Final Fantasy VII - 15th Anniversary

[Lindz]

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made."



This game changed everything. Its release for the Playstation is one of the big reasons 3rd parties dropped Nintendo like a bad habit. It put Squaresoft on the map as one of the companies whose games you'll want to look out for outside of Japan. It ushered in the biggest era for RPGs in the west.

Release Dates
01/31/97 - JP
09/03/97 - NA
11/17/97 - EU

Compilation of FFVII
Before Crisis (Cellphone game)
Crisis Core (PSP game)
Last Order (OVA, non-canon)
Final Fantasy VII (PS1 game)
Advent Children (Movie)
Advent Children Complete (Movie)
Dirge of Cerberus (PS2 game)
Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode (Cellphone game)

Cameos
- Ergheiz: God Bless the Ring
Cloud, Tifa, Sephiroth, Vincent Valentine, Yuffie Kisaragi, Zack are all playable.
- Final Fantasy Tactics
Cloud can be recruited. Aeris makes a brief appearance to.
- Final Fantasy V
Loading screens with sprites based on Cloud and Sephiroth are occasionally used.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy
Cloud and Sephiroth are playable characters. Cait Sith is your "tutor" for the arcade mode.
- Dissidia Duodecim Prologus Final Fantasy
This paid demo nets you Aeris as an assist character in the full game.
- Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth are playable characters.
- Itadaki Street Special
Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, and Sephiroth are playable characters.
- Itadaki Street Portable
Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, Yuffie, and Sephiroth are playable characters.
- Little Big Planet 2
Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Vincent and Sephiroth costumes were made available as DLC.
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Cloud and Sephiroth will be a playable characters while Safer-Sephiroth will be an enemy.
- Deus EX: Human Revolution
"The first boss of Deus Ex: HR is a big dude, with a machine-gun hand, named Barrett. Who was it that published the game again? Oh yeah, Square-Enix."
- Kingdom Hearts:
"Cid, Aerith and Yuffie are part of the resistance against the bad guys. Cloud is a boss in Hercules' world, featuring a design that takes some cues from Vincent. Both him and Yuffie can also be fought in arena tournaments. Sephiroth appears as a special boss in the NA, EU and Final Mix versions of the game."
- Kingdom Hearts 2:
"Cid, Aerith, Yuffie, Cloud and now Tifa. Those last three use the advent children designs while Aerith has the Crisis Core one. Sephiroth as a special boss in all versions. I think you can fight Cloud, Yuffie and maybe Tifa in the arena, not sure about all of them."
- Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep:
"A young Zack" shows up in this game.

Music
Aeris's Theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIqKWLkm2-g
The Shinra Corportation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj0F2KfCvhg
Jenova Absolute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yX4h8Agi7U
Cid's Theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJzfOA9uV6E

Videos
TV AD 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru9zzFEdGWk
TV AD 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9pF9BJQBLo
TV AD 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHVb1wn8vo
Supernova: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWYHqUF48E

[Lindz]

Its always been "cool" on the internet to hate this game but I'm not gonna hide my love for it! I first rented it within days of release back when it hit the US. Shortly afterwards I was able to buy it for myself! Its 15 years old? Well I've beaten it at least twice as many times! I play through it at least once a year, its such a natural thing for me that I rarely mention it!

This past friday I started my very first "speed run" of the game. No grinding, no going far out of my way for items and junk, little to no attention paid to dialogue just zoom right through it, and battle speed turned up (though not set to active). I didn't even bother to mess around with the background color of the menu!

I've made a number of errors which have cost me time and have had to reset a few times but its been pretty fun! Enemies posing a threat is pretty unusual with how I normally play through it. I have said for a long time that FFVII isn't as long as people make it out to be. People scoffed at me back in the day for saying that! Well with the power of PSP and screenshots we're gonna see just how quick I can finish it!

