Absolutely. I think it's still the best one.
The irony here is one of the thing that make FF7 so "good" is Aeris's death. Yet, S1 came out over a year before and handled death so much better and maturely. And, it did this with limited capabilities since it was essentially a Sega CD (and then Saturn) game ported to the Playstation. The death's also weren't empty and fortuitous like Aeris's ultimately was.
You had a woman Tir quickly bonded with and became close to who was a hard and calculating leader who sacrifices herself because she cannot resists her maternal instincts. It has such an impact on the player despite the fact you "know" her for like ten minutes.
Then, Tir watches his guardian and "brother" die as he must pointlessly sacrifice himself.
Then poor Tir has to kill his own father with his own hand.
Then he witnesses his other dear friend sacrifice himself.
Then, if that all that wasn't enough (and because things don't have happy endings), the guy who has become his friend, teacher/mentor is stabbed in the back by a traitor.
Opposed to Aeris who was simply killed because they needed a deus ex machina.
Well, I've always thought the middle 1/3 to 1/2 of SIII is just about the best stretch of jRPG ever made--it's just the beginning was kinda meh and the ending was fucking awful. If you play them in the right oder, chapters 2 and 3 (for everyone) present such an epic, grand, and unique experience. Of course, this is assuming you like the battle system--I've found people either love it or hate it.
They probably could have lost the pair system, and reconfiged things a little differently to make it less cumbersome, but it was otherwise so unique and allowed for some really exciting fights. The Luc/Yuber/Sarah battle in Chris 3 is about the most epic boss battle I've played outside a Tales game.
Yeah, S4 really sucked. But if you take it for what it is: S1 really, really lite, than at least it has some redeeming value. And STactics at least gives the story a little bit of weight. It's too bad to, because there was so much potential, especially with the Lazlo/Snow relationship.
I know S5 biggest complaint was the slow beginning. But, I think it was ultimately necessary. The characters were so well fleshed out then--even Frey which was a first for a silent Suiko hero--that it really added to the impact of later story events. I think a lot of that would have been lost if they truncated some of the stuff at the beginning. Though, I suppose they could've tried a little hard on upping the pacing a bit.
But then ultimately the game grabbed you by the balls and didn't want to let go.
Agree wholeheartedly. Though, I would further encompass all the pre-Square Enix subdivisions & subsidiaries.
As you say, Valkyrie Profile games were unbelievable (Though, I actually don't really care for them.
)But just look at this list of series:
Valkyrie Profile
Star Ocean
Dragon Quest
Tactics Ogre
Grandia
Mystic Ark
There's some unfuckingbelievable RPGs in there.
As far as the Tales games go, I don't think many of the tri-ace people are with NTS anymore. Also, with the new games I think they might be taking a step backwards, new consoles aside. It's just that the systems in Abyss and the Destiny remake were so awesome in their funess, from what I've seen from the new games, they just don't seem quite the same.
)
