Don't buy into the hype, whatever you do. Honestly, the game is not some incredible gem. It's overhyped, and highly mediocre. The story is garbage, the main villain is just odd and didn't feel super menacing, the materia system is god damn awful no matter what anybody says, and the turn based system is one of the slowest I've experienced in an RPG. The fact that there is no skip button for summon sequences should have been classified as an act of terrorism.
The last great FF after FFVI was easily FFIX. FFIX didn't have some super amazing story, but the story was solid, the characters were good, the soundtrack was magnificent, and the classic JRPG elements blended well with the more modern aspects. Not to mention the pre-rendered backgrounds means the game has aged very well. It disappoints me so much that FFIX often gets passed over in order to throw blind praise at the first mediocre romp through an FF in 3D.
Also, FFVII has aged like a turd. Nothing about it has aged well, and unless you have a soft spot for old, clunky JRPG's, it probably isn't going to resonate much with you.
