(Spoilers ahoy, though if you don't know what happens in FFVII, you've been living under a rock for the last decade.)

Yesterday i finally wiped away the inch thick layer of dust from the top of my PSP and decided to put it to some use.

I downgraded and played around with various custom firmwares before finally settling down with the standard game emulation fare.

My first stop was, of course, PSX games.

See, i've never owned a Playstation in my life. Unless of course you count the PSP. I don't though.

Anywho, due to never owning a Playstation, i've found my self missing out on some of the PSX's greatest games: the Final Fantasy series.

Obviously my first stop was FFVII.

Years and years back, i spent a few weeks one summer at my cousins house where i managed to play through all of Disc 1 and part way into Disc 2 (with my cousins help), before never touching a Playstation again (I find the controllers feel horrible in my hands).

Fast forward a few years and my experience with FFVII has coloured the way i view the Final Fantasy series.

I heard people arguing cases for VI, VIII and X. I ignored them all.

Nothing can compare to the gameplay of FFVII, it's dramatic storyline, it's memorable characters.

I became an FFVII fanboy.

The sort of person that denies there were any good Final Fantasy games before or after my quest to save the planet and destroy the guy who killed one of my favourite party members.

The sort of person that ran into the shop on the day Advent Children came out and couldn't decide which DVD cover to get (i went with the Cloud and Sephiroth one if it matters).

Basically, i became one of them fuckers that favours one game and pisses everyone off with their rants on why everything else is inferior.

However, last year i spent some hands on time with FFVI on the GBA round a friends and my FFVII fanaticism took a dent.

FFVI is, quite frankly, awesome.

It has likeable characters, a pretty grand storyline and fantastic graphics.

The best thing about it is, unlike FFVII, it doesn't even need to be remade. It's perfect as it is. No one wants it remade.

It's because of this time spent with FFVI that i decided to download FFVIII and FFIX for playing on my PSP.

Of course, the first game i booted up was FFVII expecting to be hit with a wave of nostalgia and glee that will put a smile on my face, visible from space.

That, unsuprisingly, didn't happen.

Instead, what i was faced with was a fixed camera in each area that sometimes made seeing entrances and exits a bitch to see, not to mention a battle system that confused the fuck out of me when the enemies kept attacking me if i didn't choose a move soon enough.

My experiences with turn based combat in most RPG's has meant that a game like FFVII knocked me for six.

I spent some more time with it, put the combat setting to 'wait' and though i am enjoying my time with the game, but it's certainly not the game i remember it being.

That said, my heart did break when i met with Aeris for the first time and bought a flower from her. The end of Disc 1 is possibly the saddest thing i have come across in all my life playing games and it's obviously the mark of a great game that it still affects me years and years after last playing it.

However, that was probably magnified by the fact that i used Aeris non-stop in my party way back when and got her ultimate equipment and her final limit break, which, come the think of it, was probably my cousin making sure i made the most out of her while i still could.

Still, i find that i want something different from FFVII and have decided to take on board all of pheonix-blood's anti-FFVII, pro-FFVIII rantings and have transferred Disc 1 of FFVIII over to my PSP and am about to give it a play.

I'm hoping for good things from FFVIII and i need a change of scene.

Now that those rose-tinted glasses have fallen from my eyes, Midgar suddenly seems so gray.