I thought FF6s gameplay was decent - yeah its way outdated by todays standards, but it was good for its time. i agree that graphically FF7 is no where near as attractive as FF8 or FF9, but i think it holds up pretty well.
the thing with pre-rendered backgrounds like they used in the PS1 era, is that they still look good today, Resident Evil 2 and 3 still look very good. the only problem with FF7 is the character models and the world map, battle graphics arent bad.
but i also agree with the comment about characters, the really big problem with FF7 (in comparasion to FF8 and 9) is the depth of characters - the characters only speak when its relevant to do so. and they only say things that are relevant when are where you are. in FF8 and 9 the characters dialogue would have all types of mannerisms and a lot more depth so the characters would feel a lot more 3 dimesional in that respect. yes Barret and Cid would swear, etc now and again, but the characters never felt as though they were as fleshed out as the later FFs or other RPGs. alternatively you have the inverse of that in FF13 where the characters talk too much shite.
FF6 was good in the character department - but i really had no interest in characters like Gogo, Umaro, or even Mog. the thing with the later FFs is that the characters were more relevant in that respect.
