The Full FFVII Experience - Where Are You?

[X-SOLDIER]

As has recently come to light - there are a HILARIOUSLY large number of long-time members here who haven't seen/played/completed various little bits of the compilation on the site (and not the ones you'd always expect), and I felt like it warranted its own thread just for historical purposes - and maybe motivating some of them to finally get their shit together actually play through them together or something.


So... so start things off: I'm one of the folks that HAS done (most) all of the things.



• FFVII: Played through and completed most everything in the game aside from getting all the Master Materia (which I'd like to do someday, maybe - at least master the Enemy Skill materia which feels like the one immediate goal I've never accomplished that's outstanding). Still love the game to bits.
• AC/ACC: Watched a vast number of times when they were released (made improved subtitles for the old version of AC way back when that've long since been lost as far as I know). Very happy that ACC made the improvements that it did & gave us OtWtaS and all that. (Also, I have the Japanese-limited edition AC PS3 because that's the kind of person I am).
• BC: Read transcription/watched the youtubes of them at some point. Would still love a port some day.
• CC: Played through both in a Japanese emulation 2 days after its initial Japan-only release & where I marathoned and beat it in two days with only a small break, and then played it all again at least twice in the US version where I beat everything in the game - missions, etc. By far my favourite Compilation piece, and ties for my favourite version of a UI game system directly tying into a story (tied with the Asura's Wrath True Ending DLC).
• DoC: Played through and beat all the content available in the US, watched the Lost Episode and other content on the YouTubes. It's flawed, but still really enjoyable.




X

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I've done everything except DoC, myself.

It's actually really cool that we all have come together here despite our varying levels of FFVII exposure (which is my actual favorite and cherished irony of being here in a FFVII site), but I think that a FFVII Compilaton playthrough by everyone here to fill in their gaps is due to some extent. At least FFVII.

 

[Joe]

• FFVII: Played various parts of it on a friend's playthrough as a youngster. In more recent years I've played the first 4-5 hours of it before moving away and not touching it again.
• AC/ACC: Watched and enjoyed many, many times. Might even watch it again soon!
• BC: Nope.
• CC: Played to story completion. Loved it.
• DoC: Played through to the end with a handful of optional stuff completed too. It was alright.

 

[Ami]

• FFVII: Done, dusted and completed it twice, including unlocking almost everything.
• AC/ACC: Watched both and preferred the complete one. It was pretty cool to finally see it have its own film, although the plot could've been better.
• BC: Nada.
• CC: My favourite of the compilation for MILES. Could only play once, due to major character death and its emotional ending.
• DoC: An all right game, despite the flack it gets. Vinnie fully deserved the spotlight.

 

[Super Mario]

• FFVII: Played only through a forest and was booted out for messing up some of the materia structure as a kid and never played it again.
• AC/ACC: Watched it and is in a special folder called ' Kingdom Hearts Movies' lol.
• BC: Nope. They need to remake this shit with DS or PSP Vita.
• CC: Haven't played it, but I would want to.
• DoC: Played through and enjoyed it for action.

 

[trash panda]

Okay, I confess...

FFVII: I've played and beaten this several times throughout my life. I've never gotten everything (like W-summon or whatever it's called).

AC/ACC: Watched both. I own ACC because it was given to me as a gift; I would not have purchased it with my own money. I could NOT tell you the difference between the two versions because neither of them held my interest. I cannot sit through this movie and pay attention 100% the entire time. Tifa's very dark (it seemed way too dark)/short hair upset me very much.

BC: I don't know anything about this other than that it is a thing.

CC: Played it. Beat Minerva. Really enjoyed the gameplay. Really didn't like some of the characters that were added to the compilation OR their names (see Angeal and Genesis).

DOC: Never played it. I saw some of the character designs (see Shalua Rui) and fucking hated it immediately. I also saw some clips of what looked like team Yuffentine and I fucking hated it even worse.

