Actually, maybe i liked it so much because I was thinking what a cool game it would be 
Ugh… i was not that impressed with 8. they tried to hard to get me to like Rinoa.
Sure they are! you just gotta remember to stock up on Phoenix downs, which i guess they didn’t
[QUOTE]
Sure, the characters and style are similar, and there’s a guy named Cid in both, but there is no linkage in plot
[QUOTE]
There’s always a guy named Cid
The irony of this is that FF8 is considered by most hardcore fans to be the worse of the series.
None of the games are linked together in any way. They are all set in different worlds, with different characters, and usually have different sorts of magic and weapons. There are similarities in plot (One guy has to save the world with a band of followers) but that’s it. But in a way they are all linked. It’s hard to explain.
I’d say the more Gaia-like elements from FFVII were Lifestream and Holy. The Spirits and Phantoms cancelling each other out? Holy and Meteor. The central lifeblood of the planet is Gaia? Lifestream. (SPOILER) Character dies to begin the counteracting agent? Aeris and Grey (that was his name, wasn’t it?). They were practically the same storyline, except FF:TSW was missing the Sephiroth-class villain (yes, Sephiroth is in a class of his own, even though there was the whole Jenova manipulation thing, but that’s another debate). Sure, the General was alright, but he left something lacking. (Even though he and Sephiroth had some stuff in common…such as their belief that what they were doing was for the best/right) FTR, I too liked the movie.
Sorry to hijack…
Well, I started at FF8, and I recently bought FF7 (going to try to finish 8 before starting 7) so maybe it’s bad by comparison although I still think 8 is a good game.
What I like is the depth and attention to detail, also having all the people walking around instead of the ghost towns you see in other games.
Also, I really like the story, although I could do away with the sulking hero. They should have let the player decide the hero’s mood. But they did a good job developing the character backgrounds in the band of followers, so I almost feel like I know them. They’re not just random hirelings and they each have a unique style.
Aki is a dead ringer for my wife, which made it pretty weird.
Don’t get me wrong, I love FF8. It was also my first game in the series (and my first RPG). If you don’t like the sulking hero, (Cloud? I can’t remember his original name) you are going to hate Squall in FF7. (Or maybe I’m getting the names mixed up, I’m sure you know what I mean.)
I didn’t like FF7 because of the end (I won’t spoil it, but it’ll probably piss you off.)
I heard that if you know Japanese and play the Japanese versions of all the Final Fantasy games, you can puzzle out a connection. It’s something like this: there is a race powerful beings that likes to meddle with lesser races. Some are good and some are evil. They are called different things in the various games (Espers, Ancients, I dunno what all), but to the lesser races they are like gods. Guess where your characters come from?
You lucky, lucky bastard.
pepperlandgirl wrote:
There are a number of recurring elements:
Chocobos
Cid – usually an engineer of some kind
Biggs and Wedge – usually soldiers
Magic/Technology – always turns out to be tainted at the origin. That is, the power comes from enslaved fairies or environmental destruction or saps your memories or something.
Cabalistic references – Sephiroth, Tree of Life, assorted mystical mumbo-jumbo.
Cataclysm – Any town you see is liable to be reduced to rubble by bombs, tsunamis or unspeakable evil as soon as you walk away. Often it happens while you’re running away.
Paperback psychology – characters have issues' and need closure.’ This gets awfully heavy-handed sometimes.
Well, Biggs and Wedge are from Star Wars, aren’t they? Unless my memory fails me, isn’t there one more?
Oh, and if you want to play a game with many, many references like these, play Xenogears.
I actually went out to a theater to watch this movie. This is VERY rare for me. I was soooo psyched up, I wanted to stand up and shout “THE WORLD IS SQUARE!”* just before the movie started. However, my daughter would have disowned me.
I was quite disappointed. The storyline sucked. As a general rule, the Final Fantasy games will have fascinating storylines, and discovering the story is a major part of the fun of the game. The movie had maybe a quarter of a good plot, and a few fragments of good subplots. But nothing really held together. I just couldn’t bring myself to care deeply about any of the characters.
Cloud is in FF7, Squall is in FF8. Sure, Squall’s an asshole in the beginning, but part of the game’s story is how he grows emotionally. This part of the game probably won’t appeal to everyone, but heck…I hate the stinking mascot characters in each game. Realm, Yufi, Selphie, Eiko…I can’t stand any of them. And the worst of it is that sometimes I really NEED to use Eiko, that little brat. On the other hand, I rather liked Cait Sith and I adored Quina. Such a character.
Phoenix Downs only restore knocked out characters, not dead ones. As Miracle Max might say, there’s MOSTLY dead, and all the way dead. PDs only restore people who are mostly dead.
More recurring elements:
The Summonsessessesses. Odin, Phoenix, Shiva, etc. Sure, the name of the category is different in each game, but they’re still basically the same.
