It was the late 90's. The internet was in its infancy and was not in every single home just yet - it was mostly just used for businesses. There were no major gaming journalist websites, there was no Youtube, Twitch or Twitter. We all got our gaming news and screenshots from gaming magazines such as these ( Nostalgia Warning )
The lead up for the US launch of this game was absolutely insane, and speaking at least personally; It is the most excited about a game I think I had ever been in my life and nothing has come close since then. I was only 15 at the time and this game totally overtook all my thoughts and imagination. I had never even played a FF game before, and I didn't even like RPGs, yet I would spend hours reading, and re-reading all the articles from all the gaming magazines I had, inspecting all the screenshots and being absolutely blown away at the visual fidelity I was witnessing, I spent multiple days/hours with my Sony Discman listening to music and drawing the same artwork that was in all the mags - It was literally a genre and generation defining game.
But that's not even getting to the biggest part of FF7's pre-release hype; which was this little guy right here.
That's right, the Final Fantasy 7 demo disk that came with "Tobal No.1", and a few months later inside a copy of the "Playstation Underground" gaming magazine that always came with demo disks of upcoming games.
I played this short demo of the introductory half hour (If you really dilly dallyed) over, and over, and over, and over. To this day I have never played a demo nearly as much as I played this one - it really isn't even close. I wanted to just soak in and absorb every single facet of this game that I could. When the full game finally launched in September of 97 and I could progress past the initial Reactor bombing, it was like setting off into the great unknown, and when all was said and done even all these years later, it remains one of THE pillars of my gaming experiences.
Other members of OldEra; feel free chime in with your experiences of the late 90's gaming journalism and how much hype you had waiting for this game to finally release and take over the world.
The lead up for the US launch of this game was absolutely insane, and speaking at least personally; It is the most excited about a game I think I had ever been in my life and nothing has come close since then. I was only 15 at the time and this game totally overtook all my thoughts and imagination. I had never even played a FF game before, and I didn't even like RPGs, yet I would spend hours reading, and re-reading all the articles from all the gaming magazines I had, inspecting all the screenshots and being absolutely blown away at the visual fidelity I was witnessing, I spent multiple days/hours with my Sony Discman listening to music and drawing the same artwork that was in all the mags - It was literally a genre and generation defining game.
But that's not even getting to the biggest part of FF7's pre-release hype; which was this little guy right here.
That's right, the Final Fantasy 7 demo disk that came with "Tobal No.1", and a few months later inside a copy of the "Playstation Underground" gaming magazine that always came with demo disks of upcoming games.
I played this short demo of the introductory half hour (If you really dilly dallyed) over, and over, and over, and over. To this day I have never played a demo nearly as much as I played this one - it really isn't even close. I wanted to just soak in and absorb every single facet of this game that I could. When the full game finally launched in September of 97 and I could progress past the initial Reactor bombing, it was like setting off into the great unknown, and when all was said and done even all these years later, it remains one of THE pillars of my gaming experiences.
Other members of OldEra; feel free chime in with your experiences of the late 90's gaming journalism and how much hype you had waiting for this game to finally release and take over the world.