 

[Ghost X]

FFVII: Played numerous times, almost in a completionist fashion. Two things I remember not doing was being able to complete the final snowboard level in the Golden Saucer, and I didn't get all the enemy skills for that respective materia. Not fussed .
AC/ACC: Seen AC. Had some good scenes in it, but very disappointing. Haven't seen ACC in its entirety, but I believe I've seen clips of the different parts.
BC: Read up on it. Have no interest in playing.
CC: Read up on it. I'm sure it is playable, but not interested.
DOC: Read up on it. Have no interest in playing.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

FFVII - have played this numerous times, finished it three times. Have not done everything in it; I've never defeated Ruby or Emerald weapon or collected all the Master Materia. I don't have the patience for half hour boss battles.

AC/ACC - have watched this more times than I can count

Before Crisis: Watched the playthrough numerous times on youtube, read the script numerous times, wrote the novel

Crisis Core: Have played through this at least five or six times but have never defeated Minerva because I can't get past the big fucking chickens on the way

DoC - okay, I have never played this, but I've watched various AMV compilations, and I've read through this hilarious hate-fest several times

Last Order/Case of Denzel - I've watched each of these at least half a dozen times

On the Way to a Smile "Case Of" stories - I've read them all at least six times

The Lateral Biography: The Kids Are Alright - read this three times

 

[Flintlock]

I have played FFVII about a bajillion times, but the compilation can go to hell.

As a member of the staff here, I probably shouldn't say that, but honestly, I've never cared for anything else. I thought Advent Children was terrible, I started playing Dirge of Cerberus but got frustrated with the controls immediately, and everything else has been more or less inaccessible to me. I watched Yop play quite a lot of Crisis Core but the retconning annoyed me. The original game is just so perfect, I won't tolerate anything that takes away from it in any way.

 

[Cthulhu]

Iä, fhtagn!

FFVII: Played it through at least once, forever ago: I was doing an internship at a local county hall back when I was 18 (2nd year of MBO school, doing system administrator stuff) when I found out that a FFVII movie was made, possibly via AdventChildren.net - this was probaly 2003ish. Anyway, found that out, back then I lurved FFVIII, and I figured I'd better play FFVII to get the story. I think I ended up playing FFVII followed by FFIX before I fully joined AC.net / ACF. I may have tried to do a second playthrough a few years ago, but, I don't recall properly, loloo.

Anyway, I was quite excited about AC, and joined the AC.net clique about it - I don't think I'll ever be as excited or on top of anything released about the movie as I was back then, it was quite an unique experience. I remember setting a wallpaper (gasp!) from the movie because that was the first time I could appreciate anything like that. And then, late at night one day, the movie was actually released. I started the download of the movie on our slow-ish ADSL connection back then - probably eight hours or so. I got up at 7 in the morning and waited for the last bit, and IIRC watched the first half hour or so before I had to stop and go to school. I made my family watch the movie shortly after, to show them what I was obsessed about. I was made a moderator of ACF before the movie was released, which was very exciting and awkward to tell my parents about at the time. IDK if they liked it, I'm sure they were confused as fuck about it, . I also made my friend watch it, whom I'm sure shared their sentiment.

ACC was done years later, I watched it, it was alright, it was just a shame they didn't re-render the original scenes in HD - after all, the HD thing happened in between AC and ACC, which is actually an interesting event that shouldn't be forgotten.

BC: what's that again?

CC: I actually played part of that about one-two years ago on a PSP emulator, streamed it when streaming was a new way to get attention and shit. I don't think I finished it though, lost interest/motivation/encouragement or something. I did like it though, and from what I gathered it's the one game that belongs in the compilation alongside the original FFVII and AC/ACC,

DoC: wot's taht? from what I gather it was a pretty mediocre game at best.

 

[Odysseus]

FFVII - Played through three times, once on PS1, twice on PC. Pretty quickly became my favorite game after I beat it, and that was in 2013! Even after having played other FFs, it's still my favorite (though I'd say IX is a better game overall). I'm currently obsessively modding in various bits of unused content for an eventual fourth playthrough. If anyone knows how to import the PS1 maps to the PC version, I'd appreciate some help.

