Quote Originally Posted by Wolfen View Post
Why is this game so divided amongst FF fans? You either really love it or you really, really hate it. The people who love it played it in 1997 and also like FFX and Kingdom Hearts. The people who hate VII played the NES and SNES games first and think that VII's anime style ruined the series, aside from IX, which they coincidentally love because it reminds them of the NES and SNES games.
You can't really judge from what "the people you have heard say" - I admittidly started with VII, but I feel it would still be my favorite even if I had played from the begining because it has what I look for in a game, and a story. All FFs up to IX (sans III, which I never really got to play in any shape or form) are on the top tier positions of my list of great games, and I always get a great feeling playing them, but VII and VIII go that extra mile for me. X is hit and miss for me.

Further more, not all FF fan stereotypes are true, those who are fans of old FFs do not necersarily hate VII, even if that is the general opinon. I saw another website state that all fans of VII hate VIII and vice verca - I of course am proof that, that is not true.

VII's anime style
Funny, I'm a fan of both anime, and FFVII - yet I can't find any similarity between the two...



Quote Originally Posted by Flying Arrow View Post
Some people also disliked the Materia system and how most of the characters were very similar in terms of stats... but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing,
Neither do I, although this is kind of an exageration, as the VII characters aren't really as "blank states" as people believe - certain characters tend to gain skills in certain areas for different stats better than others (e.g. Vincent seams to gain magic stats before others) so, there you go.


The translation and dialogue is also pretty dog,
Again an exgeration in my book, the translation clearly had its flaws, and a lot of stuff got its name changed (hence seiferalmasy2's project), also it is clear to all observers that they had one guy doing the battles, one guy doing the items, and one guy doing the dialogue, and they never spoke to each other once because there are a few inconsisticies (Chocobo Greens suffering the most) despite it's flaws, it does pretty well - you can still understand what's happening and you don't miss out on too much. It's not like IV where it's all over the place, or VI where the scene is drastically changed at times (Returners convincing Narshe/Celes "jumping for fun") I love these games, but I am aware of their flaws, as I am aware of VII's

Other than that, I think Square were at the top of their act with the FF series at VII. As far as plot goes, they haven't told a story as well in any game since.
Have to dissagree here, as I found the storylines in VIII and IX to be phenomenal. X's storyline was pretty good aswell, but mared by unnecersary voice acting, which to me made the characters "flatter" than their text speach couter parts to me, which was clearly the oposite of what they intended, but ignoring that the story was ok, but not as good as the others for me.

But also, and more obviously, there are people who backlash against it because of internet hype - a stupid reason to dislike something.
allowing any hype to change your opinion is stupid - you either blindly follow the crowed, or force yourself to hate something, because you don't want to appear like the former. There are still people like me, who just stay true to their opinion, and like something no matter how hyped it is, or how hated it is.

Bottom line is, I love VII, always have, always will. But each to their own.