did YOU cry when Aeris died in FF VII?

[just-another-andy]

I decided this poll had to be taken while I sit listening to Aeris' orchestral theme. Such a great song.

I played the game back when I was only about 10. As it stands, this changed my perspective on games in general. Before playing this  I had only experienced the likes of Sonic, Mario etc. Games with a simplistic plotline and goal. The thought of a game with a complicated innovative storyline was absolutly crazy.

I may or may not be an FF fanboy. I don't exactly know what that entails and don't really care to be honest.

Love the series and will continue to buy/download the future incarnations (I guess that does make me a fanboy?)

[KvP]

No.

[Dissy]

Thanks for the spoiler... Jerk.  Now the whole story is ruined for me

[Storm Rider]

No, because I didn't particularly like the character of Aeris anyway.

[just-another-andy]

Thanks for the spoiler... Jerk.  Now the whole story is ruined for me

You'd think that spoiled the storyline but that's misleading.
for too many reasons 

[Dimmukane]

No, when it happened, I was like 'Oh.  A character in my party died.  Oh well, she was kinda weak anyways.'  They never really got me attached to any of the characters other than Sephiroth.  I never was much a fan of the game either.

[Blue Kitty]

no

[ackblom12]

No. It surprised me that someone who was story wise quite prominent died, but she was kind of an annoying bitch anyways.

[Inlander]

I added another poll option for those of us who haven't played any of the Final Fantasy games. See if you can guess which one it is!

[öde]

I was all 'hey, I levelled her unlike most of the other characters!'

[MC]

No. It surprised me that someone who was story wise quite prominent died, but she was kind of an annoying bitch anyways.

yeah, she was kind of winey, why Cloud fell for her is beyond me. Besides she died because she left into the forest away from the rest of her frends against her freind's wishes. Good riddence.

[jeph]

i am not a slathering Final Fantasy animu fanboy

so no

[camelpimp]

What is this? 1999?

I probably haven't played the game since then.

[GruntyBalboa]

I laughed, actually. Fucking despised that game, as well as most every character in it.

[Jeans]

Nope, but I was fairly close in Baldur's Gate II when you find that guy and that thing has happened to him fairly early in the story and that other woman in my party is not very happy about it.

[KvP]

Nope, but I was fairly close in Baldur's Gate II when you find that guy and that thing has happened to him fairly early in the story and that other woman in my party is not very happy about it.

Que? You're talking about Jaheira and the wraith lord or whatever?

[Johnny C]

What has two thumbs and never played Final Fantasy VII?


This guy.

[Jeans]

Que? You're talking about Jaheira and the wraith lord or whatever?

That's Khalid thankyouverymuch.

But yeah, that's what I'm referring to.

[GruntyBalboa]

What has two thumbs and never played Final Fantasy VII?


This guy.

Good. Don't. It's trash. Best left in a million pieces hurtling towards the sun, along with it's legions of raving fans.

[Jeans]

You seem to feel very strongly about this.

[Catfish_Man]

Presumably for basically the same reason that members of any apparent cultural minority (say, mac users, or people that dislike halo) develop a seething semi-rational hatred of whatever the popular item in opposition to their views is. The halo anti-fans are so shrill at this point that they have drowned out the halo fans on every forum I visit.

[Zeitgeist]

Nope.

I was a bit  about it, but rather than being sad, I more or less just sat there and prolonged the boss battle that followed because I liked the music.

Delicious, delicious video game music.

[Spinless]

I must have been about 10 at the time, yeah I cried. How old were you guys? That probably has a lot to do with it, you guys were old and desensitised before you played the game.

[bryanthelion]

I wanted Tifa to be my girlfriend....

[AngelofShadows]

She was my healer, and saved my ass a few times early in.

I didn't cry, I was pissed I wasted my time leveling her up. I mean, what's the point of even showing that she has higher limit breaks if you can't use them past the first disk without cheating? That's retarded.

[Jeans]

Yeah man, I totally know what you mean. I like to know my characters dying so I don't spend any time levelling them up or, god forbid, immerse myself in the game.

