Ah yes, the intro to final fantasy 8, it gives me chills when I watch it, absulutely amazing, you could really feel their swords bashing, kinetic.

I have to agree w/ some posters here - I'm not all too intrigued by the "epic games" genre anymore. The idea itself is interesting, as I've even started an engine I lamely titled "EpicEngine". But I can't do 40 hours anymore. I've played and beaten FF4,6,7 etc but I recently acquired DQ8 and just can't reason the time commitment required for what is basically leveling up and fighting difficult battles (note: I'm a college senior trying to find a job so that factors into my epic-aversion). Epic games can be great, but I enjoy many other genres today as well - racing, action, FPS, old school, sports.

To directly answer the questions you posed, here are some thoughts:

After 40 hours of gameplay, the game may stay in your memory for a lifetime because of the emotional commitment you had to characters or events that occurred in the game due to plot-centered gameplay. It may also be because of things that you found to be "really cool". A couple examples:
FF6 b/c of the Atma Weapon, Genji Glove, and Offering - bad ass
KOTOR b/c of Light Sabres, lightning, and jedi speed - really cool effects
FFLegend3 - time travel, Talon, masamune, excalibur
Ultima6 - extreme functionality of the world, exploration of exotic lands
DW - first RPG I played: seeing older cousin run into the Green Dragon with the lights off, the eerie music playing, and being six years old was the perfect combo for scaring the bejesus out of me

You don't need 40 hours though - HL2 was only 10-15 hours and I still vividly remember it, 1.5 years later.

"Quite possibly the best game ever made" may just be marketing jargon - there are plenty of people who say FF7 (I assume that's what your referring to) isn't God's gift to RPG gaming.

About single player gaming, that is still the way I prefer to play. I also enjoy small group playing. I'm not convinced that putting 6 hours a day into WoW for a year is fun, nor would be playing CS for that long.

GOOD villians are GOOD perhaps because they engage our archetypal triggers as to what "evil" entails. I liked what Way Walker had to say - Kefka had more character to his evilness, as opposed to Sephiroth's blind rage and self-proclaimed God-status.

And yes, Sephorith's theme rocked. hard. But Kefka's can hold its own :) (As can a lot of other RPG music - the list could go on for pages!)

If I was an evil villain and I wanted a theme song, it would definately need to be One Winged Angel.

Final Fantasy 7 was mainly awesome because of the in depth character building, each character had their own side quest, their own reasons for joining the team. Cloud ultimately became compelled to save the world, and avenge Aeris. Aeris was curious for knowledge, she was herself an ancient. Tifa cared about the world, she thought her enemy was the Shinra, but it was much deeper than that. Red13 was trying to do his father proud. Yuffie needed friends. Vincent, I don't remember clearly enough.

Such an in depth story line deserves its credit.

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Original post by abstractimmersion I'd like to see a heated forum debate on the subject: Which FF has aged better? FF6 or FF7? Probably there isn't anyone here who cares enough to get mad about it, which is a good thing, I suppose. And ultimately, it'd probably be drawn along age lines anyway.

Get mad about it?

PFFT, FF7 is quite possibly the best game ever made!

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Original post by abstractimmersion I'd like to see a heated forum debate on the subject: Which FF has aged better? FF6 or FF7? Probably there isn't anyone here who cares enough to get mad about it, which is a good thing, I suppose. And ultimately, it'd probably be drawn along age lines anyway.

Get mad about it?

PFFT, FF6 is quite possibly the best game ever made!

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Original post by Shamino Why is it, that after 40 hours of gameplay, the game stays in your memories for a lifetime?

The only game I have ever played that affected me like that were UO and Neverwinter Nights. Not that the storys in themselves were special but the role playing with other people. Come to think of it, there was one game. The first Wizardry. I seem to remember losing many hours of sleep on that one.

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Original post by Shamino What makes GOOD villains?!

