Can someone tell me why THIS particular JRPG is so culturally influential and iconic compared to other JRPGs...

What about Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest/Warrior games? Those were big mainstream JRPGs that came out in the west before FF7

Honestly, no. I've tried some other FF games but they didn't grab me.

First 3d final fantasy

>PLAYSTATION
>millenial's first rpg
it was mine too, but i like X and IX more. plus i liked dragoon and legai more when it came to playstation rpg's. ff7 is still a nice game though

Because it had a shitload of advertising and the FMVs amazed people at the time. That caught people's attention and it was a lot of people's first or early foray into JRPGs.

After many 2D jrpgs on the Snes like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, FF6, I personally was craving the next step. When I played FF7 it felt like the future. It was such a great experience at that age, at that time, with that era of technology.

It was everyone's first Final Fantasy game.

Shh you can't say you liked LoD here they'll shun you.

This.
They weren't mainstream.

the combat carried legend of legaia, that shit was cool.

Ok zoomer. I'll explain shit to you.
>released by the company that put JRPGs on the map in the west
>released by a company that at the time could do no wrong
>released during the peak years of the PSX
>heavily advertised in print and TV ads
>demo reels typically showed off the FMVs rather than the actual gameplay
>demo discs existed when those were all the rage
>first JRPG to reach both critical and mass appeal
>cast is diverse, iconic, and not entirely one-note

It had a >$50 million marketing budget which was unheard of at the time

Product of it's time. You had 2 decent consoles worth chosing from. PC games being online was still niche and slow. Even more so on console since Dreamcast was the only one capable of connecting.
FF7 is cool by JRPG standards but it really benefited from the lack of other choices in gaming.

It was marketing mostly. Sony pushed this game hard as proof that Playstation was better than N64. FMVs were still considered cool in the mid-90s, and the thought of a game so huge that it spanned 3 CDs (even though the only reason it needs 3 CDs is due to the aforementioned FMVs) was exciting.

FFVII was one of the most expensive games ever made for its time. In fact I think it might have actually been number 1, at least if you account for marketing.

Remember: This was before GTA, Halo, Call of Duty, Destiny etc etc

I think it's the Materia system, the Berserk-esque storyline, and the visuals being a nice balance of gritty realism and cartoony colors, no one feels under/over-designed.

muh 3D gwaphix

Because it had the biggest marketing budget of any game up to that point in the late '90s

I started playing it again, I'm on disc two. I gotta say, after you get past the first two reactors, the game is so fucking fun, man. The materias encourage you to think outside the box, I played the game only as a kid so I was too small brained to realize doing something like putting counter-attack and cover materia on your chain equipment then you get a whole lot more chances to counter attack. I'm just grinding out battles leveling materia, having a good time. Can't remember when you get the double/tri-attack materia but I'm looking forward to it.

Right place, right time, right marketing campaign and right company behind it.

The flash presentation, memorable characters and setting, and a plot that leaned more toward sci-fi than fantasy made it much more palatable for newcomers than the purely fantasy stuff. It also hit in that period when anime was just beginning to be accepted in West.

It had a really good, memorable cast of characters.

It was the first time games really felt like these big AAA industry productions. Lots of care and effort went into marketing it as this grand adventure with cutting edge 3D graphics and storytelling (at the time).

Not to mention Cloud's design is just crack to look at. The spiky blonde hair, the giant sword, the broad shoulders. He just screamed "hero"

It was the first RPG for many kids and young teens. That's pretty much it.

I believe it had one of the best marketing campaigns for a JRPG back in the day. They showed the trailer even in movie theaters I believe. It had a lot of CG cut scenes when most FMV's in games were crappy B movie quality video production. It's probably the first entry into the JRPG genre for a lot of players from that era, so all the mechanics in the game would be fresh. Games that mix up the formula a lot and are entertaining tend to review well because of novelty. All the great JRPGs either introduce a lot of novel mechanics or are super polished

the story was amazing

Because the characters are memorable and the pre-rendered backgrounds are amazing. The graphics were groundbreaking at the time, and the combat is fun. I really don't understand why people don't get that.

That's not all there was.
It was, like, my third or fourth FF game and still ended up being my favorite FF.

