[quote name='nintendokid'][quote name='blueweltall'][quote name='nintendokid'][quote name='Cloud']in FF7 good story and materia,FF8 many things,FF9 abilities[/quote]
FFVII, good story....and materia system was good? LOL! And you also listed VIII, and IX.
Do yourself a favor and go pick up FFVI, PS or SNES, though you'd be better off with the latter. But most people who are in the "I love FFVII" group doesn't really understand what makes a great RPG, they are wowed instead by graphics, FMV, and spike haired heroes with an effeminate appeal, no offense, of course. So chances are, you'll be:
1. wowed by the great narshe overlooking cliff intro, with credits rolling.
2. Proceed and see the first battle against the narshe forces, and start wondering "Where's the 3-D polygons? Where's the pre-rendered 32bit backgrounds? I want a feminine male character with a popish look!"
3. Your finger finds the Power button "accidentally" and the game is never played again.
Materia? What until you experience Espers and how shards are created.[/quote]
Dude at the time people were wowed by FFIII graphics on the SNES. Just because you like a rpg game that use up to date technology doesn't mean you don't know jack about rpg.
If you really want a true rpg experienice pop in Xenogears. shaq-fu espers and shard learn about Grahf, Id, and Fei.[/quote]
LOL! Please! Xenogears was so complicated in itself to the point where it was no longer enjoyable, ala FFVIII. THere were many themes - love (at least an attempt), hope, religion, destruction of life, anger, etc. But all of those themes didn't mix in well. It happens - you try to add in so many elements and it just ends up too confusing that it's not enjoyable by the audience (Matrix 2, anyone?).
You have the lambs, you have the higher humans living in the sky, you have the guy who's really pissed of at everything because it just isn't his day, just like Sephiroth, and then there's the fake religion to control the lambs, etc. Oh, and you can't forget about "Id", one of the three psyche that is guided by your instincts alone and nothing else. Ok, so middle school RPGamers and the average person is suppose to know what Id without some psychology class? Talk about complication to the point of devastation. I bet there's gonna be a few who reads this, has played Xenogears, and is still wondering what "id" is. I had to look it up myself in high school and didn't grip the meaning until college psych class.
It attempted to go deep, even deeper than FFVII at the time. But admit it, the themes and the plot did not mix in well at all. It was a good RPG, don't get me wrong. But is it a masterpiece? Not quite. By the time I got to disc two, I no longer had any connection or bond with any of the characters - the complication and the many themes and the plot caused me to no longer have the bond with the heroes. Once a game causes you to break the bond, it loses the audience, and it goes down from there.[/quote]
So you're saying because you couldn't follow the themes the game was ruined for you? I don't see how that at all the fault of the game as much as it is yours. Xenogears was never meant to be a "middle school" RPG. The concept of "id" isn't all that complicated - it's certainly not a college-level subject. What you seem to be trying to say is that a plot can't be allowed to have elements that are, dare I say, mature in nature? By your logic, the first Matrix - a movie chock-full of religious references - was no good because most of the people wouldn't pick up on them, right?
What I loved about Xenogears was its intricate plot, and how everything managed to weave together so well. You can't do without any of them, either. Take away the class disputes: you lose a main character, you lose the love story, you lose pretty much the entire second disc, you lose the freaking ending. Take away the Sephiroth-like character: you lose the villain, you lose conflict, you lose the main plot. Take away the religious themes, you lose the entire driving force behind all of that. As far as I'm concerned, there were no shortcomings in that game's plot, and I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say it tried to be over-complicated, because it did everything as well as it did.