Level Up! Seize the Experience!

I had planned to have the game finished by the end of March, but at the rate I’m going, I won’t have it done by April. I’m flying through Lost Odyssey, but FFVII is dragging along. As much as I love the story, love learning little nuances about the characters and the like, the gameplay makes me dread playing it at time.

I don’t mean the turn-based play. If that was true, I’d hate Lost Odyssey just as much.

It’s how archaic the game is. I’m having so much difficulty in manipulating Cloud without the analog stick. I hate having to press the X button to make him move faster than a snail. I get him stuck sometimes, because the graphics are so pixelated I can’t perceive textures or the depth of objects. And when I get him stuck, I’ll get attacked. Repeatedly. If I step back to try to take in my surroundings, I’ll get attacked at the first step Cloud makes. I find myself holding my breath to see if I can even walk across the hallway without stepping into a battle.

My experience last night frustrated me so much that I was cussing out Cloud and I wanted to chuck my controller into the TV for the first time since Super Mario Bros. 3. I’m at Shinra Manor, and I want to get the basement key to unlock Vincent. But I have to find all of the codes. That takes me about an hour thanks to Cloud not being able to walk down a hallway and running into several fights and I have to count paces after finding a creaky floorboard to find the third combination number. If I got attacked while counting paces, I had to start over. I have the code, but I feel like I should go save. Where’s a save point? Oh, there isn’t one. I have to leave the town to save in the open world. I leave, save, head back, and start the funhouse of battles again. Oh and opening the safe is a not-fun mini-game. I lost count of how many times I tried to open the safe. When I finally did it, a lovely boss pops out of the safe. Oh goody.

I thought I was doing well, but then he killed Aerith. Tifa followed close after. I couldn’t even flip through my inventory fast enough to find a Phoenix Down before Cloud was capped in one swing. I thought about trying again, but then I remember where I saved, so I’d have to run through the Manor again, get Cloud stuck on something again, and flip through that safe combination mini-game again. I didn’t have the energy. Game was turned off and herbal tea was brewed.

I really think that if I had played this game back when it came out, I would feel differently. The d-pad wouldn’t bother me, because that’s all we had back then. I would have thought the graphics were ahead of their time. The textures and pixelation wouldn’t make manipulation that tricky for me. I knew going into this game that it was archaic and I might have difficulty with it, but I didn’t count on the level of frustration.

I’m not going to quit, but I need to obtain a fresh new level of patience and understanding that this game will take me longer to complete than possibly any other game I’ve played.

I may burn a figure of Cloud in effigy when I’m finished, though.

For an overly serious RPG protagonist with emo tendencies, Cloud can be talked into doing crazy things. I personally love it. I was afraid that this game would be incredibly serious compared to Crisis Core, since it’s about Cloud’s revenge, AVALANCHE’s agenda, and Sephiroth’s insanity (I liked him so much more when he wasn’t a nutjob). Advent Children compounded my fears. I’ve never seen the CGI movie, but every screenshot I’ve seen of Cloud is so darn serious and sad. I was sure FF7 would be serious, depressing, and all-around downer. (Yes, I know Aerith dies, but that doesn’t mean the game has to be a downer.)

But the developers came through just for me and forced Cloud to do some zany things. The cross-dressing was a nice start, but I liked the Shinra parade at Junon Harbor better. When Cloud taught the infantrymen how to twirl the rifle behind their backs — to the tune of Victory Fanfare, no less — and the soldiers clapped and squealed, “Oooooh,” I was beside myself in laughter.  Seeing Red XIII in human garb, dancing on the upper boat deck was pretty hilarious too.

So what else can we make Cloud do? I can’t wait!

In the personal realm, this past week has been hell. My eight-month-old son has been extremely cranky. Nothing would make him happy. Not playing with his toys, not being held, not eating, and not napping. It was five days in a row of shrieking and crying, and of course during that time, my husband was working 12-14 hour days so I didn’t get a real break until the kiddo went down for the night. I was so exhausted by that point, I would crawl into bed around the same time. No Final Fantasy VII, and no Lost Odyssey. I didn’t even have the energy to crack open my DS to play a quick game of Ninjatown.

After a few days of no personal time and no gaming time, my patience was wearing down and I swear I had the shakes. I couldn’t even remember what Victory Fanfare sounded like anymore. It was getting ugly.

But yesterday, the source of my son’s discontent presented itself: his second tooth. Now that it had cut through, his mood had vastly improved. He went to bed at a decent hour, and I didn’t feel like crashing. I got to turn on my PS2 and hear its glorious sounds of booting up. I played Final Fantasy VII for a few hours, and went to bed. I had really weird dreams about the game, and the battle music has been stuck in my head all day. Oh and look, the shaking has stopped.

I think I will pull through.

I’m plugging along with this one, slowly but surely. Last night I got to Cloud’s recollection of the events that transpired at Nibelheim with Sephiroth going nutjob over his past. Words cannot describe how surreal this was for me. Almost everything was verbatim from the Nibelheim chapter in Crisis Core, just with far older graphics and Cloud acted out Zack’s role. Everything Sephiroth said, down to his laughter about his father, everything Cloud said, everything Tifa said, the random photographer who wanted a picture of Sephiroth, Sephiroth staring out of the window of the Inn… completely deja vu. I have to give huge kudos to the game developers of Crisis Core for watching (and probably rewatching numerous times) this cut-scene to make sure they duplicated the Nibelheim story. I was overwhelmed while watching this flashback, remembering everything Zack went through there, and how everything collapsed for both Zack and Cloud in the end. It’s a mark of an incredible game to make anyone experience emotions, especially emotions over ANOTHER game.

Cloud didn’t recall his amazing battle with Sephiroth at this point, but I know he will later and I can’t wait to see it all over again, even if it is in archaic graphics. He will have a Zack flashback eventually, right?

There is no doubt that the soundtracks to video games have come a long way since the games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, let alone the Atari 2600. Ten years ago, I probably would never have thought about even looking for a video game soundtrack. My first game soundtrack was Kingdom Hearts, and then I picked up the soundtrack to Katamari Damacy not long after. A couple of years ago, I added the second Kingdom Hearts and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker soundtracks to my library. This week, the soundtrack to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII showed up on my doorstep, and it’s definitely the best gaming soundtrack I have ever heard. More than that, it’s the best soundtrack I have ever owned.

For me, personally, it’s everything I could ever want in a mix CD. I’m a huge fan of both classical music and hard rock, and the tracks on this CD flip back and forth between the two genres. One minute, I’m head banging to a piece from one of Zack’s many combats, and then the next, I’m listening to a sweet violin and piano ballad. One of the best things about it for me is that it doesn’t sound like a video game soundtrack, with the exception of one or two pieces. When I listen to the Wind Waker soundtrack, there is no doubt it’s a video game soundtrack. The “YOU GOT THE ITEM!!” chimes don’t help, but you can pick any tune off of the CD and hear similar game-like tones. I could probably get away with never telling anyone the music they are hearing is a video game soundtrack, except for my friends who are Final Fantasy VII fans since a few of the tracks are ripped right out of the original game, but with an orchestral upgrade.

I’d recommend this CD to anyone who likes gaming soundtracks or to anyone who likes the same mixture of genres I do. I will be playing the hell out of this CD. I’m not sure it will ever leave my car CD player, unless I trade in my car.

For those wondering, it is an import so it is more expensive than most soundtracks. However, if you poke around some of the sellers on Amazon, most of them are selling the CD set for less than half of what Amazon.com asks for.

When Cloud crashes through the ceiling of a church, right on top of Aerith’s flower garden, she seems to throw herself at him rather desperately. Without really getting to know him, she asks him to be her bodyguard and in exchange, she’ll go out with him. She takes him back to her house, follows him out of Sector 6, and starts to fight along side him. If I hadn’t played Crisis Core first, I know what my first impression of Aerith would be: desperate and clingy.

And who wouldn’t think such a thing? She barely knows him and is throwing herself at him. Her step-mother gives Cloud a slight clue as to why she’s getting so attached, but to the gamer looking in, it doesn’t make much sense. Instead, it has the feel of writers wanting to move the love story along quickly so that gamers can focus on the main story of environmental struggle and evil corporations. And maybe that’s exactly what happened. I don’t know if Crisis Core was in the works at the time, or if the entire backstory of Zack Fair was written down, including his interlude with Aerith. Since Squaresoft does not have powers to see into the future (or maybe they do…), they most likely would not have known that FF7 would become the cult classic that it is and probably didn’t have Zack’s story heavily detailed.

