Coming from someone who tends to shy away from RPGs and had never played a Final Fantasy game up to that point, FF7 blew me away at the time. The characters, the "epic" feel of the storyline and the unique graphical style were probably the biggest contributing factors to my overall enjoyment.

I enjoyed playing through the storyline, watching the characters develop, learning more about the world, etc. moreso than any boss fight. The game for me was what happened leading up to and after a big battle and I suspect that's where casual RPG fans/newcomers to the genre really got sucked in.

I'd be interested to know if this little tidbit is a common feature in all popular RPGs.
 

I tried playing FFVII last year for the first time, because everyone said it was "so good" and that it was the "best RPG ever", but I never got sucked into it. Frankly, the characters failed to hook me in the beginning, particularly Cloud, and it was very boring. I gave up waiting for it to get interesting.
 

Brinstar: At what point did you give up? What's the last part you remember?
 

Chris:

Console RPGs (particularly the Squaresoft titles) tend to be way heavier on storylines and less "open ended" than western RPGs. Western RPGs tend to be truer to their pen & paper roots, giving the player the ability to create their own characters and make up their own stories.

Both approaches work - Oblivion and and Morrowind epitomize western-style RPG design, and have done very well on the XBox & 360 as well as the PC. Not FF7 numbers I don't think, but they've done very well.
 

This game had me hooked from the beginning, course it was easier to be hooked back then. I find now, nothing truly can hold me for long.

I got so into the character's story, Cloud's perpetual lie. When Aeris met her end, I was very upset. Partly because I had a phoenix down, how fair is that I ask? There was so much to explore, so many things to unlock. I tried to get the ultimate weapons be eventually I gave up. 72 hours of my life went into that game, I still have the save. But when I got to the final battle, I just stopped playing.

Something inside was just done at that moment. I could not carry on any further, so I put it away.

Things that really grabbed me in the game was the epic storyline, the characters interactions (great dose of drama and laughs), and the mini games. Those mini games rocked.

Seems to be the big things that drive me when playing a RPG is Story, collectables/unlockables, and exploring.

As epic as this game was, my favorite of all time is Chronotrigger. I beat that game 3 times.
 

I vote for the beautiful bad boy...not enough beautiful bad boys. ;)

Though honestly I do think one of the issues was how the beautiful bady boy wasn't just a random kill everything villian, but was directly connected to the player character. For all that he was evil you could see his point.

~J
 

Hmmm --- sounds a little like the magic (or lack thereof) was in the characters. They worked in spite of (or because of) looking extremely cartoony and kind of silly. And their funky translated dialog.

It was at once cute and endearing; angsty and melodramatic; and cornily humorous (the whole sequence with Cloud in the dress trying to "out-beauty" Tifa and Aeris to protect them from being selected as the lecherous crime-boss's date... I don't know why it worked, but somehow it did.)
 

It sucked me in when i played it, think i was 14/15 at the time. was the best game i had ever played, really couldn't stop playing it.

I'd never played a RPG at the time, but now I've played well over a hundred. I'm still looking for what I found when I played FF7 the first time. I can see why it wouldn't appeal to people that are new to RPG's in the present day as the graphics are quiet dated now. Still FF12 graphics are immense and that really did nothing for me. strange one that.
 

i think a lot of it has to do with it being someone's first rpg too. people who's first rpg was final fantasy 6 often say that's the best one ever. people who's first rpg was chrono trigger say that's the best. same with final fantasy 8, 9 , 10 etc etc. most people's first rpg was final fantasy 7 compared to the rest of them, therefor it's the best/most magical to them. no game will ever compare to final fantasy 7 to me... even though i liked the characters and story of 9 better, and 10 was also really good, none of them have that magic because 7 was the first one i played and nothing will ever be the "first" again.
 

I agree with the last person who said it's the "first" hit of something magical that cannot be recreated. Also I have known a lot of people who played FF7 just becasue a freind or someone told them it was "great!" and these people have never seem to get into it. It's the same with anything that anyone tries to get into becasue of hype... the outcome never lives up to it. I never got into Jack Bouers 24 becasue I only watched it because of the hype and it never met my expectations. FF7 was one of those moments where you had to find it yourself and be there at the right time; the right moment within history, and even though we may never be able to rekindle that magic we once found and loved within FF7, it doesn't matter becasue we where there, and we lived it; we lived history...
 

I have personally never played FFVII although I plan to one day, just to see if it is what everyone makes it up to be.

My first RPG was Golden Sun, a relatively new RPG which in all honestly to me (despite it's minimal character developement and more plot focused storyline) still my favourite RPG mainly because of it's easy to play appeal and friednly djinn orientated combat system. I find the gameplay of that to outclass Final Fantasy.

However I also emmesnly enjoy FFVI and story wise I believe it is superior to Golden Sun. The characters are also much more developed. However I wouldn't neccesarily say either is better. However I didn't find FF 1, 2, 3 or 8 very good at all. Played them for a few hours and found the stories much to plain and in the case of 8 the skills system too complicated.
 

Final Fantasy 7 gave a feeling of perfection in a RPG which i have never seen before or after.

As you pointed out there has been attempts into making sequals, but it has never succeeded. After the merge between squaresoft and enix the excitement and feeling in the games have gone down so much(in my oppinion). The history, music, challenge, combat system, humor, everything helped make final fantasy 7 a game that went into the history of rpg's.

Enough said this game is strongly recomended, along with all the other Final Fantasy games up to 9 (After 9 Square soft merged with enix and became what we know today as square enix).


This is truly the best game ever created, and it should never be recreated only made availeble again so that people can play the best RPG ever created.

I have tried most rpg's but the older ones is the best ones. Oblivion and newer ones cannot be compared with the old ones.

Square Soft should reemerge from Square-Enix bringing Final Fantasy back as it was oldschool. Do not buy the new Final Fantasy's i strongly recommend you not to. Anhoter Final Fantasy game worth mentioning is Final Fantasy 9. That is also a genious game in my oppinion even though the characters look kind of wierd in the start you will get used to them and you will LOVE the game.
 

I still haven't gotten into FF XII - tried, and my daughter got excited about it, but nothing has yet recaptured the magic of FF7 for me.

I think to some degree, the realism of modern graphics has worked AGAINST the Final Fantasy games. So much of what was cool about the earlier FF's was actually in your mind.
 

I remember back in 97 or 98, trying out the demos for FF7 and Fallout in the same day. In that competition FF7 didnt last 10 minutes.
it's not that i have a problem with JRPGs, I had played chrono trigger, FF6, and a few others, but something about fallout just blew me away.

Now I have recently started playing FF7 for the first time since then (the full game) and although it isnt as bad as i initially thought, it doesnt hold a candle to fallout (a game i have since then beaten over a dozen times) in the fields of immersion, freedom, and originality.
I cant really say why FF7 is so successful, but part of the reason I avoided it for so long was because no one could shut up about how amazing it was and the whole time i would listen to their reasons and say in my head 'hey, fallout beats that in this way...' or 'so what? fallout let me TALK THE FINAL BOSS INTO SUICIDE IF I WANTED'
maybe it was because it was advertised so strongly as WOW! 3D RPG AMAZING!!! which seems kind of cheap to me...
 

The audio and music are definatly one of the main reason's this game is so atmospheric. That, along with some quailty lighting throughout.

I remeber playing this game as a kid, (as i suspect many people reading this did) and even then it was the feeling of freedom that many other games didnt have. The way Ff7 keeps you on such a linear path at the start, (through midgar) then lets you loose on the world map is pure genius.

Also, no-one can tell me this game is so popular due to some strong advertising from sony, because I, like many other people in the u.k never saw any of that.

In terms of gamplay, maybe it isnt the best RPG ever made. I see it like more of a movie, that you edge along gradually.
 

I only just picked up this game, having heard mixed reviews from the FF community, but so far it has blown me away. I thought the graphics would be a big problem, the game being 10 or so years, but as it turns out, they didn't bother me at all: I was that drawn into the story and overall feel of the game.

While the characters are definitely cliched, and are obviously not the strongest aspect of the game, their dialogue did offer some drama, and laughs:
Vincent: I have nothing to say.
Yuffie: That's OK. It was probably depressing anyway."
LOL.

Despite loving the game, I think that it is still hugely overrated, and it's doing the game's image no good. Everytime a rabid fanboy posts something, well, fanboyish, hundreds of people start hating the game. Just look at some of the FF forums out there. If that's not bad publicity, I don't what is.

But, yeah, other than some minor gripes with the cliched characters and plot holes in the story, I love the game, and the battle system is one of the best in the series. It certainly beats that conditonal turn-based junk in X, or that near-incomprehensible system in VIII.
 