- Disc 1
01 hour | Location: Outside of Aeris's house after sneaking out
02 hour | Location: Entrance to Shinra HQ
03 hour | Location: Shinra HQ Roof fighting Rufus
04 hour | Location: Upper Junon Airport
05 hour | Location: Corel Prison after Barrets backstory
06 hour | Location: Cave of the Gi boss battle
07 hour | Location: Sleeping Forest to collect Kjata materia early
08 hour | Location: Temple of the Ancients watching Cait Sith meet his end
- Disc 1 End: 8 hours, 30 minutes

- Disc 2
09 hour | Location: Great Glacier running up some eastward slope.
10 hour | Location: Whirlwind Maze the very last screen of it no less!
11 hour | Location: Mt. Corel headed back towards the Corel Reactor.
12 hour | Location: Underwater Reactor killing unfortunate Shinra MPs.
13 hour | Location: Post-Diamond WEAPON battle cinemas.
14 hour | Location: Post-Hojo battle cutscenes.
- Disc 2 End: 14 hours, 6 minutes

- Disc 3
15 hour | Location: endgame
- Disc 3 End: 14 hours, 27 minutes

(click on each hour for a screenshot proof of timeage!)

Missteps:
- Went to Corneos place before speaking to the man at the Honeybee Inn entrance losing me maybe a minute or so.
- I kinda got lost & confused in the Shinra HQ cause of going to the wrong floors and forgetting to obtain keycards. Because of this I ended up on the world map at 3 hours, 7 minutes when it coulda been sub-3 hours >.<;
- In Junon I didn't do the CPR event as quick as possible and miserably failed many times with the Mr. Dolphin jump.
- I accidentally went into the endless Corel Desert which cost me some time ^_^;
- Failed the Chocobo race to freedom meaning I had to do a second one.
- Broke all the wrong switches in Cave of the Gi before finding the right one and also went the wrong path resulting in an extra giant spider battle.
- tba

Skip It!
- Dialogue. Lots of it.
- Teach Barret to use Materia? Not gonna happen!
- Make Cloud into Don Corneo's #1 girl? Nope! A dress and a wig were all I got. Getting all the extra stuff woulda cost more time than fighting a few of his goons did.
- Spend time running around playing the Mayors lil password game? No I just guessed it straight up (and got it wrong twice!).
- Catch a Chocobo? Why? I ran straight across the swamp narrowly evading that Zolom!
- I didn't set foot in Fort Condor!
- Yuffie who?
- Messing around in the first Gold Saucer visit? Nooo I went right to Cait Sith then to the Battle Arena to get ejected asap.
- Go back for Mythril? Nooo!
- I didn't set foot in Gongaga Village!
- Vincent who?
- Couldn't spare the time to revisit the flashback caves of Nibelhime!
- I didn't set foot in Wutai!
- There was no time to fully explore the Great Glacier & get the goodies within.
- tba

[Lady Kuno]

As a Nintendo fan, I hated this game as a kid. When I played it years later I saw it didn't really age well, however it was still really fun. It sucks there is like no chance they will remake it.

[deoxys]

Originally Posted by Lindz

Its always been "cool" on the internet to hate this game

What? It's one of the most celebrated games of all time. I can't remember having ever read a bad thing said about it.

May as well confess it now:

I've never played FFVII. I tried a while ago, but I couldn't get into it. Kuno's right, it hasn't aged well. Not sure why he said there's no chance they won't remake it though, unless that was sarcasm, because I remember reading an interview with one of the directors who said he guarantees there will be a remake, but he won't be a part of it.

[Loki]

Originally Posted by deoxys

Not sure why he said there's no chance they won't remake it though, unless that was sarcasm, because I remember reading an interview with one of the directors who said he guarantees there will be a remake, but he won't be a part of it.

