So... why do we all agree Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest games ever?

[Ashcrexl]

it's funny. i've beaten the game twice already, but when i found out i could download and play it on my psp and play ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE i freaked out. i'm currently on the virtual disc 2 right now. it's just something about it. a sort of timeless quality. the graphics dont matter because they've got old-school charm. the simplistic battle system doesnt matter because its got the materia system's illusive depth. the story's plot's pure insanity doesnt matter because its packed with so much emotion. the main character's relative dullness doesnt matter because all the other characters are so vivid. it's just a great game. and all for only 1.3 GB?! whoa!

 

[Tom Phoenix]

everyone just seems to "agree" that this is one of the greatest games ever made. why?

If you honestly think this, you obviously haven't spent much time on the Escapist. Every time someone starts a Final Fantasy-related topic, you are guaranteed to find people who will go out of the way to say that VII sucks and that, if you like it, you are a brainless moron who only thinks of Tifa's boobs and deserves to suffocate on his own porridge.

But really, the amount of bile that is constantly targeted at VII and the people who like it has long gone out of hand. It has basically gotten to the point that I would sooner describe VII as underrated rather than overrated; that is how frequently you see people bashing the game.

I mean, really, why do some people consider liking VII to be some sort of a crime? There are thirteen games in the main franchise and that isn't even considering all the spinoffs and direct sequels. As such, it is inevitable that opinions are going to diverge as to which game is the best. Why can't people just accept that and move on?

In any case, I don't think VII can be describe as "one of the greatest games ever", mostly beacuse what one considers a great game can be very different from individual to individual. While I personally consider it a great game, I think it is obvious that there are plenty of people who do not.

That said, I think it would be fair to say that it is one of the most important titles in the series. Prior to VII, Final Fantasy was mostly a Japanese phenomenon and only had a cult following outside of the country. However, it was thanks to VII that it became immensely popular outside of Japan as well.

 

[Tddawg25]

Pretty good but unoriginal and there is a lack of wanting to finish it at times during the game. Also FF6 is way better IMO

 

[Chibz]

i just watched this

and then i thought to myself... everyone just seems to "agree" that this is one of the greatest games ever made. why?

EDIT: Must have confused "important" with "great". :/ well, ive only ever heard praise for it whenever ive heard about it. thats why i i thought it was just one of those "accepted facts".

We don't all accept final fantasy 7 as a "great" game. I'm hesitant to call it mediocre.

 

[xXDeMoNiCXx]

If people wanna call it their favorite game ever that's fine with me but I preferred FF VIII.

 

[Fidelias]

Because for every person that absolutely loves something, there's another who believes it was shit.

I, personally thought it was pretty good. Not, "the best game ever", but still, it was great for it's time.

 

[Dash85]

and then i thought to myself... everyone just seems to "agree" that this is one of the greatest games ever made. why?

If everyone seems to agree with that, then all you've been talking to is the FF fanbase.
Most gamers don't give crap about FF7.

Someone might have already responded to this, but that's not true. I would consider myself part of the FF fanbase, and FF7 isn't even in my top 3. I thought FF6 was way better, and of course tactics. and 4. and 9. Out of the Final Fantasies of course. Actually, they all just basically hold nostalgic value now, I don't think I could play through them again, except maybe 6, and the new Final Fantasies are just crap, like 13.

EDIT: Oh and OT, no not one of the greatest games ever. There are many that trump it IMO. And that's just it, this whole "greatest game ever" is subjective.

 

[Gaderael]

I cannot stand JRPGs, for the most part, but FFVII is a sentimental favorite of mine. I personally thought it was a fantastic game, had an interesting story, very memorable music, and it opened me up to RPGs in general. I have FFVII to partially thank for getting me in to D&D, Rifts, etc.

 

[John O'Toole]

Final Fantasy Tactics was the best in the series if you want to count it. It had the story, the balance, the strategy.

I agree, Tactics had it all, great characters, good story line, awesome battle system. Plus the job system wasn't complicated. I have to admit though FF7 was the first Final Fantasy I ever played and got me into the series.

I also agree that FF7 was good, it was a favorite of mine.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Forget the fucking Game, I want someone to tell me what is the Big Friggin deal is with that death scene? YOU KNOW THE ONE. I mean, it's become both a cornerstone, emotional moment AND an inside joke of the community generation.......it's just some blonde chick dying

What are you talking about? The only blond girl in VII was Elena and she doesn?t die.

No I'm talking about that Aeris or Aerith or something like that (WHY is her name so confusing anyway) chick. The one who gets stabbed in a, imo, ridiculously dramatic manner by sephiroth. Was she not blonde? I think I remember her to be blonde. But if I'm wrong then sorry to any hardcore fans; but you know what i mean. Why is her death such a big deal?

 

[infinitydark]

The reason ff7 was so great was the variety it came in. if you look at games today they are very focused. they narrow in on what people want and give them that. FF7 never stopped giving people new things. the constant variety chopped up the turn based combat and wove Gameplay with story telling. thats why people love it. it was a completely new kind of experience. even today there are few games that fuse gameplay and story telling as much as ff7.

 

[veloper]

and then i thought to myself... everyone just seems to "agree" that this is one of the greatest games ever made. why?

If everyone seems to agree with that, then all you've been talking to is the FF fanbase.
Most gamers don't give crap about FF7.