Coming from someone who has played hundreds and I do mean hundreds of RPGs FF7 is, has, and will always be my favorite. I guess what got me into the game itself even though at first it was really slow was the in depth storyline. I have yet to find a RPG of FF7s magnitude. Not only the storyline the battle style was great too. But what really got me hooked was the materia system not only was it unique it is something that the FF Makers have yet to take a second look at. NOT to mention the fact that ANYONE can summon in the game. That itself should be self evident. Anyways the game is not a great game..........Its Genius
 

First of all, in case you keep track of statistics... I found your blog by googling "bag of holding", just because I was looking for a screenshot of said bag before I take the time to actually buy it in Baldur's Gate myself...

Having started with the Bard's Tale, Ultima and SSI AD&D series, I have played countless CRPGs as well. However, up until FFVII - I waited for the PC version - I had never touched on "eastern" RPGs before and probably wasn't that aware of those either, not having an SNES.

First of all, I liked the overall accessibility. Concerning the characters' equipment, you just had Weapon/Armor/Accessory, done - a welcome change from juggling Drowish Chain Thumb Warmers +2 when entering/leaving dark places. The materia system: colorful, almost like one of those diamond puzzle games, yet making you think about spell effects, chain reactions etc. - combined with the slick, simple blue/white interface, it all seemed pretty straightforward and stylish at the time. I stayed in certain areas to gather EXP, items etc. - just as one would in Skara Brae or when hunting Dragons for magic axes in Britannia.

So the game was fun at its core and I didn't mind a few cheesy (Don What's-his-name and Cloud wearing a dress to reach his inner circle of hookers?!) and eco-laden (Midgar dies from pollution/Mako exploitation, big yawn-o!) storylines - however, the increasing hints at Cloud's past, starting in Nivelheim, if I remember correctly, leading up to the dilemma of a weakling trying to suppress his memories while questioning his existence... I really liked that aspect of the story, probably one of the best ideas since the dream world in Underworld 2 and Serpent Isle.

Well... if it's the best CRPG ever? I wouldn't go that far, but I have replayed it twice since the initial playthrough and I will surely play it again some day.
 

i actually know without question why final fantasy 7 was teh most "succesful" of all of the rpgs of that era.

the reality is that a certain person is capable of playing a GOOD rpg. and the genre itself, had set itself apart only pursuing the people who played tried and true rpgs. these rpgs had a few things in common that shunned the majority of players. they stuck in a sense to actual mythology, tried and true concepts of gods and godesses who would be revived in the games by giving them a new meaning to people. certain aspects like mithril, adamntium, orihalcon, and other such precious illusionary metals kept the fantasy portions of games at the forefront.

final fantasy 7 went a direction that for the most part shunned that group of "hardcore rpgers". those proud few like me who delved into the other rpgs and still loved them at teh time when rpgs where "dead". even seeking out "bad" rpgs, for the sake of keeping teh dream alive of pursuing that deeper logic that all rpgs strive to allude to.

basically, teh purpose of an rpg, was always to find a deeper meaning and purpose in the midst of seemingly random events. (including random encounters).

final fantasy 7 took an approach which allowed for multiple things.

1) a "realistic" storyline, albeight they did stay true to magic and summoning and awkward lifestream concepts. they made a storyline that seemed as if it were possible in our day and age. a storyline that coincided with many spy movies of our day (where teh spy stumbles across project "delta" and finds that some super powered human being was created and is running rampant)

2) the "early" death of a main character sparked alot of people to...overexaggerate how good the game was before they had actually completed it, and faced with already claiming it was good, simply stuck with it, eventually leading to a mass popularity that kept the "fire" burning. it was simply unheard of to have a main character die for "no reason" so early on.

however probably the most influential factor in final fantasy seven was its universal areas of influence.

it already had the influence of all past hardcore rpg players simply existing as a final fantasy 7, secondly, it had teh media attention, squaresoft having recently got in a tussle with nintendo and moving thier line to a new system (many people already simply buying ps to continue the line of games they loved so much). thirdly it was teh first major strategy/rpg/action adventure game title for the playstation, at least the first of real epic proportions. most people bought it simply to have a "different" game on thier ps, which at the time was dominated with various shooters etc. the storyline was not overly complicated, "government" is bad, "rebellion" is good, "nature" is unpredictable. unlike past rpgs where there was often teh logical paradox of a time loop or a bend in space allowing for time travel, (which is confusing and often leads to giving up by american video gaming society) 7 was based on an obvious evil and an obvious good, there was no twist or development in the story, and the characters stayed relatively simplistic.

