#acnj

This is somewhat of a silly post, but I kinda want to talk about the nostalgia aspect of FF7 and FF7 Remake for me.

Mainly with the stuff they say in FF7 Remake.

There’s some sayings and lines that remind me of shit my mom and dad said when I was young. My dad passed away almost four years ago now, so when folks would say those lines, it would make me think of a conversation with him and get that bittersweet feeling.

So here’s some quotes that make me feel bittersweet:

“Keep on truckin’.” - Aerith (My dad said this a lot when I was feeling like I couldn’t finish something)

“Let’s roll.” - Cloud (This is such a dad saying. Whenever we needed to get somewhere - usually as early as possible, you know - he’d say that. He also just said it when he was ready to go.)

“Dilly dally shilly shally.” - Tifa and Aerith in AC (The shilly shally part was new, but in AC when she said this, I was like huh? My mom says dilly dally ALL THE TIME. Always has. So I guess I was surprised because I’d NEVER heard anybody else except her and my grandfather say it.)

“Hoo boy.” - Cloud, Dio, and the Shinra Manager in OG/Cloud in Remake (LOL who didn’t say this in the 90s? I mean, I thought it was hilarious that they kept it in Remake.)

“You good?” - Cloud and everybody else (You good is a staple phrase that covers a variety of situations, and I laugh every time they say it, because they say it just like I’d expect.)

All of Wall Market reminded me SO MUCH of Atlantic City, NJ. If you’ve ever been there, you know what I mean. I can smell Wall Market through the TV.

But what REALLY killed me and makes me replay Chocobo Sam’s quest chain for no reason, is the EN voice actors SOUND like they’re from Northern NJ/NY, and that’s the bulk of the people who travel down to Atlantic City. 

I also had my brother-in-law watch some of this scene and he said “Did somebody from NJ or NY do the localization for this? It sounds like they picked a bunch of people from here to do the voice acting. They have the accent down too well...” 

Now I’m not from North Jersey, so I don’t have that same accent, but most of my college friends were and do have it. 

Atlantic City for locals was just a place you went when you turned 21 and legally could gamble and drink. There’s also this time my parents and grandparents took us there when we were 10, and we all got separated for hours. So I remember walking around with my dad and sister trying to find my mom and grandparents.. and apparently we passed each other multiple times. 

Then there was the time in college I got separated from the rest of the group in AC and when they finally found me, cuz my phone was dead, and I used a pay phone to have my dad stalk my FB for my friend’s phone number, I was sun burnt, tired, and they said it was my version of The Hangover... 

My face always hurts after playing that quest chain from smiling too much.

Okay enough of my stupid ACNJ antics...

I played FF7 20 years ago, and even though I was starting my angsty teen years, my life WAS good. It’s funny how you look back and realize all you had at that point. So any game from that time period - FF7, Xenogears, FF8, etc, brings me back. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to replay those (I wish I could replay Xenogears, but it’s not anywhere at this point without me hoping my old PS3 works). It also may explain why I was scared to play FF7 Remake. 

I was scared it would change too much. I saw the trailers, and I would fight excitement. I think my husband was confused. He knew I was a huge FF fan. I used to play a game in college where somebody would play a FF song and I could name it within the first 5-10 seconds. So he couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want to play it, and I couldn’t explain it. Watching him play a bit piqued my interest, though, and then I stole it from him... and became obsessed.

No, I wasn’t a shipper back then. I enjoyed the romance in FF8, and I enjoyed the tragic romance of Vincent and Lucretcia in FF7, but I was never a heavy shipper. I liked the story at face value. There was much more to it than romance, and I still feel that way. Remake DID make me a shipper - but it was hard not to turn in to one. They absolutely gave us some great scenes to ship with. Heavy sexual tension and watching this gap close between Tifa and Cloud was symbolic for many reasons. It also feels somewhat tragic since we know Cloud isn’t Cloud until much, much later on...