Someone might have already responded to this, but that's not true. I would consider myself part of the FF fanbase, and FF7 isn't even in my top 3. I thought FF6 was way better, and of course tactics. and 4. and 9. Out of the Final Fantasies of course. Actually, they all just basically hold nostalgic value now, I don't think I could play through them again, except maybe 6, and the new Final Fantasies are just crap, like 13.

EDIT: Oh and OT, no not one of the greatest games ever. There are many that trump it IMO. And that's just it, this whole "greatest game ever" is subjective.

That's alright.
Many old fans in this thread are already pointing to better FF installments than FF7. Makes sense.

 

[EzraPound]

Because it's a good game, because it was a lot of people's first JRPG, and because even if the graphics haven't aged particularly well it looked spectacular at the time, paricularly considering other RPGs were still 2D sprite based.

Unless you were playing games at the time it's hard to realise just how far ahead of the pack games like FF7, Tomb Raider and Resident Evil were. Around 1996/1997 they were the last word in graphical lushness, hard as that may be to believe looking back.

Actually, if you deduce the cutscenes and occasional attractive prerenderings, Tomb Raider and Resident Evil both looked way, way worse than Super Mario 64, which was released mid-1996. Final Fantasy VII fares better--mostly because its use of CD technology is so excessive, and its art design is so rich--but the 3D portions, such as the world map, still looked pretty bad compared to PC or N64 games of the era.

 

[floppylobster]

Well this is my experience of it -

I was running a game shop when it came out. I had heard some hype about it and we bought a lot of copies but I knew not much else about it. (I had played a lot of the great RPGs before it - Chronotrigger, Phantasy Star, Landstalker, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force, Zelda: Link to the Past, etc...) I put it on to play it in the shop. Cloud got off the train, and was totally under whelmed. Suddenly worried by the amount of copies we had bought. I didn't like the setting, the camera angles, the characters (except maybe Tifa), and the dialogue seemed forced and over the top and seemed to be taking itself way too seriously about some conflict I didn't care about. Very untraditional RPG story set up. I hated the random battle encounters and just didn't care about the story or setting at all. I remember hating it the entire way through as I played it to the end (so I could give customers an honest review). The only bits I liked, and I'm no way saying they were great, were the reveal about how Barrett lost his arm (mainly because I thought it was so stupid he had a gun on his arm but I was relieved to find they had a reason for it), and seeing some of the really big maternia (sp?) attacks. I tuned out so much of the second disc story I'm not even sure I was watching the screen when the big character death happened. It sold out though. And kept selling.

The game certainly had a cultural impact, particularly in video game circles. It had the bar staff next to my shop talking about Role Playing Games so that was a big step forward for the genre (though I don't think they ever finished it and they never bought another one).

Maybe it's nostalgia? I imagine if it was your first taste of RPG style gameplay then it was not a bad place to start. People really love Ocarina of Time too (and that's another game that under whelmed me - I still think Majora's Mask and Wind Waker are better). So maybe I'm just really out of tune with mainstream game tastes? Or maybe it just came out when I was too old to really feel excited about it?

I remember when I first played Phantasy Star on the Master System - total crap by today's standards - but I was blown away. All the mechanics of an RPG game were so new to me so it seemed 3 times as exciting as a 'normal game'. Even the fact it came on a 16M cartridge was exciting to me back then. So perhaps 2 CDs were exciting to PlayStation owners?

I recognise that it is much loved but in the history of video games I would say Resident Evil was a far more important PlayStation game.

 

[Cyberjester]

It had graphics.

.>

Went from MUD's to FF, it was the fad of the time. The Halo. Not great, ripped off everything, pretty boring if you were into the genre and played a few games, but, it was the most popular at the time. And this world doesn't judge on greatness, just how many people you've "friended" on Facespace.

 

[Captain_Coolio]

The first one on GBA was pretty awesome. I never felt the same about any of the ones that came after. Especially the newest one. If they cut down the angst, i might like it more.

 

[EinTheCorgi]

pfft there is no best game because everyone has different opinions and besides everyone knows that missile command was the best game ever.

 

[Cursed Frogurt]

Because at the time there was no rpg like it. Most RPGs back then were cliche medieval styled or 2D based, and usually had these noble people as your heroes. FFVII managed to pull off different and it worked well enough that a lot of people liked it

This is same reason that a lot of people love Earthbound. Not fantasy nor sci-fi.

I do recall being completely entranced by FFVII when it was new. It was just so impressive from a story-telling perspective for a videogame. Also, my teenage years probably influenced my beliefs in it being a good story with likable characters. Oh, I was so naive.

I still think the story is good, it's cliche with a few new twists, and has a bit of bad translation in it "Off course!" .

But that's the key thing many people miss, just like Half Life and it's sequel they're amazing today for what they did and WHEN they did it. People miss the WHEN very often which is important because once that game has come out others have copied it or even improved upon it.

It's funny you mention HL2. I think it's still one of the best, if not THE best FPSs you can play today. The original HL hasn't aged very well.

 

[MercurySteam]

I still think VIII was better than VII. Like everything that's remotely successful, the developer eventually started milking it for all it's worth only diminishing the value of the rare diamond people saw it as.

 

[Trogdor1138]

I'm playing it through properly for the first time at the moment (thank you PSN!). After always having a like for the Final Fantasy universe and characters but never having the time to invest in the games all the time. I'm really enjoying it and I think it deserved all the praise it got, especially as being one of the most important games ever.

Yeah, the graphics have aged, but it still looks nice and has charm, which is more than I can say for some modern games.