Is Final Fantasy VII overrated?

Huge spoilers for BoFIV!

Fou-lu was a god. He was summoned to unite the continent and stuff. But being only half-complete didn't really help him and he had to restore his powers for a while until his other half shows up. Hundreds of years later the war is still going on, people have forgotten it's purpose and they are out to kill him too. Now, killing a god is rather stupid, especially if he has good intentions (stop the war, make the world a better place). The first few attempts teach Fou-lu there are some major assholes running the empire. Then they sacrifice his first true love in order to kill him. That's when he pretty much snaps and decides the world is better off without humans.

The difference between him and good old Sephy? Sephiroth was a respected person, yes, he was used, but I bet his life wasn't all that crappy. He could have used his power and influence in a different way, he could have helped himself and the planet without Meteor. I mean, the planet was doing just fine without Shinra, wasn't it? It would have been more logical to fight people like Hojo and all of humanity. But, yeah, in his defense, mako/the lifestream can't be good for your mental health.
 
Well, if we considered the "life" that Sephiroth had when he was younger, we don't actually know what it's like. Most people assume it must be horrible, since he was with Hojo, who was treating him like his pet project.

And this would be before he joined SOLDIER.
 
There's no way that this game is over rated. This is one of the best Final Fantasy games ever created in my opinion. This game is so good there's no way you could call it over rated. Now a game that is over rated would be Halo 2. That game was too over rated for me.
 
Are you Crazy overrated it was the best one oh man now you got me mad im gunna be cursin all night now man you are so odd is it overrated it made the dang series god what is the matter with you sheesh!!!!!!!!
 
WTF? All that in one sentence? I didn't think it was possible without commas (,).

FF7 is somewhat overrated by the few, and then theres those who don't say its overrated. The game was a great game for its time, and I was just playing in a month ago, having as much fun as back in 1997.

The graphics were great, but not realistic, and I actually liked the blocky characters, I though they were funny, and when you have a story like that it never hearts to laugh.

Speaking of it the story was a good one. It had some cliches in it, but don't act like alot of other games don't have them too. So lets not think about those.

But the real fact is, some people overrate it, "Its the greatest!" and some peolple, like myself, just play it and have fun with it, so lets all be like me and have fun!!!
 
ummm i think its not overrated... gamers who have played this game during its freshness years have different experience compared to those who played it in the later years up to present.
 
Yeah, it's pretty overrated. Apart from being far more successful in creating a 'cinematic experience' than previous instalments in the series, everything in FFVII had been done just as well or better in FFVI. A pity really; if the game had maintained the momentum and creativity it displayed up until the party left Midgar it could have possibly been the best game in the series.
 
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I disagree on it being overrated in any standard. Final Fantasy VII put Square on the map as a company back in 1997, it also gave rise to rpg's as being the most popular genre at the time just look at how many rpg's sprang up within 1998-1999...there was alot, especially when comparing it to the two previous years before FFVII's release. It was also the game that turned the tide with the competetion between the PSX and the Saturn.

It was Final Fantasy VII that did this, just look at any other great rpg that came before, and look at the impact they made compared to this rpg? Infact, why don't we look at any rpg that came after and even up until now into 2006...none has even made the impact that Final Fantasy VII has, and I highly doubt that I will ever see another one do the samething again.

To me, this is no different then (will go off alittle off the FF subject, but it pertains to what I am trying to point out) when Street Fighter II hit the arcade scene back in 1991. Street Fighter II was the single game that brought arcades out of the gutter that they where in comming out from the late 80's, I mean, I remember being alittle 9 yr old back during that year and the arcades where just jam packed, everyone wanted to see what the fuss was all about, and you even had other people standing on top of other arcade machines just so they could watch the game in action.

SFII revolutionized the entire gaming industry, not only that, but it was the single game that made Capcom the #1 company at the time. It also made fighting games the most demanded and most popular genre during the early and mid 90's, and again, I don't think I'll ever see anything like this again.

Given, Final Fantasy VII's boom may not have been as dominant as Street Fighter II's , however they both played a huge impact into pushing their genres to the forefront. Let's face it, rpg's although before FFVII had some spectacular games, but rpg's as a whole where not very popular within the video game industry, if we just look from before VII came out, to what takes place after, we would see a huge difference in how rpg's is viewed.

To me, I believe it is not overrated in any sense, it brought rpg's to the forefront, it was the first of it's genre that got other people who didn't even care about rpg's to stop and say "Wow, what's that game?"
 
You're giving those games a lot of credit, the genres wouldn't have survived because of those two games alone. They revitalised the interest, yes, but the interest would have died again if the 'revolution' had stopped there. You can't play the same game forever.

What would the fighting genre be like today without games like Guilty Gear and Soul Calibur? Other Final Fantasies and several other RPGs also made an impact. There was, for instance, Disgaea, the SRPG that not only revitalised the SRPG genre but also opened up the way for other, more niche RPGs. The succes of Disgaea was one of the reasons why Koei decided to publish NISA games in Europe, not to mention NISA probably wouldn't have existed without the succes of Disgaea. Other publishers were inspired, 505Gamestreet releases a lot of Atlus RPGs nowadays while Ghostlight takes care of the MegaTen releases. It's something nobody could have imagined in the PSone era, back in those days even Squaresoft didn't trust the European gamer enough to publish games like Chrono Cross! Actually, if there is one RPG publisher that is lagging behind in Europe, it's Square Enix.

Final Fantasy VII showed that the RPG genre wasn't old-fashioned, that RPGs could be flashy and exciting. Disgaea proved you don't need a big budget to sell, that there are plenty of gamers who are interested in fun and fresh games.
 
It's not overrated, you're just rating it on what the fanboys claim it to be. I can assure you, it's not a perfect game. Nothing is. It was open to more character development yes, but minimal development at that. You can't expect it to have the greatest of graphics-it's a PS1 game for crying out loud. The materia system was not twinked in any way (except for mime) but I believe that was put in there on purpose just so you could kill the Weapons. There's room for improvement yes, but there always is; no way getting around that.
You should start looking at what it has, not what it doesn't have. You'll soon see why it got such a high rating in the first place.
 
FF7 is not overrated...its obvious. i think it is underrated. in '97, it was great, now, its great. enough said, its possibly the best ff also. =)

no its not overrated, it might be the best FF!:lol:

Hey Reno the Turk, can you do me a huge favor and please use the edit button when you make another post? It's against the rules to post one right after the other in the forums if you have more to say. Thanks and welcome to FFF :)
~Lady Aerith~
 
Tomara said:
You're giving those games a lot of credit, the genres wouldn't have survived because of those two games alone. They revitalised the interest, yes, but the interest would have died again if the 'revolution' had stopped there. You can't play the same game forever.
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Your right, they didn't survive because of those two games alone, however those very two games where the ones that pushed their entire genre into the limelight, which is true in everyway. Look at fighting games from 1991(SF2's debut) all the way through to 1996. They where easily the most popular fighting genre of all time, and the single game that made the biggest impact was SF2:WW from 1991. Back in 1990, the arcades where on the verge of dying and many places went out of business, however Street Fighter 2 was the single game that brought everyone back to the arcade scene.

Same is stated with Final Fantasy VII, look at the rpg genre before hand, and then after FFVII, before FFVII, Fighting games was the most demanded genre without question, after FFVII, it broke the rpg genre's into the limelight, just look at how many rpg's spawned from 97 onward and comparing it from the years before 97, there is a very big difference.

Tomara said:
What would the fighting genre be like today without games like Guilty Gear and Soul Calibur?
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What would Guilty Gear and Soul Calibur be without Street Fighter. Look at Sol's Uppercut...looks alot like a shoryuken right? Look at SoulCalibur's Misturugi's ss vertical attack, looks very similair to a Shoryuken too right? How about the input command for Ky's Fireball...the exact same motion used for Ryu and Ken's fireball motion from Street Fighter 2:WW. Also, Compare Guilty Gear's and Soul Calibur's impact to Street Fighter II, then you come back and tell me again.

Tomara said:
Other Final Fantasies and several other RPGs also made an impact.
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Yes, they did, but how many rpg's before VII made the same impact as it did? The answer is None, that is the point that I'm trying to get too, VII pushed rpg's into the forefront, and made it become the most popular genre going out of 97. These two games from very different genres where the key's that opened the door for their genres bar none. Not overrated at all.
 
