FF7 - over-rated or under-rated?

Final Fantasy VII is under-rated a majority of the time. I really do this people just can't look past the box graphics...

What can I say though... I love this game. 'Tis my first RPG and to this day is the best I've ever played.
 
Synlea said:
Final Fantasy VII is under-rated a majority of the time. I really do this people just can't look past the box graphics...

What can I say though... I love this game. 'Tis my first RPG and to this day is the best I've ever played.
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I don't think they can put into perspectives that it was a relatively early PSX game. Really ridiculous. Graphics is such a bias means to judge it by.

Honstly speaking, the game still holds up pretty well today. FF7 has a plotline far more complex than most games today. The character development given to these characters is seldom matched, IMO. The gameplay remains as exciting as an RPG gets. I mean, it's a genuine enjoyment even now.

And hell, even the cinema or in-battle graphics, are pretty solid, especially given the time in which it came from.

One thing that's certainly undeniable about it, is that the game was revolutionary for its time.
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Personally, I don't think it's overrated. I mean, there's a reason why it's on most game sites "top 10 of all time". I think it's ONLY overrated by the fanboys who worship it.
 
FF7 Overrated?

Eh, maybe a little. It was a good game, but it doesn't diserve the huge fanbase cult following it has. Materia system was pretty good (better than the junction and draw system of FF8)

FF8 is the most overrated Final Fantasy of all of them. It was a huge disappointment. Lowest selling of all the FFs FF7<

Junction system? Crap. Draw System? Crap.
 
Very overrated. Mostly because it was either the first FF people played, or that it was the first 3D FF. Nostalgia makes it overrated, look at it objectively, and it ain't so great (maybe not the worst, but fár from the best).

Mokken said:
FF8 is the most overrated Final Fantasy of all of them. It was a huge disappointment. Lowest selling of all the FFs FF7<
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No, it is the most underrated FF of all of them, it was a nice upgrade after 7. And lowest selling of all the FFs? What have you been smoking?
 
It's really overrated by the fanboys who think it's the greatest thing to ever grace electronics.

It's underrated by the people who hate it for being overrated. I used to be like that, but once I sat down and actually played it, I was immersed in it. It's a great game. I wouldn't say it's THE best FF, but it's up there.
 
Overrated. Definetly.

It's not a bad game The story is exciting and keeps you playing. However the gameplay has major flaws. The spells are almost rendered completely useless, due to summons and the enemy skill materia and the characters only differ in weapons and Limit Breaks.

Although the general story is alright, most characters are walking stereotype bombs. Cloud the typical Anime/JRPG hero, Sephiroth the typical Bishie villain, Barret the bad tempered black guy, Vincent the wannabe goth/vampire and so on...The only characters that are not completely cliché are Cid, Aeris, Cait Sith and Red XIII.
But especially Cloud and Sephiroth get on my nerves with their stereotypical angsting. And don't get me started on the Fanboys and girls.
The storyline itself is quite entertaining, even though its philosophical attempts are shallow. Xenogears' and FFX' story are much, much better.

The artwork and general design of FF7 never really convinced me. The Cyberpunk and sometimes even Sci-Fi like setting is just a little too plain and uncreative imo. I clearly prefer the mystical and religious setting of FFX. It seems far more creative.

Even though there are plenty of side quests, most them are small and annoying. And the sense in fullfilling them is questionable, because there are only 2 optional super bosses.
 
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You FF7 fans - be my guest and call me a graphic whore or retard or whatever but FF7 is overrated to no end.

Story:
I have no idea for what reason everyone seems to go nuts about this story all the time. Everything comes down to a boring 3rd class cartoon show story about following the bad guy around the world.
Letting one of the characters die was actualy a pretty nice idea - well it would have been if Aeris wasn't one of the most annoying characters in the game and if the characters reacted to her death...

Characters:
What do we have here...
Whiny Emo with big fucking sword? Check
Busty fanservice generator without personality? check
Cliche serving 24/7-badmooded muscle headed black guy? check
I won't continue this list for the sake of space but I think you get the picture. Even if you don't care that these characters have nothing to do with each other despite their hatred against Shinra, don't you find it dull that they don't have any profile outside the cliche they serve, either? No matter what, Cloud and Vincent are always Emo, Yuffie is constantly on her happy-happy-drug and so on.

Gameplay:
The Materia System has some good thoughts but unfortunatly the developers didn't think most of them all the way through.
Its extremly annoying to switch Materia with another character and multiplying and mastering the materia takes way too long.

Minigames:
This is the worst part of the entire game. Lots and lots of minigames. Why didn't they invest the space this shit takes to make the materia or the battle system better. Or maybe think about some way to make the characters different from each other in battle.