AC/ACC - Watched more times than I can remember at this point. I'll admit, it was my first glimpse of the FFVII world. Made no sense before I had context, but the action was cool. Watched episode Denzle and Last Order extra features as well.

BC - Painfully sat through a translated playthrough on youtube. This game needs a remake like no other.

OtWtaS - Listened to the wonderful audio commentaries hosted here, along with the Maiden one. I also read Case of Shinra and the currently translated pages of Lateral Biography.

DoC - Played through twice and enjoyed it far more than I really should have. Also watched Lost Episode on youtube.

CC - Played through it once on hard mode. got to say, doing all of the missions kinda kills the pace of the story. Why does Zack still do them while he's on the run? Crazy man.

 

[Rydeen]

• FFVII: Played through a couple times (for the first time in about '06 iirc: I actually watched AC first), I was aiming for a perfect save file during my last playthrough in 2012 but I forgot a silly piece of materia in the cave in Cosmo Canyon and then decided not to bother with KOTR. I've already experienced the pain by proxy by watching my brother with his perfect FFVII playthroughs. Cue Chocobo Chirping, Fanfare, Brother Screaming, Farm Music, Rinse, Repeat.
• AC/ACC: I've watched AC many times (god, I was so obsessed with it when I was 12) and watched ACC once in 2012
• BC: Watched through the entire playthrough once; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the characters and story much better than in CC honestly.
• CC: Played through. Gameplay was decent but I don't generally have many positive opinions of it otherwise.
• DoC: Played through part of it. Should probably get on that one day. Have a friend borrowing it.

I've also watched Case of Denzel/Last Order, read Case of Shinra, and read bits of the other Case of stories.

 

[Roger]

FFVII: Played it
AC: Watched it
ACC: Watched it
LO: Watched it
CC: Played it
BC: Watched it
DoC: Played it
OTWTAS: Watched and read it

 

[Lex]

• FFVII: lol, 300% completion nine bajillion times, know it like the back of my hand. I probably know the back of my hand less to be honest.
• AC/ACC: Obviously I've seen this, I've seen it a lot. I can't stand the English version, but that's just personal preference because I downloaded AC the day it was released on my horrendously slow internet and it was obviously in Japanese. So I watched the JP version maybe 10 or 15 times before I heard the English, and I was never able to make the transition. dilly dally shilly shally
• BC: Watched the YouTube videos, fell asleep. Managed to get to the end, but I've had to start over from halfway through more than once. I don't think a port of this would work now, it needs a remaster at the very least.
• CC: Also my favourite Compilation release, I feel it's the closest thing in style and tone to the original game and that makes me very happy. Have 100%'d and played through normally many many times, am doing so again currently .
• DoC: Completed the day I got it within about 13 hours, didn't play it again for a year or so. Did a completionist playthrough after said year then didn't touch it again until fairly recently (I streamed it). The gameplay is good but the story sucks beyond all comprehension IMO. The fucking names of the new characters even annoy the hell out of me. Almost nothing about the villains to me fit in VII's world. I felt like I was playing The Bouncer (who remembers this lol) at some points.

Last Order was... blasphemous. I actually really enjoyed all of the novellas, but I had trouble with Case of Denzel tbh. To me Denzel suffers from DoC villain syndrome in that his name and style seem at odds with the FFVII I know and love, but his backstory and character fit rather well in the world so I can't complain. Case of Denzel was my least favourite novella though, so I was a bit disappointed with the extra attention it got.

 

[Ⓐaron]

FFVII: Played it, got to the Northern Crater. I think that's as far as I got.
AC/ACC: I've seen clips of it, but I don't think I've ever sat down and watched the whole thing.