TrueSephiros said:
Your right, they didn't survive because of those two games alone, however those very two games where the ones that pushed their entire genre into the limelight, which is true in everyway. Look at fighting games from 1991(SF2's debut) all the way through to 1996. They where easily the most popular fighting genre of all time, and the single game that made the biggest impact was SF2:WW from 1991. Back in 1990, the arcades where on the verge of dying and many places went out of business, however Street Fighter 2 was the single game that brought everyone back to the arcade scene.

Same is stated with Final Fantasy VII, look at the rpg genre before hand, and then after FFVII, before FFVII, Fighting games was the most demanded genre without question, after FFVII, it broke the rpg genre's into the limelight, just look at how many rpg's spawned from 97 onward and comparing it from the years before 97, there is a very big difference.
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I'm not a fighting game expert, so I'll give you that one, but I do know a thing or two about RPGs. In Japan there were many RPGs for the SNES, those RPGs just weren't released in the USA, Canada, Europe etc. After Final Fantasy VII more RPGs were released in the USA, but little changed for Europe. People started buying Final Fantasy, only a handful of adventurous people bought games like Front Mission 3 and Suikoden.

What would Guilty Gear and Soul Calibur be without Street Fighter. Look at Sol's Uppercut...looks alot like a shoryuken right? Look at SoulCalibur's Misturugi's ss vertical attack, looks very similair to a Shoryuken too right? How about the input command for Ky's Fireball...the exact same motion used for Ryu and Ken's fireball motion from Street Fighter 2:WW. Also, Compare Guilty Gear's and Soul Calibur's impact to Street Fighter II, then you come back and tell me again.
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It doesn't matter if I like it or not, but games like Soul Calibur rule the genre now. Street Fighter has more or less faded to the background, perhaps because later installments just didn't meet the level of quality Street Fighter 2 offered. Even if the other games aren't 100% original, they made a name for themselves and the series are developing in their own direction.

Yes, they did, but how many rpg's before VII made the same impact as it did? The answer is None, that is the point that I'm trying to get too, VII pushed rpg's into the forefront, and made it become the most popular genre going out of 97. These two games from very different genres where the key's that opened the door for their genres bar none. Not overrated at all.
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Not on the mainstream audience, no, but I very much doubt RPGs were that popular. Final Fantasy VII made Final Fantasy a wellknown series in the Western countries, people bought the newest installments. Back in Japan there were other series, the market was already there, the game just made the series more popular, it didn't put anything on the map. Dragon Quest VII sold over 3 million copies in Japan, the USA/Canada sales barely reached 100,000, the game was never released in Europe and Australia. There are only a few PSone RPGs that were released as Greatest Hits in the USA, but in hard numbers their sales don't rival those of Final Fantasy. In Europe, there were no other platinum RPGs other than Final Fantasy. Does that say anything? Certainly.
 
Well, I could say that Dragonquest is an overrated series because there's nothing really new in them, as I've been told. I've played Dragonquest VIII and Dragonquest VI (or was it 4 or 5? It's the one for SNES) and I can say that there certainly aren't too many differences. Except that Dragonquest VIII is 3D and has a few more features. But it plays almost exactly the same way. Is this what gamers want to see? Do we want to be fed the same things over and over again from one installment to the next? Probably not. At least FFVII was meant to be different from the previous FF's, and while it's still an RPG, it's not quite the same as FFVI, or 5, or any of the previous ones. Yet despite the repetition in game elements in Dragonquest, it's still popular. I could say that Dragonquest is also overrated.
 
Tomara said:
I'm not a fighting game expert, so I'll give you that one, but I do know a thing or two about RPGs. In Japan there were many RPGs for the SNES, those RPGs just weren't released in the USA, Canada, Europe etc. After Final Fantasy VII more RPGs were released in the USA, but little changed for Europe. People started buying Final Fantasy, only a handful of adventurous people bought games like Front Mission 3 and Suikoden.
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Case and point, FFVII was the first single rpg to become popular outside of the "handful" of players. How many players knew of Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy VI(III at the time, or know that it was actually VI instead of III for that matter). This is my point, VII's impact cannot be denied, we see a big difference in how rpg's where viewed after VII's release, to before hand, plain and simple.

Tomara said:
It doesn't matter if I like it or not, but games like Soul Calibur rule the genre now. Street Fighter has more or less faded to the background, perhaps because later installments just didn't meet the level of quality Street Fighter 2 offered. Even if the other games aren't 100% original, they made a name for themselves and the series are developing in their own direction.
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No, Soul Calibur does not rule the fighting game Genre, and neither does Guilty Gear. On the competetive level, Street Fighter and King of Fighters series are the two most highly played fighting game series world wide this means in the USA, Asia, Europe etc, etc...and guess what, they are the two oldest fighting game series.