But that doesn’t alter my perspective, since I did play Crisis Core first. So while I see Aerith throwing herself at Cloud, I see why. At the end of Crisis Core, you learn that Zack was undergoing Hojo’s experimentation for four years, so that was four years that Aerith had no idea what happened to Zack. She wrote him 89 letters, gave 88 to Tseng, and the last one to the Angeal-copy guarding her. Zack only received the last one, right before he fled Banora with Cloud in tow. Tseng most likely didn’t tell Aerith what happened to Zack during that time, because he really didn’t know. Shinra put out word that Zack was killed in action, but I doubt Tseng believed that since Shinra said the same thing about Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis. But I doubt Tseng knew that Hojo had him, as Cissnei was shocked to learn that Zack was the escaped experiment. I believe that Tseng told Aerith of Zack’s final fate, since he would have to tell her why he couldn’t give Zack the 88 letters. Or maybe Tseng became a total jerk — like he seems in FF7 — when Zack died, and he told Aerith nothing.

So here’s Aerith, who did love Zack, was seriously courted by him for some time, and he disappeared. And then Cloud drops in her church, just like Zack did over four years ago. He claims to be 1st Class SOLDIER, just like Zack. He even has spiky hair. He’s a lot gruffer than Zack and doesn’t have half the confidence, but he stumbles over his words like Zack. He gets embarrassed just as easily. He has a weird obsession with doing squats. Here he is, a man just like her first love has dropped from the sky for her. How could she not fall in love with him?

A friend asked me before I started FF7 if I would have problems with Aerith having feelings for Cloud when I loved her relationship with Zack so much. I said then no, and I still feel the same. Zack’s been gone for at least four years. She still sells flowers, which was his idea, and she wears pink, which was also his idea, but he’s still gone.  No one should stay a nun just because her first love has died. It’s not like she’s totally forgotten Zack — she obviously hasn’t. She’s just moving on, albeit quickly with the first guy that helps her.

I finally met Tseng in Final Fantasy VII last week, and I was a little taken back by his demeanor. For starters, Tseng was never so mouthy in Crisis Core. Secondly, I can’t believe he backhanded Aerith.

In Crisis Core, Tseng was very serious, a bit of a workaholic, and he had a knack for chastising Zack when he was slacking. At the same time, he was always there for Zack. He conspired with Cissnei to help save Zack from the Shinra army. He even agreed to give Zack 88 of the 89 letters Aerith wrote for him, and he had them in his helicopter ready for Zack before Shinra got the drop on Zack.

So how could a guy who had this sensitive side be so cold hearted and then so terrible to Aerith? I don’t want to believe that Tseng has become an ass. If he is in FF7, then I’ll believe that the writers made a mistake in Crisis Core. I really do hope that he redeems himself, though, because the Turks seemed like good people in Crisis Core. I’m ready for a twist.

Please, please let there be a twist.

I know I’m eleven years late, but I just started Final Fantasy VII this week. I have two reasons for never trying out this RPG legend until now: 1) I didn’t own a PlayStation back then and 2) until recently, I loathed turn-based games. I’ve been told by countless friends that I’m not a real gamer until I play this one, so everyone can finally get off of my back. I’m playing it!

The final push for me to play it was when some of my friends at work gave me Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII as a gift when I quit my job earlier this year. I fell completely in love with the game. I knew it was the backstory to FF7, so I knew what awful fate awaited Zack at the end, but I still cried during the extremely long ending sequence. After I wiped away the tears and tried to put on goofy faces for my infant son, who was looking at me like I was crazy, I knew I had to play the original game and see what happens next.

After just one hour of gameplay, I was hooked. Scratch that. With just the opening sequence, I was hooked. When I saw Aerith in a pink dress and holding a basket of flowers, I started to tear up. I had a flashback of Zack asking her to wear pink on the days they would meet and Zack helping her start her flower-selling business. Then I remembered one of Aerith’s 23 wishes was so spend more time with Zack. Before I became an emotional basketcase, thankfully the sequence moved away from Aerith and then to Cloud.

I know I’m going to have a rather different point of view while playing this game since I did play Crisis Core first, possibly similar to the reactions one would have from playing FF7 right before Crisis Core. Every cut through Midgar made me smile as I remembered all of the things Zack did there. Sector 8 with the Loveless play. Aerith’s church in Sector 5. The train station. Shinra. The Mako Reactors in Midgar. The well in Nibelheim. It was all so incredibly cool to me. I may have played this game without playing Crisis Core, but I’m not sure I’d have the same attachment without Crisis Core.

So be prepared for lots of blogs while I traverse through this giant. I’m eager to share my dated perspective while playing.