Originally by: Hitomi Ayame

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Anybody who said Final Fantasy 7 needs to step back and look at the game's battle systems. Sure, it had a great setting, pretty cool characters (minus Cait Sith, who basically just sucked and was probably inserted as a plot device and nothing more) and a decent story (minus the ending which sucked, tbh) and look at the battle-related systems.

The Materia system was really broken. I could beat Emerald Weapon (second hardest fight in the game) by setting the controller down and going to get lunch. Also, nobody had any unique skills (outside of Limit Breaks, which were, admittedly, a step up from Desperation Attacks) which, combined with the single weapon tree (and non-distinctive weapons at that) made the characters in-battle pretty dull and uninspired. Aside from level, every character was pretty much interchangeable.

While FF6 had less perhaps a less cool setting, its battle system was far and above FF7's. (except for the Relics, which got too good, and the M.Block bug) The Espers provide a good realm of customization and utility, while the unique skills, significantly different stat development, and mix of unique and interchangeable weapons make each character fight as differently as they act.

Characterization is just as important in battle as it is in the field, but a balance has to be struck between customizability and structure. FF6 had that balance. (FF7 was too customizable; FF4 was too structured)

TBH, the best part of FF7 was the setting/environment, which was, to be fair, absolutely gorgeous. It also gets points for good use of fun and unique minigames, and probably ties FF6 for best music in an RPG. I wouldn't rate it above FF6, and definitely not above Final Fantasy Tactics, though, to be sure.

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