Why is Final Fantasy VII so popular?

[The Anarchyz]

FFVII came in the right time and with the right people:

- The leap to 3D: By that time 3D was the novelty in every platform, SCEA even tried to shut down 2D games (thank god they couldn't do it), but in the JRPG world they needed a powerhouse game that took the lead in the transition, Final Fantasy VII was that game...

- Sony Computer Entertainment: When Square released Final Fantasy VI and developed Super Mario RPG for Nintendo, the relationship between them was fragile, and when Ninty revealed that its 64-bit system was gonna use low-space cartridges that was the final blow, Square was out and Sony made sure that they wouldn't go to Sega or return to Ninty (although those bridges were burnt by Yamauchi until Iwata replaced him), they made a plan for making Square ridiculously famous in the whole world, that included co-publishing Final Fantasy VII in the west and making an aggressive marketing campaign for it... Final Fantasy VII was heavily advertised and suddendly everyone wanted to have "this awesome game with the fantastic visuals" (hey, they were fantastic back then)

Final Fantasy VII was the title that brought the series into the mainstream (because of the 2 points described above) and because of that it was the 1st one to many people, of course the plot (especially the aerith final scene that shocked a lot of people), the music, the characters, the FMVs, etc. helped...