You Had To Be There.
And what a story Final Fantasy VII tells. The way the plot impacts a player is almost too subjective and intricate to judge, but it suffices to say that Final Fantasy VII has it all in terms of rich, complex atmosphere and central character development. The story is where the real immersion either occurs or doesn't for a player, and is frankly the only reason that most people would want to play a 60+ hour game in its entirety.
The materia system is often praised by fans for its flexibility, and rightly so. As the game progresses, the materia a player has amassed begins to reward them based upon how often they have equipped a given skill for use. Your player can become as defensive or offensive as you want depending upon the combination and linking of materia on their weapon and armor. My only complaint here is how late in the game some of the most flexible materia become available, and more so how long it takes to duplicate these for even greater flexibility. This leaves one of the most engaging elements of the game stranded in the realm of nerd-dom, where the only players who get to fully experience it are the ones that are willing to play an extra five hours just to "grow" two more Mime materia. All the same, it is awesome to not even lift a finger and watch an enemy get punished with four different counterattacks while simultaneously refilling your characters' health.
Ultimately when I play Final Fantasy VII today, I appreciate why my grandpa used to watch classic movie channels on TV. He sure as hell wasn't watching them for their modern image quality, nor for their fast-paced action, and that's not the main reason anyone would play FF7 today. I play to relive the overall satisfying experience, and I play out of pure reverence for how original the game is.