You said that popular games receive good reviews, which is all good and valid except, I think, in the case of FF7. Most people you ask say that it's a crap game, but it (almost) always receives good reviews. Any ideas on why this happens?

Thanks

We have all been told not to throw down a book before reading the first few chapters, or not declaring a movie bad within the first few minutes. We should, in all honesty, give everything at least a little chance to impress. On the other side of this, if you have read, say, 8 chapters of a book and you still think it's horrible, it would then be acceptable to discontinue reading it, right? Yes it is, and rightfully so. To draw my parallel with video games, I will offer the 8 hour mark as the "acceptable to disown" point. Ok, with that out of the way, can I ask why everyone who hates Final Fantasy VII knows how it ends? I know the 8 hour marker could vary from person to person, but the game took at least 30 - 35 hours to beat, and that just seems like a lot of time spent doing something that you now argue as unenjoyable. I don't know, it just kind of befuddles me, I mean, I don't finish reading books I don't like, I don't finish watching movies that I think aren't very interesting, and I don't finish playing video games that I think are bad, so why do you?

til next time,

Jump, slice, its all in the mind,
If you can reach me you'll get my hind.
The things I teach ye
will let you see me
now, Z, target, see me
(Link copys)
and chop, jump, block.
(Link copys)
Ah yea i see ur getting beter
now turn to the limit in order to get her
here we go now:
Z, target, turn

The most recent quote of the game, I believe, is from Wild ARMs, near the very end just before you fight Boomerang Flash in the Arena. Where's my prize?

On the subject of Wild ARMs, I agree that it was a highly flawed game. Random encounters joined with puzzles (most of them not as good as the Zelda puzzles) make up for an extremely tedious gameplay. The plot was actually quite good, but it fell down flat because of the poorly-handled conversation. I can easily believe that Sony employed an unfinished draft for a script, because the conversation was sometimes oddly cut-up, and Cecilia talked too much nonsense. It's a pity, because the story itself did have a solid potential. Also, it makes Cecilia one of the most annoying female I've seen in RPGs. On the other hand it's a pity, because it's rare that you see an RPG heroine who is really more like a regular young woman, who is very flawed and self-pitying and childish-- in other words, very true to life.

I mean to say that it makes Cecilia like a regular or real person because she is self-pitying and childish but she manages to overcome her childishness and care for someone else besides herself. :) In comparison to the trend of too many sweet and/or innocent and/or "deeply caring" heroines (FFVII is particularly insufferable in that respect; personally, I am sick of heroines gushing all over men) that's kind of, well, more realistic. In a way it's also LESS insufferable... or so I think. :)

One thing everyone fail to mention is the music, because I really feel that the soundtrack was superb, with some tunes equaling anything you've seen in either Uematsu or the FFT composers.