I don't remember hearing many bad things about CVII up until the Nerd reviewed it, and now I never hear anything good about it. (Not to assume that the Nerd influenced everyone's perception about the game, but I just don't ever remember it being so unliked beforehand...same could be said for me discovering the infamy of Zelda II, I guess.) I've thought the game definitely had flaws, but that just adds to the charm, in a way.
What I mean is that like in the mansions, as an example: they just seem like these big open areas of space, with a few dozen creatures, right? They're so empty. But I always kind of liked that, because it just added to the mood of the game...they were these eerie, abandoned mansions that were in as much decay as the rest of the cursed land. And that's what made the castle ruins so awesome to go through at the end, too.
But that brings me to my big disagreement with this guy: the color palette. He sounded like he hated it, but I preferred the color palette of Simon's Quest over the first game. It was drearier and more drab, but wasn't that the point? It seemed to represent a cursed land pretty well. One of the later wooded parts of the game (can't remember its name) was one of my favorite areas: the red grass and trees, the lava pools, and the black sky made it look like hell on earth. And the caves, the mansions, the graveyard...just about everything seemed to kind of convey a feeling of dread. I thought the color palette did a better job of telling a story in this game than the first one did.