[Alex C]

I know exactly what you guys mean, and that's why I laughed my ass off when Aeris died (I never used her anyway). I had a friend who was obsessive about Aeris AND level grinding in rpgs; he would have been farther than me if it weren't for his bizarre need to be able to practically one shot every critter he ran across. Honestly, I never really understood the impulse; jrpgs are all about inventory management, when it comes down to it, and old school Dragon Warrior not withstanding, most don't even really require level grinding anymore provided that you're willing to use expendable items. Spending 20 hours grinding just to kill enemies 20 seconds faster just doesn't hit me as a fair trade off.

Also, in a related story, my brother got sick of being burned by secondary character death in RPGs so when we got ChronoTrigger he decided to be proactive and not spend Tabs on anyone but Crono. That was hilarious too, even if you do eventually get Crono back.

[Johnny C]

Also, in a related story, my brother got sick of being burned by secondary character death in RPGs so when we got ChronoTrigger he decided to be proactive and not spend Tabs on anyone but Crono. That was hilarious too, even if you do eventually get Crono back.

Ha!

[camelpimp]

That's why you don't use ANY of those rare stat boosting items until right before the final boss. Even then, you gotta be careful.

On a related note: For a complete, "I leveled this fucker up and s/he DIES?!" experience, play FF2. Not FF2/4 (although that one works too!)

[GruntyBalboa]

Presumably for basically the same reason that members of any apparent cultural minority (say, mac users, or people that dislike halo) develop a seething semi-rational hatred of whatever the popular item in opposition to their views is. The halo anti-fans are so shrill at this point that they have drowned out the halo fans on every forum I visit.

I actually have reasons for hating VII. Good ones, in my opinion. But that's not the point of this thread.

[Jeans]

"Hey kid, want a new videogame? Hop in the car"

 

[MusicScribbles]

I laughed when Aeris died, because I thought that that meant the game was wrapping up.

[Alex C]

That's why you don't use ANY of those rare stat boosting items until right before the final boss. Even then, you gotta be careful.

I still can't decide what to think about that line of thinking. On the one hand, I find it delightful, because I'm the sort of guy who appreciates the Encyclopedia Dramatica. It makes me happy to think there's about a million guys with OCD trolling the Gamefaqs boards who seriously think like that. 

 On the other hand, it's resulted in jrpgs being rendered trivially easy as developers have to account for players who seem to believe there's some prize for hoarding all your megalixirs. 

Consider me torn.

[AngelofShadows]

I laughed when Aeris died, because I thought that that meant the game was wrapping up.

As far as the storyline being understandable, you're not that far off.

[ScrambledGregs]

FFVII is a vastly overrated RPG with an awful translation and a huge group of fans who love the game simply because it was their first RPG and are therefore unable to objectively see it in the chronology of RPGs.

So, no, Aeris didn't make me cry when she died. But then again, I haven't cried for any reason for about 12 years. I am not trying to sound macho, because truth be told I think I have some kind of emotional block about crying. There have been several times in the past 5 years where I wanted/needed to cry, but I couldn't. I even tried to force myself to cry once, but all I ended up doing was laughing because my fake sobs sounded so ridiculous.

[Stryc9Fuego]

I'm here to help you. You need to cry and I have advice that will help. Just remember this formula:

hammer + testicle =

[MC]

What has two thumbs and never played Final Fantasy VII?


This guy.

Good. Don't. It's trash. Best left in a million pieces hurtling towards the sun, along with it's legions of raving fans.

wow.... I thought FF7 was awesome. It's my favorite out the entire collection of FF games.

[Storm Rider]

I think FF7 has sort of seen the same kind of reaction as Halo, where it is so highly praised by such a large group of people that it spawns a smaller but just as loud group of people who hate it in backlash. Really, it's a good RPG with an extremely convoluted plotline, but in comparison with the dozens of other classic RPGs, including the ones from Square themselves, it just doesn't hold up.

FFVI is still the best game in the series. I think both Sakaguchi himself and the FF series lost something when he stepped down from the helm.

[MusicScribbles]

I don't think that FFVII is a bad game, but for me the hype ruined it.
Halo was amazing for me because I came into it with no expectations. FFVII was touted as an extremely philosophical piece of videogame art. The only thing it seemed to do for me was show me where 3D started.

[just-another-andy]

I don't think that FFVII is a bad game, but for me the hype ruined it.
Halo was amazing for me because I came into it with no expectations. FFVII was touted as an extremely philosophical piece of videogame art. The only thing it seemed to do for me was show me where 3D started.

