Here's where the differencial comes in with people of different tastes in jrpgs.  The difference between FFVII and the previous FF's is the focus more on the customization.  You actually CAN customize your party in FF7 more than the others.  The only complaint is one that derives from using an entire party rather than using just one party of your own selection.  Some think that makes the characters in FF7 other than the characters that you're currently using useless, except that usefulness is transferred to the actual battle system rather than the characters you're using.  I personally don't like being forced to use my entire party to beat a game like you must in FFVI.  You're not forced like that in FF7.  Swapping out characters constantly for different uses =/= more usefulness than just simply swapping out materia for different battle plans.  It's quicker, easier and far more efficient than going back and forth to switch characters changing their armor/weapons etc.   

Besides, limit breaks aren't the only differencial.  Weapons are as well; some enemies that are in the back row of a bunch of enemies take half the damage from non-ranged weapons in FF7.  The same thing for flying enemies.

Another popular opinion against FF7 (on forums at least) is that the characters are too overpowered which just isn't true.  From the beginning of the game to the end you have to choose wisely on how to place your materia.  Even the strongest weapons of the game aren't broken because they don't give any materia growth, so you'd still have to make use of weaker weapons that give more materia growth to gain more abilities from materia, the same can be said with armor as well. 

The most powerful limit breaks aren't even broken themselves.  Why? Because they're sidequests, you're not forced to use them nor or they right in front of you, it's your own choice if you choose to pursue them.  If you feel the battle system is too easy, just increase the battle speed to max and the ATB on active mode.  It's that simple.

What about FFVI?  How are they not overpowered?  You can use abilities like Sabin's blitz skills and Edgars Tool abilities at will.  Each character with the exception of a few can learn all of the black and white magics as well.  Let's say someone argues "But once you learn the magic, you keep it, you don't have to change it out".  True, but how many of those abilities are you going to actually use regularly?  You're not going to use fire after you have Firaga or Flare after you have Ultima.  You might just for the heck of it, but not for it's usefulness.  No need to worry about running out of MP either because of osmose. 

Alright I'm done ranting ^_^   

ROFLMFAO! OMG that was funny. I don't know if u are serious or not but that is how I choose my real life friends !

It is ok if it is not their most fav game in the whole world like mine but if they ever say something blasphemous to me like "FFVIII was better than FFVII!" May god have mercy on their soul. I think a friend said something like that to me and I threw up! What a REVOLTING comment to make lolz.

You clearly don't have an understanding of how Pokemon works.

Ruby and Sapphire each have half the puzzle. Emerald holds nothing new.

Just like Red and Blue each hold half the puzzle.

While Yellow is in the middle and doesn't do you any extra good.

Pokemon Yellow alone outsold FF7. So their goes your arguement.

Plenty of people gave you good reasons. You just ignored them.

The battle system is worse then previous iterations, the story is worse then previous iterations and the music is worse? What more could you ask for?

EDIT: I should have probably quoted, but the start of my post was directed at Soriku's dislike of FF7 being to western-y.

Um, I'm pretty sure Final Fantasy has always been westerny and only made the transition to more asian culture based since FF7.

I mean, pre-7 is classic european architecture and clothing aside from the distinctly asian job classes and characters.

7 Introduced very modern Japan pop-culture into the series, with the design of midgar and the wild spiky hair of certain characters. Even character models were very anime-esque, again with the spikey hair, large round eyes, cait-sith.

Personally, I think FF7 is one of the most important games ever, but it's not one of the best. As a person that's played almost all FF's, it doesn't do enough to set itself apart from the other FF's except for the jump to 3D (which is not setting itself apart from 8 onwards anyway).

1. Claims without a thorough explanation aren't reasons.

2. You just did it again. 

Because you can't buy this sort of entertainment.  If you saw something like this on TV, you would think it was scripted and wouldn't be as funny.

I give that post a 9.8.

I'm honestly wondering the same. Maybe because we still hold out hope that these boards won't become just another mini-GameFAQs in terms of quality?

It's not any more or less Eastern or Western than any other JRPG of it's time or earlier, from a game design or visual design standpoint.  FFVI had a samurai and a ninja, along with mecha, a clown, European architecture, steampunk.  Phantasy Star I believe had guns and swords, and space opera, and anime looking characters. So much for homogenous design.

Do people actually know they're history when they talk about things like this?  Are they even aware of the outside influences that factor into a game's creation, or the influences to those influences? 

Good game. But Ocarina of Time and Mario 3 are better.

FFVII is maybe the best RPG.