Want to make more gil?

Sure, we all do!

One of my projects for the next time I am unemployed or on extended vacation will be to play every Final Fantasy game ever, in sequential order. This may be somewhat difficult as one of them never made it to the States--the Japanese FF III, as I recall. Our FF 3 was really the Japan FF VI, at least in its original US release. This was later changed when they released the FF Anthology collection, restoring the original numbering.

Last night I moved the old TV from the upstairs to the bedroom, and installed the old PlayStation. Somewhere I seem to have lost a coaxial cable, so I had to scavenge the one from the DishTV receiver. (It was labeled For TV to Dish Receiver ONLY so don't tell anyone that it works somewhere else.) Then I plopped disc one of Final Fantasy VII and turned the power on. The grand score of the Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack filled the screen, and I was instantly transported back to 1997, like it was the first time I played and not... seven years ago.

The game holds up surprisingly well, I think. At least for the hour or two I spent with it last night. A little bit more than I originally thought it would. Sure, the textures are bad. You have no idea how much you love bilinear filtering until you have to do without it. The original PSX hardware didn't have it. There's a feature in the PS2 to play PSX games with a software bilinear filter, but the results are somewhat mixed. Games like Metal Gear look great with it--FF 7 has such tiny models and textures that it doesn't help much. (Take a look at the other definitions on that site. Now you'll know what mip-mapping and Z-filtering for later, when there's a test...)

Emotionally, I think it's still a very strong title. The opening cinematic reminds me just why I bought a PlayStation in the first place--like many people, it was just for that game. I do miss the Saturn, though. I've been scouring eBay for them lately but there's no way I can afford to recreate the library I once had for it, not when Guardian Heroes sells for $70. I do wish somebody would port Dragon Force to the GBA, though.

The Materia system in FF 7 is still one of my favorite things about the game--complicated as hell but very flexible and much cooler than the refining crap in FF VIII. It's a programming language of sorts. "If I get hit, Counterattack and Steal . Oh, and I'm Covering everybody, so I will counter and steal almost all the time." Or you can add elemental damage to weapons, absorb damage with armor, or give tons of evil status penalties when you attach certain Summons, etc. So great.

People remember this game very fondly for a reason, I think. There's a bit in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics where he talks about the simplicity of icons, and how we are able to project emotions on to simple figures. This is possible with FF 7 in a way that is not possible in the later games. I don't have nearly the attachment to Yuna or Squall or any of the more realistic characters that I do with Cloud, Aeris, or Vivi, for example. The more human-looking characters tend to remind me more that this is not the real world, or they look slightly off (Yuna is always staring blankly the way human beings should not), whereas the more generic icons and flat faces of the earlier characters allow for more active interpretation on the player's part. For example, I think the cartoony character designs in FF 7 work better than the "real-world" designs in FF X.

It may be related to voice talent as well. Recent Final Fantasy games have actual voice actors, taking even less active participation from the player. Nicolas Meyer said something interesting in the Star Trek II commentary--that art depends on the aspect that is not there to convey meaning. Some of the power of music stems from what is not there--the visual imagery. Paintings require the viewer to fill in motion. But movies, and more modern games, require less thought and action. They do the work for you. So what are you left with other than a passive experience?

So maybe I am wrong when I am asking for a FF 7 remake. Maybe just a director's cut of the game with bilinear filtering, anti-aliasing, and the actual use of the Underwater Breathing Materia hinted at. Maybe an ending. That makes sense. That's not too much to ask.