard SqueeEnix try with the Final Fantasy games since. It's a standard that can't be met so why bother? Why not just walk away from it and move on?
And finally, Aerith's not going to come back. She did her job of extracting an emotional response from the player better than anyone could've hoped for so let's just let her rest in peace - and just because the PS2 revamp of Phantasy Star 2 offered the resurrection of Nei, doesn't mean FF7 has to do the same.

Really, the more I look at this notion of remaking Final Fantasy 7 the more it become clear that people are after the same experience they had when they were ten years old. That being said, let me tell you something kids: When I was ten years old, I played Pool of Radiance on the Commodore 64. I played it, loved it, and was my gateway drug to the worlds of both RPGs and Dungeons & Dragons. Years later it got a remake - but it was one many people would rather forget.

Time Machine

Still making my way through Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Whilst I've been intimidated before, I'm actually enjoying how things are going so far. Indeed, if people hailed this upon release and are still enamored of it some thirteen years later then it's usually for good reason.

Although I never played them, I remember being aware of the Legend of Zelda throughout the days of the NES and SNES. Indeed, it was only years later that I was able to connect Link to his likeness. And for reason the non-existent romance between between Link and Princess Zelda had some appeal - sure their actual relationship is more speculative but I liked the idea of an elf rescuing a princess. Indeed, much like his Nintendo brother in arms Mario, Link can maintain attention as a character due to that everyman quality.

Many people would've played the Zelda games in their childhood days, having grown up with Nintendo and their various console incarnations - thus much of the love for the Zelda games usually stems from that wide-eyed wonder of discovering something new for the first time. Indeed, many people now can point to Ocarina of Time as being a key moment in their childhood.



Not for me though: Tales of my childhood usually involved playing games on the Commodore 64 and playing various iterations of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - Pool of Radiance being one such title. Thus in that sense, maybe seeing the Zelda games through adult eyes may make for an interesting experience. Indeed, one thing I love about Nintendo is that many of their games have a timeless quality that can be enjoyed by both children and adults.
Now, I played the original Legend of Zelda and Link to the Past when I was well an adult (ages 27 and 25 respectively) and I thought they were great. Of course I could dismiss them for having an appearance that many would consider childish but why the hell would I want to do that? I loved exploring the world of Hyrule, finding various tools and building up a character that grew stronger with each step. And most satisfying of all, playing these games helped me in banishing memories of watching that wretched eighties cartoon.

So how does Ocarina of Time look through an adult perspective? Well some of graphics look dated (but being a fifth generation game that's hardly surprising), I the player have no control whatsoever over the camera and there are some elements that point towards 'kiddie' game. But everything else is good fun: The mini-games are amusing, the combat is great, the exploration factor is as strong as ever and it's really fun using various items, not least the Ocarina, at various points and seeing what happens.

So yeah, I'm enjoying Ocarina of Time - And so far so good....

Final Fantasy: A Love Story

As mentioned previously, I prefer western RPGs over JRPGs - which is why I'm far more keen to have a second run through Baldur's Gate 2 instead of getting off my arse and completing those various Final Fantasy games I started but never finished. Perhaps this is due to me playing a WRPG first - in the form of Pool of Radiance on the Commodore 64 - whilst many people played their first RPG with Final Fantasy 7. I guess the first time you encounter something really is the one you best remember.

Therefore, it is only as recent as 2006 that my attention finally fell on Final Fantasy. I knew little of the series beforehand: I knew it was on the SNES as well as the Playstation, and beyond seeing a lot of promos for FF8 upon it's release, inspiring many upon many fans and seeing some figurines of FFX/X2 & thinking Yuna looked kinda hot, my knowledge of FF was limited.

Five years later, where am I at?
I'm not sure but that doesn't stop me writing a retrospective on Final Fantasy!

So today, I'm going to take the time to write about the FF games I have played and share my thoughts on them. It may have been done before but in my mind, I like WRPG's and I encountered my FF games well out of order. Should make for some interesting reading? Let's find out!

