Storyline: OK. Anyone can make a game that has little or no plot, where your objective is sort of ambiguous; "Kill the bad guy". Games like this are targeted at a specific audience and are usually not very fun for those of us that don't fall into that category(there are exeptions, based on the other factors below). I was very impressed with the way the story in FF7 unfolded, revealing important pieces to the puzzle as the game went on, but not giving away the whole story until very late in the game. I hope to see more of this in FF8. A related concept is a "nonlinear" storyline, which is a term wantonly abused by reviewers and game designers alike. I would love to see a story that changed drastically depending on your actions throughout the game. Games that have multiple endings based on a single important decision are sometimes more interesting, but not by much. I'd like to see a game that has a story which takes wildly different directions because of the player's act! ions.

Innovation: Everyone wants to see something new. When we play the same type of game, even if it has better graphics or voiceovers or characters, it is still almost the same game. I've seen some things on other posts that suggest improvements to FF8, but alot of them are improvements that exist in other games. While they would undoubtably make the game better, let's have something that's never been done before. Doom was a game that presented something no one had ever seen before, and now there are dozens of clones that are only marginally better than the original.

Beauty: I'll admit that graphics and CG sequences really do add substance to a game, though I don't think they are really integral. Music is another thing that can set an atmosphere really nicely, and in some ways it is more important than graphics. Fighting Sephiroth was a totally different experience from all the other FF end bosses, and the music played a big part in that. Sqare seems to have these down pat.

Playability: This is sort of a catchall category. Basically what I mean is all those little things in a game that make the difference between playing it until you beat it and playing until you pass out. FF7 had alot of these, but really not enough. It was such a long game that the idea of playing through more than a few times was enough to make me cringe. I played through the game twice, and the second time was just to get a save game right before each of the FMVs. The minigames were a good idea, but alot of them looked as if they had been thrown together on a long weekend. The magic system is another thing that could have been done better. As soon as I saw the first level Fire, Ice, and Bolt, I could already predict 90% of the spells that would be used in the game. One of the things that made Suikoden so much fun was finding all the new spells the characters could learn. I think it's about time Final Fantasy recieved a host of new spells and abilities.