Cloud . . . Sephiroth . . . Jenova . . . the Lifestream . . . Shinra . . . The Turks . . . Aeris, Barret, Tifa, Vincent, Yuffie, Red XIII . . .
For a large population of gamers, each one of those words has strong meaning and fills them with wonder, awe, and fanboyish love. Final Fantasy VII is considered by many to be the best game ever made. The storyline was deep and went in a more modern, sci-fi direction (where the previous installments were more fantasy-based) and it featured well-developed characters, interesting dialogue (lots of cursing, which up until that point was rare in games) and one of the most innovative RPG systems using Materia. It also had mind-blowing summon attacks that definitely left a mark.
Nowadays the graphics don’t hold up so well, but the game can still impress. I only played it a few years back (In one of my first posted reviews) but it still managed to blow me away, particularly as you get further on into the game. And I finally understand why everyone loved it so much. Definitely a modern day classic if there ever was one. (FF Retrospective Part 4 if you missed it)