Would FFVII's scenes lose something without the PSX's graphics? Certainly. But they would only lose the icing on the cake. What made the Aeris scene special was not Cloud and Aeris looking at each other nor Sephiroth's smile as he slowly pulled out his sword, though they added to it. What made it special was the suddenness of it, the helplessness and Sephiroth's callousness afterwards. I can't really see why, with the right timing and sound, you couldn't make a pretty dramatic Aeris' death scene with just sprites. Not quite as dramatic as the original, but dramatic nonetheless. And the build-up with Aeris would lose something too, but still retain its core.
And I must also disagree with the claim that the gap between XII and VII is smaller than the one between VII and VI, at least with respect to character animation (it is, of course, with respect to things like backgrounds). VII only had facial expressions in cut scenes, and they still weren't convincing. On the PS2/3 you can see a tear running down someone's cheek; imagine how much FFVII would have been improved with the kind of detail. It didn't have it, but was able to make do without. If you watched at the Red XIII and Seto scene without the context or music, it would seem ridiculous. With them it is very different. The body movement of FFVII characters is pretty hard to take seriously as well (or would be if the game were less immersive), at least in the rendered scenes where most of the important things happen. Nevertheless, it didn't bother anyone because other things had made the dramatic illusion so strong.
If I seemed to be saying that FFVII would be exactly the same if it looked like Super Mario Bros. 1, then I am sorry for not making myself clearer. If I seemed to speak to you as if you were a "bitter FFVI fanboy" I again apologise; that was not my intention (if I seem to be a VII fanboy, you may be right
). What I meant was that although 3D graphics and whatnot enhanced FFVII and helped it do some things better than it could have done without them, they are only a *very* small part of what made it what it is; if they were any more than that, most of VII's fans would have forgotten as soon as VIII came out, a game with a strong storyline, excellent music and graphics far, far superior to those of its predecessor, but without the same impact or level of immersiveness (IMO, of course
). All of this reminds me, I must get around to playing VI again.
PS. 100 posts: w00t!
Terribly sorry about that.
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