Is Final Fantasy VII Overrated??

Just to start off FFVII is a great game however it really is vastly overrated and far from the best game ever which it is labelled with. The game has been surpassed in every way by games that have not only come out after it but before it as well.

First the battle system is poor. The materia system while easy to use leads to a very boring battle system were members of the party have no individuality. Contrast this to FFVI which came out before it which had 18 playable characters all with their own unique abilities in combat. The battle system has been bettered by many games, to name a few, Grandia, FFIV-FFVI, Panzer Dragoon Saga, FFIX-FFX, Suikoden 2, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, the Tales of games ect. The worst thing about the battle system is there are no tactics really whatsoever other than the usual elemental weakness exploitation. Compare that to FFX's superb tactical system.

Storywise it's nothing special. The early parts of the game in Midgar are amazing but it falls apart once you leave midgar and after it's big plot development well thats all it really has. It falls into JRPG/anime cliche after that with the cast of characters glove trotting trying to stop the bad guy ending the world. You can tell the game was a rush job. It may be hard to hear this but there are so many games and JRPGs out there with far better stories than this. Suikoden 2's tragic tale of friends torn apart by war, Panzer Dragoon Saga's unique world and storyline of a destroyed world, FFVI's brave upheaval of the traditional jrpg cliche story, Vagrant Stories dark gothic tale. There's no way FFVII has the best story of an game let alone JRPG with these games around. Character development is pretty high but again surpassed by other games. Even it's big shock at the end of disc 1 was done before and handled better by lesser known games.

One big issue I have with fans of the game is them holding aloft Sephiroth as the pinnacle of videogame villians. All he really had going for him was that he looked cool and he did something shocking. Other than that he was a cookie cutter anime villian. In the JRPG genre suikoden 2's Luca Blight is not going to be beaten from the top spot that easily. A far more complex character you'll hate him for the genocide he is causing but also feel pity for him because of the past that turned him into a monster. FFVI's Kefka is also a more interesting and better bad guy. He isn't cool, he wears a jesters outfit, and is a total coward. But it's the cowardice that makes you hate him so much. Taking videogames as a whole, Sephiroth has nothing on S.H.O.D.A.N.

To sum it up FFVII is far from the greatest game ever and there's dozens of better games including games in the JRPG genre.

Trent Skydaddy wrote: »

I never could get that into Suikodens, then again I started playing number 4 first.

Well starting with 4 was a problem there since it's the worst in the series and pretty crap.

I've said in 2 other threads that it's very unlikely to come out here since EA own the rights to publish it in america and Sony in europe. So it's a legal minefield to get it published really. Otherwise the other square games on the PSN would have been released outside japan.

noodler wrote: »

In a perfect world, but people's perceptions of a game are ultimately what decides whether or not a game is great.

I know what you are saying but even a review is a person's opinion and all reviews would be identical if it were the case.

Thats rubbish. We've all seen best of lists that were voted in by the public and been apalled by them. A popularity contest shouldn't decide how good a game is.

Suikoden 2 and Panzer Dragoon Saga are so far ahead of FFVII that it's criminal that people think FFVII is better. However they won't win any popularity contests because nobody has played them.

noodler wrote: »

Why should one anarok's opinion have more weight than millions?

Because the general public are idiots. They like coldplay and think U2 are the best Irish band ever amongst other sins.