Sales wise yes. But I believe that it only did that well because it was an RPG for the masses... practically FF7 is the reason RPGs are so popular in America.

At least I definately found FF7 easier than earlier installments!! Even the story was easier to follow :)

Agreed. It was much easier to play and the plot was signifficantly toned down from the crazy plot VI had (I love VI's plot. It was ingenious). I think the reason it's the most played is pretty obvious: It was on the PSone, and it was the first (major) 3D RPG. If you break it down to it's bare bones though, the plot and characters were nothing special in FF.  It was the first FF game for many kids at the time.  The PSone introduced a lot of new gamers and FFVII was the first FF experience for many of them, meaning they missed out on some of the better early ones.  This effect also unfortunately is one of the reasons IX was overlooked.  It had tons of tributes to the first VI games and most Americans didn't understand them, so the amazing game ended up being pretty much dismissed.

Whew, I was getting chills watching the FF-VI Retrospective. What a great game; it'll always be one of my favorite games of all time.

Personally I rate VI the best in the series, followed by IV and then VII (except I never played V, which I think I might like to do if I can find it.)

For the record, VI does not fail with its second half - if anything it excels there. The only thing that changes is the main story halts and all the back-stories of the characters come out. Just becase they're "side" stories doesn't make them less compelling. I'd argue that they're more compelling, that you feel like you're really learning about the world and the characters, and the game's self-contained history comes alive. Not to mention the sense of freedom to explore and find all the fantastic weapons/items/magicite. There's so much to do in the last half that when I played the game recently, I found something I'd never found before in all my innumerable times through the game. It was great.

FF - VII was cinematically breath-taking, though I could hardly make sense of the story. I also don't care for the pre-rendered backgrounds that came into the series with that game. For me, it made the game world feel less immersive, and sometimes it was hard to tell where you could and couldn't go (especially when you had to climb vertically). The combat was fun, though, and the characters were cool, but unfortunately I get a headache these days from the pixelated battle models. Actually stopped me from getting very far into a second run through the game. Still a classic, though.

FFVII is the most overrated game in the series. The sales are really coincidental since it was the first Final Fantasy game to receive a significant ad campaign in the west.

The thing is, I don't care about the characters' backstories, really, unless they're woven into the plot.  FFIV and FFV weave the characters' stories into the plot, and you get a sense of their deeper motivations along with the big plotline events.

It's like this, with the main plot sequence, you want to know what happens next.  So the whole world was ravaged by Kefka.  I want to know what happens TO THE WORLD next, not what happens to Terra next.  All of the back stories are unconnected, so you're not looking forward to the next part.

I agree about what ruined the Playstation FFs for me, the prerendered towns/dungeons/etc.  Having 3D characters walk around on a 2D picture was completely unconvincing, and really destroyed any sense of immersion in the game.  And the big selling point of the game, the reason they really wanted to use CDs, the FMV, was fuzzy and horribly compressed.  FFVIII wasn't as bad in this regard, and the characters fit into the backgrounds somewhat better, but of course the gameplay was awful.

I think I would like FFIX, but the first 2 or so hours that I played at a friend's house didn't "hook" me, so I never made the purchase.

does anybody remember when the head of playstation said that he wanted PS3 gamers to get into the story of some of the games more and cry or whatever? that sounds like we'll have some games coming out with great stories.....good enough to match FFVI

 If you don't like the characters and don't care what happens to them I'm not surprised you don't like great games like FFVI.  I bet you thought FFVIII and FFX were awesome right?

Liked the video, though I never considered Mog optional since it's damn easy to get him in the Normal world, and by that logic, everyone after Setzer is optional.

Now, I like FFVI Advance, but I have a very major complaint with it: The correct translation. As it turns out, Mr. Woosley did a great job with it mostly, I find there are few instances where the real translation is better (Sabin/Edgar storyline being one).

However, stuff like:
Snes: (Edgar to Relm) : "You're growing up too fast." Which kinda shows Edgar realizing the world is going to hell and showing some concern for a 10 year old kid versus:
GBA: (Edgar to Relm) : "You're only 10? I'll wait 8 years" Which shows Edgar wants to have sex with Relm.
Snes: (Ultros) : I may learn slow... but I eat fast!
GBA: (Ultros) : I may learn slow, but at least I never give up!

Kinda bothered me, though both comments are more Japanese culture and humour. Also, the Opera having different lyrics just messed up that memory too. Although truthfully, a new player won't notice that.

-Edit-
Stay away from Chronicles or Anthology unless they are your last choice. FF and CT were never meant to play that slow.

I also think that after FF7 gamer's started to be...'cool'... and when Square showed off FF9's art style they didn't like it at all because it wasn't cool enough. Sadly they missed one of the best in the series. My friend won't play FFIII DS because he hates the style the players are rendered. Which show's his lack of maturity. This is also the guy who says Mario is for kids. *sigh*

Yeah, I completely agree with this.  Man when I got my PSone and popped in Anthology (I had already played all the games, I just thought it was a cool idea to have them on one disc) I thought the game was broken when it took over a minute to load... god that was horrible.  I was scarred for life by the load times in Chronicles and Anthology.  Avoid at all costs!!!