I wasn't even allowed to have a game system growing up, but my brother suckered my parents into getting him a PSX for Christmas in 1997, and the guy at the store said FF7 was the hot game, so he got that too.

I'd heard about it and it looked cool, but I struggled to play it -- I had never played an RPG before, let alone an FF, and had no idea what was going on. I remember throwing Phoenix Downs at random alive characters and wondering why they didn't do anything! We ended up quitting somewhere around Cosmo Canyon because our characters were so weak and miserable that we couldn't survive random encounters.

We didn't give up on FF though. We got FF8 when it came out, and the second time around proved much easier, now that we were familiar with the basics (potions = heal! fighting on purpose to level up = good!) and took the time to understand the junction system, and so we managed to finish the game, and enjoy the gameplay. We've been hooked ever since, and gone back and played many of the older FFs.

And yes, I went back and did 7 over. Much more fun the 2nd time. And pretty easy, actually.