When you first played through you thought...

[Dashell]

Okay so the first time I played through the game, there were a lot of things that I thought were going to happen, or that I assumed but turned out not to be true in the end.

I know at first I thought Sephiroth was going to be revealed to be Aerith's boyfriend. glad that wasn't true.

I also thought, seeing Zack at first, that he was the actual Cloud Strife and this character in the game was really just some experiment constructed piece by piece and given Za-.err.. Cloud's memories.

I also thought the Promised Land was going to be revealed at one point and that Cloud was going to see it.

How about you? Anyone else have anything?

 

[Celes Chere]

I thought Cloud and Aerith were a couple before I played the game, but my mind changed pretty quick. xD

I really hated Aerith when I first played also, which changed too. (That took awhile) Can't understand why I ever hated her in the first place, really.

Cloud used to be my favorite character along with Tifa- until I saw Zack, that is. I got into a lot of the other characters like Tseng and Reeve, so Cloud became a very distant character on my favorites list. xD

I used to be super Yuffie obsessed. I still love her!

And... I've always hated Vincent.

 

[Frostwave]

I can't remember much about my first playthrough of VII. That was like a decade ago, and I've played the game about sixteen times.

One thing I do remember is that I had a really big crush on Vincent for whatever reason. I guess I was into the cape?

I was twelve, what can I say?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I'm playing through for the first tme right now, having got into this whole thing through AC and then playing Crisis Core. I thought I wouldn't like Vincent (he seemed rather ridiculous to me) but now I love him for his limit breaks and he is always in my party. I expected the game would be harder, though.

 

[Shademp]

1) I thought Cid fired the Junon cannon shot that destroyed Sapphire Weapon; because my friend said so for whatever reason.
2) That the real Cloud was in Nibelheim five years prior, but he died.
3) That Palmer died from being rammed by that truck (yeah, I somehow missed his appearance in the Rocket on disc 2)

And I NEVER thought Vincent was a vampire. I'm serious, I don't get why they assume he is a vampire simply because of the coffin and his white skin.

 

[Aki]

I thought we would get to see a "promised land" as an actual paradice. And when we hear about te NEO Midgar idea I though we would get to see the start of a new city.


And as I was young it took a while for me to grasp the Cloud being a Sephiroth clone.

 

[Gale]

For a while I thought the voices Cloud hears in Disk 1 was the planet and he was a Cetra like Aerith.

I thought that Cloud's original persona was Zack's exact personality, and that he was much more of a womanizing jerk.

I also really liked the CloudxAerith pairing, and disliked Tifa a lot for lying to Cloud about his past instead of confronting it. By the end of the game I really liked Tifa, though. Especially after the Lifestream scene.

 

[Neutron Ronnie]

I thought they'd bring Aerith back, or something. I was glad they didn't.

(I hated her too, incidentally - and I remember why I did - it was because she continued to hit on Cloud even when he says that Tifa's his girlfriend.)

For some odd reason, I didn't think that Tseng and Rufus were dead.

I also assumed there would be a redemption scene for Sephy-Rot at the end of the game. Once again, I was glad I was wrong.

 

[Smaddy]

There isn't too much that I remember, but what I do remember:
- I really, really, really disliked Cloud. I thought he was annoying. (My opinion of him has changed since then.)
- Cid had the best lines in the game. Cid being leader was one of my favorite parts.

- Trying to do "rumored" or "secret" things. Yes I tried the "get Zack" thing, yes we looked into things to see if Aeris was able to be revived. I didn't believe any of them (I'd have to actually do it myself to believe it), and keep in mind this was before the days of the internet so...

- The graphics. I can remember playing this, it was one of the first handful of games in 3D like that, with movies and all (the only fully 3D RPG I played around this time was Persona 1 in '96). At the time the graphics were stunning. The 'chibi' characters were always odd though; they were kind of like Lego people. XD

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that there's a lot of FF7 that was unclear to me until this year. Oops.

 

[Alex]

I still have absolutely no idea why it was necessary for Cloud and the Crew to steal all the Huge Materia and stop Shinra's perfectly plausible idea to bomb Meteor with it. I mean, seriously, could they not stand to let the Shinra Corporation to be in with a chance of saving the world?

 

[I Am Not Me]

I thought Cloud was weird. Since I saw AC before, I was like, "WTF is this Cloud?" And my mind didn't change until now.

I also thought Jessie was Aerith in disguise. For whatever reason.

Also thought Aerith can be revived.

Sephiroth was Cloud's father. What with the whole "Cloud never getting to meet his father" thing, I kind of concluded it with "idolizing a hero from far away, aspiring to be that hero, hero turns out to be villian burning down villages, villain turning out to be long, lost father..."

I mean, it was never really stated in AC that Sephiroth wasn't Cloud's father so...

That the real Cloud was in Nibelheim five years prior, but he died.

This. And then...

I also thought, seeing Zack at first, that he was the actual Cloud Strife and this character in the game was really just some experiment constructed piece by piece and given Za-.err.. Cloud's memories.

This, except Cloud was a clone. I was thinking of so many twists that I ended up not making sense, rly. I tried to relate this to AC, about how Zack-actually-Cloud accepted the whole thing in a "you can have my memories and crap but I get the real girlfriend, thank you" way which is why he said goodbye to clone!Cloud in the church with Aerith. I was thinking Zack-actually-Cloud was really Aerith's boyfriend and since clone!Cloud had Zack-actually-Cloud's memories, it explained the attraction between C and A. But then Tifa was there and she became the next true love because clone!Cloud had memories of Zack-actually-Cloud having Tifa as his first love.

...I obviously played Tales of the Abyss before this, as I had leftovers of the replica thing going in my head.

 

[Frostwave]

Sephy would've been a really young father if he was Cloud's dad. Like.... nine or something. Hehe.

 

[I Am Not Me]

Except Sephy's age is listed as unknown, remember?

 

[Frostwave]

Yar, but you can get an idea of how old he is by some events in the game, like the flashback of Nibelheim with Vincent, Lucrecia and Hojo.

Cloud's mom is a perv, lol.

 

[I Am Not Me]

That's true, except I was a complete n00b and only relied on the character profiles and such. I never paid attention to the dates anywho, and I always thought that some people in anime/manga/games always look younger than they actually are.

Take Jade in Tales of the Abyss. He totally doesn't look like he's in his 30s, even though he actually is.

Spoiler: Jade pictar

Cloud's mom is a perv, lol.

It's why she's telling Cloud to get an older woman who'll take care of him.

 

[Frostwave]

It's why she's telling Cloud to get an older woman who'll take care of him.

Oh, like she "took care" of Sephiroth. I see.

Oh yeah. Another thing I remember from my first playthrough was that I thought that Ester the chocobo lady was a robot. Her model just looked like a weird robot to me. I wonder what she looks like in Nomura's art...

 

[Loxetta]

This, except Cloud was a clone. I was thinking of so many twists that I ended up not making sense, rly. I tried to relate this to AC, about how Zack-actually-Cloud accepted the whole thing in a "you can have my memories and crap but I get the real girlfriend, thank you" way which is why he said goodbye to clone!Cloud in the church with Aerith. I was thinking Zack-actually-Cloud was really Aerith's boyfriend and since clone!Cloud had Zack-actually-Cloud's memories, it explained the attraction between C and A. But then Tifa was there and she became the next true love because clone!Cloud had memories of Zack-actually-Cloud having Tifa as his first love.

...lolwut?

I knew the fandom pretty well before I ever even got my mitts on the original game, so not a lot surprised me, unfortunately. I watched the scenes on Youtube a long time ago though, and I do remember being convinced that the voices and weird shit that kept happening to Cloud early in the game was Zack -- and that Zack's spirit was actually stuck inside Cloud.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I still have absolutely no idea why it was necessary for Cloud and the Crew to steal all the Huge Materia and stop Shinra's perfectly plausible idea to bomb Meteor with it. I mean, seriously, could they not stand to let the Shinra Corporation to be in with a chance of saving the world?

Especially since there follows some dialogue along the lines of:
Cloud: Looks like Rufus' plan to stop meteor failed.
Barrett: I was kinda hopin' it would work.
Is this mean to be dramatic irony, or what?

 

[Alex]

Cloud: Looks like Rufus' plan to stop meteor failed.

It should go on to say '...because of us'. This is what happens when you sabotage things. Good one AVALANCHE!

 

[laurence]

Sephiroth would team up with Cloud's team for a common cause (ie. we get to play with Seph. for a while). There's not much else I've remembered. I should replay this game more than five times, like sixteen as many members did here. If I've only got the time ...

 

[Smaddy]

...lolwut?

I knew the fandom pretty well before I ever even got my mitts on the original game, so not a lot surprised me, unfortunately. I watched the scenes on Youtube a long time ago though, and I do remember being convinced that the voices and weird shit that kept happening to Cloud early in the game was Zack -- and that Zack's spirit was actually stuck inside Cloud.

I'd really be shocked if anyone fully understood the deal with Cloud for the first portion of FF7 the first time(s) they played though - with all the talk of him having false memories, the stuff with Zack, and then Jenova/Sephiroth/Hojo saying Cloud's a clone and was "created"... it's pretty confusing.

I'd actually be interested to see if any of the use of "clone", "creation", etc was misused when FF7 got translated, or if it was just intentional mental sabotage by Hojo.

I know in several of my early plays of the game, I did take it literally and thought Cloud was actually created/cloned 5 years prior. With all the Compilation and further play of the game, I understand it now.

 

[Max Payne]

The only thing I remember thinking was that Cloud had to be either mentally impaired, or a complete shithead to treat a nice beautiful girl like Tifa that was clearly into him like that at the start of the game.

Guess which one of those turned out to be the right one

 

[Vorona]

I know in several of my early plays of the game, I did take it literally and thought Cloud was actually created/cloned 5 years prior. With all the Compilation and further play of the game, I understand it now.

Yeah same here. People can say what they want about the Compilation "ruining" VII, but it definitely helped expand my knowledge of the game.

The first time I played through I didn't fully grasp the concept of Cloud's messed up memories/persona either. I always thought it weird that after you see the Zack montage in the Shinra Mansion, Cloud doesn't actually comment on it or ever really talk about Zack again. I'm guessing they'd rectify that if they ever made a remake

Also the first time I played through disk 1 I was non-plussed towards Tifa as I'd been led to believe before playing that Cloud and Aerith were the couple of the game and Tifa was a "boring unimportant character". Disk 2 helped to change my mind on those matters

 

[Smaddy]

Yeah same here. People can say what they want about the Compilation "ruining" VII, but it definitely helped expand my knowledge of the game.

The first time I played through I didn't fully grasp the concept of Cloud's messed up memories/persona either. I always thought it weird that after you see the Zack montage in the Shinra Mansion, Cloud doesn't actually comment on it or ever really talk about Zack again. I'm guessing they'd rectify that if they ever made a remake

We didn't even find that flashback until a later play-through. Then we were just messing around in the Mansion, exploring, and it was like "huh?? What's this?"

Which is why it's still a little weird to me that Zack is so popular. He was barely mentioned in FF7. Now with the Compilation, his part in the events is way clearer.

 

[Vendel]

The first time I played it was at my Uncles house. He told me to go nuts. Just not to save it...heh.

He showed me how to use the summon and I summoned Ramah(sp). And I thought it was the most awesome thing ever. Then I remember running into Yuffie. My Uncle didn't know how to get her(I think). So i tried a couple times and the bitch kept taking off...heh.

Then I started a new game and got as far as the scorp boss. I attacked when his tail was raised.