I was thinking about ff7 yesterday,and i figured out what it was:
I never hated ff7 itself,just the fanboys and square enix who milk it.I got sick and tired of square enix milking it with having cloud and sephiroth appear in almost every game,and some fanboys shoving the characters down my throat.

I never hated it though,i enjoyed part of it.I liked part of the story,but i didn't like the characters all too much,especially cloud and sephiroth.
I always felt that cloud with his cold shoulder,was easier to hate than sephiroth with his big green eyes and his mother complex.I felt sorry for sephiroth because of what he went through because of hojo and being told that jenova was his mother.I never felt he was truly evil,more just misguided.

I liked some of the music,but others i didn't care for as much,like tifa's main theme.Tifa's main theme never really did anything for me for the same reason i don't like terra's theme:I find them kind of overly melodramatic.It doesn't mean they are bad per say,it just means i don't like them.I used to like terra's theme,but i kind of grew apart from the theme and it turned out that i wasn't really into it.

What ff7 themes do you like mr nostalgia gamer? Ok i'l answer this:

I think one winged angel is quite good
Shinra's theme is one of my,if not favorite ff7 theme
I like cid's main theme,because it goes with his personality and scene.
Jenova theme:I always kinda liked this theme.
Fight on,was that the name of the boss music? Anyways,i really like this one


What i like even more,are the crisis core pieces of music which are pure rock and roll,and i was impressed because i founded that it really suited the game well.

Crisis averted

FF7 Crisis Core- Combat - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjWBiozBGGg&feature=related)
FFVII Crisis Core Soundtrack: Encounter - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83JBxHqNeAA&feature=related) One of my favorite battle musical pieces,if not favorite crisis core piece.

For me, FFVII is one of the weaker entires in the series, TBH. Compared even to the graphics of I&II (on the GBA and PSX, at least) and the others that got switched over to handhelds, FFVII really has the worst graphics of the entire series. While graphics aren't everything, these can seriously be called into question with regards to the cult of fanboys who revere the game. They can't seriously be that engrossed in a story with horrible pacing, ridiculous and horribly written characters like Yuffie and Cait Sith, juvenile attempts at humor, emphasis on explosions and huge breasts (really, Tifa is only 'attractive' by pixelated woman standards in Dissidia Duodecim, not FFVII itself), can they?

Yes, we've established that it was revolutionary; yes, we've established that it pioneered a whole new generation of RPGs and popularized the FF series in America and other countries. Then, the series moved on! People stay hung up on FFVII and I was shocked at my first real exposure to FFVII elitist fanboyism. I thought, 'that's the FF everyone's wrapped up in? Why not IX? Or IV? Or X?' As the years progressed, I realized it's all about the aforementioned explosions, big breasts, emo protagonist and antagonist, and big swords and guns. Everything that's flashy has gotten this game popular. Anyone that tries to argue that it's the story . . . well, I just can't agree, because I don't see it. Sure, the story isn't terrible, it's just the most convoluted and riddled with superfluous angst.

So, with all this in mind . . . I do enjoy the game. I do play it, and I do like a great deal of it. The atmosphere, the nostalgic MIDI music, the ridiculous boxy character models (which, while silly, are still part of the great memories of the game for me), and the incredibly fun battle system keep me coming back. I'll never understand what hooks fanboys to the terribly paced storyline (which only really interests me up until just after Cloud explains the history of Sephiroth in Kalm), and big tits and explosions; if these are so enthralling to them, why do they flock to a fourteen year-old game with ugly, blocky models? Oh yeah, that's why Advent Children came along ^^

GAH, threads like this always bring out my negative feelings about the game, and all I end up doing is knocking it. I tried to just emphasize your point, Nostalgia Gamer, but I'm afraid I may just be opening myself up for a flamefest, at which point I will now put up a shield of praise in my defense! So, here are the things I like about the game.

As I mentioned, the music, the atmosphere and the battle system, but allow me to expand upon these. The music is a different quality than what is found in any other FF title, and even the least memorable tracks on the OST are quite memorable to me, and probably most FFVII fans. They complement the setting, and give it its signature style. Next up is the battle system. While it's similar to FFVI and its Relics, FFVII seems to almost broaden the idea, perfecting it. This is where similarities between the two games end, but it is worth noting. I also highly regard the level of side quests and bonus bosses this game offers. FF games have always come complete with added content, but VII seems to pack some of the most out of these I've ever seen in any FF. And, with regards to the story, I do enjoy the first couple hours or so in Midgar, then the flashback in Kalm of Sephiroth's rebirth as the world's angsty, mama's boy tyrant. After that I just lost interest in what was going on. I liked Cid, Red XIII and Vincent; their parts always seemed to shine. Having Vincent an optional character almost seemed to be a disservice to him, awesome as he is. He offers a lot more to the core storyline than any other secret characters throughout the FF series. Cid is great, and definitely one of the highlights of the cast :) Red XIII and his mysterious nature really seemed fitting as well. Other characters I did like were Barret, Tifa (NOT for her ample bosom, dammit!), Reno & Rude, Zack (what little there is of him actually shown in this game), and Bugenhagen. Cloud is probably the worst protagonist I've ever followed through a videogame, and Sephiroth is probably among the most uninspiring villains I've ever fought a final battle against.

Having beaten FFVII twice in my life, I can say that the factors I would replay it to see nowadays are: the entire first two-or-so hours, from Midgar to the flashback in Kalm, Cosmo Canyon, Vincent, Cid, Red XIII, the Turks, Rufus dying (screw Advent Children, I say he freakin' dies in this game, dammit), the music, the atmosphere, the battle system, the nostalgia, and the sidequests. So you see, I don't have FFVII; these are the things I do like about it. It isn't all overdone angst and terrible story pacing to me, there really are a lot of things I love about it. As the game came out in '97, I don't knock the graphics because they suck, it's because they're atrocious nowadays compared to everything else in the series, and considering the age we live in now, they're a blatant eyesore and can be a detriment to the game's presentation from my stance.

So ideally, the game's non-plot elements are what I enjoy about it. The story is just there to move things along, while I enjoy the secondary fruits of the journey. I never understood why far superior storylines like that of IV, VI, IX, X, and XII don't receive equal if not greater praise, but instead always seem to get brushed aside so FFVII fanboys can flock around VII like bees to honey. While I own Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, neither do much for me, as they feel like an entirely different universe than the original FFVII; it's the absence of the graphics, the music and the look and feel. Crisis Core has the advantage of being simply awesome in its own right, with a story and character cast much better than FFVII's.

I really don't have much else to say on the subject. It's not the greatest game ever made, and while it will always anger me (yes, it is enough to actually anger me) that it steals all the attention from better entries in the series, what can I do? :p Fanboys exist for anything capable of meriting a following, and I guess a game like FFVII is no exception. Fans, just regular, ordinary fans, are entirely different, and I'm in no way knocking them; it's the elitist pricks who act like FFVII is a religion and we must all be converted.





tl;dr version: CC hates Cloud, Sephy, the story after Kalm flashback, Tifa's tits, explosions and the emo-ness, but loves Vincent, Cid, Red XIII, the battle system and the music. He also loves Crisis Core, and hates Advent Children. Fanboys are bad, normal fans are good. We should all get along, and stop the wars and stuff.

Don't worry,i doubt the fanbase here is going to eat you alive for an opinion as badly as any others.They seem nice enough and not like terrorists who threaten you if your opinion differs.

I don't know why people hate zack so much,i mean:Cloud takes after zack in the original ff7 after he dies and wants to become him,but he is also nothing like him because zack was a pretty happy guy who enjoyed life at its fullest.Cloud was way more pessimistic and depressed about life.


Also:I liked the music more in crisis core,because of the rock and roll themes in them which i really liked.I was actually surprised,because i found myself wanting to listen to them.

In truth:I never really liked the story in ff7 or the characters,but i never really hated them either.In the end,i was kind of confused due to the convoluted plot and liked sephiroth as a character and felt him to be more heroic than cloud,and despised cloud because of his pessimistic attitude.

The gameplay is actually a little faster paced than ff6,which can be considered a good thing since it takes a while to get the espers,and there are numerous amount of mini games.

Thing is:In the past,i used to be blaming the game itself for my unbelievable hatred of it.I would go out of my way to deliberately berate it and call it shit and other names,when it was the fanbase i hated and not the game.

A perfect example of the situation:a game that came out 10 years ago,yes would be talked about,but not to such an extent that they talk about nothing but that game.This would get very tiresome and even the ff7 fans would get angry.Also:It adds even more hatred that can be very biased towards it due to some fans shoving it down other people's throats and bashing them for not loving it like they do.

No extremes should be met,and ff7 fanbase is one extreme that needs moderation.
Also:People like me are sick of squeenix milking ff7 to death to get extra money.Its bad enough we can't escape the actual internet without meeting a group of fanboys with ridiculous standards,but on top of that:We got squeenix selling out and throwing it in our face adding more fuel to the fire and otherwise:making the anti ff7 squad even larger and more anti ff7.

FF7 needs to lay low for maybe 15-20 years.Maybe then people will forgive it,but for now:There is simply an overkill amount of ff7 product.I also:wouldn't want that kind of overkill for ff6 either,and i love ff6.I believe that all games should be enjoyed as much as possible.

FF7 needs to lay low for maybe 15-20 years.

Speaking of overkill...

I thought Crisis Core and FF7 were good. I didn't think Advent Children was too horrible, and I have no idea about any other FF7 products. I don't think there's "too much Final Fantasy 7" around, especially now. If they did a remake of FF7 on Vita, I certainly would have no problem with it.

The story is just there to move things along, while I enjoy the secondary fruits of the journey. I never understood why far superior storylines like that of IV, VI, IX, X, and XII don't receive equal if not greater praise, but instead always seem to get brushed aside so FFVII fanboys can flock around VII like bees to honey.

What makes FFVII so popular is the theme's that touches. Some unexpected moments in the storyline, even for a game released that year.
IV touches primarily the quest of a hero From Darkness to Light perfectly.
VI touches the despair and the survival of the people in a over-industrialized and oppressive world with Imperial regime.
IX you know this game better than everybody here.
X eww....
XII Mixes a heavily political story(no one likes politics) with Greek mytholgy and Shakespearian format of script. On the outside, but it primary shows the effects of war on the people that do not have it's share on it.

VII on the other hand touches many emotional themes that are easy to appeal, to almost anyone, specially if you are moving from childhood to adolescence. And mixes them with Spiritual Concepts. Like it or not, VII has one of the most character developed storylines in the history of FF. And it also worked as kind of a Eye opener to concepts like the Lifestream, which EVERYBODY that mentions this game forgots and it's a KEY ELEMENT on it's storyline.
The music and Visuals play a MAJOR ROLE on this title as well. Half of VII is atmosphere. And you'll be wondering why I make call of the visuals considering that you bashed the graphics. Which in fact I kinda agree with you.
The graphics lack of textures. But you're not taking in account several things. The prerendered backgrounds... The colorful Visuals... The Direction, which plays a fundamental part in the animations of the spells, summons, skills and FMV's.

Look for a moment the color combination, the blurry graphics and the steamy ice dust.

FFVII Summon - Shiva - Diamond Dust - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4qYqXN6uao)

That my friend was the kinda new in the PS1.

Regarding the characters...

Think for a moment the character of Cloud. His childhood was crap, he was practically kicked out of Nibelheim, a nobody that was putted on the blame for what happened to Tifa. He was always treated like shit. And during the Shinra Days he failed miserably to be from SOLDIER. And Sephiroth finishes to kill his will to live during the Nibelheim incident.
You can do whatever jokes about Cloud's Emo stuff. But his life wasn't happy. In any moment. Up until after Zack dies and Aerith enters on his life and it's ruined again by Sephy.

He gets developed very well developed, up until AC reaches our lives and ruins everything and you can compare stuff like:

AC Cloud: If I win...are my sins forgiven?
FF7 Cloud: Not you again.

I totally love FFVII, specially the whole Lifestream related part. Introduces a lot of Spirituality into a heavily emotional game. Which was a breathtaking. How all things are connected to each other and came from the same source. Really fun Stuff.

EDIT: Fanboys, Remakes, and all related Merchandise regarding FFVII can die for all I care though. The Original game still remains as one of my best gaming experiences in my life.
AC sucks. DoC is Stupid. and CC is Ridiculous.

I found ff7 story to be good,but i found some parts to be convoluted and leave me scratching my head.
The game did have some interesting parts that had me going in interest,like the whole idea of mixing human dna with the dna of an alien creature,and using energy to create super humans,but some parts left me uninterested and desiring more.Cloud was one of those characters that i never liked.I never liked him as a character,because i always considered him an asshole.Even if you have a hard life,you don't necessarily need to be an asshole.I know a guy who was in vietnam and was traumatized,and he was a nice guy to me.This guy was the father of someone i knew,and he didn't want to talk about it because it was pretty horrible and he probably wanted to forget it.

I also heard that part of the problem with the story was that that it didn't translate all to well.I heard there were parts that weren't well adapted to english.I still prefer ff6 ff9 and ff tactics and ff4 over ff7.Its not to say its a bad game,it isn't,but i think the fans overrate it a little bit with their hype and square enix milking it to death.I think the people who hate on it should play it and give it a better chance,and the ones who love it to death and worship it should play other games as well to remind them that there are other great games in the series and in other areas.

Do you guys want to know why people ridicule ff7?

Tribute To A Bigot (aka AnonymousXXXXXX...dur) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2r0OE-hCeo&lc=9OOuUke7ezq4o4pcNu_dYbbAwIdS5pg3rslCYAmoT6g&feature=inbox)

As you can see here,i'm trying to explain to him why ff7 is a bit racially stereotyped.
The way barret is portrayed with his arm and cussing is a bit stereotyping,because i know there are well educated black guys out there who are well spoken,and he insists and calling me racist and a homophobe,and changing the topic entirely because he is on a campaign to attack ff6.

Only reason what kept me playing 7 was the damn story line, i cannot hate on that. It was too much for me, imo i preferred it over any other FF's story line (although i haven't played FF6 yet) but i gotta give 7 credit, but like i said last time, the characters weren't as lovable and adaptable as other FF games, like i fucking looooooooooveeeeeed Barret and cid, because they were bad ass. But cloud honestly kinda ruined the game, i was glad i played zack in crisis core rather than just playing with an emo, chasing a mama's boy. I still do consider 7 by far the greatest, IN SOME FIELDS. But not everything about it is soo great, like battle system for example. I would pick ff8's battle system anytime over 7. But i don't know, one square enix game i find better than the FF series, would probably be Xenogears (And not xenosaga that gay shit on ps2 =S) which is why, I DEMAND A PS3 REMAKE! :P

Like Neo Xzhan said in another thread, It's not God I hate, but his fanclub. That can be used to describe not just his, but also my feelings towards FFVII. The original game is fine... it's A: The fan(atics) who think it's the second coming of Christ and B: the spinoffs weren't needed at all.

Actually:I disagree there:

The game needed to either explain itself better,or make sequels to explain the game better.The story at some points seemed confusing,and repeated itself.I think,that the best outcome for this game,would be to simply make a remake and leave it alone for a long time.This game doesn't currently need any sequels or prequels more,just a remake that explains things a little more clearly by fixing whatever translation errors there are.

That's your opinion, I on the otherhand don't agree. Each FF was a standalone game, complete story etc, as was intended by the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus were not needed at all. In the case of Dirge of Cerberus, that rewrote everything about Vincent's origin... which what can you expect? The original FFVII development team are either working on different projects or don't work for SE anymore.

The Compilation of FFVII, was just a way for SE to get more revenue from the mindless masses. They need money? Release a new FFVII game, haphazardly made and rewrites what is known from the main game. Also... FFVII remake? Hell no. It's not needed as the original can still be found... the majority of people wanting a remake are new arrivals to the series (ones who's first FF was either on the PS2 or PS3/Xbox 360) who hate the graphics or character design ingame.

FFVII does NOT need a remake. What it needs is to be left alone.

All I have to add is, Dirge of Cerberus has the most boring pluckin' soundtrack of the entire FF franchise >.< Granted, it is Hamauzu's style, I get that; dammit, this is Final Fantasy, with a reputation for having great soundtracks! Not a single memorable note to be heard in DoC–not one.

I don't care what people say,i didn't like the characters all that much and the story around a lot of characters.
I liked the shinra plot,but i just didn't find sephiroth believable.