what do you like about final fantasy 7 so much???

i just finished playing ff7 for the first time and i must say....im kinda dissapointed :(

in my opinion, its the 4th best behind IX. X, and XII

dont get me wrong, i really liked 7 but not because of cloud and sephiroth. in fact, i really didnt like either of them! I thought all of Sephiroth's scenes to be boring. I thought his motivation was lame (alien mother? wtf lame!) I though that the SHINRA co. MADE that game. i loved all the scenes with Shinra. Hojo and Rufus felt like the real badguys to me. I mean, its just kinda hard to hate someone who is hiding in a cave for half the game ya know?

agree or disagree? why?

oh and ive played 7,8,9,10, and 12.

im gonna play 6 next because i hear its suppoosed to be very good

For the most part, I pretty much had a similar experience as you had with the game, I have my own personal issues with the title but will refrain from speaking cause apparently I hit my quota for VII trolling for the month.

On actual topic about what I did like?

The music is gorgeous and possibly my second favorite soundtrack in the series. Yes, it sounds really synthesized but the compositions themselves are strong enough to go past than be just really awesome hum along tracks.

I love the world design with a WWII style steam punk meets Blade Runner/anime cyberpunk. The actual designs for machines and places were really imaginative and gorgeous, I'm just sad the Compilation chose to clean it all up and make it look more shiny futuristic and remove the original grit.

I also love Shin-Ra Co. and like you, I found them to be more interesting and just plain evil than Sephiroth.

YouTube - Diamond Weapon .Vs. The Sister Ray

it just suprised me, the seemed really original to me when i first played it. I liked the gritty industrial world they lived in and i enjoyed the characters

It wasn't nearly a great RPG, but it was a fun game that was easy to get into and had interesting characters. I also agree with WK about the music and design, though those weren't as important to me.

I guess the first thing that popped out and grabbed me was the art design. It's just a really well designed world to me, whether you're in the belly of the beast that is Midgar or running through the open marshes on a Chocobo, it had great diversity and showed those places to an extent unparalleled for its time. But especially Midgar and even today I would argue that there hasn't been a better designed and represented place than that, there's still this overall ambience and feeling it conveys and I'll readily admit most of those feelings are still nostalgia not completely out of my system, even 12 years later.

I love the pacing of the game. Certain long stretches you're just completely immersed in a story, and even the battles convey what's going on. VII took IV's method of telling the story through the battles and exploded with it to the n-th degree.

And the battles in general are just insane. The dynamic camera angles took their cues from film, allowed Kitase to put his years of education as a film student to work, and made them a million times more epic than anything done previously with battles in Final Fantasy, or RPG's in general. I would say even after VIII, IX, and X ran with it, the camera movement is still the best in FFVII. It's not just visuals, but I feel it's the best and smoothest ATB system in the series. The option for "Recommended" setting in the menu is something every game should have, but only FFVII does. In most of the other games, your ATB bar fills up before you finish making a selection, and the system reverts to turn based instead. I think only FFV comes close. To top it off, the battle music is my favorite in the series.

Speaking of camera, the FMV's did make it amazing. Bringing those in for story moments made the games intensely more powerful than they had been before. There's stretches where all you do is watch a scene in all of the FF's before VII, just now it's much more powerful, much more emotional and potent.

Camera made this game better in so many ways. Even on the field screen it allowed the director to do different things in presenting the story to the player.

Which plays into the mini-games. I think it's undisputed that FFVII has the most and probably the best mini-games in the series. Even when you sneak past the gaurds in the Shinra building, waiting for them to pass a pillar before you go, that's a mini-game right there. Games that employ multiple scenarios where you do different things with the controller always seem to rise above their peers to me, and FFVII did it on multiple levels. The motorcycle chase was unbelievable, especially for its time.

Yes, I love the story, its chock full with literary techniques and themes, the music is incredibly emotive and employs a bunch of techniques, and the adventure, combat system, and locales were incredible. But it has so many artistic/aesthetic advantages before we even get to that, that's why it's (one of) my favorite game of all time. It did so many things that hadn't been done before, some of which hasn't been done better since.

