Here's some links to some answers maybe.

http://forums.ngemu.com/problems-games/65873-ff7-forgotten-city-waterfall-slowdown-crash.html

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/finalfantasy7/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-44800452&pid=130791

Nope, that's for the emulator play. I can't mess around with ISO files since I'm playing it via CD on PS2. But still, tnx for the effort.

what I did is...tedious, but it might work for you...

just keep reloading until it works. I spent quite the time replaying that segment...

All in the hopes that it would just work, which, eventually it did.

I was also playing it on an UN-MODIFIED ps2.

My copy of the game is a "greatest hits" version that is approx. 13 yrs old...

EDIT: ACTUALLY, i'M NOT SURE HOW OLD THIS COPY IS, SINCE i VAGUELY REMEMBER BUYING A DIFFERENT COPY...

If you're playing it on the PS2 try this.

open the tray, press triangle twice after it loads up. It will bring you to the ps1 options. The options should be something like this:

Texture smoothing or mapping: on/off

Fast disc speed: on/off

I haven't used my ps2 for a ps1 game in a while, but I remember getting through some parts BECAUSE I turned these options on, and other places these options froze my game up.

If you haven't ever played with these options on, it makes your ps1 games look and load faster but you have a slight risk of freezing, and by slight, I mean very slight. Hope I helped =)

Well, I did try that and got over the first crash, but then it crashed on the very next sequence. So I tried some more and got all the way to that scene where they repeat Aerith's death and then it crashed. Then I got even past that, but after the scene where they decide to look for Sephiroth it crashes once again and that's it, can't get past that one... Maybe it refuses to work for me cuz my PS2 is modded and I downloaded the game from a torrent. Anyway, I did finally came up with a solution. It's like this: "Fuck it, it's just a game. I'm gonna play Dragon Quest 8 instead..." :D Although, I'll still try that suggestion below.

Ohhh, interesting... I didn't know that... Thanks for the tip. I'm definitely gonna try it. And even if it doesn't work for that particular crash, it's still useful to know. Tnx mate.

Awww man... Thanks a 1000 times. It actually worked. :D It wasn't that simple though cuz the game still kept crashing so I had to take the disc out every time before it crashed and then put it back before certain scenes started. But anyway, I made it through in the end. Now the game crashed when I found a fought Ultimate Weapon for the first time (ok, the second time, the first time is in the story line so I don't count it). But that's ok cuz I'll fight him on disc 3 if nothing else works. So, once more, thank you very much.

Did you notice a slight boost in loading speed and graphics when you turned those 2 options on?

Yeah, loading was slightly better. The graphics still looked same to me though. The only place where they looked better is the beginning menu where you choose new game or load game. That sword in the background looked better. But I do know what you mean, I've seen what these options did to Tomb Raider 2. It's really cool in some games.