Citation please. Because I also remember right after the FF7 movie (uh... Advent Children?) came out, they had a FF7 trailer using the movie's graphics- got everyone all excited. Then told everyone it wasn't happening. They were just using leftover materials to give the fans a swift kick in the groin. Something about not being economically feasible. Given how FF13- the prettiest FF game to date, is a giant run down a hallway, I'm not surprised that FF7 probably won't get a graphical remake.

Agreeing with Kuno/Deoxys, it didn't age well.

I gave it a try after I was told about how the "romance" system was all about how you interacted with either girl. The guy cited bringing them to battle in your team, using potions on them in combat and other things being major factors, which impressed me. A 1997 game kept a memory of every minor action your main character performed with each character and decided who you were more in love with based on that. Note that this guy wrote his College Thesis based on this. I got up to getting Cloud and Aeris and then some giant house monster killed us.

Afterwards, I found out the truth. That it was more like actual video game RPGs where you made dialogue choices at certain points and that was your only influence on the girls. After that, I never tried again.

The whole appeal of a game judging you based on in-game actions (not simple dialogue choices) intrigued me. But once that was gone, I really didn't care for it.

[Lady Kuno]

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

I gave it a try after I was told about how the "romance" system was all about how you interacted with either girl. The guy cited bringing them to battle in your team, using potions on them in combat and other things being major factors, which impressed me. A 1997 game kept a memory of every minor action your main character performed with each character and decided who you were more in love with based on that. Note that this guy wrote his College Thesis based on this. I got up to getting Cloud and Aeris and then some giant house monster killed us.

Afterwards, I found out the truth. That it was more like actual video game RPGs where you made dialogue choices at certain points and that was your only influence on the girls. After that, I never tried again.

Star Ocean 2 does this (PS1). It has romance options, however using items on people mid fight will up it as well. Also if someone died during a fight that they loved, they would go berserk and get super strength and stats.

[Concept]

It's not a bad game but I never really understood the hype. I got to the big plot twist at the end of disk one and realised I just didn't care, so I put it aside. Years later I made myself finish it, but (in my opinion) it just doesn't compare to the likes of 4, 6, 8-10 and 12. Has it really only been 15 years? FF10 is nearly eleven years old now - guess it never occured to me how fast the playstation ones got pumped out.

Inb4 gtfo :p.

[Char]

Never played it.

[big bad birtha]

As someone who's only played Nintendo stuff as a kid, I never really got into RPGs until later in my teenage years (there was Pokemon, but I liked it as a Nintendo game rather than a RPG.) FF7 happened to be my gateway game into RPGs. Back when I played it, I loved it. After FF7, I played every other Final Fantasy game that was out. I'm not sure how I'll like FF7 right now, but I'll always have a slight bias for it, since it was my first. I need to replay it sometime.

[Amras.MG]

I don't have $70 to fork over to play it, so I haven't played it.

[Lindz]

I don't want a remake cause Square would mess it up. Just look at AC. I never watched it an never will but even 8~ years ago when screens of it were first dropping I knew right there they were screwing FFVII up. That the movie has retcons and is super serious business is proof of that. The game has lotsa goofy moments, dialogue, and characters that just won't translate well to the sterile CG style the movie and tech demo went for.

It could be bias but I disagree about the game not ageing well. The gameplay all holds up. Its prolly the most varied FF in terms of gameplay mechanics even if most are simply for one-off events. Materia is still a way more fun system then drawing or watching the game play itself. People can say the graphics don't hold up but I'd disagree there to!

Originally Posted by deoxys

What? It's one of the most celebrated games of all time. I can't remember having ever read a bad thing said about it.

Do you live in a internet cave?? Even to this day FFVII has more trolls/haters then most other games out there o.o; Its constantly attacked or belittled by FFVI fanbots, FFVIII lovers, and nostalgia driven FFIX fanatics among others!

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

The whole appeal of a game judging you based on in-game actions (not simple dialogue choices) intrigued me. But once that was gone, I really didn't care for it.