Moogles aren’t in every FF game, but they should be. They were also in Secret of Mana, which is another excellent Square game.
My characters seem to spend a lot of time in trains and train stations. Possibly this is just a reflection of Japanese daily life.
There’s usually white, black, blue, and sometimes red magic in use.
I swear, I don’t spend ALL my free time playing video games, it just seems like it!
*People who’ve played FF3a/FF6j will know what I mean.
considering my screenname, i really should say something here, but i don’t know what.
[sub]before anyone asks, yes, i spelled it like that intentionally. i prefer saepiroth to sephiroth.sub]
From http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/cast.html,
We have Red One or Red Leader (Garvin Dreis), Red Two (Wedge Antilles), Red Three (Biggs Darklighter), Red Four (John D), Red Five (Luke), and Red Six (Jek Porkins, the fat guy).
I’ve also played many of the FF games (FF6 - FF9), and many RPG’s, in general. That said, the movie Final Fantasy TSW, was a disappointment for me, not as a whole, but in parts. Overall, I liked it enough, however the plotholes were tremendous, and I couldn’t overlook them.
When Gen. Hein had arrested Aki (the female lead) and the others, under suspicion of “contamination” he also gained Aki’s dream data on disk, which proved (from an outsider’s view) that Aki was collaborating with the “enemy”. Thus, he had ALL the proof needed for the council to activate his plan of military muscle. He even says this, to quote: “Great, this is all we need to get the council to act”.
Nonetheless, in the very next scene, he sabotages the city sewer lines to allow a “leak” of the phantoms to bolster his case. What the hell??
As for connections to the games, I thought the movie tied in most with FF7, which used the Gaia concept, and the “fetch quest”, which was also done in the movie (finding the “spirits”). Likewise, Aki in Japanese means “red”, which in poetic fashion is symbolic for the fire of life…which connects to the Phoenix Downs…blah, blah, blah.
The city that was under siege was much like Midgear in FF7.
You know, I’m reaching a bit too far here. I just wanted to like the movie as a basic sci-fi flick. Too bad they borowed so heavily from Aliens.
On another note, the audience I saw it with (on opening day) were giggling when Aki and Grey were about to kiss. The notion of CG characters in a romantic interlude seemed to bother them, and pychologically speaking, I guess the reflex reaction was to laugh about it. Funny that in traditional animation this isn’t a problem, but the idea of realistic…yet not “real” characters drew on that thin line between accepting the characters on an emotional level, or not.
In short, it served as an interesting study of human reaction to non human characters…who themselves were crafted as real humans…blah, blah, blah…
Look at me, I’m talking in circles.
Jet Black
Here I was, all set to reference my review, and I see aramis has already done it. Thanks, a. :preens:
Also, for those discussing the strong anime theme, if you haven’t read my writeup, may I respectfully suggest you take a moment to check it out. I’m rather proud of all the threads I was able to tie together. Not the best movie in the world, but it did make me think about a lot of things.
Lame, lame, Lame. The cover of the DVD says Ebert & whatever gave it 2 thumbs up. right. I made it through 15 minutes. Impressive technology, though.
I just saw the last half on the residence hall film channel here, so maybe I missed something, but I have to ask:
The weapons used against the alien ghosts were powered by some sort of “biological energy”, right? If they projected energy that interfered with the ghosts, who appear to be able to move through matter, why did they recoil?
By the same token, if the ghosts can move through matter (as it appears) why do they sometimes walk along the surface of the ground, or floor, instead of moving through it?
While I’m at it, when the evil general opens the energy shield to let ghost monsters into the city, the monsters travel, IIRC, along the power conduits supplying the shields. If the conduits were carrying ‘bio-energy’ (again, as it appeared), how could the monsters do this without being destroyed?
Took me a while to respond since I only just saw it. Sort of. I’m about 20 mins in, but I keep having to take breaks. I dunno, I just don’t like the animation. Like I keep reading in reviews it looks off. Too stiff. Also, I wish they hadn’t tried to mimic a shakeycam, which along with quick-cutting and Michael Bay symbolises all that is wrong with modern cinema.
The thing that I REALLY don’t like is the dialogue. You’d think having A-list actors would pretty much guarantee good delivery, but it sounds like everyone got as doped up as possible before they read their lines. I dunno, I guess I’ve been spoiled by the high quality of voice acting in most cartoons (Batman, Simpsons, X-men, etc) and most modern computer games. I’ve read in a couple of places that the style of voice acting in FF is cause that’s what’s used in anime, but since the only anime I actually like (Ghost in the Shell) I watched with subtitles I dunno.
Whoops! I forgot my most important point!
If a movie’s going to have space marines, but NOT have Jenette Goldstein or Bill Paxton then it shouldn’t have space marines. 