Guaranteed gaming press headlines aside, FF7 is important in a lot of ways. It marked the first concerted effort by Square Enix (then Square) to market its long-running role-playing game (RPG) series outside in Japan. FF7 then went on to sell over 11 million copies. It still peppers best game ever lists and it’s a part of gaming history — definitely part of mine.

Final Fantasy VII was the first RPG I’d ever bought, on the first console I owned. I spent over a hundred hours in the game (not rare for the series), beating the optional Ruby and Emerald Weapon bosses, earning Limit Breaks, betting against giant racing birds and doing other things that make no sense unless you’ve played FF7. I got Great Gospel for Aeris, I mastered all my magic materia and bred a golden chocobo. I even got the bro-date with Barret.

The game became an obsession. I have sold and re-purchased FF7 a ridiculous number of times, across decades, platforms and languages. Also, although I didn’t notice it when I was just 13, the game started my fascination with the Japanese language. A decade later, I ended up moving to Japan — eventually living there twice.

While living in North Japan, I picked up the Japanese copy of Final Fantasy VII International, second-hand, in an overzealous bid to improve my kanji reading skills. I slowly played through the game once more, progressing through conversations and battle choices through sheer muscle memory than through incredible, sudden insight into 2,000 exotic characters. Words written in katakana, like ‘materia’ and ‘chocobo’ were freebies.

I later picked up the digital edition on PSN for the PlayStation Portable, which meant I could play (in English!) the entire three-disc game. On. The. Go. My Japanese continued to improve and two years later, I picked up the Japanese download too (2013). I’m not sure why. But it continued.

At that point, I moved back to the UK. I had sold my disc copy of FF7 in English. I guess when university ended, needs must. Meanwhile, Square Enix didn’t stop. To coincide with the news of the PS4’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix announced an iOS version, with level 99 shortcuts, fast-forward and cloud saves. I got that too.

(Don’t buy this, by the way. It is still very expensive, and really isn’t made for touch devices, and there are so many mini-games with unwieldy controls that you really need physical buttons. The game demands buttons.)

Last month, I downloaded the Nintendo Switch version, which uses the same upgraded textures of the PC version, as well as the aforementioned shortcut upgrades found on the iPhone version. It’s also the first time FF7 has ever appeared on a Nintendo console, and is a fantastic way to enjoy a game that is now a retro hit.