Hah, this sure brings back memories. I was maybe 8-10 years old when I went to the friends place. It was a kind of an everyday habit. My friend's older brother happened to be fighting the final battles against Sephiroth and the whole room was full of people trying not to miss any second of this epic match. He had loaned the game from some acquaintance of his. That was the first moment I laid my eyes on this masterpiece and I have to tell you, that was like heroin to my still underage eyes. That magic system, Limit breaks, the freaking blue background panel, Sephiroth, everything - I remember everything like yesterday.
This is when I started to look for that game; i needed my own. It wasn't until six months later we finally met again. I was spending a holiday with my family and finally found it in a spanish atrium - Final Fantasy 7. You can't possibly imagine this rush I got just from staring at the front cover. It was enough to piss my pants, almost. Rest of the holiday I pretty much spent staring at the discs and that small "info" zettel that came with the game. Who cares about culture, sun and sand, waterparks or the most amazing serrano, because LOOK WHAT I HAVE HERE.
Sorry for ranting, but I still remember those days very clearly.
Yeah so we finally came back home. The freaking game was in spanish, which really didn't matter at the time because I couldn't understand english neither. I had absolutely no idea about the plot, I just played and played, making my own interpretations. After being killed by Migdar Zolom (and pretty much by everything else up to that point too) ca. 1000 times, I finally was able to run past him without chocobo. I loved every minigame, battle, music and rendered background - eventhough it took me often weeks/months to get past some points (Lunar harp I'm looking at you). I remember crying when Aerith died, as I thought she was MY girlfriend, and I remember laughing when Barret or Cid cursed in spanish (DIABLO), as they were my mates and my trusted companions in every battle. I didn't get Vincent or Yuffie on my first playthrough, who had any idea? Yuffie I had met from time to time while exploring the local forests, and she pretty much shat on my face everytime. Still hate that bitch. When I make my disadvantaged playthroughs nowadays I still often miss her, just BECAUSE I FUCKING CAN. In the days, when information moved much slower or didn't move at all, it was very common to miss such major events of the game. Well, maybe it's better not to tell you guys my personal interpretations and thoughts about this game, because plot never played any kind of role for me, especially after the first playthrough.
All I can say is that finishing that game took me longer than it did for the most of you and that was such an accomplishment for me, that I actually felt very empty for a long time after finishing FF7. I missed experiencing with materia and this in a way grew up to be an obsession: I started to play the game in a experimental way. Trying to resurrect Aeris, my girlfriend, was an everyday routine for me between the years 1999-2001. It was until 2002 that I beat the satan out of Ruby weapon, around 4 years after I actually bought the game. Only later when I bought english-version I grew up to appreciate sidecharacters and other things of the game. Now I know so much more, mostly thanks to internet, but back in the days I would post once a month, due to allowance I got, to a TV-chat to share ideas about Aeris-resurrection. Oh there were many. Now I know better, but I still will never accept Tifa getting it on with Cloud.
Wow, pff, this was a long and pointless post. Back to work, I guess.