Abilitys:
Yeah i mentioned it already in the last paragraph. Why are there no differences in the gameplay of the characters? Aside from their Limit Breaks and range of their weapons all character are exactly the same. Everything only comes down to what Materia they have.
 
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I have to ask, have you even played more then a couple hours of VII with your complaints? VII has faults sure but some of yours aren't even valid.

In VII, cloud is not emo. (Jesus christ has that word been overused and lost all meaning.)

What was wrong with Cloud as a protagonist? Aside from a brief stint as 'amoral merc' near the start which got dropped about as soon as we met Tifa (and was gone for good as soon as we met Aeris), he was A-OK until mid Disc 2 where he got mind-raped. And once Tifa helps him get his mind back, he doesn't fuck around, either. Cloud isn't Squall. He knew how to snark, he knew how to laugh, he knew how to act awkward around girls, he knew how to get shit done.

Only in AC is cloud a mopey (emo) bitch.

The ability system was designed in such a way that you could choose your favorite characters and still play the game rather then being forced to use cloud/tifa/barret or something like that in order to finish. Sure the characters lose some of their uniqueness, but its an understandable design philosophy.

I'm not saying you're wrong that its overrated (Because it is) But some of your complaints are just laughable.
 
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So tell me, what complain of mine is laughable? The characters ARE flatter than a sheet of paper, the story is a simple follow-the-baddie-around-Storyline and 99% of the mini games just suck ass.

While talking about the characters, look at FF6. You can choose whatever character you like and make him whatever you like. Spellcaster, warrior, whatever but everyone still has his own unique skills.

I don't take FF7's Limit breaks as an excuse, since they are all essentially the same, too. They differ only in the way you pull them off and sometimes in the way they damage the enemy. Yeah there are a bunch of support effects but those are too few in number to take into account.

I finished FF7 1,5 times (got a better game in the middle of my second playthrough and totally forgot about VII) and i don't necessarily hate FF7 as the game it is. It's a substandard FF/RPG (in my opinion) but not worth hating. I hate it for being overhyped to no end and stealing the attention from other great FFs/RPGs like FF4 or 9
 
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I say its both

no its not the greatest game probably not even rpg but if u played the game at the time it was released and
saw aerith die
when u wernt expecting u would be lik, holy shit did that jus really happen? I mean u usually didnt see that in video games.

anyways i havnt played enough video games or rpgs to call it the best or not officially
 
Slaughterer Exodus said:
Story:
I have no idea for what reason everyone seems to go nuts about this story all the time. Everything comes down to a boring 3rd class cartoon show story about following the bad guy around the world.
Letting one of the characters die was actualy a pretty nice idea - well it would have been if Aeris wasn't one of the most annoying characters in the game and if the characters reacted to her death...
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I C Wat U Did Thar

FF6 - Magikz is the key to everything! Get it to defeat the growing Empire! Kefka's king of Magikz! Defeat him & everything is reverted!

FF8 - Someone's trying to take over the other nations. Get her! Oh nose! She's possessed! By someone from the future?? Get them now!

FF9 - Deliver the princess for like the entire first disc, all so she could be told that her Kingdom sucks! But the queen was being manipulated! Kuja from another world wants to destroy this wunz! Get 'em!

FFX - Linear plotline! Go from point A to B to C to D to E to F so that we can get the Final Aeon to defeat a long time bad guy!

Any plotline broken down into its very basic goal could be shed in the light of ridicule. While I sauced the above descriptions more than you did there, ALL of these games - stripped from their substance, are your basic "Save the world" schemes. In essence, each one ultimately has a "get the bad guy(s)" goal throughout.

And yet behind that "cartoon" mockery, you failed to really create any argument as to why the plot lacks in comparison to any of the others. Instead, you decided to use a single motive throughout a stretch in the game to make it appear mundane, while addressing a SINGLE scene, in which you gave your subjective opinion on. Well done.

Whiny Emo with big fucking sword? Check
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Wow. What made Cloud emo? Short of words on occasion does not make someone emo.
Busty fanservice generator without personality? check
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How's this? She was one track-minded in that Cloud was her biggest concern - yeah, that's something she even admits to at one point. But her personality showed through in plenty of situations. Just look at the change in her character during Cloud's slump.

Cliche serving 24/7-badmooded muscle headed black guy? check
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LOL! This was a cliche in 1996-7??

I won't continue this list for the sake of space but I think you get the picture.
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Please don't, because all you've managed to do was rehash the typical argument circulated on the FF7-hating areas of the internutz. And time and time again, it just doesn't hold water.

For starters, almost none of these characters were cliche during their time.

