Nope. The thing with the original Final Fantasy VII is that it doesn't have "a game engine", but many different engines for different parts of the game. There's an engine for the world map, an engine for the field (like dungeons, towns, etc.), an engine for the menu and an engine for the battles. That's why the models are all different.

No, that is not the case. It particularly isn't true for the older games (except maybe FF4).
* FF1: Once you light the first crystal, the game becomes less linear, and even less linear once you get the airship.
* FF2: You can explore the entire map at the start, though you will run into enemies you aren't strong enough to kill. While dungeons tend not to be accessible early, you can reach a certain late-game town and buy advanced equipment well before you're meant to. (Interestingly enough, there's a dungeon you can explore and complete a bit before the game sends you there, but it turns out that it's actually balanced to be played as soon as you encounter it; the enemies are easier than those in the dungeon you're expected to do next.)
* FF3: There's lots of little side areas, like that mythril mine with a couple mythril swords early on.
* FF5: There's little side areas again, though many of them have enemies that you can't kill through conventional means. (It may be possible to kill them, but you won't be able to by just attacking or casting attack spells, at least not the "mainstream" ones.) Also, late game, once you get the airship for the last time, the game directs you through some side quests containing major dungeons, and the game gets less linear.
* FF6: Once you get the second airship, the game stops being linear. The game may direct you to certain areas at this point, but that ordering is not enforced, at all. It's entirely possible to beat the game with just the 3 characters that it's impossible to not have (barring glitches) at this point.

It is unique to FFVIII. Every title in the series has some very unique mechanics. VII, VIII and IX shared the active time battle system, which gave the impression of consistency. But you really should forget everything about one Final Fantasy game when you start the next one. They seem to be similar at first glance, but they're all very different from each other.
As I said at the very beginning of my post: "I tried the older ones, but I couldn't really get into them." So I'm obviously talking about the titles from PS1 era until now ;)

Someone needs to play FF2. That game's plot is *very* dark, with all the people, both minor and major, who die as a result of the war. Even the overworld theme is sad! (It's actually one of my favorite FF overworld themes, though the other two that qualify (FF3's boundless ocean and FF5's late game overworld theme) also happen to be sad. What's different is the FF2's sad overworld theme is used for the entire game, rather than just a part.)

Sorta. From what i've seen, there's distinct differences from FF7, more than that later it breaks off from the main plot where it seems it's a dream or a time loop where things play out quite differently from the original story.

Although where it goes it's hard to say, i'm guessing there's aspects of FF7 they didn't want to do again, and they also didn't want to have a 1:1 remake of the game. And some things that would be very difficult to do.

Pretty unique. You need to equip a GF which affects a stat, you then attach a spell which the strength of the spell and quantity directly translates to a stat boost. (Going FF13 they dropped MP entirely, but that's unimportant to this).

The problem with drawing in the game is early on (first disc or later) your draw sucks. This means if you wanted to get a decent stock of stuff you can FOR AN HOUR just draw draw draw, you might get 3-4 per draw (sometimes just 1 or not any at all) and the max is 99. So fill 3 people up, with as many different unique types you can, then move said drawn to another person to empty it out and do it again. Also because they are attached to your stats you basically don't want to use any of your spells that you've attached to a GF else you'll get weaker. If you cheat and edit your save you can have a much higher luck in which you can get draw 9's more regularly.

Also drawing as a main mechanic goes for status effects too, like blind, sleep, etc. As well as getting other GF's, so new enemies and bosses you always want to draw to see if they are holding a GF. (A name you don't recognize, while a new spell will be ??? until you draw successfully from them).

The problem, from my perspective, isn't that getting these weapons is difficult, but rather the fact that it requires non-RPG gameplay. The minigames required to get these items are the sort of minigames that don't belong in an RPG, and in fact make the game less of one. The sort of "skill" that is required is the sort of skill that an RPG player should not be expected to have.

(Also, the fact that those weapons ignore defense, something no other weapons do, is another issue that's partly responsible for the poor design of the postgame bosses.)

Until you use certain overdrives, which then requires you to play a short real-time minigame to determine how effective they are.
And there's *still* a way to kill this monster instantly.

It feels like this has been a running gag in the series since way back in FF2. FF5's Adamantoise? Well, there's an instant death attack that will kill this particular boss if used.

In fact, I'm not sure if there's *any* game in the series with an Adamantoise that's outright immune to instant death.

Actually, ATB was introduced in FF4, and appeared in FF5 and FF6 the best. (IMO, FF5 has the best ATB implementation, while FF6 and FF9 are tied for the worst (and for similar reasons).)

Greeny, could you do me, you and all of us a favor and read my post before you start to answer?

As I said in the original post and already in a reply to one of your replies:
As I said (or in your case: going to say) at the end of my original post:
I meant what I wrote: Final Fantasy is its own genre. It started as JRPG, but it went into its own direction.

Not the point of my post. There's a special tactic for anything in Final Fantasy. I just wanted to point out what makes Final Fantasy XV special. The scale of the enemies definitely does. And the Adamantoise scene is a very great example.

Again:

Did you read the FF6 Brave New World patch yet? It strongly targets a lot of the things you've talked about [both here and elsewhere].

For me, FF8 and FF6 were the best. The music of FF8 is probably why I fell in love with it so much.

NOTE: I played all FF games between 1-8. I played FF9 and 10 briefly. 11 was MMO and I haven't played any of the rest. Also, I am old, which probably impacts my view on gameplay and henceforth you might want to consider this info in your deduction.

Got it, thanks guys! I really appreciate your for your answers! (as well as the rest of the users whose posts I never replied directly) :)