Reasons: The sheer grande scale of the game as a whole couldn't even be compared to games, FF games, and RPGs which came before. The story was top notch. Every character was lovable. The villain was great. The futuristic, worn down, tech nore world was amazingly expansive and like nothing we have ever seen, flying across the world, diving into the oceans, exploring was such a treat to behold. The FMV cut scenes were amazingly stunning. The prerendered backgrounds were gorgeous. The materia system was near perfect. First FF in 3D. The summons were spectacular. Aeris' death. The soundtrack is one of the greatest soundtracks ever. The deep and unfolding story line that got you attached to the characters. 3 Discs of pure awesomeness.
No other FF or RPG has ever achieved the success of VII nor has had the impact it did. The RPG was still relatively scarce anywhere else but Japan, except for some mild successes like FFVI and Chrono Trigger. Not only did VII put FF on the map, and get none hardcore RPG fans into RPGs, but it paved the way for all others to come after...The pure cinematic scope and movie feel that one got from playing FFVII will never be matched, the thing was EPIC.
It just can't be argued.
The earlier FF games bore me to death. Little sprites on pixelated screens.
Do yourself a favor and play VI but so I can argue your points, there are spoilers ahead:
The sheer grande scale of the game as a whole couldn't even be compared to games, FF games, and RPGs which came before.
In VI you play in two separate worlds, with entirely different monsters, encounters and situations. Also when you enter the second world you have one character and are only required 3 others so you can chose to make this game as easy or difficult as you'd like.
The story was top notch. Every character was lovable.
I completely disagree with this. The story was bland, boring and I actually didn't like most of the character personalities except for Aerith. There were points where I fell asleep and that's rare for me when playing ANY game much less Final Fantasy.
The futuristic, worn down, tech nore world was amazingly expansive and like nothing we have ever seen, flying across the world, diving into the oceans, exploring was such a treat to behold.
Really? It was a new setting but we've flown around the worlds in other FF games, we've been under the ocean. Nothing really new there except the new cyber-theme.
The FMV cut scenes were amazingly stunning.
Except for the fact that the FMVs never matched to the chibi in game characters. Pixels or not, at least in the pre- VII games the styles matched.
The materia system was near perfect.
Materia rivals Junctioning as the worst spell system ever. It was hard to organize, you only had so many slots to use and god help you if you forget to equip a Materia or anything like that.
The summons were spectacular.
Pretty to look at, but the ones that were actually useful were a pain in the ass to get to. Hours of Chocobo racing for Knights of the Round? In VI as long as you could fight you could get everything.
Aeris' death.
Not the first and not the last. And actually in VI you can choose if a character lives or dies. Hell in IV half your party dies at some point.
The soundtrack is one of the greatest soundtracks ever.
List to the music of VI with full orchestration. It's part of my reason for wanting VI to be done on the PS3, because the opera would be a thing of beauty that would completely destroy VII if done above the level of the FMV for the PS1 release.
The deep and unfolding story line that got you attached to the characters.
VI goes far deeper, a character who was against her will turned into a soldier, a character who has all free thought and memory robbed from her, a theif (*ahem* that's treasure hunter!) who is guilty over the death of his intended fiancee, two brothers- one who became king on a rigged coin toss, the other who only wanted freedom, a man who lost the love of his life and his only equal, and finally a villian who doesn't try to rule and destroy the world but actually DOES. A character who is completely off it, kills entire towns and manipulates people to his own ends. And that's just the first half the game.
A good game required more than cardboard characters, flash graphics and good push from both Sony and Square. FF VII was the first FF on the PS and the reason Square jumped ship from Sony. Fact is that FF VI was originally going to be the first 3D game but Square wanted away from the cartridge system and Nintendo wanted to keep it. Most of the work was done for VI already so it became the last Nintendo FF. But for you kids who like VII because it was your first RPG and had the nice flashy graphics I say let them redo an actual GOOD FF game in the next gen technology and you will see that FF VII is actually an average game with a bland story line.