Your friend was kinda right. Apparently there was a SO2-like system in place where Clouds actions affected affection but a bug or some other reason caused it to not have any effect on overall affection. The whole date thing event takes place somewhat early in the game so even if it had been working , I assume you woulda quit playing after it was over?

Originally Posted by Concept

It's not a bad game but I never really understood the hype. I got to the big plot twist at the end of disk one and realised I just didn't care, so I put it aside.

Are ya talking about Aerisd dying? I'd call that plot progression not a twist. Twists on Disk 1 would be Nibelhime still standing, the brief teamup with the Turks, Cait Siths betrayal, and Cloud forking over the Black Materia.

Originally Posted by big bad birtha

As someone who's only played Nintendo stuff as a kid, I never really got into RPGs until later in my teenage years (there was Pokemon, but I liked it as a Nintendo game rather than a RPG.) FF7 happened to be my gateway game into RPGs. Back when I played it, I loved it. After FF7, I played every other Final Fantasy game that was out. I'm not sure how I'll like FF7 right now, but I'll always have a slight bias for it, since it was my first. I need to replay it sometime.

Thats kinda my story to aside from the only Nintendo part. Before FFVII the only FF I'd played was Mystic Quest and it put me off of RPGs for years until I played Earthbound. I enjoyed the Shining Force games to but those were it until VII came out. Its my first real FF and the only one I've liked since!

Originally Posted by Amras.MG

I don't have $70 to fork over to play it, so I haven't played it.

I find it hard to believe it costs that much but idk where ya live or whatever. But regardless if ya got a PSP or PS3 the games only $9.99 if your into the whole downloadable games thing.

[Concept]

Originally Posted by Lindz

Are ya talking about Aerisd dying? I'd call that plot progression not a twist. Twists on Disk 1 would be Nibelhime still standing, the brief teamup with the Turks, Cait Siths betrayal, and Cloud forking over the Black Materia.

Whichever it is, it was the point where I realised that I didn't really care about the characters, which for something that's trying to be plot driven is a major dealbreaker for me. Game mechanics are solid and whatnot, y'know it played well. But the plot and characters just made me yawn ;;. There were some sparks in there (Cid and Reno are decent, Red XIII passable), but idk I never really got into it myself. Each to their own I guess, the guy I lived with last year couldn't understand my love of FF9's Vivi (philistine :p).

Wake me up when we have the 15th anniversay of 8, 9 and 10 :p.

[Talon87]

Back when I played FF7 for the first time in my life (2004), I remember finishing the game and telling myself and others, "This is one of the five best games I've ever played in my life. It ranks right up there with Shenmue II and Super Mario Bros. 3." However, I'm not sure how the game earned such high praise from me and I'm not sure if it would receive that same high level of praise if I were to play it once again. The game has a few fun-crippling problems, including (and not limited to):

1. that infernal RANDOM MONSTER BATTLE IN YO FACE! characteristic of all pre-FF12 Final Fantasies. Nothing annoys me more about classic JRPGs than the take-six-steps-and-OMG-NEW-BATTLE aspect.
2. the plot gets too weird and convoluted at times, making it very difficult to follow. It's also quite long, with many questions introduced early on in Disc 1 but not conclusively answered until late Disc 2 or Disc 3, which means you're either going to get a lot of the facts confused in your head or else you're going to have to take notes. Or, if you're like Lindsay, you could just play the game 10+ times until you've memorized everything everyone says.

But then when I remember what else the game has going for it, I start to wonder if maybe I would still rank this in my Top 5 Games of All Time. Things like ...

