Quote Originally Posted by FallenAngel411
Just curious.....I mean, I've been looking around the forum here (I'm a newbie ) and I was surprised at how many people seem to totally HATE the game, and write out long, long, LOOOOOONG (but vastly entertaining) explanations on why it sucks, and debate its suckiness, and the ugliness of the hair, and.......why do so many people hate Cloud??? I just came off a forum where they were bashing him so badly that I flinched a few times.

Greatest game ever + greatest villain of all time + most beloved character death scene + best soundtrack ever = THE LAMEST FF OF THE SERIES

Mind you, that whole equation is not necessarily MY opinion, merely what I garnered was the general consensus of planet earth BEFORE seeing this forum (but I've heard plenty of ppl call it the lamest FF). But still, it doesn't add up. What gives??? Why does everyone seem to love it, yet be annoyed by it??? It's......weird.
Where to begin?

I don't hate FF7; I actually love it, but I can understand the frustration.
You see, even though FF6 was popular, it wasn't that popular. FF games were equated to that of a cult. Those of us who played them were few and far between, and you were a cool special unique person if you did. Then FF7 came out and suddenly everyone thought they were FF experts because they beat Sephiroth. The tiny little franchise we could fit in our back pocket suddenly exploded, and even I resent those who have only played the newer ones. There's so much to be enjoyed in the older ones, and if 7 hadn't come along, then the franchise would still be enjoyable. But thanks to the new audience that 7 opened up, Squaresoft stopped focusing on the game/story/etc. and put too much effort into graphics, because that's all this new audience cared about. Before, the graphics were terrible, but they were sufficient. We played the early FFs for the stories and gameplay. The graphics had 0% sway in my desicion to buy FF3 when it came out for the SNES.

Now onto your points presented:

calling FF7 the greatest game ever is unfair statement unlesss you've actually played every game ever made. Obviously you haven't, and your opinion is valid and all, but that's not too much evidence for your case.

Kefka from FF6 is a way better villian Sephiroth. Sephiroth is cool and all, but he's not that evil. His intentions actually seem a bit noble. Trying to stop the evil people from destorying the earth and moving into the promised land. Sephiroth is almost a good guy, but he goes about it in the wrong way. Kefka on the other hand, is genuinely of the criminally insane. He's f***ing nuts. He kills people because he's bored. Sephiroth only killed those that he thought needed to die or were standing in his way.

Beloved character death scene... Yeah, I have to agree with you there. When (SPOILER)Aeris died, I initially thought it was a dream (because I was playing at like 1AM at the time), and until I completed the game, I figured she was coming back at some point.

As far as the best soundtrack goes, it does have an excellent soundtrack, but the general consensus is that FF6 is Nobuo Uematsu's finest work. Nobuo himself said so, in an interview right before the release of FF9. 7 has a memorable soundtrack, and the songs fit the situations very well. But FF6 is just in-friggin-credible, and FF4 is very good too.

Cloud is hated because of his cocky "don't care" attitude. Most main characters have compassion and care about the cause they fight for. Cloud rarely shows emotion. The other main characters have a vast range of emotions, and Cloud gets sad a few times, but I dont' recall him ever getting happy or excited. Squall (from FF8) was the same way, just worse (which pretty much ruined the game). They both had that "lone bad-a**" persona, which isn't a good persona for a main character. You can't pin that tag on FF6 because I don't think it has a defined main character, but that's a whole different topic.

Sorry about the long post, but it was kinda necessary to say what I needed to say.

Feion