Oh boy, I must have been like 8 years old. I saw the game at a relatives house and put it in their Playstation (I only had an original Gameboy back then).
So obviously this was my first JRPG as well and my reading comprehension and general knowledge of games and RPG's was very small.
I wasted all my MP on the easy random encounters and came up to the scorpion boss. And I died. I dont even know if I was bothering to read the dang translation error, but I died when his tale was up.
Naturally I was not very amused when I realized the game was putting me back to the very start. But I tried it once again, I kinda liked the setting and music. And then I died again ... -.-
Thought the game was stupid and probably went on to play Pokemon red edition or Wario World or whatever.
A few month or maybe even more than a year later I saw the game again. And since it felt like an eternity since I last tried it I put it in again.
I died to the scorpion two more times and was convinced the game is utter trash. Probably went on to play FIFA 99 or Spyro or something.
in 2001 we moved to another state and I met a guy that become a good friend at the time. A few months in he was talking about this game he was playing on PC. He thought it was really cool. It was called Final Fantasy VIII. The name itself didnt speak to me, but that high number. I had seen a similarly high number on a game before.
So I called up the household where I used to die to the scorpion boss and asked if they could send me that game with the roman numeral. A few days later I was holding the game in my hands and put the disc in my now very own PS1.
I died to the freaking scorpion. Again. What a piece of shit.
But no. I must have been 11 years old now. I was basically a man. I played through 007 racing, I could beat that piece of shit scorpion mother fucker.
So I did.
And then. The story happened. The escape. Meeting the crew for real. Getting to know Tifa. Planning the next bombing mission. Escaping Shinra during the train ride. Breathing that dirty Midgar air. Battling Air Buster. And finally. Meeting AeriS again. Hearing that music. Heaven.
It felt like I was becoming a part of this world. Talking and getting to know these characters felt so unlike anything else I have ever played (mostly racing, or sports games and some platformers or adventures). I mean these characters had....character. Backstory. Purpose. Emotions. I became attached.
Aaaaand I remembered I promised the game to my stupid ass best friend at the time. Fuck.
Naturally I asked him about EVERYTHING that happened. I remember wishing there being spell animations that take several minutes to play out, because this was so awesome to look at. If only I had known....
I tried to go to his house as often as possible (we switched consoles, he got my PS1 and I got his N64). At home I was stuck with these lame games like Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Super Smash Brothers, or Mario Party 2. I mean who wants to play that trash anyway.
So at some point we switched back and I could finally play again for myself. I learned to love the game and its characters. It quickly became my favorite game and I played IX, VIII and X in quick succession after that. And while I liked all the mentioned FF's, FF7 always stuck out as the one with the best atmosphere, music, world and characters. For me anyway. And my love has only grown for nostalgia reasons.
Stupid ass trash scorpion can suck it though.