A Heretic among the Faithful.

So... let's just say VII isn't my top favorite FF, the game is great, don't get me wrong, but it didn't really do it for me. Now this isn't a troll thread or anything but I'm curious to know, what does FFVII mean to you?

I always find it insightful to listen to what other people have to say on a topic so I felt it would be nice to hear what it was or is about FFVII that makes you love it.

FVII wasn't just my first RPG, it came to me at a time when all I read was goosebumps, didn't really have access to tv, and didn't watch movies. I only played arcade games before this.

It introduced me to the epic storyline, and it did it in a fantastic way. It may not have the greatest plotline, but it was certainly one of the most compelling to date. I loved almost all the characters, I loved how the towns oozed personality, I loved how we played the game- knowing something, somewhere was off but no one knew what it was.

VII wasn't just a fun game, it allowed me to be immersed in an awesome world and become emotionally invested in the people I met. Since VII, I've always considered gaming to have the greatest potential in storytelling compared to almost all mediums across the board.

/nerd

I was having difficulty composing my thoughts, but awesome Splintered was awesome and did it for me. Oh, and as a personal note VII was the first game I ever played that succeeded at making me truly angry at the villain and thus desiring of his death for more than just to move the plot along.

It will always remain my favorite game of all time, if only because it brought me into the world of RPGs.

Something people never talk about is the transition between chipsets and pre-rendered backgrounds. FFVI was certainly a step forward in using environments to instill a mood, but aside from a few clever moments, it's unremarkable by today's standards. Final Fantasy VII was one of the first games to have computer generated and hand-painted images for environments. Certainly for console games. This really allowed atmosphere to become a major player in how the story was told. Glancing up at the Sector 7 pillar through a green haze of pollution. The tilted camera in the Shinra Mansion Library. It's something that only the PS1 FFs really excel at. I actually prefer the pre-rendered bgs to 3D environments, which seem more stale to me. FFVII's backgrounds are pixellated on our modern screens, but the art itself is gorgeous and remains among the best in the medium.

Final Fantasy VII came around at a very lucky time for me personally because I had never considered video games as a legitimate storytelling medium (having only knowledge of arcade games, Mario, and it's various Kart and Paint offspring).

Final Fantasy VII really works for me because it almost sets itself up as an overly simple game. Okay, so there's the big bad corporation and you're a moody lego-dude who is going through some twisted buddy-cop adventure with a grizzled black giant. When it opens up into a more traditional hero's quest, I was blown away that a video game could tell a complex story at all (and yes, the story of FFVII is complex, even before you leave Midgar). The game continues to set up predictable plot points of the heros journey and then skew them enough to be consistently surprising and entertaining (Cait Sith as the shapeshifter archetype??). When I was playing, I saw three discs but didn't quite understand what that meant, so I was duped by fake endings several times throughout my play (Shinra HQ, Temple of the Ancients, Whirlwind Maze)

Sephiroth was a compelling villain because you got glimpses of him before he became a villain, and you almost never see him in the game. You only hear whispers, and see the carnage. The ambiguous control relationship between Sephiroth and Jenova adds to the overall sense of uncertainty and trepidation that runs through the entire game. Final Fantasy VII is unsettling, it is by far the most psychologically challenging of the series. Every single character in the main party has a rich inner life (something that is not present in most fiction) and while I think that the story meanders at times, it completely changed the ballgame. Every RPG (and even more games) that has come out since 1997 owes something to Final Fantasy VII. And as a guy coming from Mario, it wasn't just like discovering a new medium -- it was discovering a new medium.

I will always owe Final Fantasy VII my respect and admiration, and I will continue to hate the Compilation for not letting well enough alone.

FFVII for me represents a big part of my childhood. It taught me the valuable lesson of taking sotry over graphics any day. When I was a kid, I would watch my dad playing FFVII, and later VIII. I became convinced that because VIII looked better, it must be better in every way. This thought in mind, I ignored FFVII and had eyes only for VIII. My father, though he acts silly most of the time, and is sometimes forgetful, does have wisdom. He told me I could play VIII as much as I wanted, if I beat VII first.

At first I was annoyed by this. Why not skip right to the good stuff? But dad insisted, and so it was. I played VII and initially didn't care much. But by the one hour mark I was entranced. True I was to young to really understand a lot of what was going on, but there was something about the game that captured my imagination. I eventually beat it, and a year or two later after playing VIII and IX, I went back to play it again, now with a greater capacity for understanding stories.

The game on its own has a great story and complex characters, and a wide array of diverse and interesting locations. But more than that it is a part of the foundation upon which my understanding of storytelling is based. As a story-teller I am grateful beyond all measure to FFVII for this.

The people above me already said it all!

But really, even 13 years after I played, it's still my favourite FF game and my favourite game period, together with FFVI and FFIX.

The storyline was astonishing and some of the scenes left me in an almost catatonic state of how awesome they are.

The music was very, very good and quite memorable. Everytime I listen to FFVII's "Prelude" version, i get tears in my eyes of all the good memories i have from this game.

The gameplay was quite fun, too, and the characters were awesome. One of my three characters of all time came from this game.

I played FFVII during my summer vacations and I got to say that it was one of my best Summers i had, if no the best period.

FFVII most certainly isn't my favorite FF game, and it comes no where near one of my favorite RPGs alltogether, lol. But yes, I do enjoy the game and I've played it multiple times. For me, it's something that's been around me since I was a kid, one of my first RPGs and I grew an attachment to it. I really loved the characters in the game, I adored Tifa as a kid I wanted to be just like her. xD I was like what... 7/8 when I saw my Uncle playing the game and about 10 when I actually played it myself? I adored it then, so it's still a piece of me now. Currently though having played them all, FFVII is probably last on my top five. I actually do enjoy Final Fantasy XII over VII. -is shot- Buuut it had a nice plot, it had a heart wrenching OMGSPOILER! death scene, it had an interesting battle system (materiaz)... it's a good game. Not the best in my opinion, but definitely not the worst. It's a good inbetween to me. And I do love it.

my favorite game for the PS1 was actually legend of dragoon, i liked the story, setting, 'limit breaks' and what have you way better than most of the stuff in ff7.

feel free to lynch me.

Honestly, I do not believe that my words could ever do justice to the unprecedented effect that Final Fantasy VII has had on me; however, I can certainly attempt to do so.

To me, Final Fantasy VII is more than just a game; it was a pivotal experience of my childhood and an iconic representation of the capacity of video gaming as a medium to emotionally invest and immerse a player in a game's world and characters. When I first set eyes upon FFVII, I was a young, impressionable, and generally friendless youth who found comfort, meaning, and unadulterated joy in becoming a part of FFVII's world and plot, as well as growing to know, understand, and identify with its characters. Final Fantasy VII gave such immense detail and personality to each location and such poignant commentary on the meaning of life and the function of society that I could not help but find myself lost within the game, experiencing the emotions, actions, thoughts, and motivations of each character as if they were my own. Final Fantasy VII served not as mere, fleeting source of entertainment; FFVII shaped my personality, my ideals, and, ultimately, the course of my life. FFVII provides me with a nostalgic link to my past and a life experience that remains immutable to the tides of time.

It was a revelation to me, that a video game could deal with themes, emotions, characters, and messages with as much complexity as a novel. It moved me in a way that all really great works of art do. It raised questions, often profound ones, without providing easy answers. It constantly provides me with fresh food for thought. I find it astonishing that the whole world hasn't played this game, and I feel sorry for those who haven't.

Wolf is right; FFVII isn't the best of the series. That said, it has its moments. was pretty shocking, although it wasn't unprecedented even in the series, and the Midgar section of the game created an oppressive atmosphere that is almost unparalleled in video games even to this very day. To be honest I felt the game kind of derailed itself in the second half. It started out as a fairly effective political allegory about greed and authoritarianism (although the fact that burning coal is safer for the planet than use of Mako energy is lol, but hey, it's not like fantasy settings are fully comparable to our own world), but then it introduced a bunch of mystical crap to which I've never been able to feel any emotional connection. To be honest I've never even finished the game; I got to the final dungeon and then got pretty bored with levelling up because I no longer really felt any connection to the story line, so I just watched the finale on teh intartubes. It almost seems like Square tried to combine two games into one, and while some people might have enjoyed the variety I found it a bit thematically incongruous. I've always felt the Final Fantasy series is generally at its strongest when its storylines are political, and the apolitical science fiction elements of the games never really did much for me. That said, as mentioned above the Midgar section is one of the strongest moments in the entire series and I can definitely see why people love this game so much. I'm pretty sure I just wasn't the target audience for a lot of what they did.

Licorice said everything I was going to add. I think the fact that it asks the gamer real, difficult questions is something that other 90s games with good stories (Starcraft, Chrono Trigger, etc.) hadn't done properly. Which is why, imo, Final Fantasy VII is the first great literary work in video games - a piece that functions both as a script and a visual feast. Something that lends itself to analysis and study.

Final Fantasy VII was quite literally the first FF I ever played.

I came into the fandom when I randomly saw an ad for Advent Children in a magazine, while sitting in Art Class back when I was a Junior in high school, one day. Then a weekend later, I went to my local Hastings to look for movies to rent and I saw it on the shelf and, on a whim, I decided to get it and watched it that night... about 15 times in a row.

I was instantly drawn into the world, the characters, everything. I was sad when I had to return the movie, but I rented it again and again over and over for the next month or so xD. I finally got my own copy and then learned it was a sequel to a game, so I ran around online like a madwoman, trying to find information and story-plot for FFVII, being I was unable to play the game.

I got lucky one day and one of my brother's friends lent me his copy + a PS1 Card, and I finally got to play my first FF game. I was just amazed with it, usually playing it late into the night, because I wanted to hear more and more of the story unfolding. Aerith's death did bring tears to my eyes, even if I knew it was coming (spoilers were hard to avoid online ) and I actually did feel angry at Sephiroth for doing that to her. I actually came to like the OST quite a bit and Sephy was a HUGE pain in the ass to fight (I got stuck on his Safer form and was never able to get past it (okay, so I never finished it because I couldn't get past him, but I watched the rest on youtube, plus I had to give the game back to my bro's friend). After that, I came into the compilation and been here since.

Funny thing is, I wasn't too keen on Cloud at first, tho I didnt hate him. But after getting to know the story really well and such, he became my favorite character, with Sephy a close second. I liked them all really (except for Scarlett, blegh). FVII itself was also an escape for me, back when I used to be very lonely, often listening to music and imagining events from the compilation or even 'what-if' adventures.

Overall, this game is one of my absolute favorites and it means a lot to me. Okay, so it's not the best game out there, but I would certainly recommend it to others to try it at least once. I would like to play it again one day (don't have a copy still) so I can finally beat Sephy's ass xD (like I finally managed to do in KH2 ).

~ Raz

I'm really new to the whole thing. I bought this game on psn 6 months ago, so the whole childhood memories, and never-seen-before gameplay and graphics don't really apply to me.

The thing that really sets this game apart is the amazing way the story is told and how it uses a great variety of storytelling devices to keep you hooked.

For example, we all know the story is pretty depressing, but they divided it up with some lighter and humorous tones, like having to cross-dress. Also the characters are all very much believable. You really get the impression those are people you could find in real life and be friends. The character development is so good that even to this date people discuss about who was Cloud's love interest.

But most of all, the story kept me wanting to continue playing non-stop, just so I could know what was going to happen next. I mean, when Aeris left the party after the temple of the ancients, or Cloud after the end of disk 1, I really missed them. When I found Cloud on mideel, I really worried about his well-being, and was consequently happy when he recovered. And when Aeris died, I actually felt a bit depressed the next few days. Even when I got the chance to return to midgar, I imediately went back to the church and Elmyra's home simply because those places had an emotional meaning to them. Those are emotions that I don't think any other game, book, or movie were able to evoke on me.

Funny thing is, as soon as I finished playing the game and reading all plot analysis I could find, I began playing the game again, just so I could get all the details from the story.

^ As Tibiquera mentioned, I had emotional attachments as well. I guess in a sense, the world almost felt real, a place that would bring tears to me when I had to leave it. I only wish I could've played it when I was younger... but alas, at least I was able to now.

Lastly, in a strange sense, because it was my escape when I was lonely, it almost felt like a 'best friend' so-to-speak. I didn't feel as lonely when I would lose myself in music and let my imagination go into that world (NOT in a Mary-Sue sense). I guess that's why it means so much to me, because it was there when I was lonely (much like DBZ/DBGT was before it).

~ Raz

Oh yeah, well remember Raz, the music in the game is wonderful too. Sometimes I go to youtube just to listen to the themes of Tifa and Aeris on the piano. So beautiful!

FFVII? It's a game that has been and always will be pretty special to me. My first RPG, one of the first games I played seriously and completed, and all that. It's one of the favorite games of my uncle too, actually, my uncle was the one who made me the gamer I am today. Isn't that cool? I was always seeing him play a great amount of games since I have memory, so you can imagine that before I played FFVII myself, I watched him play it for a good amount of time. There was a moment in which we couldn't stop talking about the game, day and night the conversation was about FFVII and it was pretty cool.

I didn't develop any emotional attachment, the death of Aerith was kinda meh to me, and the moment in which Cloud is on the wheelchair is, to me, the BEST moment of the game. Cid-Vincent-Barret party FTW. But, obviously, the overall plot did catch me at the first second. The story was great, original, and unpredictable, the world was fascinating, the protagonists were awesome (all of them), and Sephiroth was just epic, back in the day he was truly creepy and actually had reasons to be.


Also this

When Sephiroth was around, you knew shit was going down and things like THIS happened. In those days, he was a really intimidating character. I miss that.

After finally completing it, I wasn't satisfied enough. So that's how I played every numbered game, and the Tactics.

You know, I actually think VI did everything VII did and did it better, I consider it to be the best of the best, but VII just marked me, it has it's "special place".

I WANT to like the Compilation, I want to enjoy it as I enjoyed FFVII, but it just doesn't do justice to the original game. Advent Children is a good fanservice but nothing more, Dirge of Cerberus was a big pile of fail as a game and as a sequel of FFVII, Before Crisis looks pretty good but we still have to wait X amount of years to play it ourselves, and Crisis Core was actually pretty good but it still failed to catch many things (and Genesis was everywhere... I liked the guy but agh, he didn't need to be in Nibelhein on "that" day). On the Way to a Smile and Last Order were okay.

Soooo... Yeah, I like FFVII a lot.

FFVII wasn't my first RPG (which I believe was Bloodwych), but I really liked the story and gameplay. One of my favourite games.

FFVII was the game that, to me, revolutionised RPG's and dragged them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I had played lots of rpg's before it such as 'landstalker', 'shining in the darkness' and 'story of thor' but what really got me about FFVII was that it was the first game that felt like a fantasy game in touch with the world we knew.

There was terrorism, environmental distortion, corporate monopoly... It felt in touch with all I could relate to in my own life, but at the time, was fantastical and totally outside of reality. It was also an RPG that simplified the core designs so that anyone could pick up and play with limitless ability to customise and change it with the way you played.

Of course is it my fave rpg? I'd say yes. but it is run very close by the likes of breath of fire 3, adventures of alundra and Wild arms. But for me, if you want any game that explains what RPG's mean to the world, FFVII is it.

Never was into Final Fantasy or Japanese games for that matter.

But I've played Final Fantasy VII this past month, and it has changed the way I think about games, characters, and fictionalization in general. (yeah...that last word isn't really a word).

Remembering myself at one time as a troubled, hardened youth with spikey blond hair, it was an eerie experience stepping into the shoes of Cloud Strife.

Its a moving story, no doubt about it.

FFVII reminds me of care-free days as a youth, where I would come home from school and play all day, losing myself in yet another adventure. That, and trying to raise a damn chocobo to beat Teioh. >:/ I will always remember Teioh.

Oh god, I still remember the day I got to be in touch with this game.
I was at my friends' house, where I usually went to play games. NES,SNES,PS1,PC , they had everything - just name it. I was 9 years old and for some reason we were allowed to be in his big brothers room, which was kind of an unusual treat for us little kids. There we were, not making a noise, and that was the moment I first time saw Sephiroth. This great, angel looking god was battling some bad-ass looking party (later to be discovered as Cloud, Cid and KO'd Barret). What the hell was that, did that guy just destroy other planets? Along with the epic music that played in the background, this scene left me in complete awe. My young mind would never be the same. After this started the obsession - obsession with this particular game franchise for the rest of my life.

For me it will be so hard to talk about this game without enormous emotional package on my back. Hell nowadays I even think if FF6,FF8,FF9 or FFX as a game were better. Could be, they all have their own strong points, but I find it retarded and frustrating to decide once and for all, "which is the best final fantasy game". FF8 had always been a utter disappointment for me, mainly because I was waiting more of a sequel to the FF7. However, after playing it through for the first time this last summer, I have to say I'm amazed by its depth and great diversity in the battle system (when you start to get it).

So many great opinions have already been shared in this thread and I think there is only one more thing I can contribute. I was maybe 10 or 11 when I finally got my own copy of the game. I bought it while we were having a holiday in Barcelona, after that I only waited to get back home. Not suspecting a single thing I popped that cursed first cd in my psx. What the........? Fueco1 ? Bio1? Barret shouting ?DIABLOS! instead of the usual.... I guess this was the moment I started to lose my hair, really.

Nevertheless, I wanted to share this story as an example how unnecessary the plot actually was. For me it was all about the overall mood & challenge.

The first time I´ve played FF VII was in summer 2010.Yes,13 years I´ve missed this masterpiece of gaming and played a lot of games that I´d rather like to forget.But FF VII was the game that brought me back to a time,when games still had a more innocent look and graphics needed to be beautified by the imagination and the fantasy of the player.The good ol PSOne times where I returned home and I knew some games with great art style were waiting to be played.I still love the more gore and darker look of some PSOne games than most of the shi**y brown tones of modern games.Well,back to FF VII.

My decision to buy it from the PSN were many voting polls describing it as the ´´best PS1 game ever´´ and so on.This made me curios because I played nearly all of the great games of the PSOne era.Only the RPG section wasn´t my territory.This changed with the years but still FFVII was far away.But then,one day I started it on the PS3 and the game didn´t need much time to get me hooked for at least 80 hours at my first playthrough.I instantly knew that I would fall in love with the game because of this throwback into my childhood.As I already mentioned,I always thought of the PS1 times as innocent times and FF VII is a good proof for my theory.I really enjoyed the characters and their funny manners and how the whole story had been presented.And of course the whole atmosphere with the excellent soundtrack and in my opinion wonderful backgrounds has helped to get me into the magic world of Gaia.

And after my first playthrough I still hadn´t had enough.The most thing I like about FF VII that it gives me as the player a lot of mysteries and details that I can concentrate on and asking myself,what all those different themes displayed in the game could mean for my normal life.I always see FF VII in many ways as a parallel universe to our own world,in some parts in a visionary,in others in an oldfashioned way.That´s what makes the game so interesting to me,besides the really great story about Cloud Strife and his search for his true identity.As we know,Sakaguchi´s mother died in the time when FF VII was developed.I think I see his thoughts about life in this game and I could imagine how he saw the world from those times (and interestingly even nowadays) and tried to implement his thoughts into a game where the player could think about the reasons,why the Planet should be safed.Sure,the one thing is definately,that Sephiroth must be stopped,but the other thing is Shinra,the monopoly company which opresses the whole world,must be stopped.

I think of Shinra as the futuristic way of how our world economy could look like (or already looks) in many years.But FFVII sadly is still just a fictional game and so there is a hidden power deeply within the planet which could stop all the madness.In the real life,all we have is us,who just can sit and watch how everything nowadays is controlled by the big companies and the total control about our seemingly ´´usual´´ lives still goes on.

I guess,this is what connects me to FFVII.The visionary insight in the game,how our modern lives are ruled just by economic reasons and how ethical values are pushed back to the back row every day a little bit more.I see this in of course Midgar itself,or Corel,Wutai,Gongaga,everywhere where people died or live in bad conditions just because a huge company gives itself the right to control their lives by making them dependent to the Mako reactors,built by Shinra.

Hmm,I guess I´ve written enough and I still didn´t talk about the emotional moments for me,like the obvious scene in Temple of the Ancients or the rise of Cloud Strife´s personality and his comeback as the leader of the crew.I really got goosebumps when he cited Barret´s famous quote and the Highwind (or as I also call it ´´Heroic´´) Theme started to play,Aww,and all the funny or smart side characters,Don Corneo,Bugenhagen,aww I just love this game and its awesome world *.*.