• a pretty good musical score for a JRPG
• one of the best, most interesting parties in any JRPG ever, where each character has got an interesting backstory and at least half of them (Cloud's, Tifa's, Barrett's, Vincent's) are really quite interesting.
• Sephiroth, a really great villain
• tons of events

It's that last one that I think may really be what sells FF7. Cloud getting off the train at the beginning ... meeting Aeris ... Vector CEO getting axed ... seeing Sephiroth snap ... the epic scene where Tifa runs along the giant cannon barrel ... that perverted gigolo dude who ran a brothel that Cloud and Tifa infiltrate ... the sand area with the sports-games-thing ... Vincent's backstory (with Hojo, Lucretia, and HOLY FUCK ARE YOU KIDDING ME?) ... Cloud at the "villa" and Tifa going to rescue him ... Cait Sith's sacrifice ... and of course Aeris's death. These and so many other unlisted ones like them are what really drive FF7 and make it a spectacular experience. I didn't even mention Barrett's flashback scene with how he lost his arm (but I have now ) or Red XIII's dad (likewise ), and there's so much more I could, but the point is, FF7 has a shitton of anecdotes and events to its name. I'm not even sure if FF6 with its cast of sixteen party characters had as many events as FF7 did. It may take a long time to beat as a result but it makes FF7 a rich experience once you beat it.

Do I think I'd rank FF7 in my Top 5 Games of All Time today? No, I don't. FF12 is my favorite Final Fantasy to date (its only problem being that, after the scene on Mt. Bur-Omisace [when the rain starts to fall], like so many other FFs the writers just don't know where to take the story and they wrap things up kinda poorly), so that probably bumps FF7 out of contention right there. The other spots being still firmly occupied by such greats as Shenmue II and SMB3 and perhaps joined by titles like Shadow of the Colossus or Phoenix Wright. Top 5 lists are hard anyway. Too many good games, too few spots available. So even if FF7 wouldn't make my cut for Top 5, would I still recommend it? Certainly. Even if the story is kinda mind-fuckey at times and a little more difficult to follow than the more straight-forward stories in FF4, FF6, and FF12, it's one of the more flavorful ones for just that very reason.

[Amras.MG]

Originally Posted by Lindz

I find it hard to believe it costs that much but idk where ya live or whatever. But regardless if ya got a PSP or PS3 the games only $9.99 if your into the whole downloadable games thing.

I looked at local game stores in two different cities, and have also done some online searches. All of them have turned up prices around $70 =/ And I don't have a PSP or PS3 so I'm outta luck

[Loki]

Originally Posted by Lindz

Your friend was kinda right. Apparently there was a SO2-like system in place where Clouds actions affected affection but a bug or some other reason caused it to not have any effect on overall affection. The whole date thing event takes place somewhat early in the game so even if it had been working , I assume you woulda quit playing after it was over?

Well, I don't play RPGs for their dating systems. It was merely what opened the door for me. As a person with a general dislike for JRPGs, I probably wouldn't have had touched it if not for that person's raving review and discussion of the supposed affection system. I never would have had played FF12 if not for the rather unique "Walk up to monster you see in the overworld and fight it" system, which was much prettier than ToS's version of the same concept, although ToS's appeal was the real time combat system.

So it was an interesting design concept which attracted me. There was no guarantee that the date or anything else in the game would have kept me playing. Which it didn't.

[Roglef]

Originally Posted by Amras.MG

I looked at local game stores in two different cities, and have also done some online searches. All of them have turned up prices around $70 =/ And I don't have a PSP or PS3 so I'm outta luck

Yeah. The black name game (non game of the year addition or whatevs) goes for around $200. I own it. The Green goes for around 70. These are the actual PS1 games, though.

[PikaGod]

I played this game I think till about when you have to get a chocobo to get over a marsh so a giant snake doesn't kill you or something or other, I can't remember that well. I thought the game was okay, it really didn't do a lot to draw me in, so I pretty much just put it down one and gave it back to my friend after not playing for like two weeks.

I have to agree that this game did not age well, sure back then the graphics may have been top notch or whatever, but now they aren't now. Graphics are pretty important to me when it comes to playing JRPGs. If I had played it when it first came out, I probably would have no problems with the graphics, but having only first played it last year, they just got on my nerves.

