In my opinion, Final Fantasy VII is the greatest FF and possibly game of all time. I have played FFs I-III and from VI-X2, and still regard it as the best. The combination of interesting yet diverse characters, an accessible yet sophistucated battle system and a breathtaking storyline led me to placing this game on a pedestal above all others.

Compared to other FFs, the characters recieved a large amount of development (especially put up against VIII) and this allowed the story to flow, while retaining elements of ambiguity and posing questions. And the story, while occaisonally predictable, managed to throw up more than its fair share of memorable moments.

And the thing that probably seals the fact that VII was a great game, despite its many doubters, is that it still manages to provoke more discussions than the other games, 8 years after its release.

That post turned out to be much longer than I intended...