Hello. My name is Denmark. (That's not my real name, but just go with it.)
I have never played this game, or any in the series after this one. But this was the first 3-D Final Fantasy game, the first of the games in the until-recently closed marriage between Squeenix and Sony.
And this game is also hugely popular, with both hardcore FF fans and casual gamers. Does this mean it's the best game in the series? That will always be debatable. No one will deny that Final Fantasy 7 is an extremely well-known game, however. There are many "fanboys" and presumably some "fangirls" whose favorite game of the series is this one.
The point of the thread is this: I want you, the people who read Eyes on Final Fantasy's FF7 forum, to tell me what YOU think is so great about this game. I know it's not everyone's favorite, but you're not coming into this forum to constantly flame the game so you must like SOMETHING about it.
Use spoilers where appropriate, though I'm pretty sure everyone (in the world, even if they've never played any Final Fantasy game) already knows about Aeris.