*this review includes spoilers*<br /><br />Ah, Squaresoft, until 1997 you were nigh-infallible. You had created the great RPG Chrono Trigger, which is almost certainly one of the all-time best RPGs. You had created the first six Final Fantasy games, all of which deserve a place in the pantheon of video gaming (and number 6 can compete with Chrono Trigger for the head seat at the table).<br /><br />Then the time came to leave the Super Nintendo for the Playstation. You took the big step.<br /><br />And tripped, horribly.<br /><br />You got so caught up in the new, grander visuals you could create that you forgot to concentrate your resources on things like "plot" or "character development," the two key elements in making your previous games great. Even your marvellous composer Nobuo Uematsu got swept up in the techno-fever; his FF7 soundtrack can barely compare with his for FF6.<br /><br />In many great pieces of literature or film or video gaming, the villain is the best (or at least, most outstanding) character. Just look at Kefka in FF6; he stole the show. But Sephiroth, the villain of FF7, is really the *only* character; the rest are cardboard cutouts given three-dimensions physically, but not emotionally or spiritually. When you killed off Aeris, I was supposed to feel sad; instead I was bored. The deaths in FF6 were much better handled.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the masses were hypnotized by the pretty pictures and bought the game in droves, leading you to think you had created a good game. Thus we got an abomination like FF8, which lacks even a good villain. Fortunately, FF9 and FF10 each were better than the previous, leading me to hope that you're recovering. And Chrono Cross, the sequel to the aforementioned Chrono Trigger, was a very good game indeed (save the ending). As was Final Fantasy Tactics, which had notably 'poorer' graphics but a much better storyline and more realistic characters.<br /><br />With any luck, you'll soon return to your former level of greatness, and FF7 will be remembered not as a classic, but what it truly is: a mistake.