Dynafire has 132 chronicles

1. My Top Ten Favorite Games of All-Time pt.1
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Nov 13 2008

   First of all, these favorites are in no particular order. It is really hard to figure out if I like game "A" more than game "B", simply because they may be different genres, or vary greatly in the way you play them. So for all intents and purposes, these games are considered equally good, in my opinion. I'm going to keep these short and sweet, by writing a brief summary/mini review. Here we go…
   
   Final Fantasy VII is a good game. I don't think it's AS good as a lot of fans claim it to be, but it's still one of those rare gems that I can play over and over again, and never get sick of it. The story is still kind of confusing to me, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the great soundtrack, and completely satisfying combat. The gameplay outside of combat is traditional "talk to people until you find out where to go or what to do to advance the story", but there are plenty of sidequests also, usually with great rewards.
   
   The magic system is a bit different, but surprisingly simple as well. Magic and abilities other than the basic "attack" and "item" commands come in the form of materia. These are used by inserting them into materia slots in your weapons and armor. Each materia comes with its own set of strengths and weakness, that will increase and decrease stats, though I mostly overlook that. Over time your materia will level up through accumulating AP by winning fights, and open up better magic attacks, or other effects depending on what materia it is. Overall, I believe there are around 80 different ones, so have fun finding them all.
   
   This game was Squaresoft's first attempt at going 3D for the series, and they accomplished it – sort of. The one thing I have always hated the most about this game was the character models you encounter while in the field. They are basically masses of polygons that barely resemble people. In combat, the characters look pretty good, but while running around outside of combat, they look way too "cartoony" for my liking. When the characters are put against beautiful pre-rendered backrounds, they look pretty awful, and it's obvious they could have done better. (Final Fantasy VIII proved that.) Perhaps the game is more memorable because of it, but I just don't like it. There are also a lot of grammatical errors, but that's not a big deal.
   
   Quite possibly the greatest part of this game though, are the CG sequences. At the time, there had been nothing even close to the quality of these in-game movies on the Playstation, and they look fantastic. Ironically, this game was my first experience with any RPG, and seeing the intro nearly blew my mind. To this day, I believe that the "Aeris scene" is one of the pinnacles of gaming history, showing us how powerful and moving you can make something if you put effort into it.
   
   This game is a must-play. Although the game is fairly rare now (averaging $60-$70 last time I checked), this is a solid investment. Unlike bad $60 games that come out now, FFVII won't depreciate in value anytime soon. If you find you don't like it, just re-sell it and make most of the money back.

   
   

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Dynafire has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. BEN
   Posted On Nov 14 2008

   I feel like an anti-gamer for never playing any of the Final Fantasy games?! I am however, looking forward to the next parts of this Chronicle saga