>>264981
I started replaying it. I guess what upset me in my OP (still does, unfortunately) was how experiences that I thought were personal to me when I was a kid were in fact just part of a blob experience millions had, and that destroyed what made something special to me. It's like discovering your gf has been cheating on you with 30 other people.
I want to share some thoughts.
1 - I thought I would've cringed at the FMVs like I do with Toy Story 1 now, but...I found them alright still. That music and scene as you leave Midgar had me pumped. When I saw picrel was when I thought, "Ah, right, that's why this game is still revered."
1 addendum - It's weird how my brains sees the stupid polygonal block hands as "a stylistic choice."
2 - Any other company would've franchised the shit out of Sephiroth and made him a character like Kirby, Sonic, Mario, etc.. I know that happened to some extent, but not to the extent I thought it would/should've. I'm surprised how much of the cult of Sephiroth is just localized to this game.
3 - This one was actually a big reason I didn't want to replay the game. I had in my head that Midgar was a HUGE part of the game, comprising ALL of disc one. That's...that's not true at all. It's like really quick to get out of Midgar if you know wtf you're doing.
3 addendum - That feeling when you finally get out of Midgar and see the world map for the first time though. Man, this game is a master class in slow power scaling.
4 - I got pulled into the 'perfect game save' trap and am wasting a lot of time trying to autistically follow a guide to make sure I don't 'miss' any items/materias/enemy skills. -_- I hate my brain.
4 addendum - I'm also doing Tifa-dating minmaxing. I remember the scene where Tifa took care of Cloud when he was basically a cripple really touching so...I want her to get the guy. But holy shit do I hate Japanese story writing and how it twists you with, "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LIKE THIS CHARACTER" at every 'wrong' non CloudxAeristhsht decision I make. Fuck you :(. Also, I know this is the understatement of the century, but goddam were Tifa's boobs always this huge?
4 addendum addendum - Oh my god do I feel sorry for Tifa replaying this. Like in Kalm during the flashback, I noticed that Tifa was fidgeting the entire time. Like holy shit she really knows that what Cloud is saying isn't right, and is doing him a solid by not saying anything.
5 - Holy fucking shit was I retarded when I played this game as a kid. I must've brute forced through EVERYTHING. I remember grinding a lot to beat even the bosses in Midgar, and now I don't grind at all because I just know how to minmax shit/save limits for bosses/understand how weaknesses work, and actually I think it's even more basic stuff than that (like when I was a kid I ONLY understood the HP stat and thought "Big HP=Big power"). What gets me is I have my old guidebook. I know I read the shit out of it when I was a kid because the damn thing's in tatters. So, what the actual fuck was I doing?! Did I really not apply my brain at ALL and didn't notice the big "HEY, IT'S WEAK TO LIGHTING/HEY, YOU CAN'T JUST SPAM ATTACK HERE"?!
5 addendum - Man, I do not remember ANY of the details of this plot aside from the really, really big stroke points. The loss of things in time is really, REALLY goddam scary.
6 - A friend of mine talks about how much he'd replay FF7 JUST for the Chocobo racing and breeding. So, a big part of what I'm doing is just to get my save to that point for him.
7 - FUCK ME I FORGOT THIS WAS THE ERA OF GAMING WHERE YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE CHARACTERS' NAMES LATER IN THE GAME TO WHATEVER YOU WANT! ALL MY CHARACTERS ARE NAMED AFTER CHESS STUFF BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY AT FIRST. Like haha let's name Aeristhsh "Philidora" after "Philidor" because that's a queen sac game in chess and loololollol Aesisrthsit dies so naming her after a queen sac is funny lolol, BUT NOW I'M HIT WITH MORE AND MORE GUILT WITH EVERY CHARACTER BUILDING SCENE and I know during that scene it's going to hit me like a sack of bricks. Also, I named Tifa "Queen" because of that stupid Knuckles "Da Queen" meme and my absolutely retarded chess naming scheme, which would've been alright but then why did I name Barrett "King" AGHAHG! This is going to come up again when Cloud gets his memories back because I named him "Passant" fuck me I'm so retarded.