I had thought about this a while back and here is some notes I had written on this very topic:

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nem•e•sis ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nm-ss) n. pl. nem•e•ses (-sz) A source of harm or ruin: Uncritical trust is my nemesis. Retributive justice in its execution or outcome: To follow the proposed course of action is to invite nemesis. An opponent that cannot be beaten or overcome. One that inflicts retribution or vengeance. Nemesis Greek Mythology. The goddess of retributive justice or vengeance. Throughout the history of story telling the single most important factor that separates the great from the lame is the nemesis, AKA bad guy, AKA arch enemy, and so on. If you are going to develop any kind of action game or RPG, you are going to need a story. Just as good action novels require a hero with a seemingly impossible objective and an enemy that can provoke anger, hatred, and dread, so too do good role playing games. First I would like to state what this article is not. It is not a blueprint for making a specific character type. It will not teach you the finer points of psychology. It won’t create your game for you, and lastly it won’t write your story for you. What I hope to achieve in this writing is to broaden the view that is taken when writing your background stories, namely the bad guy. It is easy to wonder why we wouldn’t want to focus on the hero(s) of the game but this is easily explained. Simply, the nemesis of your world is the only reason you have a game or story. Imagine a story where the hero has nothing important to overcome and ask yourself if you would be interested in following the story. That sounds pretty boring to me. So we come up with a name for an evil character, claim that he or she is evil, and expect our players to kill monsters until the hero vanquishes the bad guy, right? Wrong! If you are not going to spend the time and mold your villain to embody everything a rational person will love to hate, you will not be convincing. One of the most important, if not THE most important factor involved in creating the villain is the personality. You must make your nemesis provoke strong emotions by giving him or her convincing personalities. Not only do you need to convince the audience that the nemesis believes strongly in what he or she is doing, but you must also make your audience understand that the nemesis will stop at nothing to destroy anyone who opposes his or her version of the truth. One common mistake authors make when constructing a villain, is to just assume that the audience will understand the nemesis is evil just because the author tells them it is so. This is true in part but unless the audience can relate the bad guy with actions they believe to be evil you will have a problem gaining sympathy for the hero and his mission. Goes back to the saying, “If you are going to save the people of the world, make sure they want to be saved”. People relate to personalities; we relate to good and evil in different ways. Bad guys often have some appealing characteristics just as heroes often have characteristics that are annoying. It isn't the pure good or evil of a character that sells the crowd but a complex combination of both which brings a sense of reality and balance to the character. Let’s take a look at arguably one of the best nemesis in the history of bad guys. Darth Vader! You may disagree but let’s take a look under the hood. On the surface Darth was the embodiment of dark power, and his presence alone demanded respect. When you heard the tell tale music and the breathing you knew he was there. After his dark introduction we were given a glimpse through the shroud of evil into his belief system. Once you get in the mind of the sith you find a complex tangle of right and wrong, and sense of good and bad. At no time did Darth Vader consider himself to be evil. His use of the dark side of the force was justified by the goals he believed to be righteous. While power and a fanatical perception of the way he believed things should be were very powerful influences in his actions, his ties to family made this commanding presence seem a bit more human. In the end you know how it turned out but take a minute to try and pick out the single most important aspect of his personality which made him the perfect nemesis . . . Ok, that was about a minute. Did you come up with the simple answer? Of course you did. He was more than pure darkness; he was a rational personality who truly believed his views were right. Perception therefore was the determining factor and can be the hardest part for the author to impart to his/her audience. If you want to create a truly believable nemesis, you must create a personality who acts in believable ways based on what they may believe is a rational thought process, regardless of how out of whack with reality that may be. For instance, if we have a world in which it is against the common ideology, also called truth, to kill for any reason but our nemesis sees that as the only way to achieve his objective, which in his/her mind is logical and just; we have the start of a rational thought process. First we must ensure there is a logical progression towards that end. What is the objective they hope to achieve? How does the actions of the nemesis progress that objective? To say the only thing the bad guy does is to kill does not answer why or how. Why did he kill? What objective did it achieve? Basically, there should be reason behind the action even if it is not immediately apparent to the audience or the action becomes senseless. Even if the reason is terror, it is still a reason although I would not use that option since it is very easy to mistake suspense for gratuitous violence. The more realistic your nemesis is in thought patterns and actions, the easier it will be for the audience to bond with the hero and their cause. In closing, if you want to find out how to succeed in making a terrible villain, create one that does evil acts for no other reason than to do them. Your villain will not impart a sense of foreboding or doom leaving your hero faced with a quest of mediocrity.

I took me over 100 hrs to finish FF7 but I am not a lame :). Firstly, all my crew had 99 lvl and so on and sometimes I just played the game to kill random monsters for few hours so that's why it took me that long. I think its beacuse of the story, the whole world. The scenario was amazing and I always wanted to know what will be next. The weapons and the animations like Emerald weapon attacks Junion Town, Aeris death. This game is full of such moments.

And not all game must have a 40 hours gameplay to stay in your memory. It is emotions.