It occurs to me that the FFVII thing I posted yesterday is the latest instance of a strange new trend for me: revisionist confessions. First there was that Earthbound thing last week in which I came to terms with the fact that the game is no longer nearly as annoying as I used to think it was; now I’ve recanted my former willingness to defend the errors and excesses of FFVII. What’s next, a scathing screed against Bionic Commando?
Maybe I should put it to a vote. What should I change my mind about next? (And before you say the obvious, Xeno-whatever is off limits. Some things should be sacred, you know?)
25 thoughts on “Revisionism”
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Mega Man 4+
Come on, they weren’t THAT bad. They just came too close together.
Well. Until they got to 7 and lost the tight play control, anyway.
I’m thinking any game that starts with the word “Legend” and doesn’t end with “Zelda”.
You forgot to restrict Smash Brothers as well.
Heee. I can’t stop laughing over you using the words “Xeno-whatever” and “sacred” within such close proximity without heavy sarcasm.
That said? Let’s see some more Mega-mocking. How do you feel on the latest Battle Network games, eh?
How about Katamari?
Maybe treasure games. But seeing as how the Gunstar Heroes retronauts was delayed in favor of Earthbound, this doesn’t seem too bright.
Have you still not played the Silent Hill series? If so, change your mind and play them.
Marvel vs. Capcom might be good.
Or Resident Evil.
You can’t have dessert without meat and potatoes first. Clunky innovators like FF1 and FF7 are the foundations upon which highly polished sub-series finishers like FF6 and FF12 are built upon. Advent Children is another one of these clunky innovators. Wait seven years and Squarenix will release a spectacular movie that you’ll sing praise about, and it’ll have the same basic ideas and style that Advent Children does. But I know better by now than to expect Jeremy to ever give protein and high fiber the praise they deserve when he only has the stomach for sugar.
I’m guessing proponents of the “protein theory of artistic appreciation” insist on reading “Henry VI” before they read “Hamlet,” defend “Finian’s Rainbow” as presaging very important themes in “Apocalypse Now,” and become experts in skiffle in order to truly understand the Beatles. Mmmm, fiber!
Dean: Have you not learned that Parish just likes complaining about stuff? When he explained how forum-boys only found happiness through complaints, where do you think that knowledge came from? Hint: Not from his “Internet Psychology Monthly” subscription. He’s just one of ours, that’s all. My vote goes for Mega Man, anyway. Second option goes to Chrono Cross, eventhough I know that’s the only vote it’s going to get.
Go easy on him, Juan. Dean has proven over the years to be one of those “gently retarded” people discussed earlier. He thinks innovation precludes quality, for instance.
What innovations did FFVII have? The gameplay was just FFVI dumbed down and warmed over, the 2D/3D mix of the non-world-map bits were already done in Alone in the Dark, and plenty of games had FMV before FFVII, though, admittedly, not quite as much of it.
Well, I’m an animation student expecting to have a career doing graphics work for shows, movies and/or games, and unlike Parish I don’t endure games I hate for a living, so I think my life makes me a lot more forgiving of sub-perfect art. As for my vote: Donkey Kong Country or Spirited Away. DKC, I should have just beaten in a rental and not bought, but I still appreciate its graphical breakthroughs. Spirited Away, I hyped up a lot before post-Oscar re-release, but when I finally saw it, I kinda disliked it. I like most of Ghibli’s other stuff, though.
JP, I don’t lust for innovation as much as you think. If I did, I’d like all things American over all things Japanese. Instead, I’m more like 50/50, and 30 out of the 20 I give to America comes from the fact that it accepts me as a citizen. Only 20/50 I give to what it makes.
DKC had graphical innovation? I thought sprites had been around a lot longer.
ANYWAY, Parish, I vote you recant your hatred of SSBM next. Or start bashing your beloved XBox360, you shill.
I’ll have to back Niku and Fletch on this one. Let’s hear some rants about MegaMan. Come on. You know you want to.
The only game I can recall changing my opinion of so drastically upon going back to it after not having played it for a while was Morrowind. I absolutely hated that game when I first tried it, and I still think that game punishes people new to that style of game by throwing a huge amount of information at you (with inadequate means to sort through it until the GotY edition), and at the same time giving you possibly too much freedom. It was only upon a second attempt to play it that it grew on me, at which point I absolutely loved it. Oblivion, by contrast, has been a powerful drug right from the get-go.
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I should also mention that I once attempted to give a second chance to another game series that I despise. But no, I still hate Tekken every bit as much now as I did then.
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As for Parish, I too vote Smash Bros.
My vote goes for Chrono Cross, as well. How has it aged? Is it still worth of the high praise it received some years ago? Now that enough time has passed, does the rushed ending stil feel like an insult to Chrono entusiasts and does it negate the previous 40+ hours of awesome gameplay? And am I the only living gamer who still adores that combat system? My second vote is for FF Mystic Quest. C’mon, it wasn’t *that* bad. And I think it has aged much better than FFVII, anyway :P
The problem with Smash Bros is that Parish doesn’t have a bunch of peers who play to pressure him into repeated sessions. Eventually the “strategy” emerges and it ceases to be a party game.
I vote someone pays Parish to go hang out at NOA for two months or so. At that point, he will have been force-fed enough Super Smash to make a fair reassessment.
“Xeno-whatever is off limits.”
Darn. That means you won’t be doing Xenophobe (or the Xenon series).
Seldon: Of COURSE FF:MQ has aged better. It has a friggin’ jump button!
…sorry. But that single key alone is the reason I replay MQ yearly, and I haven’t touched VII since the first and only completion I gave it. (The other FF games get a sporadic replay. Mostly V, since I can always try something new with the jobs.)
That part about defending the errors of FF7 was sarcastic, right? I’m a little confused.
I don’t you, you liked FFX, right? I would be scrambling to right that kind of a wrong, Parish. Was it the garish colors or the B grade acting you fell in love with? q:
I’m taking issue with you! All sorts of issue! Not because you’re changing your mind, but that you’re changing your mind in response to an apparent memo that all “hardcore” or “with it” or whathaveyou gamers have to all share the same opinion on things. It’s hip to like Earthbound, and now you do. It’s hip to dislike FFVII, and now you do. It’s not that I am opposed to the views expressed (though I have to admit, I like both games in question), but that they smack of someone changing them in order to fit in with the ‘in’ crowd.
Truth be told, I doubt I would have even thought this had both changes been not been in line with what all the snooty videogame hipsters say. But they are. So, to prove me wrong, change your opinion to go against the hip view. Diss Chrono Trigger maybe.