[Concept]

Originally Posted by PikaGod

I played this game I think till about when you have to get a chocobo to get over a marsh so a giant snake doesn't kill you or something or other, I can't remember that well. I thought the game was okay, it really didn't do a lot to draw me in, so I pretty much just put it down one and gave it back to my friend after not playing for like two weeks.

Getting a chocobo annoyed the hell out of me for some reason when I first played, so I killed that damn snake. No grinding required, because I hate grinding too. It doesn't disappear from the world map when you do ;;.

[Lindz]

Love Talons high praise for the game so much I'll ignore the random battle bashing ~_^

Originally Posted by Amras.MG

I looked at local game stores in two different cities, and have also done some online searches. All of them have turned up prices around $70 =/ And I don't have a PSP or PS3 so I'm outta luck

Thats crazy I hadn't expected it of all games to be so pricey. I know it had reprintings into the 2000's so there were certainly lotsa copies to go around o.o;

Originally Posted by Roglef

Yeah. The black name game (non game of the year addition or whatevs) goes for around $200. I own it. The Green goes for around 70. These are the actual PS1 games, though.

Are ya saying I'm sitting here staring at $200? Nothing wrong with my case or manual and the discs are obviously well worn but still work just fine... no! I'd never get rid of it!

Originally Posted by Concept

Getting a chocobo annoyed the hell out of me for some reason when I first played, so I killed that damn snake. No grinding required, because I hate grinding too. It doesn't disappear from the world map when you do ;;.

How the heck do ya kill it without grinding that early in the game? I normally just run past it cause chocobo catching is bothersome then visit it later to get its skill.

[Concept]

Originally Posted by Lindz

How the heck do ya kill it without grinding that early in the game? I normally just run past it cause chocobo catching is bothersome then visit it later to get its skill.

It's not actually that tough except it has one obscene ability (beta? vega?) which basically one shots your party, but it only uses it once - when it reaches 1/2 or 1/3 health (or something like that). Red XIII had sufficient health to barely survive from full health (as long as he was basically materia-less, except for enemy skill) and the enemy skill materia meant two characters would die, Red would just survive (as long as I kept his health full at all times) and would learn the obscene move - which could one-shot the snake thing in turn from the 1/3 health that it used it at.

Took a couple tries to work out how to do it and another couple to get it right.

[Lindz]

After 8 hours and 30 minutes Disc 1 is complete... ;_;

OP updated with more stuffs btw.

Originally Posted by Concept

It's not actually that tough except it has one obscene ability (beta? vega?) which basically one shots your party, but it only uses it once - when it reaches 1/2 or 1/3 health (or something like that). Red XIII had sufficient health to barely survive from full health (as long as he was basically materia-less, except for enemy skill) and the enemy skill materia meant two characters would die, Red would just survive (as long as I kept his health full at all times) and would learn the obscene move - which could one-shot the snake thing in turn from the 1/3 health that it used it at.

Took a couple tries to work out how to do it and another couple to get it right.

Not only is Beta super deadly but before using it the Zolom will knock one of your parties members out of the battle screen making it a difficult battle to finish after it has used its skill. With the right setup it may be possible to survive but I've never been crazy enough to try it and I grind!

[Concept]

Originally Posted by Lindz

Not only is Beta super deadly but before using it the Zolom will knock one of your parties members out of the battle screen making it a difficult battle to finish after it has used its skill. With the right setup it may be possible to survive but I've never been crazy enough to try it and I grind!

I decided I couldn't be bothered to get the chocobo, and I'm stubborn as hell once I've decided on a course of action. "A couple of tries" is somewhat of an understatement :p.

EDIT the first: Beating snakey isn't the most ridiculous thing I've got it into my head to do in a game and stuck to until I work out how. I'm good at breaking games.

[deoxys]

Originally Posted by Lindz

Do you live in a internet cave?? Even to this day FFVII has more trolls/haters then most other games out there o.o; Its constantly attacked or belittled by FFVI fanbots, FFVIII lovers, and nostalgia driven FFIX fanatics among others!

No, but I must be using a different internet than you or something... I see nothing but praise for FFVII. Ever. And it's not an uncommon thing. But then, I do see about ten fold more admiration for FFVI, so.

Originally Posted by Loki

Citation please.

I would if I could, but the article in question was on a news site I don't remember back in 2008 or 2009. The question was brought up to the guy explicitly because of that PS3 teaser that got everyone excited for a remake. Then again, seeing as how that article was on an obscure site, there's a high chance it was shenanigans.

Also, is it weird that I never played it, but I saw Advent Children and played this gem?:

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by deoxys

No, but I must be using a different internet than you or something... I see nothing but praise for FFVII. Ever. And it's not an uncommon thing. But then, I do see about ten fold more admiration for FFVI, so.

It's not just you. Lindsay is totally right that there are a lot of FF7 haters out there, and I agree with her that most of them are just doing it to try and sound cool, but ... at the same time, I agree with you that those haters are still in the minority. And that there's a very vocal majority out there who think that FF7 was the second coming of Christ. If we use Pixiv as a crude indicator of current popularity amongst Japanese otaku alone, a search for "FF7" reveals 14,710 distinct fanarts. How does this compare with some of the other famous video game franchises?

• Touhou: 64,891
• FF7: 14,710
• Zelda: 14,576
• Street Fighter: 14,019
• Pokemon: 10,242
• FF6: 8,544
• Phoenix Wright: 7,988
• Professor Layton: 5,351
• FF13: 4,784
• FF8: 3,188
• FF12: 1,378

Now granted, "Japanese otaku fan artists" does not equate "all fans all over the world." I realize that. Like I said, this is only a very crude metric. But I like it because Pixiv didn't even exist before September 2007, making it only a little over 4 years old. That means that you can't argue that any of these numbers for any of the older titles (like FF7) are indicative of former popularity that has since given way to new age trolling. No: these numbers suggest that from September 2007 to the present, Final Fantasy 7 has been so popular with fan artists even fifteen years after its release that it is second only to Touhou in the number of fanarts that have been uploaded. (Well, of titles I searched for, anyway.) More popular than the entire Zelda franchise. More popular than the entire Pokemon franchise. This one title -- not the entire Final Fantasy franchise but just this one title! -- is more popular than all of them.

This leads me to believe that even though Japan =/= the rest of the world and even though otakus =/= regular people and even though haters aren't going to register if we do a search for fanart, ... it leads me to believe that even still, FF7 appears to have more fans today than FF6 by nearly a factor of two and that it is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most beloved Final Fantasy of all time by your average gamer. My beloved FF12 clocks in at a pathetic 1,378. Even Final Fantasy 8 has more fanart!

So yeah. Are there FF7 haters? Absolutely. Lindsay's totally right that they're everywhere. But do I think that just because they're everywhere that they're the majority? No no no no. For every one troll I see who says "FF7 is such an overrated piece of shit" I see three or four fans who'll say "Final Fantasy 7 changed my life. It is the best experience I have ever had and will probably ever have. Squeenix ... have my babies. "

[Loki]

Originally Posted by deoxys

I would if I could, but the article in question was on a news site I don't remember back in 2008 or 2009. The question was brought up to the guy explicitly because of that PS3 teaser that got everyone excited for a remake. Then again, seeing as how that article was on an obscure site, there's a high chance it was shenanigans.

You mean the Tech Demo for the PS3? The one that Square Enix's president has said time and time again that it was purely a tech demo and not any kind of trailer for a future remake?

I'm surprised no one tried to pull out this as their "OMG SECOND COMING OF FFSEVEN!"

But I suppose the rest of the internet knowns better.

But wait... What's this? A remake made in 2008. How did you guys miss that?