I was lucky enough have played the game without the hype. A hairy biker friend of my step-dad's said "hey, play this game. It's awesome"

That's the all the hype I got. I guess that's partly what I enjoyed about it. 

[ackblom12]

I played FFVI to death before this game came out and it disappointed me quite a bit. FFVI had a better story, better characters and a much better villain. VII is still probably my 3rd or 4th favorite of the series though.

[CloudyObsession]

Yeah, I had no hype either.  I played the game because it was an FF game and I needed a game for my shiny new playstation.  In those days the only series I bought and played faithfully were LoZ, FF, Metroid.  Any other games I played were games my neighbor (when I lived in PA) decided to give me.  I was completely lost as far as the market, I had no idea what was coming out and was supposed to be good or bad or whatever, I pretty much relied on him for game buying advice.  And I had no reason not to, because he always lead me to games I enjoyed.  But I liked all the previous FF games I had played, so I bought it.

Anywho, I have a theory that nothing is overrated.  If a lot of people like something, that's the facts and there's really no disputing it.  If something is popular, it's because a lot of people enjoy it.  Now, you still have the right to think that something is not so good, but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority disagree with you.  It works in reverse too (nothing is underrated either).  A good example: rap music.  I despise the vast majority of rap songs (especially the popular ones ones), but the people who make those must be doing something right because a lot of people enjoy them.  The people speak.

Then again, I also think that the vast majority of people are stupid.  To quote Ellen Degeneres, "Not us, it's others."

I can see why people don't like FFVII.  It had bad translation and a few plot points that were more annoying than anything.  It's not a game for the patient, as it's medium paced and very wordy.  But to me, those things were easily overlooked by a deep, involving storyline, awesome characters, addicting gameplay, and great music.  It never gets old for me and I still enjoy playing it.  It's my favourite video game so far, and I think people should play it and develop their own opinions, or leave it alone but not judge a game they haven't played (I've heard a lot of people say it was good/bad without ever playing it).

Sorry for the speech: now on to the question:
I was about eight when it came out, but I didn't play it until I was about ten.  Yes I did cry because I was always a very sensitive child, and because I liked Aerith at that point (even though I hated her at first).  She was kinda weak as far as attacking, but her limit breaks and magic skill saved me lots of times.  Enough to warrant a permanent party spot (until she died of course).  I had even acquired her final limit break (by the way, you don't need to cheat to get it, you just have to do a bunch of extra stuff that's hard to do that early in the game).  When she died, I was initally just sad about her death, but later on it hit me that I had spent so much time on a character who I wouldn't get back.

[Johnny C]

Aerith

oh not this shit

[Alex C]

Dammit! Jeph locked the "Why do you love/hate..." thread before I could post "No, wait, you mean... SO. TEN. YEARS.AGO."

[LordNagash]

Honestly I was more sad when Shadow and Interceptor part ways in the FFVI epilog. Though I was sad when she died. Mostly because I did not like seph, and I did not like loosing to him.

[camelpimp]

FF7 killed my mother. Ever since I have been on a mission of revenge, which has turned me into a bitter, warped human being incapable of normal human contact. The thought of vengeance is the only thing that keeps me alive.

So what I'm saying is FF7 kinda okay, nothing real special though

[ForteBass]

We're missing the option about masturbating and shooting the load directly on the wall.

[jeph]

We're missing the option about masturbating and shooting the load directly on the screen.

Fixed.

[Alex C]

My theory is that FFVII has become the video game equivalent of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Whether they were ever any good or not is beside the point; we all just know that the mere mention of their name can summon the most slavish of fanboys out of the deepest recesses of the earth, and once exposed to light they will just not shut the fuck up.

[clockworkjames]

I hated Aeris, she did no damage, her healing was not much better than anyone elses, HP was sub par, mana was not great... I never really used her I guess.

Cloud/Tifa/Barrett/RedXIII/Yuffie/Vincent were the only ones I really bothered to use.

At every possible chance I made Cloud try to choose Tifa in favour of Aeris, I hated that flower selling slum girl with a stick and all her limit breaks were sucky. Well, all the ones I eventually got.

I was relieved when she got impaled by Sephiroth because I would never be forced to play with that woman in my party evar again.