A Deus Ex fan! I never hear that discussed on here! Thats another game i should replay, is Invisible War any good?

Hehe, on topic... I think the game might survive without the character development, it would need to change the way it is told a LOT, but the Jenova and Shinra stories are fairly good on their own, each town comes with a story too (maybe not Kalm). It wouldn't have been nearly as good, but the plot for FFVII ignoring character development is still pretty damn deep, and it is possible for basically personality-less characters to work in an RPG (FFI).

In summary, FFVII kicks ass.