Final Fantasy VII: Run of the Mill

The re-release of Final Fantasy VII has rekindled the flames of hatred for the game and I personally do not understand why this game is so often lauded or decried. I feel that a lot of people use Final Fantasy VII as the point in time when Final Fantasy lost its way. It ditched the old medieval fantasy setting the other games had and had a pretty dense story with cut scenes and flashy hair. I would argue, however, that Final Fantasy VII is a natural progression from Final Fantasy IV and VI. Cecil, the protagonist of Final Fantasy IV, is an emo brooding knight on a path for redemption and was a precursor to the emo brooding soldier named Cloud in Final Fantasy VII. Compared to the first three games, the story of Final Fantasy IV was massive and cinematic. While there were no pre-rendered cuts scenes, there were scenes acted out with sprites that actually made you feel a connection to the characters. This was furthered in Final Fantasy VI whose story is vast and follows many characters on seemingly different paths that converge on main story line. Final Fantasy IV and VI even deal with the deaths of characters that were important to the story line. The pre-rendered cutscenese, flashy summons, and melodramatic story of Final Fantasy VII is just an evolution of these tools and concepts from IV and VI using the new hardware capabilities of the PlayStation.

So why does everyone give Final Fantasy VII such a hard time? It deals with many elements that people applauded previous games for and does it in a new and fresh setting. Furthermore, Final Fantasy VII was a giant quest offering 100+ hours of content if you really want to do it. The reason for the hate, I believe, is the internet. For many people, Final Fantasy IV and VI were their first Final Fantasy game and these people have a strong connection with them. If they were young enough, some people may have fantasized about being in these games or drew pictures of the characters, but there was no outlet where these people could really be brought together. In 1997, the Internet had become main stream enough that the average PlayStation owner could find a Final Fantasy VII forum and let their mind run wild.

The craziest Final Fantasy VII fans, who write fan fiction or name their cats Sephiroth, probably experienced this game when they were young and connected with other people on forums while playing it which made their obsession worse. Imagine the amount of Cecil and Kane bullshit that would have popped up if the Internet was big back in 1991. By experiencing those early games in relative seclusion/ people eventually grew out of those games and moved on. I think the rabid Final Fantasy VII fanfare on the Internet allowed people to never get over Aerith or Cloud and their obsession and shameless devotion caused a backlash in the community that has created such a polarized view on Final Fantasy VII

Pictures:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cecil_Harvey/Dissidia
http://ayb.blacksuitmedia.com/2011/09/30/578/