Final Fantasy 7 doesn't quite topple 6 as my favourite traditional FF game but so glad I finally sat down and experienced it. FF7 remains a very fun game nearly 27 years on from release but it's undeniable that it's aged, particularly so in certain aspects.
The characters, story, and OST are all the strongest I've seen in a FF game yet. The cast is well-rounded and filled with engaging characters that I wanted to see more of (except Cait Sith, fuck Cith Sith), blended with a plot that, while somewhat wacky, really feels like Squaresoft wanted to up the ante versus 4 and 6 in particular. The soundtrack has been praised to death and back so I won't focus on it too much but my god, take a bow Uematsu.
Two big factors bring this game down for me, however: 1) The game as a whole is VERY dated. Its early 3D visuals are the most apparent culprit of this, which don't hold up nearly as well as the pixel-art style of the previous games, but its, at times, confusing game direction and outdated writing also suffer from this.
2) The Materia system. While I think it's a really interesting idea that allows for a ton of core combat variety, it comes at the expense of the party themself feeling unique. In FF6 for example, each party member felt they were distinct in their combat role with their unique abilities that were aided by Espers. In 7 meanwhile, all those unique abilities are wrapped up in Materia that can be given to anyone, on top of stat differences being negligible, making the entire party feel somewhat homogenized. Limit Breaks help a little bit with this but they don't crop up nearly often enough to be a significant factor.
The characters, story, and OST are all the strongest I've seen in a FF game yet. The cast is well-rounded and filled with engaging characters that I wanted to see more of (except Cait Sith, fuck Cith Sith), blended with a plot that, while somewhat wacky, really feels like Squaresoft wanted to up the ante versus 4 and 6 in particular. The soundtrack has been praised to death and back so I won't focus on it too much but my god, take a bow Uematsu.
Two big factors bring this game down for me, however: 1) The game as a whole is VERY dated. Its early 3D visuals are the most apparent culprit of this, which don't hold up nearly as well as the pixel-art style of the previous games, but its, at times, confusing game direction and outdated writing also suffer from this.
2) The Materia system. While I think it's a really interesting idea that allows for a ton of core combat variety, it comes at the expense of the party themself feeling unique. In FF6 for example, each party member felt they were distinct in their combat role with their unique abilities that were aided by Espers. In 7 meanwhile, all those unique abilities are wrapped up in Materia that can be given to anyone, on top of stat differences being negligible, making the entire party feel somewhat homogenized. Limit Breaks help a little bit with this but they don't crop up nearly often enough to be a significant factor.