Why is Final Fantasy VII popular? This question baffled me for a long time. When I played it, I quickly saw it for what it was, a poorly crafted and incomplete stain on the record of an otherwise outstanding franchise. So why do others not see what I do? I answer my own question:
Gameplay: In this regard, it was a noticeable step down from other games in the series. The selection of playable characters was nearly halved. The ATB system still functioned exactly as it did before, with none of the refinements you would expect to see in a game on a more powerful system. The materia system ensured that characters were completely interchangeable and adaptable for any task, making the entire party dynamic worthless.
So what was there to like about the gameplay? It was easy. People didn't care about the gameplay. All they wanted was to get to the next piece of the...
Story: The entire story of FFVII is laid out in a straight line, with nothing resembling a twist along the way. Every event progresses directly into the next exactly as one would expect. Nothing ever happens to make you re-examine or change your outlook on the game's events. At the end of the game, Shinra is still bad, Sephiroth is still loony, the party members act the same way, etc. All is exactly as it seemed from the beginning.
On top of that, the story is incomplete. By the admission of the creators, the game was rushed to make its release window, and quite a bit was cut out. Much goes unexplained that should not. Things the characters know are never revealed to the player, which is a tremendous no-no in character writing.
Why is it popular then? For one thing, it was simple enough to follow without any effort at all. Good and bad was clearly defined, characters made ridiculous leaps of "logic" to keep the story progressing, and it avoided making any of the underlying complexities of the scenario vital to understanding the outcome. Then there's the fact that its incompletion has been wrongly perceived as depth. Players are not given information that should be given throughout the course of the game, so they decide to make up answers. By discussing their various theories, they form communities and reinforce their mass delusion that the game had depth, rather than a simple lack of proper presentation.
Further disproving the idea that the game was intended to be open-ended to add depth is the existence of the FFVII Ultimania Omega book, which was released years later and explained most of the things the game left out, making years of theorizing utterly moot.
Characters: Another important piece of the puzzle; the characters are shallow, showing no depth to their personalities. Each is constructed around a very basic personality template and follows it in the most stereotypical manner possible. Examples: Barrett is a brash and aggressive black guy from the ghetto, Cid is an older guy who smokes and swears a lot because he's bitter, Tifa merely fawns over Cloud the entire game, Yuffie is hyper and steals stuff, and Vincent is a gloomy and depressed guy who doesn't talk about his past.
This part is easily explained. Fans don't look at their value as characters, they look at their value as avatars. They see things that they can relate to in their personal lives, and that endears the characters to them, even though the characters are merely personality templates. On no level are they believable in any way unless you juxtapose your own personality traits onto them. Fans do this, turning ridiculously bad characters into iconic figures of their own dreams of power and adventure. On top of that, fans have mistaken their background stories for actual personality depth.
Marketing: FFVII's release marked the first time a video game had been so widely advertised. TV ads showed consumers the high-quality FMV sequences to really drive home the next-gen impact. It made people who had never even played video games before take notice. Those newcomers played the game, liked it because of the aforementioned reasons, as well the flashy graphics and high-quality music, and further drove the hype machine.
In summary, the game itself is overly simple, has a poorly developed story and shallow characters, and makes absolutely no significant strides in terms of gameplay. Around the same time, a largely overlooked game called Blood Omen delivered a powerful story with not just one, but several of the best twists ever to appear in a video game. It's a pity more people didn't play that graphically inferior game that was better in every other aspect instead of following the hype.
Gameplay: In this regard, it was a noticeable step down from other games in the series. The selection of playable characters was nearly halved. The ATB system still functioned exactly as it did before, with none of the refinements you would expect to see in a game on a more powerful system. The materia system ensured that characters were completely interchangeable and adaptable for any task, making the entire party dynamic worthless.
So what was there to like about the gameplay? It was easy. People didn't care about the gameplay. All they wanted was to get to the next piece of the...
Story: The entire story of FFVII is laid out in a straight line, with nothing resembling a twist along the way. Every event progresses directly into the next exactly as one would expect. Nothing ever happens to make you re-examine or change your outlook on the game's events. At the end of the game, Shinra is still bad, Sephiroth is still loony, the party members act the same way, etc. All is exactly as it seemed from the beginning.
On top of that, the story is incomplete. By the admission of the creators, the game was rushed to make its release window, and quite a bit was cut out. Much goes unexplained that should not. Things the characters know are never revealed to the player, which is a tremendous no-no in character writing.
Why is it popular then? For one thing, it was simple enough to follow without any effort at all. Good and bad was clearly defined, characters made ridiculous leaps of "logic" to keep the story progressing, and it avoided making any of the underlying complexities of the scenario vital to understanding the outcome. Then there's the fact that its incompletion has been wrongly perceived as depth. Players are not given information that should be given throughout the course of the game, so they decide to make up answers. By discussing their various theories, they form communities and reinforce their mass delusion that the game had depth, rather than a simple lack of proper presentation.
Further disproving the idea that the game was intended to be open-ended to add depth is the existence of the FFVII Ultimania Omega book, which was released years later and explained most of the things the game left out, making years of theorizing utterly moot.
Characters: Another important piece of the puzzle; the characters are shallow, showing no depth to their personalities. Each is constructed around a very basic personality template and follows it in the most stereotypical manner possible. Examples: Barrett is a brash and aggressive black guy from the ghetto, Cid is an older guy who smokes and swears a lot because he's bitter, Tifa merely fawns over Cloud the entire game, Yuffie is hyper and steals stuff, and Vincent is a gloomy and depressed guy who doesn't talk about his past.
This part is easily explained. Fans don't look at their value as characters, they look at their value as avatars. They see things that they can relate to in their personal lives, and that endears the characters to them, even though the characters are merely personality templates. On no level are they believable in any way unless you juxtapose your own personality traits onto them. Fans do this, turning ridiculously bad characters into iconic figures of their own dreams of power and adventure. On top of that, fans have mistaken their background stories for actual personality depth.
Marketing: FFVII's release marked the first time a video game had been so widely advertised. TV ads showed consumers the high-quality FMV sequences to really drive home the next-gen impact. It made people who had never even played video games before take notice. Those newcomers played the game, liked it because of the aforementioned reasons, as well the flashy graphics and high-quality music, and further drove the hype machine.
In summary, the game itself is overly simple, has a poorly developed story and shallow characters, and makes absolutely no significant strides in terms of gameplay. Around the same time, a largely overlooked game called Blood Omen delivered a powerful story with not just one, but several of the best twists ever to appear in a video game. It's a pity more people didn't play that graphically inferior game that was better in every other aspect instead of following the hype.