I haven't beaten the game yet. I could've, back in 1997, and I got to almost the end of disc 1 in the Forgotten City. Something wrong with the memory card or whatever, and I lost it it all.
Started again 13 years later this past August and why didn't I remember half the stuff I saw before? That made it fun, but still, by then I knew what was going to happen at the end of disc 1 and minor details from watching people play it in college.
I've gotten to disc 3. I was and still am hovering over the crater at the beginning of disc 3, but with Cloud only having 4000HP.
Then ACC was delivered to my doorstep much earlier than expected. I was weak: I went to youtube and watched the ending of FFVII, and finished watching all the cut scenes from CC and DC and finished the OtWtaS novellas, so that I'd be ready to watch ACC.
<<WARNING: the following goes off on a tangent AND has bad grammar>>
<<if it is better suited to a different thread, i don't know what it is>>
Back to FFVII, not long after I restarted, I was searching images of Cloud x Tifa and saw a fan illustration of them about to kiss, and I never saw Cloud so... needy? don't know the right adjective but it was intense. It stirred up something in me as I reflected on a past relationship where I saw us like them... I felt like Tifa and it seemed Cloud was often cold... but we had our moments. I also saw myself as Cloud, in my new attempts at relationships... like I can't be fair because I'd still be in love with someone else (at that time, I'd not yet seen ACC, only previews, and thought Cloud was having an "affair" with a "ghost/memory")
10 years ago I had brain surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Drugs and radiation, while slowly leaving the body over the years, keep dealing out more damage until they're out of your system. One side effect that creeped up on me is/was an inability to laugh or cry. Maybe the causes are different, like depression or a coping mechanism, I don't know. But that illustration did stir me up with bittersweet feelings and by the next day my heart was light and it made me feel like I want to fall in love again. (Also got so much energy, I cleaned the house!)
Now I laugh hardy at puns, slapstick, and other stuff. Feels almost as good as... 1 hour of yoga, which feels almost as good as... 15 minutes of... it's been a few years. Guess I have to find and fall in love with my new Cloud (happy Cloud).