> Grew up with weirdly strict parents who thought Video Games Rot Thine Brain
> Am very good student, polite kid, etc
> Turn 12 and beg desperately for own laptop as Xmas present
> Amazingly, parents agree
> Immediately become scallywag, stealing internet from neighbors via Loony Toons tier wiring & instructions from very stoned highschool kid working at local Radio Shack
> Strict Parents have zero idea I have jury rigged a private internet connection
> Next door neighbors never caught me
> Mad with power, I pirate every fucking game I can get my grubby little cursor on, incl FFVII
> Vincent Valentine, being a secret character who looks like a goth vampire, is immediately appealing to my edgelord self
> Accidentally fall ass over teakettle in love with him
> Lament sad fate as the entirety of the fandom is in love with either Sephiroth or Cloud, very little content for Vincent
> Dirge of Cerberus drops
> Lose my goddamn mind
> What cruel fate! God has smiled upon me and blessed me with an entire game starring my unloved fave, but IT IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON A CONSOLE I DO NOT OWN AND HAVE ZERO CHANCE OF PERSUADING MY PARENTS TO ALLOW ME TO BUY
> Spend the next eleven months plotting and scheming and saving up money
> Write half the student body's papers for covert cash
> Eventually manage to order secondhand PS2 & game off eBay and SOMEHOW manage to collect the delivery without my parents noticing
> Have own television (no cable, but VCR) in bedroom
> Play through all of DoC late at night, hiding PS2 behind bookcase/desk all other times
> Play through DoC many, many times despite how godawful it is. No regrets.
Thirteen years later I still love this bastard and am 100% certain that seeing him in the remake will be the death of me.