They all had individual personalities, varied in opinions and perspectives, carried with them separate motives, etc... Each with their own backstory that helped explain who they are "today". I can easily cite examples to any of this, if you'd like. They were as fleshed out as game characters get. If I'm wrong, tell me other FFs or even RPGs that gave characters such focus or depth.

And you talk like the Shinra thing was some feint commonality for them to get behind, and it's not like that was the only thing:

-Cloud was a merc, explaining his tie in to Avalanche, the anti-Shinra group. Tifa acted as their support. Both characters also wanted personal revenge on Sephiroth for all that he'd done to their lives.
-Barret, who led Avalanche, was obviously very concerned about the state of the planet (he also had "debts" to repay), and that made him a natural enemy to both Shinra and Sephiroth.
-Cait Sith's tie in to Shinra is self-explanatory, and his care and concern for people as a whole was expressed consistently in the latter half of the game.
- Vincent had HUGE tie ins to both Shinra and Sephiroth. So much so that explaining either would be spoilers.

The only character who had no real "belonging" was the OPTIONAL Yuffie. That's nothing compared to most games. Care to tell me what banded together the characters of any other FF?

Gameplay:
The Materia System has some good thoughts but unfortunatly the developers didn't think most of them all the way through.
Its extremly annoying to switch Materia with another character and multiplying and mastering the materia takes way too long.
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LOL, all you've essentially said here was: Switching materia between characters is tiresome (which is NOTHING, especially with "Arrange/Exchange"), and "mastering them is hard", which just sounds like whining. The first is a very minor thing, and the second is just work, which should be expected from an RPG that hopes to have ANY level of difficulty. Because the payoff from most Materia is gold, and the ones that don't offer anything - well then don't master them.

Minigames:
This is the worst part of the entire game. Lots and lots of minigames. Why didn't they invest the space this shit takes to make the materia or the battle system better. Or maybe think about some way to make the characters different from each other in battle.
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Really not that many. And all of them only have to be played through ONCE. The motorcycle bit, the Submarine bit, the Battle Square bit, the Chocobo bit - they're all relevant in their initial inclusion (especially the first two), and don't even have to be revisited after such. This is nothing.

Abilitys:
Yeah i mentioned it already in the last paragraph. Why are there no differences in the gameplay of the characters? Aside from their Limit Breaks and range of their weapons all character are exactly the same. Everything only comes down to what Materia they have.
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There are definite differences in the characters that can cause differences in approach to each character.

Barret is one of the strongest in the game. And his high HP makes him a tank. He has no skill with materia, and shouldn't be made to work with it. He has long and close range weapons that vary his position depending on what you use him for.

Vincent is a back-row ace. He possesses only long-range weapons, and has punishing attack stats. Additionally, he's materia-competent. He can deal a lot of damage, without receiving the same.

Aeris had poor attack stats. But she sustains minimal backlash from equipping materia - which she can handle very well. She was the closest thing to a pure magic user. This and her defensive limit breaks made her a back-row "magician" candidate.

^ These are only examples, but each character's kinks allowed them to fulfill different roles. It's more that you can get by without using them to their potential, or that any of them can work successfully in battles.

And even if that fact takes away from their differences, then that just means the game wasn't trying to force anyone on you (sans for a few characters' particular plot-related segments). In that case, it becomes a purely subjective matter. I for one, wouldn't want to have to use a character I don't fucking like simply because they're a white magic user.

But there's one other thing you're forgetting about with character difference: A lot of character customization lies in the materia equipped. The armor provides different structures and grids that allow you to create different materia combinations for different purposes. Different Independent and Support materias can pair with Different Summons and Magics on a character to make them very different in battle. In this way, the "use" individuality of a character in battle is largely tied heavily to FF7's unique materia system. Very practical.
 
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Damn.....first day back on these forums in months, and I see all the threads that I'm interested in posting my opinions in, Highwind Pilot already beat me to it. You did essentially the exact same thing I wanted to do, and more than likely worded it better than I would've. Nice job, I agree with you 100%.

Let me see if I can add anything else. *SPOILERS WILL BE REVEALED, READ FOLLOWING AT YOUR OWN RISK*

As for what S. Exodus was saying about the support characters not having any real backround, let's think about this for a second.......they're SUPPORT characters and not the focal point of the story. That being said, every support character in the game with the exception of Vincent (Apart from the waterfall and basement scenes) got a whole segment and mission in the game where they revealed a HELL of of a whole lot about their pasts. Want me to go into detail? No problem;

Aeris: This was also one of the focal characters in the game, she got the scene in her house where her mom tells the story of when she found her. She also got a scene (optional) after her death where it explains what happenned to her from the time she was born until the time Elmyra found her. And as far as character development goes, though she had a limited amount of time in the game, she goes from a person that is unsure what she is and what she wants to do, to a person that knows her past, understands her present and decides to fight for the future alone due to the fact that she understands her destiny, and the legacy she represents by having the blood of the Cetra coursing her veins. This was a character who when we meet her, she is scared to take on a Shinra infintry man, to a person that takes it upon herself to confront and stand up to quite possibly the most powerful entity the planet has ever faced, and she decides to do it alone. Annoying my ass.

