I loved the Super Nintendo, but come 10th grade, there would be no denying the events of 7-7-97.

System: I remember going to Funcoland (still called Funcoland, not GameStop, at the time) to trade in my SNES and games for the original PlayStation. Final Fantasy VII was out, and it was not to be denied. In my nerdy teenage life, this was on par with like, a new album by the Beatles. Not only was it a new Squaresoft game, it was a new Final Fantasy, on a new freaking system. It would be mine. Oh yes.

Favorite Games: Final Fantasy VII was definitely up there. I remember dropping a lot of hours on that one, doing all the minigame stuff, breeding Chocobos, getting Knights of the Round, etc. This game was a serious big deal when it came out. CGI cutscenes, totally different mechanic for equipment/magic, really broad and far-reaching storyline. Most of these new ideas have become part & parcel of any new RPG, but FFVII really raised the bar for those games on the PlayStation.

Final Fantasy Tactics was also up there in terms of greatness. Deep, complex, highly replayable. I don’t think I ever did play it again, but I did log about 60-70 hours and enjoy them very much. I remember getting stuck for like a month on one battle, that I eventually beat, but I had to take like three weeks off from the game because I was so pissed off about losing this one battle over and over again.

Mega Man Legends (1 & 2) were both big deviations from the established Mega Man series, and were both very fun. Excellent example of third person game play at its best. All the Mega Man fun of upgrading weapons and firing rockets and laying mines and things, but in a new universe with a really nice aesthetic. I would love a sequel to these games.

MediEvil remains the gold standard for games where you play as a zombie knight fighting against other, evil zombies.

Least Favorite: Man, how many hours did I sink into SaGa Frontier before accepting that it kind of sucked? Many. Many many.

You may also try and convince me that Star Ocean: The Second Story was a good rpg. You would be wrong.

Personal Quirks: I can’t think of anything unusual about my PlayStation in particular, like I can with most of the other systems I owned. It served faithfully throughout high school. Godspeed, good PlayStation.

Next up: the Dreamcast.