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Final Fantasy X
This is where it all started: This was the very first FF I ever played.
I'm not sure what set me off into the weird and wonderful world of FF: I did know, however, that when I finally got enough money to purchase PS2 I needed some games to go with it. Recognizing Yuna, I picked up FFX and, for a while, I played it at the expense of the other games.
Granted it wasn’t the best place to start explorations with FF but for some reason it was quite an entertaining game. The graphics were gorgeous, the music was equally glorious, the plot was compelling, the sphere grid was fun to use and it was generally fun to go around and bonk some heads. Plus the romance between Yuna and Tidus was actually one that was worth following all the way through. Like many people who played FF7 on the PS1, this game introduced me to the conventions of the JRPG and revealed to me how it was a very different beast than the AD&D rules I had been accustomed to through playing WRPGs.
So does the first time you encounter something leave the greater impression? Not so in this case. Now that I’ve played other FF games, the flaws of FFX become glaringly obvious: The game is awfully restrictive on where you can go, the minigames are horrifically tedious, the voice acting is plain awful, and running back and forth over the same strip of land just to find some baddies to level up is no fun at all.
Looking back, it may have been great at the time, and indeed certainly still holds some degree of appeal, but there’s a lot it’s older brothers did better. But still, ya gotta start somewhere and for an introduction to the series, I’ll give FFX that much.
And to wrap this up before moving on, seeing the rather unflattering things FFX has to say about religion, I wonder if Christopher Hitchins would like this game?


Final Fantasy IV
I should at this point stress that my encounters with the FF games are all out of order but this was more or less by accident: It just happened! That being said, it may seem a tremendous cultural shock going from wonderful PS2 graphics/sound to antiqued SNES graphics/sound but I was still willing to take the plunge: I heard IV was one of the best of the series so it would be interesting to see if the game lived up to such claims.
And you know something? It was actually quite fun to play. The graphics were bright and colourful (and in retrospect unusual for a FF game), the characters where charismatic and fun to watch (except, of course, Edward, the patron saint of useless RPG characters), the setting is truly a diverse and well-realised world. Best of all, while FF4 may be ahead of other games, at the time, in telling a story it still is quite aware it is game and requires a degree of interaction from the audience. Furthermore, it’s interesting to see how many ideas this game had – interesting when you consider which ideas have endured throughout the series right to the present day.
Mind you, there were some frustrating moments: Maybe it was me but whenever I wanted to go around trying to level up my party, FF4 seemed reluctant to let me do so: I would be levelling up smoothly for a while before the game would suddenly decide to slow down the progression dramatically. Thus the levelling-up would stop being fun and instead become laborious. It was if the game wanted to tell it’s story so badly, that doing something I wanted to do was simply not on. It’s interesting to note how certain modern games seem to be repeating the same mistake, with placing story over gameplay.
Grumbling aside, FF4 was good fun, being certainly worth coming back to have a bash and a game that has aged quite well. From a historical perspective, it is interesting to note that this game was putting forth a formula that many of the FF games have been utilising ever since. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.


Final Fantasy VI
Many people deem Final Fantasy 6 as the best in the series – I myself consider myself one of those people. Of course, it will never reach the level of popularity its successor achieved but who cares? If people aren’t willing to take the effort to track down this gem among gems of a game it's their loss. Nothing to do with me
So what can I say about FF6 that hasn’t been said before? What makes FF6 work is that it has a good degree of heart. Playing it now, it strikes me that Square knew that the SNES was nearing the end of its lifespan so they went all out: They drew all the elements that worked in its predecessors together. They had the biggest cast ever assembled for a FF game, each with their own back-story, quirks and personality. They had a story that didn’t hold back, had some surprising twists and really defined the word ‘epic’. They pushed the graphic capabilities of the SNES further than they had ever done before. They ditched the colourful palettes of the previous five games in favour of a grim, dark theme. They got Nobuo Uematsu to produce some unforgettable themes, particularly the haunting Terra Theme. They even achieved a milestone for gaming by writing the only opera ever conceived for a game!

Really though, there isn’t much I can say about FF6 because talking about game isn’t any substitute for actually sitting done and playing the damn thing. All I can say is that if lot’s of people dub a game the best game ever it’s usually for good reason.
I’m not for playing a particular game exclusively, I’m not one to shell out on merch, and I’m not one to canonise the people involved with making games. I’m for talking about a game I think is damn good. And FF6 is one of those games.


