Current Events > In 1999, my brothers traded Twisted Metal 2 for Final Fantasy VII. [blogpost]

(+) Yeah! (+)

It might have been 2000, actually.
It was a big deal! My brothers played Twisted Metal 2 nonstop. I could actually tell what was going on and, when my brothers felt like being cool as fuck, they'd let me play it. I was 6 at the time and my parents didn't really understand what ESRB meant lol.
We had gotten home from school, and my parents were away. I remember there was a giant pile of laundry on the floor my mom had dumped in their shared room, and for some reason they roped me into helping them fold it even though it wasn't mine.
We were talking about what we were gonna do when the laundry was done, and I suggested Twisted Metal 2 because I loved watching them play it, even when they didn't let me play.

Suddenly, my middle brother just kinda says, "I have this classmate who says he wants to trade Twisted Metal 2."
"No. What? No. With what?" My oldest brother said.
"He said he'd give us Final Fantasy VII for it."

We had a few demo discs that came in Playstation Underground, that magazine. There were tons of games and trailers on it. Metal Gear Solid, Parasite Eve, Coolboarders 3 (which I have a story about for another topic.) Final Fantasy VII was something that I had literally never heard of, so the idea of trading our most prized game at the time for some random thing I had never heard of was dumb as hell. But I didn't say anything, because I was way too young for them to even consider my opinion on anything.
Now, my middle brother was, and has always been, the smart one. He was a genius as a kid, and he just got hired as a surgeon not too long ago at some hospital up north. So despite not being the oldest of us three, when he said something like, "I think we should do it," my other brother listened.

I remember my brother describing Final Fantasy VII with terms I had literally never heard before. Turn-based? RPG? The fuck?
If it wasn't an action game like the other PS1 games we had, or a platformer like the Genesis games we used to have before my mom tossed the thing out because we wouldn't leave the TV room for days, my six-year-old brain literally couldn't fathom it. I remember being pretty damn salty about that whole conversation by the time we finished up the laundry.

It's 2021 now, and Final Fantasy VII is, easily, my favourite game of all time. It's also my two brothers' favourite game. When the remake came out, the three of us were kinda freaking out about it. My brother, the one who suggested the trade all those years ago, is playing through it now, and listening to them talk about it is bringing back some good memories. The three of us don't live together anymore, and we don't play games together anymore, cause we're all too busy, but I love how they're talking about moments from the original and how it kinda changed the way we view not just games, but narratives as a whole.

idk, I know this a stupid topic but I just love how little things in the past can affect the future. We would probably have never heard of FF7 if it wasn't for my brother's classmate wanting to trade a Japanese RPG for some vehicular combat game.

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Well-written topic. I've never really played FFVII, but empathize with you throughout the post.

Metal_Bug posted...

Well-written topic. I've never really played FFVII, but empathize with you throughout the post.

Yeee ty

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ApherosyLove posted...

We would probably have never heard of FF7 if it wasn't for my brother's classmate wanting to trade a Japanese RPG for some vehicular combat game.

Considering how big it got, I doubt you'd have never heard about it, but I do understand the sentiment you are going for.

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Twisted Metal 2 was my first game on that system and I remember Final Fantasy VII being my second. Good times.

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Wholesome topic. One of the first games I ever really loved was Link To The Past.

My brother and I played it and we got to the final boss, but could never beat it. I was about 7 or 8 at the time. Then one day, I came home to find my brother had traded it to his friend for a pack of cigarettes.

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