Bear Poking

It's night and there's nothing good on television; blogging time.
A few nights ago I had this (seemingly) brilliant idea to do a cross between a let's play and a review for Final Fantasy VII. It was the equivalent of watching a movie with friends and making jokes at the flaws except that I'd have to explain all the jokes. Not only was the basic idea flawed but it couldn't cater for a target audience as it would be far too short for people interested in a let's play, and far too long for anyone who wanted a review. Of course this second point is moot as no one reads my blog (by extension of this logic, if you are reading this, you're actually not and just delusional).

What can be salvaged by this less than face-meltingly awesome (this is the standard level of quality I aim for) idea are the underlying thought processes behind Final Fantasy 7's absurd popularity.
For those that have been living under whatever passes for as a rock on the internet, FF7 is a rather popular game. It's in that category of popularity like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Neon Genesis Evangelion or Metal Gear Solid; where the numerous rabid fans will eviscerate you for daring to suggest that the film/game/novel/etc in question isn't a deep, original piece of art that is flawless and possibly the second coming of Christ.
While I'm not going to say that this game has no redeeming qualities (I haven't finished it yet to be in a position to say that) I am going to say that it isn't deserving of the amount of praise it still receives.

The game starts with the dead-eyed gaze of a character from a fifth generation console, before dramatically zooming out to reveal the cyberpunk city of Midgar.

Not pictured: traditional fantasy

This intro was impressive both because it was the first Final Fantasy game to have such extreme science fiction elements, and it was visually impressive for its time. These two reasons are examples of two prevailing concepts, nostalgia and context, that I feel allow various franchises to be thought of so fondly.

It's sometimes said that hindsight has twenty-twenty vision. Personally I think this is not the case, as for things that are fondly remembered nostalgia vision kicks in and all the negatives seem to fade away while the positives come more into focus. While there's nothing wrong with remembering what you like more clearly than what you don't, it has the unfortunate effect of making it seem like there is a lot more good then bad.
In FF7's case, perhaps people's fondness of the characters and their relationships have overshadowed say....all the times when they wandered around aimlessly because the game didn't give them particularly clear instructions or sense of direction.

My other point, context refers to the excuse that something was really good 'in its time'. I admit it is a useful phrase that has it's place in certain arguments (such as comparing the effect the works had in their respective time periods). What I don't like is when it is used in more direct, less subjective instances (such as comparing actual gameplay of older and newer works). It doesn't matter that something was good in its time, cause that time has passed and things have changed.
A FF7 example would be the Materia management. Barring big important occasions, when someone temporarily leaves your party (generally without warning) they take all the attached Materia with them, and you're not going to get that back until they come back. In 1997 this was an acceptable gameplay flaw, but more then ten years later? Bad design. Games made these days would be marked down because of them but because FF7 is older it can get away with it? Fine, but can it be viewed as one of the greatest games ever? I hope not.

Now if there are insulted fans looking to tear into me with self-righteous fury, let me distract you with this: