For reference,I just turned 21 and I was way to young to have PS1 so I never played it when it came out. I've also never played a Final Fantasy game or a JRPG before and wanted to know if I could still have a good time with it even 17 years after its' release. I would be getting the VITA version for 10 dollars if that helps inform any opinions on the matter. Thanks for you time and happy commenting.

No, it's cliched and badly written/translated. Play FF9 instead if you must play a Final Fantasy or if you just want a JRPG get Persona 4 Golden.

Yes, but you need to know that it looks really bad by modern standards, and not in the "its so retro" sort of way. Also the translation isn't great so the dialog is rough in spots. But the core game is still really good. The opening hours are very good and unique and the Chocobo sidequest in FF7 is one of the best sidequests in the FF series. I would definitely recommend it (though I think it is the worst of the PS1 FF games).

It's a perfectly decent JRPG. Nothing that special, but it's definitely not a bad game. As long as you're not too much of a stickler for dated graphics it's definitely playable.

I do like FFIX way better though. That I consider a legitimately great JRPG.

It's funny, FF7 which was this behemoth for Square before now seems to be viewed as a lesser Final Fantasy, from what I can tell. On the other hand, I remember FF12 being crapped upon on the internet when it was released, and now I get the sense that it's viewed in a more positive light than before.

I would echo that FFIX is the one you want to play of the PS1 FF games. It is the best of the PS1 era, the graphics are MUCH BETTER than 7 (like they look like they are from different generations), the writing is better, the characters are better, the music is better, I think the combat is less innovative than 7 but more interesting in the long run. Play IX first if that is an option. FFVII is really more interesting at this point as a historical artifact than as a game.

@aegon: I actually feel like that's more true of FFX. I remember lots of people putting that game down for several years after it's release, but these days it's generally lumped in with "when Final Fantasy was good". FFXII still seems fairly divisive, although enough time has passed that people who didn't like it don't really care anymore.

No. The graphics are painful to look at at this point, the story is very cliched, it has one of the worst battle system of all the Final Fantasy games the music programming is terrible and the sound track is sub par for Uematsu in my opinion.

Yes. It's cool to hate on FF7 on the internet due to its overwhelming popularity, but FF7 as a game, removed from any and all hate and heaping praise, is solid. The translation is rough, but the core narrative, even with its faults and inconsistencies, makes for a compelling enough reason to push forward in spite of the blocky character models. It's overrated, yes, but so is FF9 which is like suddenly everyone's favorite (It's not that good, guys, FF9 is not that good) and most of the games in the series.

People like to rag on FF7 because of hindsight. They've seen Square pimp out and ruin that entire franchise with its shit sequels and prequels (everything in the FF7 not named FF7 is SHIT) and like to pile on and say FF7 ruined something or some shit. FF7 still holds up, ya'll.

It's the best in the series so yeah it's pretty fucking great. Ignore the haters. It's the cool thing to do to hate on it.

It's a vocal minority that views it as lesser. It's still, by far, the most popular.

Stay away from FFIX. It's super overrated. And FFXII is just...ugh.

Fuckin WORD, son.

Ya, it's not bad. It's one of the best Final Fantasy games. I think the game play still holds up just fine, as well.

@donchipotle: You shouldn't speak about subjective things (like whether or not a game is good) in absolutes. By The way, I loved Final Fantasy 9 and have played it the most of every Final Fantasy (of which I've played 7, 8, 9, and 10 for over 100 hours a long time ago- I played 9 like 4 times).

It's not suddenly my favorite Final Fantasy- it has always been my favorite next to 10 which I enjoy a lot despite it's really silly story. =)

@laxbro19: if you have a vita i would start with something more modern like FFX. Not sure what your oldest console is but sounds like you'd have a hard time with psx graphics.

The gameplay is still fine, but I imagine those early PS1 graphics are real hard to look at now.

Obviously there are a lot of mixed opinions on the game. Leaving aside the hype and the hype aversion, there's plenty of level-headed reasons to both love and hate Final Fantasy 7. Depends wildly on your tastes, go figure.

