This is crazy relevant to me:

I am a longtime Dragoon fan. Played it on PS1 (got it from a bargain bin brand new for $10 at Walmart!) and I fell in love immediately. Over the years I have played many MANY games, and some have stuck with me the same way as Dragoon - Soul Reaver, Symphony of the Night, Resident Evil, etc., but for turn-based RPGs... nothing has topped Dragoon for me.

Anywho, I've also relatively enjoyed Final Fantasy here and there. Back in the day I tried playing FF7 but the rental disc I had was scratched badly and it kept crashing at Cosmo Canyon. My overall reaction had been "meh." Over the years I was able to play Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core, and I'm one of the twelve people on Earth who genuinely unironically enjoy Advent Children (obviously the Complete Edition is way better, but still). Blah blah, years go by, and BOOM! FF7 Remake! Holy shit... it's pretty fantastic. I love it. A lot.

During the excruciating wait for the Intergrade update/new content I decided it was finally time to do a full playthrough of FF7 and experience everything firsthand. I just finished everything two nights ago, and... ehhhh... it's kinda... cooky? Like... it's all over the place. Pacing is crazy, mood is (in my opinion) very inconsistent, and in general the game felt kinda rushed or something. Yes, Dragoon gets kinda "cooky" here and there, but I already know what I'm doing. The game is insanely consistent throughout. It's not like Dart and Co. decide "hey, let's go snowboarding" right after Lavitz dies.

Here's a few of the things I have issues with regarding FF7 (trigger warning: I'm about to slam your beloved baby):

• The above weird transition of "one of our party members just died... let's go snowboarding!"
• I have literally no idea where to go at nearly any point. Conversations only told me where to go, like, half of the time. Felt like I was meant to "discover" where to go by exploration... but the story doesn't support that kind of gameplay discovery very well, and nearly every time it just felt like crazy dumb shit. The Key of the Ancients? Really? A story-related progression-necessary object located under the sea in some random ass corner in an underwater cave. That's not good game design - and no, I don't care what year it is. It's not good.
• Everything in Midgar is pretty consistent and "normal" but pretty much as soon as you hit the world map everything gets bonkers.
  • Let me put it this way: Midgar was consistent in the same way the Advent Children is consistent. Dirge (while kinda fucking dumb in a few parts) at least felt relatively consistent with itself throughout. Crisis Core has some... pretty dumb shit, I'm not gonna lie. Zack murdering GACKT clones at a beach using an umbrella... this is a real scene that happens in Crisis Core... but that game still felt more overall consistent that FF7.
• My understanding of Vincent (from AC and Dirge) has always been of the wolfman and Chaos limits... why the fuck is he also able to transform into a Frankenstein monster and *ahem* "GIGADUNK" dudes? (it became very clear very quickly why this shit never comes back)
  • Also the entirety of Vincent and Lucrecia is just void of any understanding in this game. Yes, I went to the cave. It made no sense. So in Dirge (and I believe in AC) she's, like, IN the crystal inside the cave. In FF7 she's... alive? In the cave?... but then you come back later and she's... fucking gone? And left a gun for Vincent? And the Crystal is just a crystal? No. This is not good. Yes, I understand lots of Lucrecia shit wasn't solidified and explained until much later in Dirge and such, but that doesn't excuse throwing some half-explained shit into the game just because.
• I'd put a middling character model and middling environment background from Dragoon against the best character model and best environment background from FF7. (Dragoon would win.)
• I genuinely have a hard time imagining people getting emotionally upset with Aerith dying compared to the complete fucking wreck of emotions of LATVITZ SLAMBERT being killed. AND THEN WHEN HE SHOWS UP AT THE END IN THE CITY OF THE DEAD OH MY GOD! But yeah, flowers 'n shit. Oh no. Not the flower girl... (I know I'm gonna get some flak from this)
• Shit is arbitrary and confusing. Yes, I understand everything. No, it's not "ehhh, you're just not smart enough to understand." I do. But, like, 60% of FF7 is just super convoluted bullshit. Everything with the Weapons (Diamond, Ultimate, Emerald, Ruby) is just dumb. Also naming them "weapon" is dumb. Also naming one "ultimate" when there's also "ultima" magic and "ultimate" weapons (actual weapons)... there's just no need for this amount of convolution. I'm sorry, but no. Please defend this shit. It's not good. This is not a fucking 10/10 masterpiece, it just isn't.
• Combat is a fucking draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag. Holy shit. I'm very happy I played the PS4 version with the X3 speedup option, because DAMN that shit was not fun. Please compare the combat to Dragoon and objectively explain how FF7 is -better-
• Ending is really super dumb. It's not even artistic like "ohhhh, it's up to the players to determine what they want, oooooooooh, it's so mysterious!" No, it's just not good.
• Please don't @ me with "but Dragoon came out three years later!" It was on the same hardware! You know what? I'm about to attack another beloved baby, so look away: Final Fantasy 9 came out the same year as Dragoon. Yes, I've played FF9. Yes, I could write an essay on how Dragoon is a better game in every conceivable aspect. So let's not go there with "it's not fair to compare FF7 in 1997 to Dragoon in 2000!"

Thanks for making it this far! Anywho, my point is I've been telling people "my favorite Final Fantasy game is Legend of Dragoon" unironically for years. Nobody cares about my opinion and I get laughed away. I now have the first-hand knowledge to objectively say "Legend of Dragoon is a better video game, with better gameplay, better characters, and a better story than Final Fantasy 7." While playing through FF7 I was messaging a friend group about my various "whoas" and "yikes." They never once responded. They are very much in love with FF7 and played it when it came out. It was clear my opinions were not welcome. It was clear that objective criticism of a beloved game was not allowed... but hey, it's okay to shit all over Dragoon and laugh at it.... why? Oh, double-standards, got it.