Why all the hate on FFVII?

[Zenn3k]

Meh.

FF7 remains my favorite Final Fantasy of all time.

It had a great story (although it was slightly confusing when I first played the game in 97 when I was 14), good characters, fantastic graphics for the time, a fun combat system (admittedly, materia did makes things a bit too easy), and was overall fun and interesting to play. Its one of the only RPGs I can say I've played more than once, having played it at least a half dozen times from start to finish.

It also completely rebooted JRPGs on the western front at the time of its release. Its also the only Final Fantasy that people desire to be remade that has not yet been done, do this day.

Aeris is probably one of the best female leads of any RPG I've ever played (Terra comes in 2nd).

It was loaded with extras, from Chocobo breeding to an entire arcade worth of mini-games to enjoy.

People hate on it because its popular to do so, or because they were too young to play the game when it was released, picked it up years later when more graphically advanced games existed and for that reason, never allowed themselves to really get into it.

People also have a hard time find "fun" before they leave Midgar, which I'll admit it still the most annoying part of the game.

FF7 is a classic, don't let anyone else tell you different.

 

[mireko]

I liked it.

If you want to see which FF games are good, check Wikipedia's page for Hironobu Sakaguchi.

You may notice that he had the original concepts for all the good ones.

[sub]Why didn't you buy The Last Story, Japan? ;_;[/sub]

 

[Angelcraft]

I thought it was a good game in it's own merit. I have played X and I have to say I didn't care for it, at all. VII is the only one I could get my fingers into and play. The story is difficult to follow, alot of dropped plots and contrived storylines, but I thought it was excellently delivered. It was better than some of the games out now.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I agree with the "because it's popular" theory because that's most likely it. However, I will say that FFVII was a tad bit overrated... I mean, the best game of all time? I spent 10 real time minutes doing nothing but climbing up a bunch of stairs. They never had any gameplay padding like that in FFVI.

 

[Ailia]

On my part, it's not hate, so much as I just don't like it. Then again I dislike the series in general, so....

For VII though, it's mostly just bland. There were good bits, the story had potential, but in the end fell flat because of bad plot points, travelling long distances through bland terrain, annoying characters and absolutely infuriating combat.

Cloud isn't emo; he had his moments in Crisis Core but they were justified. Same with Sephiroth; he's not a momma's boy, he's a crazy guy obsessed with his mother.

 

[dancinginfernal]

I don't hate FFVII, I just don't find it to be the best in the series.

I agree about FFVI. However, I do hate FFVIII.

 

[i64ever]

Before FFVII, the final fantasy games were virtually unknown to mainstream gamers. Fans of 1-6 were part of a small niche, a tiny club, proud of being unique. Then VII just exploded, bringing in all kinds of new people ignorant of the games history and more in love with flashy graphics then story and RPG elements. It was like all the newbies were trespassing on the old guards turf.

A clash was inevitable.

As I explained in the previous page, that's not the case at all.

That's just some delusion the oldest FF fans have in order to feel their opinion has more weight.

OK, final fantasy was a niche game in AMERICA. Trust me, I was there. It was a tremendous struggle to even get these games across the pacific in the old days. 4 was only brought over after it was made much easier. 5 wasn't imported at all. We got damn lucky somebody translated 6! It was a niche game, hard to find, played only by a few weirdos like myself. Even such classics as chrono trigger were very hard to find back them. I had to rent my first copy for a month and a half! Owed blockbuster a ton...

Then 7 changed it all. The entire rpg genre blew up overnight. These games became POPULAR. 2 and 5 were quickly brought over. 4 and 6 have been remade half a dozen times. For a short while, RPG's were even the IT genre, like cover based shooters today. It was almost unthinkable, like if japanese dating sims were suddenly the rage. And many old timers, friends of mine, HATED THIS.

Now, I'm sure that some players picked up 7 with no clue as to the history or the drama in the background and just didn't like it. I've never found a game loved by everyone. But arguing that, at least in the minds of the old guard, that there was no generation clash is just foolish.

 

[Nomanslander]

To balance out all the love this game has gotten...=/

 

[StriderShinryu]

I don't hate the game at all, I just feel that it gets far more credit than it deserves as many of the people who do continually sing it's praises likely do so simply because it was their first FF game (and, in many cases, their first RPG). Taken on it's own merit, it's a perfectly enjoyable game that has aged rather poorly.

 

[MetallicMonkey]

It's not so much I hate the game. Far from it actually. It's not my favorite in the series (for me, that crown belongs to IX)but I still considered it a pretty good game.
Two big things bug me about it though:

The fan base. The people who claim that this is the best FF without ever even playing any of the other ones. Also, a lot seem to think that Jenova actually is Sephiroth's mother, but it's not.

The spinoffs. Were these even necessary? For me at least, the plot made perfect sense on its own. The only one I can see being even remotely needed was Crisis Core (The only spinoff I liked), and even that made some annoying additions to the plot. (Looking at you, Genesis.)

 

[Lionsfan1986]

I find that People seem as a whole to love FFVII. My favorite FFX is the one that everyones hates for some reason.