I have yet to do anything with the remainder of the Compilation. Crisis Core half-interests me, but I don't have the system it's on (PSP?) and am too lazy to emulate. I do mean "half-interests", though; I simply don't have much interest in RPGs these days. Indeed, the main reason I didn't finish FFVII is because I played it towards the tail end of my interest in RPGs and I just didn't feel like grinding further. Besides, if I were going to play a game in the FF series these days, it would probably be XII, or else I'd replay V, VI, or IX.

 

[Tennyo]

I've done everything except BC. I attempted to read a script and also watch a play through but I kind of lost interest.

 

[robotwarui]

FFVII: attempted 4x, beat once, wanting to do a completionist challenge I put together (based on AbsoluteSteve's guide)

ACC: watched many many times

BC: watched on you tube

CC: played and beat, 33% side quests; wanna play again, but no desire to beat all sidequests or fuse all materia combos

DC: attempted to play (no good at shooters), watched on you tube twice

OtWtaS: all read; reread CoD and CoT a few times

Lateral Biography: read each chapter as it came, yet to read the completed whole

 

[ForceStealer]

Oh geez....I'm such a turbo nerd.

FFVII: I could not even begin to guess how many times I've played this game. The number of times I've played it to COMPLETION is probably countable...maybe half a dozen? But when I was younger I counted a playthrough as reach Disc 3 and I went through a marathon of doing that with every party combination. Mysteriously my knowledge of the game still falls short of Lex's, but I think it's only just short. I do know the game absurdly well.

ACC: Avec loves to tease me about how many times I've seen this movie. Truthfully I've only ever watched it myself twice (once for the original and once for Complete), but in showing it to anyone I've ever known for longer than a month is why I've seen it so often. I always enjoyed the thing and I thought Complete went a long long way to improving the holes in the original and I like it even more. It has been some time since I've watched it by now.

BC: I read the Gunshot Romance transcripts. Obviously most of it was pretty boring/stupid, but I found myself getting excited at a few parts, like when the President says something like, "All right...call Sephiroth."

CC: I imported the game when it came out in Japanese under the guise of practicing for studying abroad. And I'm sure it did help and all. I followed it okay (I had a translation printed out to help). But I definitely got more of the experience when I played the English version. I think this is a really solid game, the battle system breaks as you get into the higher level and for some reason the missions completely enabled that. As you break all your stat limits and just use Goblin Punch over and over and over again. But I greatly enjoyed everything before that. And while I fully recognize the missed opportunities in the plot, I still absolutely got into it.

DC: I have played this probably 3 or 4 times. I'm not a big fan of shooters, but I found the gameplay to be very "arcade-y." That is, simple enough to be fun. I liked the switching between customized guns on the fly. And, as is obvious from my fanboyism, I'm just giddy being in this world. As soon as Reeve started talking about Heidegger and Scarlet, I was set. I loved the fully-scaled representation of Kalm. Yes, the pacing is way off and the size of Deepground is stupid, but I still think it's a fun game in a world that I love spending time in.

OtWtaS: From a purely plot perspective, these are easily the strongest entries in the Compilation, even with the weaker entries like the Cases of Yuffie and Nanaki. Cases of Barret, Tifa, and Shinra are all really strong with fantastic character interaction (which even the other two possess, their premises are just worse). Case of Denzel is good for world-building, less so for Denzel, of course.

Laterial Biography: Have been waiting for a more complete translation to be finished, I plan to jump into the first half soon though.


So, yeah, I know I'm the resident fanboy that defends all the stuff that everybody rips on. But I tell myself/hope that such a view is good for the community to help make sure everyone doesn't become a COMPLETE cynic about the whole thing.

 

[Splintered]

FFVII: Played it way too many times to count, but I think I only beat it... once? Twice? Generally I play to the Northern Crater, then I get really sad and nostalgic, reset, and play the game again. I've never bothered get master materia, and I don't want too. But I've done near everything else like downing Ruby and Emerald, getting Knight of the Round, etc. One day I hope to try a speed run.

AC/C: Day one illegal download. And I actually think I own one of the versions. Seen it a bunch of times, full of imperfections, but I still enjoyed it.

