Oh yeah, one of the results of them wanting it out sooner was when they decided to seal access to resurrecting Aeris. Or was that part of the rumor?

They shouldn't have released it sooner; they shouldn't have rushed anything. I didn't hear about the game until a year after it was out. My piano teacher had it, and he wanted me and two of his other students (I think the female one was named Kelly) to play the main theme in a recital (I got most of the main parts), then my dad got it for me on my bday in 98. I was very skeptical about the game being "the best game ever made," but man did I get hooked fast. Today, I can't decide which is my favorite game: Super Mario All Stars or FFVII.

Hey, wait! If they waited, maybe my piano teacher wouldn't have gotten it in time to arrange the main theme song, then I would still be primarily playing Nintendo, not knowing what I was missing.

Yeah, most of Squaresoft's games, I didn't get until way after it was released. I got Xenogears in 99. I just got FFXI yesterday. I recently want to get PE2. I also just got FFC. But I got FFVIII around the time of its release, and I got FFIX the day of! (November 15)