I was given a Playstation on my birthday December 1996, and the games I played on it where good. But nothing that was memorable. The most memorable games where still fresh from the Nintendo 64, like Starfox 64. I use to rent my PS games at our local video rental store Power Video. I would rent game after game, that I would usually never finish. Around September I new game appeared on the rental wall called Final Fantasy 7. I've read a little bit on it and all i knew about it, was that it was delayed over a year. So I rented it. Had a friend of mine who would spend weeks on end over at our house during the summer. (still friends to this day) He was there with me. We got home, I opened the case to the game. 3 CD-Roms?!?! GEEZ! Was our first expressions.
When we fired up there Playstation, and the opening music started, plus the opening FMV movie came on, we where blown away. We where instantly hooked. I was new to RPG, and had to get use to it. There was so much story and so much DEPTH, that it took use a whole year to beat it. I'm not kidding. Summer of 1997 to Summer of 1998. Mostly because we would get stuck on a certain part, try to pass it but ultimately fail. Set the game aside for a month or so. This was back in the days where I didn't know there was Strategy guides out there for games. I was at a Barnes& Nobles one day. I stumbled onto a a very small section labeled "Strategy Guides" And sure enough there was a thick book for FFVII. After purchasing that guide, we where able to pass any obstacles. We where able to make it to the very end, and once we beat the tough boss, I still remembered high fiving my friend. It felt like a huge accomplishment, like we did something major in our lives. Did we stop playing the game? Hell no.
The game could be played any way you wanted, from the way you answer other people, plus the plethora of side quests and optional characters to recruit. I can't even recall how many times I've played the game, I can assume over a dozen times, from start to finish. I even figured out a way to connect my Playstation to my VCR, and record my playtrough. It took 3 VHS tapes on Extended play. Yeah I was a major nerd.
I can't express how much FFVII impacted my life. How addicted I was to this game. or how many hours and sleepless nights where spent getting to the next area, or to the next plot point. I was so enthralled by every aspect. I can safely say that this is my favorite game of all time. Sure i have other favorite games. But nothing thats affected me so much. On a side not, I rented that game so much, I think I spent about double the amount of what the game was worth. Until I finally bought the game, for a whopping $49.99. Shit loads of money back then.
I even spent $60 dollars on the Official Soundtrack. It was 4 discs and it had every single music on it. I loved it!
They did release the game on the PSN pn the PS3. I wish they would of updated the graphics and made it HD. But I hear they are possibly planning a remake. I hope so.
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