I'm a big fan of VII and have been since it was released; it was frankly the first FF installment that really drew me into the series as a kid. It inspired me to later go back and play its predecessors as well as VIII+ (VI and IX ranking way up there with it) but VII will always be my favorite. This is for a plethora of reasons; from its' story and characters to the sentimentality of it just being my first srs play through of a FF game and the first time I really started paying attention to Japanese video games/animation/etc. I am well aware of the fact that nostalgia probably plays a huge role in making me biased, and I'm totally okay with that.
That said: I never really understood all the debate that seemed to surround FF___ being better than FF___ -- and more importantly how vehement and even bitter some people can get about it. It's pretty obvious that a lot of the installments draw inspiration from a variety of their predecessors while throwing out new concepts to change things up. Given it's all technically in the same series, I tend to view it in an almost AU light I suppose; taking elements from previous characters/stories/worlds and putting them into a new environment or making changes here and there to see how that would affect the story. In the end, everyone's going to have their own favorites and preferences, but no one's wrong for wherever they may fall on the 'fandom' spectrum-- We're all fans of FF in the end, we might just like different installments more than others.
As far as the VII spin-offs/additions that were added later on, I've got to agree a lot with Gegenji on this. I liked CC a lot, mostly because I was excited to explore Zack's character and get to see him in action. The gameplay itself even turned out to be a lot of fun, so that was a major bonus. But Genesis? I like Gackt's work as a musician, I thoroughly enjoyed what he did for DoC, but it was completely unnecessary to force him into such an integral part of the main story. I have no problem with cameos, but why not just insert him as an easter egg NPC somewhere in the world? Or hell, plaster his face on billboards like some sort of canonical musician and celebrity in Midgar? There were better ways to go about executing an homage to the guy without majorly influencing the story itself.
At any rate, Sephiroth's motivations were perfectly fine as they were in VII. To insinuate that he had to be directed or influenced by someone else just to investigate his obvious differentiation from other SOLDIERs takes a lot away from the character's integrity, in my opinion. The fact that he clearly knew he was different, and was bound to eventually wonder why, was more than enough.
While I understand there are some people out there who thoroughly enjoyed Genesis as a character as well as what he meant for Sephiroth's story-- and everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinions-- the whole thing just makes me cringe. In fact, I often find myself trying to pretend like that wasn't even a thing to start with and I swear my brain tries to selectively remove Genesis from the picture when I think about the VII plot and all of its additions these days.
I don't doubt they'll find ways to allude to him in the VII remake, I just hope they keep it subtle. Honestly, the more true they stay to the original game's story, the happier I'll be. (Even if that means just paying for a shinier version of a game I've already played/beaten.)
That said: I never really understood all the debate that seemed to surround FF___ being better than FF___ -- and more importantly how vehement and even bitter some people can get about it. It's pretty obvious that a lot of the installments draw inspiration from a variety of their predecessors while throwing out new concepts to change things up. Given it's all technically in the same series, I tend to view it in an almost AU light I suppose; taking elements from previous characters/stories/worlds and putting them into a new environment or making changes here and there to see how that would affect the story. In the end, everyone's going to have their own favorites and preferences, but no one's wrong for wherever they may fall on the 'fandom' spectrum-- We're all fans of FF in the end, we might just like different installments more than others.
As far as the VII spin-offs/additions that were added later on, I've got to agree a lot with Gegenji on this. I liked CC a lot, mostly because I was excited to explore Zack's character and get to see him in action. The gameplay itself even turned out to be a lot of fun, so that was a major bonus. But Genesis? I like Gackt's work as a musician, I thoroughly enjoyed what he did for DoC, but it was completely unnecessary to force him into such an integral part of the main story. I have no problem with cameos, but why not just insert him as an easter egg NPC somewhere in the world? Or hell, plaster his face on billboards like some sort of canonical musician and celebrity in Midgar? There were better ways to go about executing an homage to the guy without majorly influencing the story itself.
At any rate, Sephiroth's motivations were perfectly fine as they were in VII. To insinuate that he had to be directed or influenced by someone else just to investigate his obvious differentiation from other SOLDIERs takes a lot away from the character's integrity, in my opinion. The fact that he clearly knew he was different, and was bound to eventually wonder why, was more than enough.
While I understand there are some people out there who thoroughly enjoyed Genesis as a character as well as what he meant for Sephiroth's story-- and everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinions-- the whole thing just makes me cringe. In fact, I often find myself trying to pretend like that wasn't even a thing to start with and I swear my brain tries to selectively remove Genesis from the picture when I think about the VII plot and all of its additions these days.
I don't doubt they'll find ways to allude to him in the VII remake, I just hope they keep it subtle. Honestly, the more true they stay to the original game's story, the happier I'll be. (Even if that means just paying for a shinier version of a game I've already played/beaten.)
![[Image: mO8aEaH.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/mO8aEaH.jpg)
Always looking for new connections!
