What a surprise. I disagree with someone from N4G.
Final Fantasy VII is actually one of my least favorite of the old Squaresoft games. Every FF game has it's faults, but I found VII particularly irritating. The lifestream business irritated me almost as much as Cloud giving an abrupt character 180 when Sephiroth shows up. And then Tifa knew the whole time that Cloud had Zach's memories and said NOTHING?!
Yeah, good gameplay doesn't make up for stuff like that in my book. Crisis Core is the only FF VII game which doesn't suck.
If you are looking for a traditional party-based RPG, I would say Chrono Cross is the better game, both with gameplay and story. If you are willing to consider non-traditional RPG's, I have to mention Parasite Eve, which was short and really didn't give you a ton of options, but one of Square's best constructed stories. And then there's Xenogears.
Take your pick. I prefer all three of those over VII. Heck, I would prefer VIII, as faulted as it is over VII. Square had a ton of really good RPG games back in the day, and a lot of what you will find enjoyable in each is personal taste. But I do think some of them deserve mentioning in the same breath as nostalgia-goggled VII.