>Main character uses big sword
>Villain has white hair
>It's like berserk guys

Retard

Babby's first + actually a pretty good story. Also people were wowed by the summon animations back in the day, and the atmosphere is on point despite the shitty character models. Anyone who claims its the mechanics is whack. Games that came before and around its time of release were making greater strides, and it in no way pushed the envelope in that department. It's no Quake or Mario 64 in terms of trailblazing for 3D. It's not even an Oddworld if you're looking at games valued for their presentation.

Before FF7 RPGs were niche in the West. Some of them sold fairly well but none were doing blockbuster numbers. FF7 was big and fancy and it had the marketing to push the genre into the mainstream in the West. It was also something that couldn't have been done on earlier consoles which made it seem bigger and futuristic.

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I don't know.

Literally because of the prerendered graphics at the time when it was the new shiny shit. And it was literally advertised as to what a CD could hold compared to the cartridge of the time.

youtube.com/watch?v=QDz9A4ByHIQ

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I think it's the first game I can think of that has multiple existential crises in it. I find that interesting, Cloud has PTSD from being an autistic kid who never got along with anybody in his town, so he tries to become a "hero" through becoming a Class 1 Soldier and never makes it. He idolizes Sephiroth until he gets to know him, and he briefly hangs out with Zack, the Class 1 Soldier that everyone loves (I say briefly because Cloud was basically brain dead from mako poisoning most the time he knew Zack), then Zack dies trying to save this kid he barely knew and tells him Cloud is his living legacy, probably because he's the only person there. Cloud takes that so literally he self-inserts himself in every memory he had of Zack, and eventually he has to come to terms with the fact that he was just a second-rate grunt that later got infused with mako energy and given Jenova cells through an experiment.

Although he did somehow manage to overpower Sephiroth in that reactor after Zack got completely destroyed which doesn't really add up.

But anyways, the story is actually decent, for the time especially it was a pretty interesting story to delve into with a bunch of side shit like snowboarding, crossdressing, catching chocobo, breeding chocobo, chocobo racing, optional party members, a bunch of optional side quests, the annoying fort strategy fights, etc. It has a lot of soul

It also lacks a lot of the weird japanese autism that most JRPGs have.

It's a story about hunting down your old best friend and idol who betrayed you. The twist obviously being that you're not Zack, you're a fucking nobody, and so this idea that you're destined to take him down or something is bullshit. What's great is that even though Cloud isn't some fated hero, he chooses to be one.

Berserk has a similar story, but it's been so long that Guts actually doesn't even really care about revenge anymore. It's hard to say where the story's going.

Naruto does this, too, except it's terrible. Naruto and Sasuke are literally reincarnations of the first two ninja and they've been fighting for eons. Every single villain in the series has had the same goal of getting them to swap spit.

Everyone's saying babby's first or the new graphics, but I played it in 2004 and was blown away by it. My friend actually apologized in advance for how it looked to me (as if I gave a shit, I still played ROTK2).

ff7's popularity has virtually nothing to do with the quality or characteristics of the game itself, if any other 1997 jrpg had the marketing that ff7 did people would make up reasons to believe that it's the best game ever, too

the setting and music are really good

It wouldn't. It's setting, story, gameplay, artstyle and music are completely different to most JRPGs at the time.

I played FF7 for the first time in 2020 and it's easily in my top 10. It's an incredible game that still holds up.

because americans have control over the media, Same reason why pokemon is popular. it isn't shit but it's way overhyped/overrated.

>ITT: Seething Nintendofags who still can't believe OoT was outshined.

>muh amerimutts.

Sure, keep seething.

Big swords are cool that's why Berserk is so popular too.

It's good, play it faggot.

average western gamers never gave a shit about rpgs until ff7, they were always niche

Pokemon was never as popular in America as it was in Japan.

This is basically happening again.

The Nintendofags who wasted their time in nonsense like BoTW are getting outshined again. Which is why they're seething like pigs.

because it blew everything else out of the water when it got released. just compare it to ff3.

because it's so story heavy with gameplay just barely interesting enough to keep you playing

Westerners were super into Akira when that came out, and this was more of that aesthetic, in game form.

