[/QUOTE]It was a long, painful, pointless meandering nightmare of a game.
If you like the idea of a game where you are FORCED to race giant chickens for days, in order to gain a special kind of magic necessary to defeat another boss then it might be for you. [/QUOTE}
So very far from correct - FFVII is THE game that launched RPG's on the PS1, until then you had 2D blocky pixels that your imagination would have to fill in the details. The FMV's were mind blowing, the plotline/story is compelling (specially if you do complate all the little bits and bobs).
The battle system is simple, quick and efficient - equipment is well balanced and suitably difficult to get the best out of. The use of materia (magic) is frankly sublime - and not been bettered since. You can set it up simple, or you can have complex combos that allow for a myriad of outcomes.
As for being forced to race chocobobs, thats only to get Knights of the Round - which is total overkill for everything except the 2 optional weapons, and useless for the emerald weapon as the FMV sequence is way way too long (If you don't have the underwater materia) - And if you beat the weapons you get a free gold chocobo with which you can then get KoToR without having to breed it. FFVII was reknown for being the RPG that showned the gaming world (that were not RPG nerds) that RPG's don't have to be linear - once you get out of Midgar you are free to explore a massive world.
Can you tell I'm a fanboy?
On my first playthough I bought the game on a friday afternoon, didn't stop playing except for going to the toilet and passing out on the sofa until midday monday (had to phone work). First playthough was 60hours and I just couldn't defeat the final baddie - survived for ~3 hours but couldn't inflict enough damage. Next walk through took me 120 hours and I wiped the floor with just one of the 8 chars. My current walkthrough is a little over 270 hours (I've been boosting stats on all chars to maximum) and I don't need to equip anything but a ribbon.
Ribbon is #1 item to go for/get - if you have any Q's give me a shout, I'll probably know the answer.
