Honestly?Finest RPG not made by Bethesda
I was around 11 and the amount of playability astounded me, I spent hours tinkering and restarting my party as the opening level is surprisingly tough.
You play four adventurers and can choose multiple races,all with strengths and weaknesses(Elves are fast but frail whilst Dwarves are sturdy but have terrible coordination) also on offer are multiple classes from the bog standard Knights and Wizard to the jack-of-all trades Rangers and low maintenance monks.
The difference between classes is based around their abilities to learn skills:a Druid's alchemy level can go up to Grandmaster means he can create high level potions whereas a Cleric is limited to the mediocore ones.
Your party needs a balanced mix between the short and long term aims, sure a party of knights will fly through the early levels but you'll be at a huge disadvantage when you come to enemies who are only vulnerable to magic,likewise a character in plate-mail with an axe will certainly be able to both dish it out and recieve it but will attack far too slowly until he's improved his skills.
The key feature to the game is the choices you can make,after you've completed the tutorial mission,you'll be thrust into a world of conflict. Having just acquired land you must firstly prove yourself as a rulerHumans and Elves are on the brink of war over the territory you've just earned and both are pressuring you to join them. Both offer you missions to perform and whoever you aid will result in their being your master or you can perform all missions and serve yourself. The game really kicks off when the arbiter dies, he has been the only thing keeping the Elves and Humans from each other's throats and you are offered two choices for a replacement: the Wizards and Necromancers both put forward a candidate and whoever you choose will have a profound effect on the war, either causing it to escalate or else finding a solution. This point in the game marks your allignement, either that of good or evil. Both offer quests and magical spells, but the key feature here is the quests for character promotion. Your characters start out being a low level rank (Knights,Thieves,Paladins) but then you can promote them within the neutral faction (Cavalier,Rogue,Cavalier) before finally choosing an alliegance. Here your characters development can be changed, a good monk of the highest ranking is a Master but an evil one is a Spy,a good knight is a Champion but an evil one is a Black Knight. The huge amount of quests for each side ensure a good deal of playability.
Might and Magic Vii has it's faults,the key one being the dated engine.The graphics are simple and blurry when viewed up close but the game has other things going for it: the musical score is wonderful,with Opera,Gregorian Chant and Orchestras when appropriate and the game has an ability to suck you in, the game has an addictiveness which is hard to describe but the game has a huge replay value.
The game can be picked up for very little and I'd reccomend it to anyone.