BC: I tried but it looks boring and I heard it was bad. One day I'll finish it.

C/C: Yes, and I loved it. Minus one or two bad points, the gameplay was fun, the materia fusion was a good enough rabbit hole to fall in, Zack has become one of my favorite characters, and that death scene blows me away. Only thing that gets me is how horrible Genesis was. Was trying to finish all the missions and beat the last boss but I couldn't... there was too many missions.

DoC: Beat it. Hated it. Don't even remember much of it, I thought to gameplay, while serviceable, was just bland, the backdrops were plain uninspiring, the characters were forgettable, and the story was cringeworthy. Only good part was Reeve. Oh and also how Hojo was still the one fucking everyone up.

OtWtaS: Read them and loved them. Good introspective look on how the characters were doing and their struggle, only thought Red's was kind of out of left field but even that wasn't too bad. Actually I didn't read the Shinra's case now that I think about it. I was kind of annoyed Rufus made it so I hadn't waited for that translation. Will read it soon.


Laterial Biography: Was waiting for a completed version, but I think I'll start this as well.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Everything but play Before Crisis.

 

[Drax]

In order:

Saw an FFVII trailer in 1997, but alas I had an N64, not a Playstation. How sheltered I was.

Skip to 2005: The boom of youtube, clips of the motorcycle chase from AC were going around. "What is this," I thought, "That newfangled Spirits Within I've heard about in my high school days? Looks different, must be a sequel."

There was also a wonderful subtitled parody of Cloud Strife's Papa Johns delivery service, but I couldn't find it again.

Played the Kingdom Hearts and was exposed to more of the VII characters. Cid sounded like a cool dude, so I had a new Internet handle.

Bought Advent Children for real at Target. Looked cool, and enjoyed it. My FFVII knowledge began to build.

Bought the Special Boxed Set later at Best Buy so that I could have Last Order.

2006: Dirge of Cerberus played and finished. I had no qualms with it, except the aiming system made the boss fights impossible, especially against Rosso. Fantastic music.

2007: Waited forever for Crisis Core to come out. This was also the time I finally found a copy of FFVII (finding VIII and IX much earlier before it.) I had a good time comparing the locales while playing both at the same time. Both games played to completion.

2009: Bought ACC. It had decent changes, I was okay after watching this a few times, I really haven't watched anything AC since. OTWTAS made me desperately want a FFVII anime though, especially that scene with the meteor appearing in the sky. :\

Watched some Before Crisis on youtube. I still want that remake on 3DS, but the ideas they've left in my head would be more suited to Vita and PS4. I want it to be as shiny as Crisis Core/Type Zero. So many cellphone submenu mechanics they could put into that game...

 

[The G'randiest' Daddy]

FFVII: did a kind of incomplete play-through. Beat Seph at level 48-ish, dunno if that's impressive but it was freaking hard Never mastered the materia, didn't do the forest place that you need chocobos for, did nothing with the chocobos, never mastered the materia, etc. I barely even got the optional characters...

ACC: Watched like a billion times.

BC: Seen a few bits, never watched the youtubes or read the script.

CC: About halfway through, started playing something else - watched A finish it though.

DoC: Started, but it was on an emulator and totally broken. Couldn't get very far before I gave up.

OtWtaS: Listened to all the audio books that are on TLS. Loved 'em. 'Cept Case of Yuffie, but that's 'cause I don't like her.

Last Order: other than 3 specific flaws, loved it, watched it a few times.

 

[JBedford]

FFVII: Watched my brothers play it when I was younger and from that I memorised plot progression and sidequest things. Played it once or twice later getting to disk 3. Eventually on PC did an entire playthrough with a modified kernel for easiness (and hacked in the Gold Chocobo). Done the chocobo sidequest once, never beat Emerald or Ruby. Also also: never done the Turtle's Paradise sidequest :p. I play the game in pieces and hack it to gain my extensive knowledge, but I haven't played through the entire game all that much.

