Why is FINAL FANTASY VII overrated?

[Taco-Calamitous]

I hate to play devil's advocate a little bit, but...

Character Development? Crappy. I mean c'mon, the only things separating one character from another were what weapon they used and the Limit Breaks. Other than that, one character was a carbon-copy of all the rest. You could take all the Materia off of one character and put it on another, and there wouldn't be much difference. The characters barely advanced -- it was the Materia that gained new abilities. This is in direct contrast to every prior Final Fantasy game, in which the character him/herself gained abilities.

Replace the word "Materia" with "Magicite," and you could say the same about the characters in FF6. And in several cases, the characters in FF6 used the exact same weapons as other characters; the ones that used swords, the ones that used pikes, etc. Sure, you couldn't replicate a magicite, but you could pass it around between the characters, and if a character held the magicite for a certain amount of time, it would have a lasting beneficial effect on that character's stats/that character would learn its spells. I hate to say this about 6, because it's my favorite, but it's true.

I agree that a lot of these people probably like 7 the best because it was huge for the US's RPG market, although I'm pretty sure it was huge in Japan, too. Remember that poll a few years back that I think Cain posted a link to? The thread is so old that I can't find it anymore (maybe it was deleted?) but FF7 was #2 behind FF10 for Japan's top 100 games ever. (I remember that not one Mario game even made the list, either.) It's been a few years now, so a top 100 list might be different now, but... just sayin'.

Personally, I think FF7 is overrated because a lot of people like it the best, and I don't. A lot of people think that Sephiroth is one of the greatest villains ever, and Cloud is one of the best heroes ever... and I don't (in fact, I'm pretty much flat out tired of Sephiroth by now.) Eh *Shrug* Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Sasquatch]

Replace the word "Materia" with "Magicite," and you could say the same about the characters in FF6. And in several cases, the characters in FF6 used the exact same weapons as other characters; the ones that used swords, the ones that used pikes, etc. Sure, you couldn't replicate a magicite, but you could pass it around between the characters, and if a character held the magicite for a certain amount of time, it would have a lasting beneficial effect on that character's stats/that character would learn its spells. I hate to say this about 6, because it's my favorite, but it's true.

There's still a big difference. Magicite was used do develop CHARACTERS -- the character itself advanced. Not the magicite. So, for one thing, every character was different in the sense that it took more than trading equipment to make one character into another. Sure, eventually they could learn the same spells, but the characters would have to learn them -- Edgar and Sabin were two different characters, and making them trade equipment kept them the same characters they were.

For another, each character had their own unique ability that distinguished them from the others. The only unique abilities FFVII had were Limit Breaks. The way I played (at least), limit breaks didn't matter much, as they were "bonuses", not set abilities -- this is in direct contrast to FFVI, where parties were established based on what abilities complimented each other. (For example, you wouldn't want to put Relm with Gau or Umaro, as their attacks might screw up her Control.)

As far as their weapons go ... Realistically, different characters are going to be able to use some of the same weapons. Each and every character (save Umaro, of course) could use multiple types of weapon -- staves, spears, swords, daggers, etc. It wouldn't make sense for any character to be able to use one type of weapon and only one type of weapon. That'd be like saying I drive a light pickup truck, so that means I wouldn't be able to drive a larger pickup truck, an SUV, a sports car, a sedan, a station wagon, a golf cart, a semi truck, a farm tractor, etc. etc.

(Of course you have characters with special traits, like Sabin, that can use specific types and none others, but this by no means spreads to the entire cast.)