I think its kind of a cool thing to say that FF7 isnt good quality. FF7 is arguably better than 6, some agree some dont. ff6 may have done it before, but it was a step forward for making FF7, which to me and many people made following games try to emulate this.

In influence in the genre, DQ is the leader in japan,  FF worldwide, and 7 was more well known than the rest of the final fantasies in the series in the west thanks to the sony advertising.  DQ and games as such marked how RPGs including early FFs would be untill FF7, and DQ still follows the same formula and u can see the difference from other RPG from today.

Pokemon had its great cultural influence thanks to the anime series which is a way to boost game sales, as u can see, the mediocre series continues after 10  years to support the games(when a new game appears, the series moves to a new setting with the pokemon in the series). I tell you, all the people I know wouldnt play pokemon if it werent for the series, as wel as noone would play Yu Gi Oh! if it werent for the same reason, the list as things such as beyblade continues.

Pokemon wont be remembered as a masterpiece as FF7 is, even if u dont want to admit it, and I dont know how its so hard to do it.

What great debatingskills to qoute someone and reply: no they don't...

Here's looking at you Khuutra, seems your personal favorite is ff6, am i wrong? I've never heard anywhere, at any gaming site, any gaming community, people compare JRPG's with the Pokemon series... now although not being familiar with the series but what impact is that? Or is everyone as ignorant as me...?

@pastro:

You haven't explain in what way FFVII is a step forward in terms of storytelling above FFVI, or FFIV, or even FF2. Yes, it had FMVs, but there were JRPGs that had FMVs long before FFVII did, and FMVs in the first place are just cutscenes, which we've had since the nES. There is no innovation there.

@weaveworld:

What would you have me say, exactly? Games with cutscenes do not owe that to FF7, they had them for about a decade and a half before that Games with FMVs don't owe that to FF7 either, as JRPGs before that had them too! "No the do not" is not only perfectly accurate, it is concise.

Yes, you wouldd be wrong.

Are you implying that because the average JRPG fan doesn't talk about Pokemon much, that Pokemon had no impact? I am not being sarcastic, I am making sure that I do not understand.

Why is there no love for Pokemon Red? Charizard is lovable!

seriously pokemon killed ff7

Well, no. At least not in America. America has moved on to FPS.

I support Pokemon Red!

Pokemon is more popular. It's not as discussed, cause people are too busy playing it, or watching the cartoon, or trading cards, or whatever the fuck else they do...
People like to talk about VII more than they like to play it, that's why it seems to be more popular.

The main impact of Pokemon was that it was a game that highlighted the gameplay (not convenience, but actual gameplay) advantages a game could have by being on a handheld. It utilized the full potential of the link cable and showed that handheld gaming could be just as much a social experience as could consoles, if not more. Since then, Nintendo handhelds have consistently outsold Nintendo consoles. The handheld industry is now poised to disrupt the console industry to become the most mainstream gaming market.

If you look at Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal sales, it's shocking how much they sold relative to the number of Gameboy Colors sold. Combined, those three games sold around 30 million copies, while the GBC sold (I believe) 40-50 million systems. The popularity of handhelds due to the games undoubtededly brought much more developer support to the systems over the years. The fact that the PSP can sell well despite the record-breaking sales of the DS shows exactly how massive the industry has become in such a short time.

Besides this, Pokemon was full of small innovations, some of which were so unique and well-executed that most developers have been reluctant to try to use the ideas themselves. The concept of parallel goals that support each other was in particular a showcase of how masterful the execution was. Players could focus on exploration (to catch new Pokemon and/or just to search around for undiscovered locations), on progressing the storyline, on breeding Pokemon, or on the multiplayer aspects (trade and battling), and each aspect would actually work to the benefit of the others, building the sense of immense possibilities without having to feel like a useless, inconsequential gameplay feature is being shoved in your face. In fact, I suspect the shoddy attempts at "tacking on" features that sometimes feel irrelevant to the game are largely influenced by Pokemon's success at doing so.

God that was a long post. I guess it's because I have always been and always will be a handheld fanboy.... (the two current gen systems I own right now are the DS and PSP)

Sheesh... Come in here with that pokemon statement... Please.. I beg you, put that aside.