 

[Bakuryukun]

I've always really liked FFVII, that game is good times. I don't think it's god's gift to mankind, but I don't think it deserves to be burned at the stake either. It's just one of the PS1's better games.

It seems to be really cool to hate on Final Fantasy (or even Square Enix as a whole) these days. To each their own, but I've always found Square Enix games to be at least decent.

 

[Smokescreen]

Before FFVII, the final fantasy games were virtually unknown to mainstream gamers. Fans of 1-6 were part of a small niche, a tiny club, proud of being unique. Then VII just exploded, bringing in all kinds of new people ignorant of the games history and more in love with flashy graphics then story and RPG elements. It was like all the newbies were trespassing on the old guards turf.

A clash was inevitable.

As I explained in the previous page, that's not the case at all.

That's just some delusion the oldest FF fans have in order to feel their opinion has more weight.

I think you're overlooking some pretty critical points.

First, the PS1 revolutionized home console gaming. There were more of those in homes and videogames were, in no small part to this system, on their way to becoming the dominant entertainment force they are.

Which meant that when FF7 came out the potential audience was already higher.

Second; no other game prior to it had used cutscenes in this way before. To my knowledge, this led to a North American revolution in gaming; the potential for television commercials. Personal anecdote: It was the first time I'd seen anything like this advertised on TV and I'm old enough to remember commercials to play Atari systems (but rarely games, because the games looked like 1981 sprites.)

Third; you rely heavily on the success of FF in Japan-which it no doubt was. However, it's pretty easy to understand via the nature of both the criticism, hate and the defense here that the view is from a North American/english-speaking world and from that perspective, videogames and particularly FF games were not well known outside of a small circle.

Fourth, according to the Wiki,
"Final Fantasy VII was both a critical and commercial success, and set several sales records. Within three days of its release in Japan, the game had sold 2.3 million copies.[9] This popularity inspired thousands of retailers in North America to break street dates in September to meet public demand for the title.[59] In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies,[60] and had reached sales of 500,000 units in less than three weeks. The momentum built in the game's opening weeks continued for several months; Sony announced the game had sold one million copies on the continent by early December,[62] prompting business analyst Edward Williams from Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. to comment, "Sony redefined the role-playing game (RPG) category and expanded the conventional audience with the launch of Final Fantasy VII".[62] Final Fantasy VII had sold over 9.8 million copies worldwide including Final Fantasy VII International as of December 2005,[63] making it the highest-selling Final Fantasy title."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII

So I think you're vastly overstating the popularity of the games prior to 7. That is not to say that without the (relative) success of the previous games, Final Fantasy 7 would have been equally huge. I think it's perfectly logical to say that without the work and critical mass of people, especially in Japan but gradually in the West, who enjoyed previous Final Fantasies, 7 would never have become the juggernaut it became.

But the long and short of it is; Final Fantasy 7 is, to many people, what Final Fantasy {and in some mistaken opinions, JPRGs} are about, or certainly defined by.

I replayed it a year or so ago and it's still quite good. Story is a bit twisted and occasionally goofy but it holds up well enough to keep you going for 70+ hours. The villains are beings you can hate, the heroes are characters you can come to admire or even love.

I've had difficulty enjoying Final Fantasy games after 8 because the plotting is dreary and slow. The antagonists are frequently awful, if they're sketched out at all. The heroes aren't given relationships to build on, the sidequests never tell you anything more about the game/character, and the weapon systems are frequently opaque in their use.

But Final Fantasy 7 broke that series in the West and subsequently all over the world and to suggest otherwise seems to miss how big a deal it was in 1997.

 

[mireko]

because cloud does not have a beard. he could be so much more awesome with one

I am imagining that right now and it is terrifying.

 

[HeySeansOnline]

Because when something becomes popular people may get angry because something in a similiar vein may not be liked. For example, "Why is Final Fantasy 7 so popular, Steambot Chronicles is a much better game and gets no love." or "Why does everyone love Metallica, Brocas Helm is so much more hardcore than them."

When people think this it tends to cloud their judgement. Sure X may be good and have it's merits, but Y, at least to them, is much better, so they look down on X.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

It is -always- popular in our culture to hate the system. The "system" represents anything influential, powerful, or "normal". Then there's the sect of people who hate the haters, and want to be just like the system. Then there's the people who don't give a shit about any of it and do their own thing.

This particular topic falls mostly into category one. Whether we like it or not, FFVII became popular. As we all know, things in pop culture don't always have to be amazing or stand the test of time. They're just there because people enjoy referencing things they are familiar with.

 

[Kyman102]

Eh, I didn't think the game was the best game EVAR. Not bad, but not the best. No, the most fun I had with a Final Fantasy game in the beginning was actually 12. Maybe it was the fact that Basch and Balthier are awesome, maybe it was the awesome quickenings, maybe it was the fact that you can spec anybody the way needed, maybe it was Fran's viera ass... I don't know. *Shrug* But I liked the first part of 12 more than I liked the first part of 7.

As for why the hate... Yeah, see the second post. Alternatively, I'm gonna go with the meme of "Haters gonna hate"

 

[beniki]

Wait... people hate FF7 now? That's news to me.

Times they are a-changing.