I loved FF7, and I've played 2 and 3 (English numbers). 6 Was one of my favorites, but 7 was also. Part of it stems from delivering the true "epic" rpg experience for me in the bump to 3D. For it's time the game was absolutely incredible. However I can see many branches of animosity.

1.) First FF to appear on a non-Nintendo console. This upset many lol. I know from personal experience.

2.) First FF to "break away" from the "Classic" feel of Final Fantasy games, 1-6 = Flying castles, and knights on Chocobo's etc etc. 7 was very cyber-punk, some liked, some didn't.

3.) People like to toss in the "Cloud was such an emo whiner blah blah blah", yeah umm... when 7 came out, the whole "Emo" thing wasn't exactly popular >_>; Cloud had amnesia, not Manic depression. So 7 is generally referenced poorly in the whole "stereotypical JRPG emo plot ghey POS" list goes on xD. Which also ties into what Montana stated, many people who are a fan of WRPG's will use it as bait to provoke an answer from the FF7 minions.

4.) The milking, the people who already hate the game, probably hate it being used so much. I personally say just don't buy the swag if your not interested, but sometimes you just have to vocalize aggression :)

I will say FF7 wasn't the greatest game of all kind and will forever stay that way, but over-rated is a bit of a long shot. At the time the game was damn near perfect, hell Zelda OOT got better ratings I think >_>; but that's not considered over-rated by any means. I don't see why this should be either.

Seeing as the first RPG I played was FF X, I never really had the chance to play the old FFs, but I do doubt that they would stand up to the modern ones. However, if it was remade, I would certainly buy it.
Also, why does everyone hate FF XII, I enjoyed the game a lot

FF6 was pretty much steam-punk, the "break away" certainly started before FF7. 

I actually don't like FF7 either....maybe because it wasn't my first RPG I think....I mean, I tried playing the game, I really did. But that wasn't until a few years ago though. So the graphics really annoyed my eyes a lot. I like the story and many of the characters and stuff, but the actual game kinda annoys me. It's like FF12, which I tried to beat but sadly got too bored to complete (just sooo long)....there are just a few things in the game's setup that annoys the crap out of me and I can't stand it. Sorry if that upsets anybody but that is just how I feel about FF7: Good lore and stuff, but the actual game is not that great. Maybe I was spoiled by the PS2 graphics, but I did beat the original Metal Gear Solid and played Syphon Filter game with my bro, so I don't think that could be it.

I think FFVII got a lot of attention and superlatives in the media for being the first of its kind, this does not mean, however, that it is the best of its kind.
I feel that both FFIX and FFX were both better games in all areas than FFVII, but they got none of that "first off the line" attention that the first 3D installment did.
I like FFVII, but as an avid RPG player both on consoles, PC and pen & paper, I must say that I've encountered many RPG's that are easily better in almost all respects.

Edit: Check out the zounds of solid and awesome RPG titles that were available for PC by the time FFVII arrived to see why PC fans like myself were not overly intrigued or extremely impressed. The PC was, and still is imo, the best RPG platform. There's just so much good stuff to played, especially if you don't mind retro gaming a bit! 

It's story was a direct rip off of Star Wars and despite this the characters sucked aside from Balthier.(which how can you screw up Han solo.)  Making Luke Skywalker even more of a whiny pain in the ass is not a good idea.  Also making chewbacca into a rabbit lady for sex appeal is just... creepy.

Also, as an added bonus for Tactics Ogre Fans, Lancelot Hamilton and Lancelot Tartae for some reason are in the game and relay their story close to on the dot. (You may know them as Basche and the purple haired captain.)

Also he reused the name Rosaelians.

FF7, my entry to the Playstation and my very first RPG before I fell in love with it. I love it cuz of the story line, but I hate it in a way cuz the introduction of RPG has really taken up a lot of my time since then.

 Yeah, but 6 felt way more like 5 than it did 7. FF7 was the real entrance into the tech-futuristic, cyber relm for the series in my opinion. 

 Yes, but the gameplay was fun, I was not hugely concerned by the storyline. I agree that FF X was better, but to call it bad is just wrong

 Suppose that would've been an advantage to it being on the PS1, I imagine it may have been harder to visually distinct 5 from 6? I dunno... the hardware would've allowed the vision of 7 to be pulled off as planned, but maybe it could've been influenced by 6, or an idea of how 6 could've been if it was 3D.