The best game of all time. Well, I don't know if I can even answer that one. This might be a bit long winded, but bear with me.
It's not Zelda: Ocarina of Time (or as some pronounce it, Acarena of Time). The thing is, that game could've easily been the best Zelda game ever made. It had everything going for it, a great story, awesome graphics (for its time), an even number of dungeons, and the longest quest of any Zelda game I'd played up until that point.
So why isn't it the greatest game ever to me? Well, while Ocarina of Time had ALL that going for it, it also had one major flaw. It caused the Zelda timeline to become contrived and twisted almost beyond recognition. Before Ocarina of Time, we knew that Zelda and Zelda II happened in that order (hence why Link is older in II), and we also could conclude that Link to the Past was originally made as a prequel to the entire series (seeing as it's the only game in the series with 'Past' in the title and Zelda actually properly introduced herself for the first time in that game, that conclusion was already reached by the fanbase even before people questioned it). Link's Awakening fit between LTTP and Zelda I. We knew this. Keep in mind this was way before that classified government document was found at Nintendo and released to the public by Jason Bourne.
But in came Ocarina of Time, which screwed up the entire continuity by introducing an element that should NEVER be introduced into a series that's supposed to keep the same cast in each incarnation, TIME TRAVEL. So that game is said by many people to take place before AND after the Zelda series. Still others claim that it takes place AFTER, and it's a different Link and Zelda. And yet others claim it takes place before, because by the end, it's like the entire battle never happened. The debates were on. Before, after, in between, in the middle, above, below, to the sides, WHERE DID IT ALL FIT IN?!
This in turn caused the Zelda fanatics to start entire arguments about issues as basic as what order the games take place in the Zelda timeline, and whether Zelda and Link are even the SAME Zelda and Link that we knew in the NES days. Needless to say, the issue to this very day still remains unresolved, with topics on forums debating it being locked in a heartbeat, and Miyamoto himself even unsure of what order the games take place in. So that's why Zelda Ocarina of Time can't be the greatest game ever to me. If even the man of the hour himself doesn't know those answers, I doubt anyone ever will.
Told you this'd be long. Anyway, on to my next one. Yes, there are more. This isn't just an excuse to rant about Zelda.
It's not Final Fantasy VII. I have to admit. I tried. I really tried to accept this as the official unofficial greatest game ever made. Once again, great story, great graphics, but also the one thing that every Square-made game after FFI has had in it, STUPID DEATHS!!!
Aeris gets stabbed in FFVII, General Leo gets stabbed in FFVI, that dude from FFV gets fireballed, Tellah dies by running out of MP, dude in FFIII dies by entering a fire to repair a tower, and that one guy dies via cave-in in FFII. And if anyone can explain Tidus' death in FFX, I'm all ears. Because the guy that wrote that part of the story was tripping something fierce. There's just been so many stupid deaths in Final Fantasy that it's pathetic. I wouldn't be surprised if in FFXIII someone ends up dying from a giant dragon sitting on them. But believe it or not, that's not the reason it's not my favorite game ever. See, I can forgive stupid deaths. Alot of games had stupid deaths in them and it didn't make them any worse. Lufia II had what I'd call two of the stupidest deaths ever, and I still loved that game.
The reason goes back to what I said in a previous post about the game changing the whole face of RPGs. Because that's what it did. It changed EVERYTHING! Before FFVII, RPGs were generally played to get enjoyment out of seeing your characters grow and become more powerful and then take on progressively tougher challenges (like what Pokemon does). But when FFVII came along, all this changed as the games started forsaking this concept in favor of soap-operaish cutscenes and eye candy that became the standard of not only RPGs, but games in general. And then it got worse, because EVERYONE decided to do this. And anyone who didn't was berated by those STUPID critics on X-Play and at IGN who think graphics are the most important part of any game. So that's why FFVII can't be my all-time favorite. It was the cause of most of this.
Honestly, I don't think I'll ever have an all-time favorite game (unless they come out with a SatAM-based RPG that uses a Grandia-style battle system). But if I ever come up with a favorite, I'll post in this topic, or another topic like it that'll probably crop up one of these days.
