To me, it's the matte backgrounds that are the key element to the Final Fantasy games (and other PS1 RPGs) of this era, and FF7 made the most of them. Whether it's following the trail of blood in the top-down Shinra ascent, or marching down the occupied streets of Junon in dutch angle with fascist iconography hanging from the buildings, FF7 gets so much storytelling mileage from FRAMING.

I dream of a day when mainstream RPGs realize that camera angles and bespoke environments make for a really fun way to play out a story (not to mention explore!), but until then we'll have to make do with running behind our main character and seeing the same (very) high-res assets over and over.

In short, I think this game broke the gaming industry into a new era not because it had a great story or characters (though it does also have those things!), and not because of it's bombastic CGI cutscenes (though those were cool at the time!) but because it felt like it was the end of GRAPHICS and the beginning of ART in terms of the visual presentation, because you were literally running through paintings!

Without the rest of the game being as strong as it is, it wouldn't have mattered, but the complete package here was truly knockout on release. This game is one of the few that made me think differently about games after playing it.

Sephiroth being the best villain in the series doesn't hurt either!