Original Final Fantasy VII players: did you get the game new for PSX?

[Odysseus]

I was a solid 5 months old when FF7 originally came out in the US, so I was pretty lacking in the mental capacity to appreciate the game at that time. For one reason or another in 2012 I decided to play the game, got a PS1 copy on ebay, and the course of my life was irreplaby altered from then on. I'm starting to realize how much older a lot of the userbase here is than me...

 

[JBedford]

I would have been nearing four when the game was released. I don't know exactly when the game was purchased, nor whether it was new or used, or even whether it was original/Platinum (the EU version of Greatest Hits, but less ugly), however it was my brother's game.

After he invested hundreds of hours into it, he got to Disc 2, and... the game froze. Consistently. That copy of the game was lent to a friend and was never seen again. A new copy was eventually purchased, and I do know that this copy was the Platinum version, and is currently in my bed drawer. I didn't buy any of those PS1 Final Fantasy games, but they're mine now.

My brother got the PC versions of FFVII and FFVIII and just decided to give them to me sometime prior to 2012, presumably because they showed up at the shop he worked at. I finally gave SE my own money when I bought the 2012 PC version from the SE store day 1. The version they abandoned for Steam, and now can't be redownloaded...

 

[Kain424]

I got it new. Played it until one of the discs stopped working, then bought the Greatest Hits version. Still have it.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

@Odysseus @JBedford

Christ, y'all is young. I had no idea.

 

[Rydeen]

I always thought I was the youngest active member here, at '94.
We really are a diverse group. All brought together by FF7.

 

[Legend]

'96 here. Started in '13 (I had no idea what I was doing with my life for seventeen years) with ACC and watching random cutscenes of CC, didn't play FFVII until the year after. Played on PC. Explored the shit out of the Compilation throughout my university degree. I'm graduated now.

 

[Odysseus]

@The Twilight Mexican no we aren't young, you're oooooooooooold. Just kidding. I find it kind of refreshing that all generations can coexist here and get along well. I guess that's the magic of the internet. It's kinda fun that I always know exactly how old FFVII is because I was born the year it came out.

 

[Teioh]

The very first Final Fantasy game was released 20 days after I was born, I feel old now

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm roughly 3 months younger than FF1

 

[Tetsujin]

I was born a year and about eight months before FFI released

 

[Jairus]

I'm 17 years older than FF1. I think that qualifies me as a geezer here.

 

[HylianMogget]

I've got the Greatest Hits version. I think it was new, rather than a used/second hand copy, but I got it in 2003, so I'm not positive. Seems a bit strange that new copies would've still be around 6-ish years after release, but it was a very popular game and the PS2 had backwards compatibility so maybe it wasn't that unlikely?

 

[Kionae]

Mine actually came from a garage sale. I'd never even played a Final Fantasy prior to that (I was more of a Mario/Legend of Zelda type back then). So... yeah. It was the PSX version (original release, not greatest hits), but it wasn't a new copy.

 

[Mayo Master]

Bought my OG copy on the first week of release, on a Saturday. I was 17 back then, 1st year student. Oh boy, I can even track that back! Saturday, November 22, bought it from a Fnac store in Toulouse (France). Met up with a friend to share my playthrough, started playing at 5pm and kept playing till 4 am. Good times.

 

[Sephira]

I was 13 years old when I played the OG. My mom bought it for me in 1997 ♥

 

[cold_spirit]

It was a boring day in spring of 2005 when I first played FF7. I was eleven years old and looking for something to do as my older brothers were occupying the PS2. I remembered that FF7 was tucked away somewhere, my middle brother had borrowed it from a friend but got stuck in the Temple of the Ancients. I decided to give it a try for two reasons: the videogame magazine we were subscribed to made a big deal about Aerith's death and I wanted to one-up my brother by completing it. Ended up being the defining "tastemaker" in my life.

 

[Nanaki Skywalker]

December 25th, 1997. It was wrapped up under the tree addressed to me from my mom (who the year earlier got me a PlayStation for Christmas). I didn't exactly ask for the game for Christmas, but at the same time, I didn't ask not for it either. I hesitated a few days before playing it, because I had a bad experience playing RPGs when I rented one at Blockbuster for SNES (in short, I got lost pretty quickly), so I ended up getting a crash course in RPG 101. Now, it's one of, if not my absolute, all-time favorite video games.

 

[Erotic Materia]

the videogame magazine we were subscribed to made a big deal about Aerith's death

They threw out that giant spoiler like that? What assholes!

 

[Nanaki Skywalker]

They threw out that giant spoiler like that? What assholes!

I know the Brady Games guide spoiled that one. And I heard about that spoiler in the schoolyard, so those students I went to school with were assholes as well!

 

[Erotic Materia]

 

[Suzaku]

Thanksgiving vacation, 1997, my dad took me to Best Buy to get a Nintendo 64. The Sony PlayStation section was on the way to the Nintendo section, and they had rows of kiosks running trailers for Final Fantasy VII, Bushido Blade, etc. Left the store with a PlayStation and those two games instead. The Final Fantasy VII trailer was just so cool to me, I still remember the scene of Cloud coming down the stairs on the Hardy Daytona. That's what sold me.

I had already been a Final Fantasy fan, I played Final Fantasy II on the SNES back in the second grade (1992), after which my mom got us the original for NES, and naturally I played Final Fantasy III, too. I grew up playing RPGs, Dragon Warrior 1-3 were frequent rentals at my house. My mom was into RPGs too, so she'd often get them for herself (years later she even learned how to use emulators and apply translation patches so she could play all the SNES games that never got released in English).

I can't recall why I didn't seem to really be aware of Final Fantasy VII at the time, before seeing the kiosks. I remember the soda promos at the grocery store around the same time, but for some reason it was off my radar. I think during that time period I might have switched from a GamePro subscription to Nintendo Power... all of my friends at the time were super into Nintendo and N64.

Anyway, it worked out really well. PlayStation games were generally way cheaper, so I was able to amass quite a collection. And all my friends had N64s and the same exact library of games, so I didn't miss out on anything there.

 

[Tennyo]

I bought a used copy and Played it on PS2. I never had a PSX.

 

[ExampleZ]

I had a legitimate copy from my local milk bar, back when they used to sell games.

 

[clowd]

My sister was 26 at the time. She enjoyed watching us play the game when we rented it, so she put up the money to buy it new at SEARS during Christmas break 1997. Games were $49.99 new back then.

I remember holding the case and just being so happy we owned a masterpiece. And I was only halfway through the game at the time.

 

[Dark and Divine]

I bought mine in January, 1998. It was a late Christmas present i gave myself. I didn't have a Memory Card at the time, so I replayed the Midgar far too many times, up to the point that i could reach Kalm in about 2 hours of gameplay. Those were the days.

Then i bought a Memory Card and that was one of the best summers of my life