Tifa: This character has about as much backround revealed as Cloud does. Everytime the game reveals something about Cloud, something is revealed about Tifa being that they're childhood 'friends'. She gets the scene where Cloud flashbacks about Nibelheim in Kalm. She also has the scene in the whirlwind maze when Sephiroth reveals to Cloud the truth about what happened in Nibelheim 5 years ago. The scene in the lifestream when Cloud gets his true memory back. And if she (and also Aeris) are in your party when you go into Zack's parents' house you learn a little more. She develops from a character that is scared to tell Cloud the her feelings, to being able to the night before they go to the crater to take on Sephiroth. Not to mention the previously stated depression she goes through after the events that Cloud dissapears up until he gets his memory back.

Barret: Gets the spotlight as the leader of AVALANCHE throughout your time in Midgar and how he interacts and cares for his men Jessie, Biggs, & Wedge as well as the love he has for Marlene. Cliche black dude huh? What about the fact that he was a sentimental person sheding tears for his fallen men, for Tifa when he thought she was gonna be executed in Junon, and how he shows shame for having to leave Marlene alone all the time. The Corel Prison scene and the scene in Corel also give a good amount of insight on his past. A lot of his motives are revealed when he meets Dyne as well. He goes from someone who wants so badly to be a leader, to someone big enough to swallow his pride and except that he's no leader and hands the title over to Cid.

I can honestly go on, but it would be nothing more than ranting at this point in my opinion, so I'll just stop there about the characters. If you feel you need more proof, I'll happily finish up on the other characters.

Point of the matter is you feel this game is overrated because you dont like it. Which is okay. Im not saying your opinion wrong, but I dont agree with it. But all you've done to back up your reasons that the game is overrated is state childish opinions that really hold no water and are borderline wrong.
 
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Barring my intro, my first post!

Don't get me wrong, FFVII is a very fine game, but my own opinion is that I like VIII and IX better.

I think the soundtracks of both of these games are probably Sir Nobuo Uematsu's finest ever, alongside FFVI's. Dancing Mad stands out to me as the best final boss music of the collection

For me, the storyline of FFVII doesn't seem as gripping as VIII (and I don't go for the soppy romance!) or as fun as IX.

I won't attack the graphics being chunky, as I don't go for them anyway (much less so on an RPG)

I think Ultimecia was also a better antagonist than Sephiroth. If Kuja looked less feminine, I'd elevate him over Sephiroth. Not a bad villan, but I was more interested in the Time Compression agenda of Ultimecia.

I also think that Square are flogging VII a bit too much. A movie and maybe one follow up game, OK. But two follow ups - DoC and CC(one of which I believe to be the sequel to the sequel movie of the game).

Just my 2 cents on that people *runs to hide under the bed*
 
I believe it is over-rated. I liked it, but not that much. What I like more though, is the prequel. Crisis Core exceeded this game.
 
This is just a warning to those who keep continuing to spam the thread please stop now. If it continues you will each be issued infractions. The spam/non-relative posts have been deleted. Please keep the thread on topic. Thank you.
 
Though this guy may have been banned, I'll answer his question out of respect anyway. I love FF 7, it's the best one, not my favorite though... But I'm still gonna say it's a tiny bit over-rated. I believe people only give it such praise because it was the first really good one, the first one in 3D. But I still think each one ahead of hit except 8 was able to out do it. 8 was not bad at all, very good actually, but the only one that could not out-do number 7.
 
HighwindPilot said:
How so? In what way?
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Well the reason why I believe that 8 couldn't do it, was because that FF 8 was too much like FF 7. They had the "soldier" type badguys, and then the "Sephiroth" type badguy. It's the only one in a while that didn't really change their story. Plus, I didn't enjoy the battle system. I'm the type of guy that likes to lvl my people up high and then own everybody, in FF8, I was forced to lvl up my guys, and keep fighting at the same difficulty lvl. I was over lvl 20 before I even fought the mechanical spider on the bridge in the begenning and even those guys became a challenge. I'm sorry man, It was a great game, but I just don't enjoy that type of system.
 
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