I'll just say: if you're into JRPG's, you'll at least have $10 of fun with this game. Coming to FF7 for the first time after like two decades or whatever should be interesting from an academic perspective if nothing else.

I still love it.

It's a solid JRPG, arguably one of the best. A lot of the minigames and some mechanics don't necessarily hold up these days (and actually weren't that great at the time) but it's a great world with characters you won't forget.

Gameplay-wise, it's kind of archaic at this point, but there's a reason it's endured for as long as it has.

Plus, for only $10, I'd say it's worth the investment.

@laxbro19: I played FFs VII, VIII and IX all well after they came out, and I thought they all held up pretty well. I did prefer IX, so I would recommend that as others have, but that's because I liked its relatively whimsical art style, and not because there are any huge pros or cons that I can point to in either game.

I suggest doing a little reading on FF VII's materia system and FF IX's weapon-ranking system, as those will be the biggest difference in how your character develop in terms of stats. Again, I personally perfer IX's system, but I had nothing against VII's.

Gameplay gets stale quick by today's standards, which really hurts the experience.

If any Square game needs an update its FF7. Surely that will be their last resort when they hurt for money.

"Overrated" is such a bullshit overused term. I'm so tired of people using it as a way to automatically dismiss any opinions that don't match their own. Feel free to express as much personal hate or love for something as you wish, but don't try do it by pretending other people's opinions are wrong because they're different.

There is nothing I find more irritating then someone trying to deny someone else the right to their own opinions.

Of course it's good. Lots of people like it. That's the only metric there is.

People here aren't wrong about the graphics, but the translation issues don't exist on the PC version on Steam.

I could easily go back and play it, highly recommended.

In my experience Final Fantasy games tend to be really polarizing from one incarnation to the next (and get even more polarizing the more time has passed since its release), so unfortunately you're probably going to get some really mixed messages.

If you've never really played a JRPG before, it's really hard to say whether or not you'll enjoy FF7. It seems like most people here aren't coming from a "I've never played a JRPG before, would I enjoy FF7?" perspective when providing their responses, and more of a "how do I view the game as a JRPG player" perspective. In my opinion the game's just fine, though it certainly shows its age. But considering you've never played a JRPG, it's really tough to know how you'd respond to the genre's flaws and strengths, let alone the game itself. Especially because we don't know what kind of games you typically like.

But yeah, to answer your question the game's fine, and if you've really gotta spend that ten dollars you'd probably be better off finding out for yourself if you think it's a good game or not rather than asking others.

The first JRPG I played was FFVII. I was in high school and it was long after the game had come out, around 2005 I'd say, so our situations are fairly similar. It's a great game.

I didn't really understand what I was doing when I started and I died on the first boss. If the manual didn't have a guide for everything up to the first boss I probably would have put it down. Luckily the original manual is scanned in and accessible during the gameplay in the PSN version.

He said he's going to play it on the Vita which is the PS1 Classics version.

oh for the love of Pinto de Gallo

Can we just sticky a FF7 thread to Gen D?

Anyways.

FF7. Here's what I'll say.

A friend of mine tried to go back to play it recently, and couldn't get past some design aspects, most importantly traditional ass save systems. Possibly not an issue on the Vita since you can suspend.

Roughly at the same time, a girlfriend of mine played it who had not played any real games in ~ decade, and she loved the hell out of it!

Personally I like it a lot but tend to lose steam faster running through it again than I do in VIII, IX, X or XII. I can wholeheartedly recommend any game in this series though, really it just depends on you. If 10 dollars doesn't mean much to you I'd say try it out. Obviously it's a historically important game and you may be interested in it from that perspective to.

I think a lot of people are making assumptions because of your age and lack of experience on PS1. Impossible to say if you will love/hate any of the so-called "short-comings" like graphics. If you YouTube some gameplay and you don't find yourself bored/thinking it's ugly that's probably a good sign you aren't too sensitive to older graphics. Which is the best sign! There is a world of amazing games from that era for you to play :D

Enjoy!

I loved FF7 back in the day. But I recently tried to play it again, and it didn't hold up well. I would love an HD remaster of it. Looking at those early PSone graphics is rough.

I'd say FF7 was the entry point into the world of JRPGs for A LOT of western kids (I can say it was at least for me and my brother). Later FFs (especially 9) are arguably better from an "objective" point of view, but there's no denying the historical significance of FF7. Even if only for trying to understand why it was the huge deal that it was, it's definitely worth playing.

FF7 is a good game but very slow like any JRPG.

Yep, it's still one of the best Final Fantasy games. Plenty of things about it are dated but I still consider it a must play. Timeless story and characters with gameplay that still mostly holds up. It's a nice treasure from the past that you shouldn't miss, even if you think you won't like it.

With that being said, it's not nearly as good as Persona 3 and 4 but I'm sure we've got plenty of people here to tell you that.

I truly don't know how to respond to this statement.

Couldn't agree more. Calling something overrated isn't even a stab at what you think the quality of the content is, it's more a stab at the PEOPLE who enjoy it. And that really sucks.

Yes! It's great. Now stop asking.

What does that word even mean? Do you think it's good? Bad? Are you even critiquing the game or just shitting on people who like it?

Sometimes I feel like I could create one of those "Am I the only one..." threads about liking FF7's graphics and actually be the only one.

It's one of my favourite games of all time but I have no idea how you would feel about it. It depends on how well you can acclimate to old graphics (some people struggle) and how you feel about JRPG conventions (you said you have no experience). Give it a whirl. It costs $10 at most and on top of being an entry point into the genre you might find it be an interesting history lesson.

In my opinion, it's still the best Final Fantasy out there. Closely followed by 6, which holds up far better, though, due to being a 2D-era pixel-art piece.
Although, apart from the blocky polygonal character models (outside the battles), FFVII doesn't look all that bad.
I regularly replay that game to this day, even if it's mostly maxing out stats currently. I think it holds up fairly well. The soundtrack is also, by far, my favorite
of the entire series, even though it's almost entirely midi.

I don't think people are wrong for liking FF9, I'm not a fucking savage, dude. I don't give a shit what games people like. I just think that FF9 is not really that good of a game. Its central cast are either forgettable and uninteresting (Amarant, Freya), or annoying (Eiko, Zidane for half the game, Steiner for half the game), and suffer from character 'arcs' that are dropped, never developed, or haphazardly done. The plot itself doesn't remotely get interesting until the final hours of the third disc by which point you're at the end anyway. As a character driven game, it's not so great, as a plot driven game it's even worse. It suffers from a slow battle system that is barely alleviated with haste.

What it does well is craft a believable, lived in world with reasonable justifications why not many know about locations other than the main kingdoms on the Mist Continent. It has a more exaggerated art style which gives it a unique look compared to, say, FF8 with its modern, more realistic look.

People dig the shit out of FF9 and hey, that's cool. I just happen to think it's not so good and therefore I find it overrated. Someone can find something overrated and not mean it as a way to say "Fuck you and yours" when it comes to opinions.

It means that a lot of people like something and that those people are fucking WRONG.

It's a statement that attempts to say more about people than game, and is rather useless given the question asked.

More on topic, FFVII was a perfectly fine game when released, but it hasn't aged too well partly due to the early polygonal graphics and partly due to the design choice to focus on the graphical prowess of the combat engine, the most infamous example being the inability to skip summons that last well over a minute per cast.

It is however an incredibly important game historically, and worth being experienced, even if you don't play it all the way through.

@laxbro19: Final Fantasy this. Final Fantasy that.

No, son. For your first JRPG, start with the best.

Chrono Trigger

It's the best game Square's ever made. No 90 minute BS spin off movies of guys cutting buildings in half with swords. No third person shooter BS spin offs. Just a time some time traveling kids, a frog, and a robot named Gato. Did you know he's got metal joints? And when you beat him up, you get fifteen silver points!