Also, Soul Calibur nor Guilty Gear has made as much of an impact that can even remotely rival what Street Fighter II did back in 1991, I'm not talking about "what's not about what's popular now". I'm talking about which game made the most impact, and SF2>>>>>All other fighting games.

Later installments not meeting the requirements of SF2???? :huh: Ever heard of Street Fighter III 3rdStrike...most popular fighting game in the competetive tournaments for 3 years and counting. 3rdStrike is what...8 years old, and it recieved more competetion than Soul Calibur III and Tekken 5 in 2005 and Tekken5 was released in late 04, with SCIII in 05...goes to show how popular SF really is.

Tomara said:
Not on the mainstream audience, no, but I very much doubt RPGs were that popular. Final Fantasy VII made Final Fantasy a wellknown series in the Western countries, people bought the newest installments. Back in Japan there were other series, the market was already there, the game just made the series more popular, it didn't put anything on the map. Dragon Quest VII sold over 3 million copies in Japan, the USA/Canada sales barely reached 100,000, the game was never released in Europe and Australia. There are only a few PSone RPGs that were released as Greatest Hits in the USA, but in hard numbers their sales don't rival those of Final Fantasy. In Europe, there were no other platinum RPGs other than Final Fantasy. Does that say anything? Certainly.
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Rpg's where only popular within Japan before VII which shows a great indication of what that game did to the genre. Just because it did well in Japan means nothing, Electronic Arts games does incredibly well here in the US, however it does absolute garbage in Japan. Virtua Fighter does great in Japan, however outside of Japan, it completely fails. It didn't put anything on the map? You do know that the PSX won the competetion from the Sega Saturn because a big play in part was due to Final Fantasy VII right?

Before Final Fantasy VII, Square was not a very well known company, aside from within Japan or a few handful outside of it, after VII's release, Square became a well known company, this is the samething that happened to Capcom, before hand, companies like Konami and etc where all pretty much neck and neck, that is until in 1991 SF2 came out...if that's not being put on the map, than I don't know what is.
 
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I'm playing FFVII on my PSP right now and enjoying the hell out of it.

The reason it's still a great game is because of the story. Maybe it's not as deep as other games' (I'm not agreeing with this at all), but if that's the case then those other games might just be too deep. Final Fantasy VII's story is amazing, and it's the reason that the game has so many fans ten years later, begging for a remake.

It took me a few hours to look past the graphics, but the game is nothing short of excellence. The story and characters are what interest me the most about the game. I like the gameplay a lot too, I missed turn-based RPGs. Another awesome aspect in the game are the little things that they reward you with if you choose to explore the world fully. There are so many little intangibles in this game it's crazy. I'd like for Final Fantasy to return to this style personally. Get rid of the little boys and gambits and give us another Cloud Strife. Square has showed us that they can put out amazing graphics (look at the FFXIII trailer and screens, holy shit) but I don't think they've come close to making a game as immersive as FFVII since '97.
 
supernova said:
No way ff7 is not overatted at all. There are not many games on the PS1 that are as good as ff7 either and the ones that are good ive already played like MGs and the other ff's.Barrat is not meant to be a mega tough guy. All he is is a guy who loves his family and gets angry when shinra is involved with his family. He has had a hard history as well like his village being burned down by shinra.Just because the graphics are not good dosn't mean that the game is bad. Back in 1996 this game probably had the best graphics.About the materia have you fought ruby and emerld weapon. You ARE forced to make a certain materia combination against those so i think ff7 is not overated
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Amen, brother. If there's one thing FF7 doesn't need, it's changes. If so, then the (pray to God) the PS3 remake will be made.

Yeah, and I'm sure if given the chance, Barret would be collecting Mog dolls at Wonder Square.....

As for the a**hole Weapons, yep, if you don't have Gameshark, then you're stuck in the "pick-yer-best-stuff-and-not-gey-killed" strategy.
 
