The only reason people don't like this game is because everyone else does.
To give a brief summary, you are Cloud Strife, an ex-Soldier who doesn't know what he wants, and frankly doesn't care. He joins this rebel group called Avalanche, they plot to overthrow the government, and along the way encounter the evil maniac Sephiroth, who was also Cloud's role model and secret lover (jk, but doesn't it seem that way?) and try to stop him from destroying the planet. Of course, a lot more happens than that, but basically that is the gist of it.
The graphics were monumental for its time, and the numerous fmv's rival even todays technology. You get drowned in character development, the battle system is challenging but not too confusing, unlike a certain ffVIII I played, the world map is huge, and the interesting storyline kept me in front of the t.v on life support for weeks, months actually but I stopped playing for a little bit. I received over fifty hours of game play, and did not even complete all the little extras, such as attaining the gold chocobo or defeating those three boss guy things. Errr, you'll understand when you play the game. By the way, GO PLAY IT! NOW!