a final factor that lead to the popularity of final fantasy 7 was teh materia junctioning system. in games now like diablo and its succesor diablo 2, and onward to runescape and other rpgs, we see that mass rpgs often create a "cult" following that LOVES to create "pure" characters. whereas in a normal final fantasy one might get frusterated having a mage at low lvls who is always dieing because of a lack of defense, in final fantasy 5 you could just beef up all your characters and never have to worry about teh drawbacks of using the various means of play that might come from a "black mage" or a "blue mage" character.

to put it simply, final fantasy 7 was made so incredibly simple, that even teh least experienced and dullest person on the planet could succesfully make it through with little effort. it appealed to people on purpose that where not normally rpg fans, those that you hear often rambling the final fantasy 7 motto of greatness, in 90% of the cases will tell you they are first person shooter fans, or the like.

the hardcore rpg player, will never tell you that final fantasy 7 was a good game. and trust me brinstar, ur missing nothing, the ending is as dull as teh begining, i simply played through it because i was constantly bombarded with people saying i was wrong about teh game and it was difficult etc etc.

the thing perhaps the most disappointing of all, was how underpowered the most "epic" of bosses in the game became, simply when confronted with a well leveled team. the lack of defenses against status conditions, and the lack of defenses against the most powerful summons, was just appalling.

as for the graffix, sure they were nice, but no one in thier right mind plays an rpg for graffix purposes.
 

WHY FF7 IS VERY SUCCESSFUL?

my answers will be:1. THE AWESOME STORY that comes first, 2.CHARACTERS that drawn EMOTIONAL CONNECTION to player, 3.GRAPHIC, 4.AUDIO, 5.DRAMA, 6.BAD ASS villain, 7.INTRIGUING battle system, and I can keep going on& on with the list.

Most of all I thought the storyline was brilliant, well thought-out, and super deep. I love FF7 to death.
 

I haven't played FF7 but i have played 1-6 10, 10-2 and 12 as well as chocobo tales, Reviant wings and have seen both of the movies (spirits within and the 7 movie) and i am absolutely in love with the series i own all the above except 10-2 but i am getting that. i LOVE that they are able to put action a kick ass story and even a bit of romance into one game, this and the ausome graphics makes them the best series of game i think has ever been made.
 

mora
 

I think it was successful mainly because of the music. I loved the story and it really drew you in, but the music really gave the game a bigger punch when it came to drawing you in.
 

Some of the responses here might have gotten onto something. I originally played FF VII in winter of '97 and spring of '98, having played FF I, IV, and VI before. I enjoyed it, but it never really stacked up to VI. Those who talk about the characters and the plot, probably haven't played VI or IV, as both of those games had more complex characters and more complex plots. Not having played anything after VII I want to guess this as a primary reason behind VII's mega-popularity...

Before 5th generation video game consoles, rpgs didn't have all too much potential in terms of graphics. So, the game designers emphasized story development over graphics. With the advent of 5th generation video game consoles, graphics could play a more central role in making, producing, and selling an rpg... so story content gradually started to decline at this time. But, before story content declined too much, game designers still thought they had to emphasize story over graphics. So, they did so. Thus, FF VII ended up with just the right amount of emphasis on graphics and story development to become so popular.

I don't quite believe that hypothesis, but it sounds pretty, doesn't it?
 

Personally I never liked to play the game, but for some reason i still loved it, my 3 older brothers would play this when ever they could and when ever they did i wasn't far away, watching it, I liked to SEE the game more than PLAY it, i tried to play it, but I'm an idiot and got confused. So i sat back like i do and watched them complete it over and over, My Oldest Sibling ( sister ) was also in love with the game, she played it a few times and again i watched, to me it was like a perfect movie that i couldn't stop watching, if this game was ever remade, all they have to do is Remake the Graphics, and it should have the same magic it did back then, But this time pulling in more people for its High graphics skill
 

I think that FF7 is the best rpg ever... but what would be if Square wants to re-release FF7 for PS3?? I guess there would be millions of people going to buy it... I hope that this Game will be rebuild with actual graphics etc.
then most of those who don´t like/ don´t wanted to play it got a reason to try... ;)


(i hope that my english is not THAT bad im from germany...^^)