Well, speaking as an unbiased party (!), I would like to say that it is cool to hate FFVII, the same way it was cool to hate the PS3 last year. People are always going to be on something's jock, and they are always going to hate one thing. Right now, in the RPG world, everyone is on Mass Effect/Bioshock's respective jocks, and hating on Lost Odyssey (to an extent). I think that FFVII did a lot for it's time, but rabid fanboys have made the game seem bigger than it once was. It's a great game in it's own right, but people are acting like the game is the best there is, was, and ever will be. People like that give the game a bad name. But it is a good game from the nineties.

Yeah, it's just a case of expectations. I'd call it a mediocre RPG. Which would make it a bad RPG, mostly becuse i hold it up to the standard of 4 and 6.

It's a lot like FF5 which also had a crappy story but really fun gameplay. Problem is people demand a good story. Or atleast have Sepiroth in it. (I don't get why people think FF7's story was good.)

FF5's story was better then 12's though... because the story was just largely lacking.  It was almost a return to the NES days. 

I found a lot more fun in grinding them actually going through the story... I actually dreaded having to do the story parts and perfered the random hunts.

Had that game released as JUST the Centurio guild missions and made it a FF spin off it would of been a MUCH better game.

I have fond memories of FF7 but I was off the FF boat after that. I still like things based on FF7, like Advent Children, because it feeds my nostalgia. I think I played a couple JRPGs after FF7, including my all time favorite JRPG Xenogears, but they are lost on me now.

FF7 was the only one of the series to leave a lasting impression so Square milks it. I don't blame them.

Well I don't hate FF7, I still have fond memories of playing it when it was released. It's actually why I purchased my PS1 in the first place.(I only had a Saturn before that) I still like FF6 and FF4 much more though (my favorites in the series) as I played them back in the day on my SNES. 4 introduced me to the series and I loved 6!(still do actually :) ).

I cleared 7, but pretty much stopped playing FF games at 8. I thought 8 was terrible and was on disc 2 when I stopped playing it. I tried the later ones (9/X/XII), but could never get into them. I guess 7 was the beginning of the end for me liking FF games, hehe.

As a game, I like FF7 alot, like most it was my first RPG and first FF games (FF6 not being out in the UK before it). And I still love it.

Although, like Soriku's first post, the Sephiroth praise is silly as he's not the main villain as such, Jenova is. As a comic fan I know and se fanboyism on a daily basis and some of that confuses me, Sephiroth fanboyism and some FF7 fanboyism confuses me more. The new games just seem a little much for my liking, kinda like milking it for all it's worth.

I liked FFVII but I don't think it's the godsend that people think it is. The only reason people like it so much was because it was so many peoples first FF and they automatically think it's the best.

And that's where the game starts to bother me.

They keep hearing about FFVI and how just about everyone that has played it say it's better than VII and they feel the need to argue. It doesn't matter that they never played VI and never plan to because it's old and must be shitty, VII is better.

Also, the other reason why I have a general dislike for VII isn't because it went to Sci-Fi, it's because it started the whole emo man-boy character versus the pussy final emo final boss (yes, Sephiroth may have a large sword but he's a mama's boy). Now every main FF character falls into at least one of two catagories: emo and man-boy.

I don't know, with VII the FF games just seemed to lose a lot of the style previous games had and they have been losing more and more style with each new game. They're less about the characters and story and more about the graphics and big production values. Have you played XII? The story was copied straight out of a generic political thriller and the characters feel like they were created by a napping four year old.

And people wonder why I'm in no way excited about FFXIII. 

 You really think that FFVI, or even FFVI, can't stand up to FFX and FFXII?

You seriously need to stop whatever you're playing now and play FFVI and FFVII.  Now.  Pick up your DS first and play FFVI Advance first and then play FFVII.  Come back and tell me again that you doubt that the games couldn't stand the test of time.

While FFVII does feel dated (mainly want you to play it for contrast), FFVI will still feel absolutely amazing.  Why?  Because amazing story, characters, and music never go out of date. 

 The gameplay mechanics have probably been reused in some way, and it wont really feel fresh. While I would be happy to play these (I don't have a DS though) I am happy waiting for the inevitable remake of FF VII, which hopefully will make it seem newer.

I'm have to agree with Twesterm here. in that there were many people who just automatically believed that 7 was better than the ones before it. Right now, I would consider 7 a good game and certainly recommend it to some people if I think it suits their tastes, but I personally though that 6 is much better. I did however get into disagreements with people in school for a few years when they tried to talk about 7 like it was the best game ever. Some even would claim that it was the best FF ever. (At the points shortly after 9 and 10 came out), and upon my asking them which ones they have played, it was always only games 7 and up.

That did kinda bother me, so I was a little against the game for awhile, but now I'd say it's alright. Not sure how I feel about the "milkings" of it though as I haven't played those. For all I know, they could be reasonably good games. I know someone who is/was playing Crisis Core, so maybe I can ask them about it or borrow it eventually.

 Note: I'm not saying that I don't know anyone who has played pre-7 games that don't like it the best. It just happened to be that they were never ones I really had that problem with. We may disagree on which one was best, but they were actually open to someone else actually having a different opinion than them. For some reason, at least at that time, it seemed basically everyon who hadn't played the older ones were a bit moer stubborn or elitist about it. Thinking just right now, that seems amusing. It's usually the people who have been around who get that way, isn't it? 

I have only played FFVII, FFVIII and FFIV (and one other I think? One of the later ones? meh)
I couldn't clock FFVII or FFVIII due to the fact that I didn't actually enjoy them that much, once I bought FFIV for my DS (actually the GBA version) on the spur of the moment I played it pretty much non stop until I clocked it. I think the FFVII hate largely comes from the older gamers (older than me at least =P) that played the games before FFVII and can't stand the people going on about how godlike VII is when its inferior to the previous games in the series.
Can't wait to get FFVI for my DS now =P