AC: Watched dub once; DVD rented from Blockbuster. Never watched ACC.

CC: Played through, missed one mission, never beat Minerva.

DoC: Did a co-playthrough with my brother where I probably didn't pick up the controller very much. No 100% goals, just a standard playthrough.

OtWtaS: Listened to TLS audiobook forms for Red XIII's and Yuffie's. No reason just them besides being uploaded at a time convenient to listen to.

HoMO/Maiden: Read it once for wiki purposes.

BC: Looked at parts of a translated playthrough over time for wiki purposes, never sat down to watch the entire thing.

DoC:LE: I've watched the introduction a few times on YT, like 20 mins, what I guess is most of the tutorial section. For some unknown reason I always stop after that.

 

[Shademp]

FFVII:
- Somewhere around 30 PlayStation version playthroughs since 1998. Two or three full PC playthroughs.
- Always aimed for 100% Completion in the playthroughs, often to hardcore levels. Have not tried speedrunning or low-level playthroughs and I have certainly missed out on cool experiences by not doing these.
- Through exploration and modding of the FIELD folder, I know the game's pre-rendered backgrounds, game scripts, map file names and coded commands better than most. See also the Unused Text Series.


AC/ACC:
- Watched the Japanese versions about a dozen times each. English dub once, maybe twice at the most. Have had ACC playing in the background on the computer countless times. Like ForceStealer, I have often watched ACC to show it off to friends.


BC:
- Watched Grimoire Valentine's YouTube playlist of the game. It was a boring hell to sit through.


CC:
- Played the English version all the way through (100%) two or three times. Now going on fourth round while also playing the Japanese version. I enjoy the game but the missions are too many and too repetitive for my taste.


DC:
- Played every version except the American one. Greatly enjoy the campy awfulness of the story and the voice acting (especially the English dub). The game is bad and mediocre in just the right ways, for me.


DC Lost Episode:
- Watched Grimoire Valentine's upload of the Japanese version of this cell phone game, which condenses all the worst parts of DC into one awful mobile experience. It hurts both the eyes and the ears.


Last Order:
- Aside from the initial joy of seeing iconic events recreated and the coolness of seeing more of Zack and Cloud on the run, I was never fond of the animation style and the retcons. Much prefer the Crisis Core version of events and the animation of the Episode Denzel OVA.


Maiden Who Travels The Planet:
- Read it twice, I think. I liked it.


OtWtaS:
- Read through each chapter twice or thrice. Done a lot of research and I will at some point write one or more articles, but I'm currently too disappointed with the fact that 200+ hours of work (plus making Tres work his ass off) resulted in no new, major version difference discoveries.


Episode Denzel animation:
- A pleasant OVA with some fun additions and differences from the written version. Despite the dark story, you just feel a wonderful warmth from this piece.


Lateral Biography:
- Read the summary and the chapter translations. I have most certainly not yet read all the translation updates for the final chapters. The plot lacks focus but I enjoy the bits that flesh out the FFVII universe.



Although not a Compilation title, I feel shame for not having picked up G-Bike yet. Before that can happen I need to buy a proper device to play it on.

 

[Octo]

Spoiler: ALL THOSE WHO HAVE NOT COMPLETED FFVII MUST WEAR THE CONE OF SHAME

FFVII: Done everything except get all the master materia because what is the fucking point?

AC/ACC: Watched AC twice, to see if it improved on a second viewing -nope. Watched ACC once to see if that improved it, it did but only by 0.5%

BC: Read transcriptions and watched on youtube. Have no desire to play the game because the gameplay looks boring and/or annoying.

CC: Played up until the first Genesis fight, couldn't beat him and had no desire to continue after that.

DoC: Don't make me laugh. Watched poor Ol' Shademp play it. He suffered for us.

Also: Watched Last Order and the animated Case of Denzel thing, which was actually ok, even though it was about fucking Denzel.

Read some of the novella things, can't remember if I read all of them or not. I think it was mainly Case of Shinra that I was interested in.