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When did you first play Final Fantasy 7?
- Thread starter Pilgrimzero
- Start date
A few months after release. I borrowed a friend's copy and his PlayStation. I gave back the PlayStation and bought my own, pretty much 100% because of FF7. Before I borrowed it we had played through most of the game together at his house.
I was drawing buster swords and arm guns on my binders all through freshman year.
I was drawing buster swords and arm guns on my binders all through freshman year.
This is my story. Classic didn't get a memory card. Also had to let my older brother play PGA Tour '98 first.
Played it as a kid (so around 2000-ish), didn't understand it and couldn't get past the first reactor (I was around 4) so me and my brother gave up. Years later the PSX 2015 remake trailer and my friend convinced me to get VII on PS4 where I ended up loving it and getting into the rest of the series.
I first saw it at a friend's house when the demo came out in NA, and first played it when the full game came out. So, 1997.
I loved the game. In the grand scheme of things, it overshadows other great stuff that came before and after it but it was a spectacle for its time and the dream-like atmosphere resonated with me.
I loved the game. In the grand scheme of things, it overshadows other great stuff that came before and after it but it was a spectacle for its time and the dream-like atmosphere resonated with me.
Back in 1997 and it blew my freaking mind. It became my favorite game in the series and it remains so to this day.
I think it was 2000 (PS1). My dad bought it for me and my brother and I distinctly remember picking it out of the bag as soon as we got outside and being excited at the thick case and multiple disks.
Even though we stopped playing near the end of the Shinra Headquarters part (we found it too difficult to understand how to play), and from the relative little progress we made, we took enough in from the story and atmosphere to make it feel like an odyssey and a journey of itself. It felt very special. As a consequence, I had never felt as anticipated for a title as ff8.
It was only many years later that I would actually finish the game. I was worried about it feeling aged, but thankfully it wasn't the case and the full course felt as enchanting as the starter did back then.
Even though we stopped playing near the end of the Shinra Headquarters part (we found it too difficult to understand how to play), and from the relative little progress we made, we took enough in from the story and atmosphere to make it feel like an odyssey and a journey of itself. It felt very special. As a consequence, I had never felt as anticipated for a title as ff8.
It was only many years later that I would actually finish the game. I was worried about it feeling aged, but thankfully it wasn't the case and the full course felt as enchanting as the starter did back then.
January 1998
I had just got my PS1 for christmas that year, and I saw my cousin playing it at my grandmothers house. He was in Mt Corel just crossing the long bridge into the mining town.
I obsessed over that game for almost a month and my Dad found a used copy at a Sears Outlet... I then played through the first reactor and some of the 5th reactor for weeks until we got a Memory Card from biway.
I had just got my PS1 for christmas that year, and I saw my cousin playing it at my grandmothers house. He was in Mt Corel just crossing the long bridge into the mining town.
I obsessed over that game for almost a month and my Dad found a used copy at a Sears Outlet... I then played through the first reactor and some of the 5th reactor for weeks until we got a Memory Card from biway.
I vaguely remember at my daycare when I was 7 or 8 years old one of the workers brought in their PS1 and we played the beginning of FF7 over and over (they never brought in a memory card). I never got past the beginning until a few years ago.
Around 2000 I want to say. Friend had it and he booted it up - I was very casually into games and really just played mario and spyro. Didn't even know rpgs existed haha. Needless to say after that I borrowed it from him and got hooked.
Launch day, was I was freshman year at a commuter college, left my first class in the hour break between the two classes I had that morning to go to the nearby mall to see if they had it at any of the game selling shops of the time (this is far prior to Gamestop or even Best Buy being everywhere, just the odd Electronics Boutique and Babbages were around, and this mall didn't have those). Nothing at KB-Toys/sears/boscovs, but luckily one of those now non-existent overpriced Cd/VHS shops of the era that also sold some games behind the counter happened to have it.
I had to rush back to school for one more English class (which killed me to sit through) then went home and had my mind blown like probably nothing else.
I had to rush back to school for one more English class (which killed me to sit through) then went home and had my mind blown like probably nothing else.
At launch with my girlfriend at the time (now my wife). I was working 12 hour night shifts and she worked a normal 9-5. I played 12 hours straight while she slept through the night with her head in my lap.
When it first came out and I was around 10, my much older brother-in-law was playing through the early part of the game. He had previously shown me M rated games such as Resident Evil and Duke Nukem 3D that I couldn't play, not because my parents didn't let me but because I didn't have a PC or Playstation, and this was next for him to show me. I had played previous FF's so I knew they weren't explicit (in English versions anyway), but him showing me Barret say "Shit" and Cloud threatening to chop the Don's balls off was world shattering! I immediately begged for a Playstation and Final Fantasy 7 was maybe the first game I got for it, before I even had a memory card. I didn't realize I needed one to save so I played through the first few hours of the game multiple times before I finally got a memory card to continue through the game.
a few days before it released in the US. a game store around 20 miles from home broke street date on it.
i had played the Tobal demo prior to it but that doesn't count!
i had played the Tobal demo prior to it but that doesn't count!
1997, I didn't have a memory card for the first two or three weeks though, so I'd just play up to Wall Market each time, sometimes reach the sewers, then switch it off.
Must have been '98. My friend at school was obsessed with it and even recorded the first hour or so on VHS for me to watch he was just that eager to share something he was passionate about. WE never had a PlayStation until after I'd left school so by the time I played it we'd pretty much lost contact.
My main memory of the game is starting it up one evening and I played it right up until the party leaves Midgar. I recall finally deciding to save and quit at that point, turning off the PS then being amazed at daylight streaming through the window I'd played continuously right through the night without realizing it. To this day, no game had made me completely lose track of time like that.
The thing is, that first part was by far the most enjoyment I had with it, I don't remember the rest nearly as fondly.
My main memory of the game is starting it up one evening and I played it right up until the party leaves Midgar. I recall finally deciding to save and quit at that point, turning off the PS then being amazed at daylight streaming through the window I'd played continuously right through the night without realizing it. To this day, no game had made me completely lose track of time like that.
The thing is, that first part was by far the most enjoyment I had with it, I don't remember the rest nearly as fondly.
I think 1998. My cousin was on his way home from a trip when his connecting flight here was cancelled, so he stayed with my family for a couple days. He bought his brother two games: FFVII and Resident Evil 2. He let me and my brother play them, and while I played games before that, that kind of kickstarted my love of RPGs and horror games.
Same. I've been meaning to revisit Tobal No. 1, because I was just baffled by it when I played it as a teen.
Watched a coworker play through the Japanese demo at work whenever it came out, and that pretty much cemented it in everyone's mind that we'd be there day one when it came out stateside. We all caravaned to the mall to pick up our copies on release day, and we all played it nonstop over the next couple/few weeks. I still don't like the ending though. LOL I'm hoping the remake fleshes things out... although it'll be a damn long time until we get to that point.
German launch day on PC. I still remember this vividly. My friend laughed at me for buying it because he thought the demo was kinda bad and strange. We then played together deep into the night and couldn't stop.
Got Tobal No. 1 from CompUSA for the demo then preordered it at Babbages, I think. Scored a nifty Cloud shirt preorder bonus. I didn't appreciate Suikoden or Wild Arms enough at the time, so FFVII was in essence, my first true RPG.
FF8 was my first, I got that at the time and played 7 very soon after. So it would have been the early 2000s.