Are you retarded?

>it's not go through eight worlds and save your fucking stupid princess.
This maybe it, nintentard.

Huh?

It had the largest marketing campaign of any game released up to that point, combined with the original Playstation, which had the largest marketing push outside of Japan of any home console up to that point.

The Playstation 1 was the first console to really market itself as an Entertainment Station and not just a children's toy, and it used games like Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo and Resident Evil to really drive this concept home, and it worked gangbusters.

Final Fantasy 7 in particular was the first time normies really got the idea that video games could tell intricate, deeply affecting stories. Sure, people had been playing Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3(6) up to that point, but the adult who could appreciate those games at that point in time was few and far between. Final Fantasy 7 made the idea mainstream.

My family played those. It's just that the jump from graphics and hardware, especially for some households that only had a SNES, should not be underestimated. The timing was everything.

Advertising, first game to have such a huge marketing budget.
I don't remember seeing ads for Halo, I just remember getting the box and playing the game with absolutely no context but the title. It's more intrigue and the fact the game was fun to play with friends that makes it nostalgic for people now.

chrono trigger was successful but it didnt sell anywhere close to FF7 numbers which is still the best selling title in the series IIRC. And the only time DQ was even close to being considered mainstream outside of eleven-land was with DQ8 which came out like a decade after FF7.
7s success was due to a perfect storm of the system it was being sold on and the immense marketing square gave it plus 3D being the hottest shit at the time

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I love JRPG's but FF combat sucks ass, mario is unironically better than FF

they took evangelion and made it a JRPG

Because it was most 30 year old boomers intro to jrpgs

It should also be mentioned Square had some great people working for them in the 90s and would soon experience bout after bout of talent drain.

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It was cutting edge for it's time and was still a classic game.

A lot of people had a PS1, FFVII was the first FF in the PS1, there you go, solved.

>bing-bing wahoo
>better

still seething after Odyssey got ignored, i see.

big sword cool

The characters are all really memorable. The music is amazing. The overall style of it was unlike anything in any other JRPG. It was a turning point for the genre.

nintendofags still can't accept this. Which is why they're seething hard.

>not unlike OPEN WORLD COOL. MUH LINK DICK COOL.

>Aeris' death literally spoiled in a TV spot commercial
And people still cry about spoilers

ITT: the real reason why Xfags and Nintendoshits hate this game/remake is that if it is successful, PS5 will automatically win the next Consolewar because most of the normies will tip that balance.

the funny part is that the remake is going to up the ante because it has a mechanic that lets you decide which character to interact with in certain situations (like choosing aeris or tifa)

the game will kill off the one you prefer rather than always killing aeris

That explains why it was popular but doesn't explain it's cultural relevance. Avatar was a very successful movie but isn't culturally relevant at all.

it was an easy jab.
Well mostly, explain smash then, almost every amercian grew up with nintendo, hard to believe it's just a party game nowadays.
Most overrated "fighting" game i've ever seen.

First cinematic RPG, good television advertising campaign, high production value, charming dialogue, gut-wrenching plot-twist, breath-taking soundtrack. It's obvious why. Sorry your shitty Legend of Dragoon or whatever pales so much in comparison to it, but it does.

>the game will kill off the one you prefer rather than always killing aeris
No it won't. Aerith must be the one to die for the plot to make sense. It wasn't just a shock death for the sake of it. Her death meant something within the game.

>it has a mechanic that lets you decide which character to interact with in certain situations (like choosing aeris or tifa)
The original also had this mechanic. It determined who you went on a date with at the Gold Saucer.

that's impossible though. Only Aerith can use White Materia and that's the only reason why she gets killed.

Because, on top of the marketing, the NEXT GEN-iness of the whole thing, and the break-out success of the Playstation, Final Fantasy 7 was still a damn good game.

People played it because of the graphics.
They remembered it because of the characters, the settings, the story and the music.

>tells him Cloud is his living legacy, probably because he's the only person there

That's a Crisis Core retcon. In the original game, Zack had been dead for hours by the time Cloud woke up. There was no handoff of the Buster Sword, Cloud looted it off Zack's corpse so he could pretend to be him.