I think the reason I liked it so much was because it was the first RPG I really got into. I liked the characters, and at the time the FMVs were amazing to me (lol). The music was also absolutely great, and it had LOTS of sidequests...something the later installments of the series (with the exception of XII) have been lacking.

Playing it today, I recognize the fact that it's not the amazing one of a kind masterpiece so many people (including myself) thought it was. But I still think it's one of the better FF games and among finest Japanese RPGs ever.

In no order....

*Interesting characters and character interactions
*Great cinematography
*Great use of colors and art direction (despite blocky as hell character models)
*Battle system
*Fun story
*Excellent soundtrack
*Very fun side quests

I bet for most people its simply the fact that FFVII was a lot of people's first FF let alone probably their first rpg. Pretty much everyone shows favoritism towards a title that first got them introduced to a genre of something that they come to love.

12 missed completely something that FF7 had...a Plot. FF7 is great because of its plot, music, gameplay, all of which imho are miles and miles ahead of 12, and at the time its revolutionary graphical power.

I place 7 as the best because I think plot is the most important aspect, music wise I liked 8 the most, but 7 was still a master piece.

The only thing VII got wrong was the translation.

VIII was the first RPG i ever played and i thought it was a-mazing and my favourite (cept for XII which rules) even tho it was old and the graphics weren't great, i just enjoyed it all the way thru. When i played VI, at first i thought the same sort of feeling, but i did a bit into the world of ruin and it just bored me.

as well as the minigames/chocobo and gold saucer.
It was and is a fantastic game.

There are rumors of a FFVII remake with modern day graphics.

I assume Square would do it simply for the huge profits they would make off it .
Of course, I have said I am not in favor of a remake, and gotten into trouble for saying so on other boards.
Still I expect we'll see a remake some day.

>>> It was a revolutionary game for its time, FF7 was fated to become an all time classic..:luca:

I found the Materia system to be interesting.

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Originally Posted by Darth Cid

I found the Materia system to be interesting.

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yeah agreed, i enjoyed Materia, Junctioning drove me mad and i never figured it out so materia was easier and more satisfying when i got to 7

Materia was too simplistic for me. In some ways that can be good, I guess, if you just want a simple, easy game, but FF7's magic system required zero thought and came with the ability to make every character nearly identical so there wasn't even much variation between parties. Give me a good job or skill system any day.

It's nowhere near my favorite but it was a good game and my experience playing it was a pleasant one. I suppose I enjoyed the story most.

Shinra and Rufus made the game for me. I take any thread opportunity I can to rave about how great the whole side of that story is, from when you first see President Shinra, up to when Rufus DIES and you kill Hojo.
Sephiroth just seemed like the end of the journey to me, along that road was nothing but Shinra and Rufus which pretty much made it the best Final Fantasy for me. (and the minigames, the FMVs, Materia).

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Originally Posted by ANGRYWOLF

Of course, I have said I am not in favor of a remake, and gotten into trouble for saying so on other boards.

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Well, allow me to welcome you to EoFF where we not only cherish your opinion, but I know a lot of people here feel the same way.

Just not me :p

*Haven't read through the other coments yet*

I will do much more detail when I get things up and running, but I loved the storyline, the graphics (they where ace for the time and still look state of the art, even though there are better graphics out there), the characters, the fact that there was a lot of games within the game, that I always felt part of the game, like I was there.

There are so many things - I am planning to do something.

The dark and moodiness of the industrial slums atmosphere at the beginning of the game. They could have set the whole game in Midgar and I'd have been happy. No other FF has been that dark and steam punky. Or industrial punk. Whichever. Even outside Midgar though, things were dark and bleak. Reality wasn't pretty. The only other FF that compared was FF6 in the world of ruin. I guess I'm a schmuck for dark hopelessness

The graphics were good for the time, the music was catchy if rendered poorly, and the style over substance approach drew me in at the time.

In spite of the annoying fanboys/fangirls for the game, it is a good game that is fun to play.

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Originally Posted by qwertysaur

In spite of the annoying fanboys/fangirls for the game, it is a good game that is fun to play.

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This.