Final Fantasy IX
As a newcomer to this game, my understanding was that FF9 is the ‘Forgotten Child’ of the series. Some people may overlook in favour of defending the merits of VII, VIII and X, but that’s more likely to occur in the US. You see, I come from Australia – a land where the underdog is celebrated and anyone who has a go at something is acknowledged as a champion. Furthermore, I live by the principles of exploring and discovering things for myself beyond the influence of anyone else, and to give something to speak to me in it’s own words (acknowledge, whether positive or negative, beats being ignored any day). This should make me an ideal candidate to play FF9, right?
So, having completed FF9, it to me, represents a mixture of the good and the bad. Some heavy complaints have been aimed at FF9 and even I have to admit they are glaring – namely the cluttered script, the annoyingly high rate of encounters and the loading times. Me, I was playing this on a PS2 so the loading time’s didn’t bother me (maybe the game would’ve been more at home on the PS2 rather than the PS1?). As for the encounters, it bother me because I was having fun breaking heads – plus I’ve played worse (Skies of Arcadia being one such example) But yes, the script is indeed a mess. It’s a shame, because the first disc held such promise but the pace couldn’t keep up. There were some good ideas used throughout the game but some were swamped with clutter and/or didn’t live up their full potential.
But you know what? When FF9 does something well, it hit’s the bullseye. The party customising was great, the in-jokes/references were fun to pick, and the characters were an endearing bunch. I particularly liked Freya and I thought the story-book romance of Garnet and Zidane was quite charming. So yeah, Final Fantasy 9 got through to me and to that end, it’s a success.


Final Fantasy V
Another one of the forgotten children of the FF family. Being unreleased in the US during the 16-bit era, FF5 tends to be overlooked in favour of its more popular brothers FF4 and FF6. These days, it’s more likely to be dismissed by those weaned on the big budget monsters spawned on the various incarnations of the Sony Playstation. But for many people, it remains the ultimate iteration of FF’s greatest achievements: The Job System. And that reason alone is enough to play it.
Looking back at now, having played other FF titles, it seems to come across as being somewhat goofy: The script seems less serious and the music, in particular, seems nowhere near as the solemn tunes that came before. Both these elements ultimately contributed to FF finding its own destiny so it’s strange that they should be absent.
However, the real meat of the game lies in the job system: the ability to change Jobs throughout the game, mixing and matching abilities to adapt to situations and building up a team of completely unique characters. It was this formula that kept me going through FFX and, to me, is heaps more fun that going through a pre-determined role for the character (so to speak). It was this formula that made the grinding actually enjoyable and the story a lesser priority. Indeed, the Job system was so successfully pulled off in this game it makes me wonder why they haven’t managed to replicate it in many more recent FF games. Indeed, an emphasis on gameplay over everything else is something that makes you wonder why it doesn’t happen more often (FF12, take your License system and SHOVE IT!).
So, I came into FF5 thinking it had something of it’s own to say and found it be a goofy but ultimately very entertaining game. Chalk one up for the underdogs!


Final Fantasy VII
I’ve already spoken about my thoughts about FF7 so there isn’t much to add. So yeah, once I got past the hype, the intimidation and let the game speak to me in its own terms, I found it quite enjoyable to play. Which goes to show that it never pays to listen to hype.
It does seem a shame though that the phenomenal success of FF7 has kinda left its brothers in the shadows, struggling to reach a benchmark that can’t possibly be reached. And Squee Enix are milking that success for all it’s worth with spin offs. Sure people may shout and scream for a PS3 remake for as long and loudly as they like but will the thrill be the same? More importantly, wouldn’t that time spent wishing and hoping be better spent tying something new?


Final Fantasy I
And here, we reach the conclusion of this journey with, where else, the beginning. I recently downloaded this game for the Virtual Console and having an enjoyable time making my way through it. Sure, it looks nothing like the big budget extravaganzas that its younger cousins are. Sure the 8-bit graphics are hard to take seriously when compared to the behemoths residing on the PS3 and Xbox 260. Sure it had some ideas that just needed that extra bit of polish. Sure it was pretty much figuring itself out but DAMN, this is just a really fun game to play. Will this mood outlast the first few hours (as JRPG’s are wont to do)? Only time will tell…..

Spike vs Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 7. There I've said it. It must be one of the biggest, most acclaimed, most best-selling and indeed, most enduring game ever made. It sold the Sony Playstation, introduced many to RPGs and, thirteen years on, still has more staying power than many other games/franchises.
Yet to the newcomer, all of this may seem intimidating. It has, in recent years become a trend to dismiss FF7 with spinoffs that didn't quite work, the entire franchise being milked for all it's worth, age being quite clear and many of it's devotees no longer in their teens.

So last year, I actually sat down and played FF7 with fresh eyes.



