i first played ffvii when i was idk, 22 or so, which is probably the "wrong" time to play it, but I think I appreciate it more this way. the only real mysticism I have surrounding it was some friends talking about it back in high school or whatever, so I don't really have any love or nostalgia for it. On the other hand though, I think I played from a near purely critical stand, and it's just really great front to back. I generally like final fantasy less when it's so heavily focused on the main protagonist's journey, but cloud is truly attracting and everything really presents itself around cloud so well. I didn't vote for it (primarily because i was focusing on things that were less likely to show up, some because I just don't have a strong personal relationship), but it unquestionably deserves to be here