And there are 13 endings. 13!

@donchipotle: "Overrated" is nothing more than expression that you find it unacceptable that the majority likes something more than you do. (Even if you claim to not care what people like, you still have a problem that so many people do like it as much as they do.) If you want to disagree with a popular opinion you should express the reasons why, rather than just say something is overrated and then make passive aggressive remarks toward fans. (Fyi, FFIX is not "suddenly" my favorite.) You expressed your issues with the game in that last post (even if it kind of sounded like you were making a statement of fact rather than opinion), and that's what you should have done from the start. Especially if you're trying to convince someone else who has never played the game why everyone else is wrong and they shouldn't play the game they are recommending. "Overrated" is even more worthless in that context than ever, because unless you believe the reader trusts you unequivocally, your claim of it being "overrated" is totally meaningless.

It's a classic for me but frankly I find it impossible to tell you coming to it in 2014. Especially since you haven't even played a single JRPG.

I would watch some videos of it to see what you're getting into and then decide.

Yes, it's the best Final Fantasy game.

I find Christopher Nolan to be an overrated director and haven't liked anything he's done since Batman Begins, but I don't find it unacceptable that others really like his movies. I just think there are lots of flaws with his movies in multiple areas that prevent them from being good movies. Other people disagree. Does that make them wrong and me right? No. Does that make ME wrong? No. So long as you have your reasons, I don't think 'overrated' is an inherently bad thing. It shouldn't be your ONLY argument, though. If your only opinion on something is 'overrated' then fuck you you have no actual opinion on the matter and probably just want to be a contrarian asshole.

People have their opinions on shit. My opinion is that FF9 is overrated, but I'm not saying that people who love it or think it is their favorite are wrong for doing so. Overrated doesn't have to mean you don't like something either. I don't simply say "X is overrated" because I think something is unacceptable or whatever. I called FF7 overrated and I'm in the popular opinion that that is a good game. I wasn't making a case against FF9 at the time, I was agreeing with that other guy because fuckin WORD, son.

FF7 is one of the best RPG's ever made, it's also Squares top selling RPG, I think it's brilliant but that's because I'm not going to give you some pretentious speech about how it's 'overrated' just to inflate my own internet ego.

Having said that, you might find it difficult to play in 2014, sadly early 3D graphics haven't aged as well as the very peak of 2D sprites (surprise!)

And this is why it is a useless term when used to respond to someone asking about the quality of a game. It's a word focused on critiquing people, not the game itself. As a result, people that use is come off as contrarian fools, much like the other guy you were agreeing with.

@donchipotle: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, since you did eventually explain your reasons, and I don't want to argue this all day.

I don't necessarily disagree that the word can be used in a reasonable way to express a feeling, but I also think way way way too many people use it as a crutch to devalue other people's opinions and prop up their own. Much like the word "fanboy", the world would likely be a better place if we banned its use forever.

I just beat it for the first time in like 9 years and it still holds up. It's really good. The only real bad part is the localization. The game could benefit from being retranslated.

Learn how the Materia system works and do cool stuff with it. No, not just linking Fire/Lighting/Ice with All. A simple example would be linking Deathblow with Added Cut. Deathblow does higher damage but might miss, wasting your attack. Added Cut attacks after the first action. When you link the two, there's no waste. You do heavy damage with Deathbow, and attack again with Added Cut, OR you miss, but Added Cut still attacks so you can ALWAYS use Deathblow without worrying about wasting your attack. I hope that made sense.

The included picture is easily the worst part of the game. You'll know it when you get there. Also people who hate VII think they're cool for doing it. IX is really great but remember, VII was breaking ground at the time like crazy. IX had two 3D FF's to learn from to be polished. VIII is just not good.

I think we're in agreement in regards to the usage of the word and words like it, even if our beliefs on it differ. It's definitely a crutch though, yeah.

Hey, I don't disagree with you, man.

My bad, ya'll, I'll leave ya'll to discuss the merits of FF7 in peace.