Playing Final Fantasy 7 for the first time in 1997

It’s time for all of us millennial gamers to feel officially old: today, Final Fantasy 7 turns 24 years old.

In 1997 I was a young girl in middle school when I played Final Fantasy 7 for the first time. After playing Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6, I was giddy with excitement to play the next installment of Final Fantasy on the Playstation.

I remember FF7 came out on a school day, because I was impatient throughout the day for the last bell to ring and for classes to end. After school my mother drove me to the nearby Wal-Mart, we purchased the game, and in the car ride home I immediately tore off the thin plastic from the case and looked inside. I was in awe of not one, but three discs, the backdrop of Sephiroth on the back case, and the artwork of Aerith looking to the airship in the distance.

The opening movie is an unforgettable moment for all FF7 fans. The stars pan into Aerith’s eyes as her face is aglow in the green light of Mako. The camera zooms out to show us the entire city of Midgar, with the music reaching a crescendo as the logo with the ominous meteor falls into the center of the screen. We zoom back into Midgar, to a moving train, where we meet our spikey-blonde protagonist, Cloud, for the first time.

Everyone associates FF7 with a particular moment in their life. For me, middle school was difficult as I was bullied in school and thus suffered from social anxiety. Escaping to the world of Final Fantasy 7 with Cloud and friends took me away from a harsh reality and instead brought me into a place where I was a hero fighting evil forces that, oddly, felt similar to the ones in my own life.

Cloud is an awkward outcast, and in that sense I was able to relate to his desire to fit in and please the people around him (aka, Tifa & co.). Aerith was the heroine that I had always dreamed of, and a role model of someone I wanted to become. The Shinra corporation and its environmental destruction reminded me of social problems within my own world, where cities like LA were covered in a thick haze of smog from the unregulated greed of corporate America.

Oddly, FF7 also helped me find acceptance at school. One day in middle school, a fellow classmate approached me and asked if I was playing FF7. I was so afraid of people then, I thought he talked to me, the awkward shy girl in class, as an elaborate scheme to ridicule and tease me later. Instead, I found that he was an actual fan of FF7 and wanted someone to talk to about it, as it was his first JRPG. In that moment I made one of my first friends in middle school, and it was all thanks to FF7.

It wasn’t just him. A number of my classmates and friends, many of whom were not gamers, had picked up the game and were hooked. Unlike video games in the past, FF7 was heavily promoted on TV and even on everyday products — in fact, I remember choosing Pepsi instead of Coca Cola because of the promotional art on the Pepsi 12 pack box. FF7 TV commercials played during major sports events and primetime TV. FF7, a JRPG, had somehow turned mainstream.

The scenes and memories of FF7 live strongly within me, and even today I can imagine exactly where I was when certain moments occurred. It was a sunny afternoon when I saw Aerith meet her sudden and untimely demise. I was immediately dumbstruck and in denial. That evening I cried and sobbed, asking my brother if Aerith was going to come back like Chrono did in Chrono Trigger. Her permanent death helped teach me to cope with loss, as my grandma passed away only a year later.

Many gamers have similar vignettes of their own adolescence that they can connect to FF7. FF7 was more than just a game for many of us — it was the tale of a lifetime. The characters, the music, the lessons of life, love, death, and rebirth were all tied neatly into one unbelievable story that changed the way we would game forever.

FF7 proved to the world that games were more than just Street Fighter or Mario Brothers. FF7 paved the way for video games to transform into a cinematic medium for telling grandiose stories with unforgettable characters.

I know it’s cliche to say, but FF7 is definitely one of my favorite games (and definitely my favorite FF). For the memories. For the impact it had on my life. For how it changed me into the person I am today.

Thank you FF7! And thank you, Square Enix, for releasing the FF7 Remake and making all of our childhood dreams come true.

What is your first memory of FF7? How has it changed you as a gamer?