That`s funny; I just finished my first-ever complete playthrough of FFVII the other day.  It took about 46 hours.

What a waste of time...

I agree somewhat, when you get the Highwind or the best transportation method in FFVII, then you get most of the fun from the world map xD.

But getting freedom to explore in the first CD is pretty good. Though it was a bit disorienting, as the paths that you could take with it were a bit of a twirl.

I don't understand these kinds of logic. If you weren't having fun with the game, why continue with it? You already knew that the outcome would be this, for you.

Trolling isn't nice.

Actually, some of the things I found the most frustrating didn`t occur until late in the game, and by that point I figured I should just follow through and finish it.  There are several people with whom I`ve been unable to discuss the game in its entirety because I had never made it all the way through.  Now I have, and can do so.  Also, I sort of want to play Crisis Core, and felt that I should complete FFVII first.

Those are some good reasons. Most of the times, when I see people saying those kinds of things, the usual kind of replies that I get is "the game sucked from the get go" or "I can't stand the fugliness of the game" and some other things like that. 

May I ask what was that frustrated you late in the game?

really are you joking about this. I can never tell with you dtewi :(

that seriously was my favorite part of the game like i said before

I thought the game was good all the way through.

BUT THAT BITCH STOLE THEM!

I am forever annoyed by it.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS - BE AWARE

I don`t have a problem with the Materia system itself, but I don`t like the way it was implemented, specifically with the "ultimate" weapons for each character.  You obtain the best weapon for someone, but if you want to grow Materia you can`t even use it.  Stupid.  The necessity of chocobo breeding/racing in order to obtain some of the strongest Materia was also frustrating, which resulted in my skipping out on getting them.  I didn`t think the big revelation about Cloud`s past fit in very well with the early parts of the game; he seemed too unfocused as a character.  I also didn`t like the way his relationship with Tifa was portrayed late in the game.  These last two points may have something to do with the shoddy localization, which bothered me far more than the dated graphics.  The final area / boss battle was also underwhelming.

Ahahaha, I still remember my first time through the game and in that part I was like "OMFG, I have to run around just attacking and with no potions? F*** this" xD