Final Fantasy VII: A Rip-Off?

Has anyone ever played Wild Arms? If you have, you would notice that it is quite similar to FF7. And indeed, Wild Arms came first... I'm not saying FF7 was a rip-off of Wild Arms(I mainly said that to grab attention), BUT it seems more than a coincidence that there are some major ideas in both games that are identical, via Jenova of FF7 and Mother of Wild Arms. How they are both parasitic aliens, that came to the Earth, and used elite demons as puppets to do their bidding, etc. etc. Not to mention, how Jenova is also considered, "Mother." If you like the old-school style RPG's, you really ought to play the original Wild Arms for the PS1.

So, what do you think? Was it just a coincidence? Or did some of the FF7 creators get nosey with the creators of Wild Arms? Again, it can't be vice versa, for Wild Arms came first.

On another note... It wasn't just the Jenova/Mother thing that shared it's similarity.

Well it won't be the first time that people have about the same idea at the same time. I wouldn't think too much about it.

Development of Final Fantasy VII began in 1994, two years before Wild Arms was released, as they wouldn't have changed the whole story months before its release it is fair to say that it was a coincidence.

Hmm, I forgot about development dates... I can't seem to find the D-Date of Wild Arms.

Wild Arms came out a month beforehand? Then it's probably coincidence, the last month of development is mostly exhaustive bug testing, not re-writes and content changing.

When FF7 first entered development the initial product was nothing like what we ended up with.

So I'd say the OP brings up a good point.

Hmm, I suppose it's all coincidence. But I think it was a very interesting thing to bring up... Because FF7 and Wild Arms are the only games with that storyline/originality.

FFVII's basic starting plotline is the same as VI's too so Wild Arms isn't the only thing FFVII ripped off (albeit in the same series, but that makes it even worse). Also a whole slew of early 90's anime is pretty much in the same exact style, pacing, character archetypes as FFVII.

RPGs tend to be fairly derivative of each other, be it in story or gameplay(and sometimes both). I don't know if I'd call it a 'rip off' so much as just both the games following the genre's conventions. Not saying this is a bad thing, of course.

Originally Posted by Hoopy Frood

RPGs tend to be fairly derivative of each other, be it in story or gameplay(and sometimes both). I don't know if I'd call it a 'rip off' so much as just both the games following the genre's conventions. Not saying this is a bad thing, of course.

Well... It's true that most all RPG's share the similar archetypes... But Wild Arms and FF7 shared similar plots and characters that were near identical... You'de have to play it to see what I mean.

It's more than just your typical Cloud hero and evil bad guy taking over the world. (Wild Arms, that is.)