Editor
[Spoiler for 1. Final Fantasy VII, click to show]#1. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Best Materia: Enemy Skill
Best. Game. Ever. That is Final Fantasy VII, the game that truly put RPGs on the map and popularised a new way of storytelling which would change games for decades to come. Due to Nintendo's stubbornness in sticking with cartridges for the successor of the SNES, Square had no choice but to turn to Sony and their PlayStation because their next Final Fantasy project was far too grand to be contained on Nintendo's system. Final Fantasy VII was revolutionary in just about every way. It featured a futuristic setting and 3D characters moving in beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds. The 3D graphics are often ridiculed today for their Lego look and blockiness, but that's how most early 3D games were, and those graphics hold a certain charm which makes the game much more playable today than, say, its successor in the series. Final Fantasy VII was also a marketing miracle, the game's incredible advertisements drawing countless people in. The great marketing, combined with the game's unquestionable excellence, made the game such a success, just the PlayStation version having sold about 10 million copies worldwide (there was also a PC port later, not to mention the recent PSN release). Final Fantasy VII is also the game whose remake is BY FAR the most desired by gamers worldwide.
The game tells the story of Cloud and his friends, on their quest to save the world. Simple enough premise, but it's not about the main goal, which is more or less the same in all RPGs... It's about everything else. The characters are amazing, the world is incredible, there are countless thought-provoking moments much like in Xenogears. The character design was truly impressive, who could ever forget Sephiroth's elegant, yet menacing look. And who could forget his theme. Cloud was an interesting protagonist, very different from the typical protagonists at the time, an experiment whose incredible success caused it to be often imitated, but never truly replicated. Of course, I couldn't help mentioning also the game's female lead, Tifa, again a dangerous experiment, as girls fighting physically, with their fists and not magic, were something unheard of in the RPG genre. Tifa was also the character who came closest to a real human being, in both her feelings and behaviour, an effect which truly made the game stand out even more for many people. The game is also home to the most famous spoiler of all time.
Gameplay-wise, Final Fantasy VII didn't really change all that much compared to its predecessor, but the changes it did make were for the better. ATB was still there, the new Materia system replacing Espers was even better, allowing for more character customisation, and the newly introduced Limit Breaks were just incredibly badass and had many gamers in awe. There were also two hidden playable characters - pretty significant reward for gamers who would take their time to explore everything. The game was a bit on the easy side, especially if you knew how to abuse certain skills, but there were the incredibly difficult Ruby and Emerald Weapon for people who were too advanced. Final Fantasy VII was also famous for its variety of fun mini games, snowboarding being perhaps the most memorable one. Chocobo breeding was another fun aspect giving you something aside from the main quest.
In short, if you haven't played Final Fantasy VII and you consider yourself a gamer, you really, really should. It is perhaps the biggest landmark in the history of video games. Hopefully, we get the chance to live through this incredible story again, in a new way, when Square finally release a remake.
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The end.
It's been fun, guys. Hope you enjoyed the list. I am never doing anything like this ever again.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Damnit, I think I'm the only one who will get that write-up entirely!
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Board_8%27s_Top_100_RPGs#3._Final_Fantasy_VII
If I somehow managed to fool you, and you were like, "wow, that is unusually good taste from Kenri" then... yeah, sorry. <_< As a consolation prize, here, take this honorable mention:
[Spoiler for HM3. Final Fantasy VII, click to show]HM#3. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Best Materia: Enemy Skill
I don't like a lot of things about this game (the minigames jump to mind), but I was really surprised by how much I ended up liking the game overall. Does it make a revised list? ...Probably. I'm not quite sure. A remake would certainly have a great shot at it - and yes, I'm jumping on the FFVII remake bandwagon now, thanks - especially if it fixed some of my bigger problems with the game. Make the minigames less terrible (and explanations of the controls for them more comprehensible), fix the save system, make the characters unique in some way outside of Limit Breaks, and most of all, clean up the translation, and well... you've got a real winner, assuming you don't muck up anything else in the process.
And if you throw in a less rushed endgame and playable Turks, that'd be cool too. Just sayin'!
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And now, the REAL #1:
[Spoiler for 1. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, click to show]#1. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (DS)
Best song: Champion's Theme (Pre-Battle) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JyKnKGOQ1Q
...Here we are. It's been a long road through 50+ games that are, in my humble opinion, all extraordinary in their own ways. In the interest of honesty, though, I'll just come right out and say it: there is virtually no chance of any non-Pokemon game ever holding my #1 slot. It's my favorite series. It's been my favorite series since before I even knew that the plural of "series" was also "series". When I first played Pokemon Red, it instantly became my favorite game ever. Silver dethroned Red, then Crystal dethroned Silver. (Somewhere around here, Symphony of the Night might have held the top spot briefly, I'm not quite sure.) Sapphire dethroned Crystal before I even played it in a language I could actually read. LeafGreen took Sapphire's spot with ease, and Emerald vied with it for a while but never quite managed to take the top spot. Then Pearl and LG pretty much shared a spot until Platinum was released and tipped the scales in DPP's favor. I guess that means my absolute favorite game of all time is Pokemon Platinum, but I really do stand by the idea that DPP are all one game and making distinctions between them is pretty pointless (this goes for the other trios as well).
All that being said, I really wish there was more to talk about here so I didn't have to end on a horrible anti-climax, but what can I say? This is Pokemon, it's the best Pokemon game, therefore it's my #1. That's really my entire thought process here and if that says something about me as a gamer, well, I frankly don't even give a shit. >_>
I guess I could mention that I've poured hundreds of hours in Pokemon Pearl and captured every single Pokemon legitimately, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I am not one of those people who completely masters games inside and out. I'm hilariously incompetent at the Battle Frontier, for instance, and even though I know quite a bit about the whole metagame aspect, I haven't played any Pokemon game competitively since Gen 2. I have an infinite amount of respect for people who master games - any game, really - inside and out, but I've never had the patience to do something like that. How sad is it that I haven't even 100% completed my favorite game of all time? Pretty sad. <_<
I guess I should talk at least a token amount about the actual game, so here goes: DPP brings online play to Pokemon, something that was really, really needed, for trading if nothing else. Community has been a huge factor of Pokemon literally since the beginning, and this was the logical extension of that - in the past I've been eager to criticize games that go online when they really don't have any reason to, but let it be known that I do give credit where credit is due as well. As for the singleplayer, this is by far the most story-heavy of any Pokemon game. There's an actual villain with real motives who is honest-to-god threatening. Amazing. There's also a heavier emphasis placed on fleshing out the world in general. Gen 1 and 2 barely even made mention of what makes the Pokemon world different from ours other than... well, Pokemon. Gen 3 touched on it a bit more, but Gen 4 brought it out in full force, mostly through the various myths and legends that explain why the Pokemon world is the way it is - or at least, that particular myth's take on why. And it complements that with an all-around better cast: for the first time since Gen 1, your rival is a clear threat, and could easily surpass you if you let your guard down. When Cynthia shows up, she has a real presence that says she's not to be fucked with, even before you learn that she's the champion. On the mechanics side of things, it split moves into physical and special based on the nature of the move itself, rather than typing, something that sounds unimportant to the uninitiated but is actually hugely important. Other than that, not a lot of major changes, which is honestly the way I like it. If I wanted something different I'd play a game from a different series.
Well, I said pretty much everything I wanted to say about this series in the FRLG writeup, so I'm going to cut this short. This writeup is already too long anyway and I'm not exactly covering ground that is entertaining by any means.
Thanks for reading.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic