50 Reasons why Final Fantasy VII is the Greatest Game Ever Made (now taking nominations)

[clowd]

Ive had this idea for a while, but I thought it would be better if it the results were the product of a community, and not my own.

The idea is to compile the 50 best reasons why we think Final Fantasy VII is the greatest game ever made

Anything can be a reason, from a single character to a single piece of music, a location, a moment or scene, or even a weapon.

The idea is once we have a large list of reasons together, in a separate thread they will be listed for members to vote on in order. If you list Cloud Strife as your #1 reason why Final Fantasy VII is the greatest game ever, that reason will receive 50 points. If your 50th best reason is the Buster Sword, that reason will receive 1 point. The ballot of every member will be counted and the 50 reasons why Final Fantasy VII is the greatest game ever will be released.

Reasons must only come from the orginal 1997 game. Anything from sequels, spinoffs, animes, books, mangas, or movies are not allowed.

To Start things off, here are some basic reasons. Remember the idea in this thread is to get a comprehensive list of things that make Final Fantasy VII so great. There are a few things, like how the game took you through everyone's background, that are hard to categorize. If you have any suggestions how to do so, then please do tell.

To make looking for something that is already listed easier, I will list the reasons in categories. Everything will be in alphabetical order.

Request away, I will keep it updated. Any suggestions for new categories etc I will add.

Battle

Enemy Skills
Limit Breaks
Materia System
Simple, but engaging
Summon Sequences
Top-level materia (i.e. Bahamut ZERO, KotR)
Total class customisation

Characters

Aeris Gainsborough
Barret Wallace
Biggs
Bugenhagen
Cait Sith
Cetra
Choco Bill
Choco Billy
Chole
Cloud Strife
Cid Highwind
Don Corneo
Dyne
Elena
Elmyra
Heidegger
Hojo
Jenova
Jessie
Johnny
Kotch
Lucrecia Crescent
Marlene Wallace
Mayor Domino
Mr. Holzoff
Mukki
NPCs

Spoiler

I could write a book about them, but just take for example the philosophical, dedicated station guard at Sector 7, and contrastr him with all those surfer dudes and beach bunnies in Costa wo just don't give a shit about anything but their own good time. There are the ones who have been broken by Shinra and have sunk into apathy and despair, and the ones who still believe that Shinra will save them from everything. Comparisons are odious, but in none of the other games have the NPCs captured my imagination like the ones in FFVII. - LicoriceAllsorts

Palmer
President Shinra
Red XIII
Reeve Tuesti
Reno
Rude
Rufus
Scarlett
Scotch
Sephiroth
Seto
SOLDIER (1st, 2nd, 3rd Class)
Tifa Lockhart
Tseng
Turks
Vincent Valentine
Wedge
Yuffie Kisargi
Zangan
Zack Fair

Enemies

Diamond WEAPON
Emerald WEAPON
Ruby WEAPON
Sapphire WEAPON
Ultima WEAPON

Gameplay

The ability to change how a character reacts to you.
The ability to have a character you showed generosity towards and hit on like you enough to date you.

Graphics

3D World Map
FMVs
Graphics that show, but do not choke imagination
Prerendered backgrounds

Legacy

Helped bring JRPGs to the mainstream
Original copies being sold for as high as $500
Still learning new things about the game even today

Mini Games

Basketball
Boxing
Chocobo Betting
Chocobo Breeding
Chocobo Racing
Fort Condor Battles
Hardy Daytona Bike Battle
Mog
Snow boarding
Submarine

Moments

Aeris' Death
Barret mourns Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie
Cait Sith giving the key to the ancients to Tseng
Cait Sith's Death in the Temple of Ancients
Cid Highwind's Rocket Story about how it ended up tilted over
Cloud's date with Aerith/Tifa
Cloud meets Aeris for the first time
Cloud cross-dressing
Cloud remembers the truth about the Nibelheim Incident , how he threw Sephiroth into the reactor
Diamond WEAPON's attack on Midgar
Dyne's suicide/encounter with Barret
Ending FMV
Escaping Shinra Tower FMV
Jenova escapes Shinra building
Opening FMV
Parachuting into Midgar
Prelude credits
Red XIII/Nanaki Learns the Truth about Seto
Sapphire WEAPON's attack on Junon
Seeing Jenova for the first time in the Nibelheim reactor
Seeing Jenova for the first time in the Shinra Building
Sector 7 Pillar collapse
Sephiroth frees Jenova from Nibelheim reactor
Sephiroth walks through the fire
Tifa helps Cloud find himself in the lifestream
WEAPON's Escape from North Crater
Zack's death/flashback in Nibelheim basement

Music

Anxious Heart
Aeris' Theme
Birth of a God
Cid's Theme
Crazy Motorcycle Chase
Electric de Chocobo
Highwind Takes to the Skies
J-E-N-O-V-A
Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII
One Winged Angel
Reunion
Still More Fighting
The Great Warrior
Those Chosen by the Planet
Tifa's Theme
Trail of Blood
Turk's Theme
Underneath the Rotting Pizza
You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet

Places

Aeris' church in Sector 5
Battle Arena
Bone Village
City of the Ancients
Chocobo Ranch
Corel
Corel Prison
Cosmo Canyon
Costa Del Sol
Fort Condor
Golden Saucer
Gongaga
Icicle Inn
Junon
Kalm
Mideel
Midgar
Mt. Nibel
Nibelheim
Northern Crater
Rocket Town
Sector 7 Slums
Shinra Tower
Temple of the Ancients
Wall Market
Wutai

Story

Campy
Elements of Horror
Elements of Science Fiction
Epic
Exposition
Lifestream mythology
Love Triangle
Mako mythology
Pace
Significance of its themes to contemporary life
Transition from fighting a tyrant megacorporation to saving the world to going after one man to settle personal issues

Vehicles

Chocobo (Blue, Green, Black, Gold)
Hardy Daytona
Highwind
Submarine
Tiny Bronco

Weapons

Apocalypse
Buster Sword
Gatling Gun
Junon Cannon
Masamune
Meteor
Sister Ray
Ultimate Weapon (Cloud's)

 

[Kobato]

CLOUD X SEPHIROTH YAOI. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Crossdressing male leads.

 

[Elisa Maza]

Three-dimensional characters, decent storytelling (exposition works decently when it exists, here it exists only a little), graphics that show, but not choke imagination, simple, but engaging battle system that smashes classes (MATERIA FTW)

... Seth/Nanaki scene. ;_;

A lot of story, side quests and mini games.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Submarines are the shit!

 

[Fangu]

The Cid and the Rocket story. That blew my mind more than the Nanaki and his father- scenes.

Also, The Turks.

And there are more music that could be on the music list - the voting for the best pieces of FFVII can probably be a roadmap here.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

ummmmm I mean the Cetra......
No JENOVA
NO UMMMM SEFIRUFFF!
FUCK GACKT ERRRRRRRRRRR GENESIS

Aw balls.

Aliens.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Electric de Chocobo
Cid's theme

The pace of the plotting, especially in the whole first Midgar segment

Sapphire Weapon's attack on Junon - favourite FMV ever.

The significance of its themes to contemporary life

The awesome NPCs. I could write a book about them, but just take for example the philosophical, dedicated station guard at Sector 7, and contrastr him with all those surfer dudes and beach bunnies in Costa wo just don't give a shit about anything but their own good time. There are the ones who have been broken by Shinra and have sunk into apathy and despair, and the ones who still believe that Shinra will save them from everything. Comparisons are odious, but in none of the other games have the NPCs captured my imagination like the ones in FFVII.

 

[Alex]

Total class customisation.

Gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds that make every single background gorgeous and unique.

Great story that shines through a bad translation and occasional catastrophic blunders in pacing.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Dave Strider!























What are we talking about again?

 

[Flintlock]

The "characters" section seems to be a list of almost all the significant characters in the game. Personally I would not say that Scarlet is one of the things that makes FFVII great - I can think of dozens of characters from other FF games, or other games in general, who are more interesting than her.

It seems a somewhat strange way to compile a list, just asking everybody to throw reasons onto the list. It'll end up being representative of nobody. Wouldn't it be better to ask people to nominate a top ten, for example, and give reasons, with a list then being made from the ones that get most nominated?

Sorry if I'm being picky. This, however:

Reasons must only come from the orginal 1997 game. Anything from sequels, spinoffs, animes, books, mangas, or movies are not allowed.

I completely approve of

 

[Unlucky]

It seems a somewhat strange way to compile a list, just asking everybody to throw reasons onto the list. It'll end up being representative of nobody. Wouldn't it be better to ask people to nominate a top ten, for example, and give reasons, with a list then being made from the ones that get most nominated?

I second this Also for a quicker and less complicated way of coming up with results

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

amazing graphixcs

 

[clowd]

Thanks guys, I've add all the suggestions so far.

The "characters" section seems to be a list of almost all the significant characters in the game. Personally I would not say that Scarlet is one of the things that makes FFVII great - I can think of dozens of characters from other FF games, or other games in general, who are more interesting than her.

The list in the 1st post is suppose to be an end all list of everything that could have possibly made Final Fantasy VII great. That way, when people vote in a different topic they have a comprehensive list of everything to look over so nothing is forgotten or left out.

It seems a somewhat strange way to compile a list, just asking everybody to throw reasons onto the list. It'll end up being representative of nobody. Wouldn't it be better to ask people to nominate a top ten, for example, and give reasons, with a list then being made from the ones that get most nominated?

The list is just nominations, people will vote on their favorites in a different topic when it seems there isn't much more left to nominate. In that topic they can list up to 50 reasons in order taken from these nominations and give their explanation for each if they want to.

 

[Celes Chere]

CLOUD X SEPHIROTH YAOI. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.

 

[Soakette]

The Turks.

 

[Kobato]

C'mon Tiff. I know you like that sexy spiky blonde hair man being tied up while Sephy rubs his naked body

 

[Carlie]

Zack's one scene wonder.

 

[Celes Chere]

C'mon Tiff. I know you like that sexy spiky blonde hair man being tied up while Sephy rubs his naked body

Spoiler

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

 

[Kai Schulen]

Cloud. Just Cloud himself.

Cloud and Tifa's Lifestream scene. Even when I was 10, that sequence of events just blew my mind. Still does even now.

 

[Kobato]

@ Tiff.

i was joking.

Being serious now, i think one of the best moments in FF VII has to be the escape from the Shrina BLDG, with the motorbike. It was fun, exciting, unexpected and a really fun mini game and boss fight to follow. c:

Also it was pretty badass too. Cloud's motorbike was ten times cooler than the one that he gets later in AC imo.

 

[looneymoon]

the love triangle debate

 

[Masamune]

The fact we're still discovering new things about this game (largely thanks to Shademp) to this day!

 

[Kain Strife]

The ability to change how a character reacts to you. The ability to have a character you showed generosity towards and hit on like you enough to date you.