TrueSephiros said:
Case and point, FFVII was the first single rpg to become popular outside of the "handful" of players. How many players knew of Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy VI(III at the time, or know that it was actually VI instead of III for that matter). This is my point, VII's impact cannot be denied, we see a big difference in how rpg's where viewed after VII's release, to before hand, plain and simple.
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I'm not saying Final Fantasy VII didn't make a difference, but it's highly insulting to say the succes of every other RPG is thanks to that game.

No, Soul Calibur does not rule the fighting game Genre, and neither does Guilty Gear. On the competetive level, Street Fighter and King of Fighters series are the two most highly played fighting game series world wide this means in the USA, Asia, Europe etc, etc...and guess what, they are the two oldest fighting game series.

Also, Soul Calibur nor Guilty Gear has made as much of an impact that can even remotely rival what Street Fighter II did back in 1991, I'm not talking about "what's not about what's popular now". I'm talking about which game made the most impact, and SF2>>>>>All other fighting games.

Later installments not meeting the requirements of SF2???? :huh: Ever heard of Street Fighter III 3rdStrike...most popular fighting game in the competetive tournaments for 3 years and counting. 3rdStrike is what...8 years old, and it recieved more competetion than Soul Calibur III and Tekken 5 in 2005 and Tekken5 was released in late 04, with SCIII in 05...goes to show how popular SF really is.
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We don't exactly have many arcades over here and the most popular game in the arcades we do have is practically always DDR.

Street Fighter II could sell SNES consoles, but that series doesn't sell consoles anymore. Games like Tekken, Soul Calibur and Super Smash Bros. do. And don't think they don't organise tournaments for those games, I've been to several SSBM tournaments (not as a player though, just to help with the organisation) and I have met players from all over te world, including Captain Jack from Japan. In fact in the Netherlands alone, there are over 5 tournaments every year and some of them attract players from all over Europe (Sweden, France, Scotland, you name it).

But I don't really care about this part of the discussion. I'm not a big fan of fighting games, so you're probably the more knowlegdable one of us.

Rpg's where only popular within Japan before VII which shows a great indication of what that game did to the genre. Just because it did well in Japan means nothing, Electronic Arts games does incredibly well here in the US, however it does absolute garbage in Japan. Virtua Fighter does great in Japan, however outside of Japan, it completely fails. It didn't put anything on the map? You do know that the PSX won the competetion from the Sega Saturn because a big play in part was due to Final Fantasy VII right?
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Final Fantasy VII did have some effect on that consolewar, but there were so many factors in that war. And if anything, it was Nintendo who suffered from the ended contract with Squaresoft. That whole developer exodus really hurt the N64. Squaresoft was the company that told people a N64 version of Final Fantasy VII would cost hundreds of dollars. In the case of the Saturn, Final Fantasy VII made a difference because Squaresoft chose Sony instead of Sega after leaving Nintendo. Squaresoft could have chosen Sega, if that company did not push their system like Sony did. Squaresoft merely chose the strongest side worldwide, Sega was already digging a hole for itself at that time (the Saturn was expensive, hard to develop for, the system had lost developers to the competition, there was little marketing outside of Japan and so on). Good point, wrong console.

Before Final Fantasy VII, Square was not a very well known company, aside from within Japan or a few handful outside of it, after VII's release, Square became a well known company, this is the samething that happened to Capcom, before hand, companies like Konami and etc where all pretty much neck and neck, that is until in 1991 SF2 came out...if that's not being put on the map, than I don't know what is.
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Like I said before, it put Final Fantasy on the map, not much else. Squaresoft released hardly any other RPG in Europe, we didn't get Chrono Cross, we didn't even get Final Fantasy Tactics. For a company that was on the map, it sure avoided risks... It still does actually, if it weren't for companies like Koei and 505Gamestreet, there would be a lot less RPGs on the market. Square Enix only publishes Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest and a few random games like Unlimited Saga. Games like Star Ocean III and Drakengard II had to find other publishers. It's not likely we'll get Valkyrie Profile games, but Koei makes sure we get every new Nippon Ichi release on time. Go figure... Final Fantasy VII set a few things in motion in Europe, but without other publishers and developers, the movement would have stopped long ago.

And I don't think Final Fantasy VII was the only trigger, there were several. Final Fantasy X played it's part too. But games like Disgaea encouraged publishers even more.

I guess the same applies to the USA. Square Enix is more bold there, but you can't deny the importance of companies like Atlus (and not to mention the developers of American RPGs).
 
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