So why has it taken me this long? Well, personally I have been suspicious of anything attracting a large following as a) I feel that people should find things in their own time and come to their own conclusions, b) if experience has taught me anything is that anything supposedly awesome can easily turn out to be a massive disappointment and c) following a crowd like a sheep would rob me of my identity and individuality. That being said, I paid little attention to FF7. Additionally, I felt that i had picked up all I needed to know about the game through, by chance, reading an article on Advent Children in Anime Insider. Finally, it became all too clear that the game's reputation seemed to rely solely on one moment (I think you know what it is)

For many, Final Fantasy 7 was the first RPG their ever played - which in effect contributes to the never-wavering devotion form the fans. And in that sense, I am an interesting candidate to play FF7. You see, the first Final Fantasy I played was number 10 - a great game yes but it's not my favorite. The first JRPG I played was Secret of Mana which I think is one of the best games I ever played (I am so looking forward to having a three player game of it on the Wii). BUT! The first RPG I played on ANY computer/video game system was Pool of Radiance on the Commodore 64. As such, I find western RPG's a more attractive prospect than JRPGs (Baldurs Gate 2 FTW!!!!). So there is indeed a lot of truth to the notion that the first time you encounter something new is the most memorable.
Similarly, I don't consider myself a Final Fantasy fan: In my mind there are fans, those who have played EVERY FF game made, and non fans, those who played none of them. This places me in the middle - yet out of all FF games I have played, I have found something to enjoy: 10 was great, 4 was great, 5 and 9 were both fun to play even if underrated, and 6 is the one where they got everything right and is thus one of the best games I have ever played (in case you haven't heard those words a thousand times before).



But in the end, it was my own principles that got me: Everyone should discover something in their time and arrive at their own conclusions. I sought the negative opinions and, although a minority, I felt they brought up something interesting points. But no matter, I should least play it enough to form my own opinion. I had the game lying untouched on my shelf for Lord knows how long so there is no point in talking about something I haven't even played. Also, I have a Cloud cosplay planned (Kath's idea) so I may as well conduct some research. Who knows? I might be surprised....

At this point in time, I am halfway through the game and, surprise surprise, I am actually having fun.

Yeah I couldn't believe it myself. Try as I might to find an excuse to hate this game, I couldn't help but actually enjoy it. Sure the graphics looked antique by today's standards, sure the music sounds horribly midi for a Playstation game (or maybe that's me being biased after spending many hours playing Castlevania: SOTN), sure the character have little in the way of actual distinction, sure there are too many villains sure Sephiroth has got NOTHING on Kefka (don't like it? Bite me) and sure the story is absurdly complex, leaning on incomprehensible.
But you know what? That doesn't matter. I am willing to ignore all of the above when one considers the game's strengths: The backdrops and settings still manage to hold up pretty well - even if the rest of graphics don't. I also really like how the cyperpunk setting works wonders in a game where it's predecessors have all been based on a medieval/fantasy setting. The ideas that drive the game are compelling with the theory that the planet would be much better off without us humans (perhaps more so considering Al Gore's environmental campaigning has gathered more attention in recent times than ever before). The mini-games have been fun and the tasks to find some of the bonuses have so fun been enjoyable rather than frustrating *coughFFXcough*. The game seems less interested in forcing story progression onto the player and simply steps back and lets them go and bonk some heads - and that's what matters: The game is FUN.



There is a lot of joy to be had in going around and killing some monsters. It doesn't get tedious and the player is allowed to progress the story at their own pace. I thought I would abandon the game once my fav character was out of the picture but somehow I feel compelled to keep going onward (and whatever feelings of bitterness spawned from my paranoid mind (I might elaborate on this in a later note)). There is much to enjoy this game, and in a way it seems like an accumulation of all the elements spawned from previous FF's - but still making room for FF7 to say something of it's own. Now I'm not going to going to declare it one of the best I've played (Ico, Metal Gear Solid, Baldur's Gate 2, Civ2 and FF7's younger brother FF6 are still rated higher) but FF7 in it's own right turns out to pretty damn good.
In short, I came into FF7 with an open mind and I found it really fun to play.
Which is what a video game should do

So in the end, I played a game I have been reluctant to play and it turned out to be pretty damned good. Sure this opinion may be subject to change as my progress continues but ultimately what this goes to show that sometimes finding something out on your own, when thousands have come before you, can actually turn out some magic in it's own way.