Your First RPG

[BlackDS]

Paper Mario
Then Paper Mario: Thousand Year door

I sucked royally at regular RPGs as a kid, and since I could damn near TAS those games, I didn't even realize that Paper Mario was an RPG series.


However, I still suck at RPGs, so thats all the RPGs I've played.

[Yukima]

Sailor Moon: Another Story, for the Super Famicom.

I remember it very clearly - back when I was 12, I was interested in Sailor Moon and anime in general, and the Internet was just getting popular. So I went online all the time that summer just looking for Sailor Moon information. I eventually stumbled upon a rom of a Sailor Moon game that just gotten fan-translated - Another Story. Back then, I had never played video games aside from my cousin's NES games, and I certainly hadn't played an RPG before... and I had never heard of emulation or the pure awesomeness of Japanese games until that moment.

Long story short, this one game is what got me into video gaming in general, retro gaming, SNES gaming, import gaming, and emulation. All in one swoop.

[Reverend Finch]

Phantasy Star IV.

It might not be my exact first, but I don't think I really knew what proper RPGs were until that point.

We had Sega Channel, and I played it on this sort of preview thing where after 30 minutes the game would shut off. (I think the game had not yet been released.) I played that demo over and over again until finally, I got it when it came out. I've played that game through at least a dozen times. Shining Force II holds a special importance as well, but being a Genesis kid, PSIV was the best, hands down.

[Lord_Santa]

Temple of Apshai (Commodore 64)

first JRPG

Phantasy Star II (MegaDrive)

[Wintermute1981]

I am not really sure anymore, but my first RPG was either Faxanadu or Crystalis on the NES.

[Octopod]

Not sure if I ever posted this here nor not. My first console RPG was Dragon Warrior for the NES. I got it for free along with a strategy guide and extra stuff when I subscribed to Nintendo Power when I was 13 or 14. Played the hell out of that game. Some early JRPGs were actually alright.

[Veno]

Final Fantasy IX. It introduced me to the series, and RPGs in general, but it's not my favorite.

[Gamerforlife]

Final Fantasy 6 or 3 if you live in Japan. It was a bizarre experience in terms of gameplay for me. I stuck with it though and the story really sucked me in. Once I got used to the game's rpg gameplay elements, I felt victim to that same addiction many rpg fans are familiar with, power-leveling. I even did one playthrough with the the river trick to see how strong I could get early in the game.

I think I was sort of fascinated by the concept of characters who keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger. I was so used to genres where characters were mostly static and unchanging save for an occasional power up. I had played Zelda and Metroid but this took character upgrading to a whole new level

I think I re-played FF 6 more times than another other rpg I have played since. I think because the rpg style of gameplay was so new to me and also because I had never played a game with such a long and deep story, I became rather obsessed with it. So not only was it my first rpg, but I think it's the one I have logged the most hours into and I have played a lot of rpgs since then. Course, I also had more free time back when I first played FF 6, so there's that too.

I could mention a lot of great rpgs I have played over the years, but the FF series is sort of special to me because of it bringing me into rpgs, which makes it that much more annoying when I see Square do really stupid things like FFX2

[jfe2]

I've really enjoyed all of these posts so far. It's pretty interesting to read everyone's RPG origins!

[JDMThoughts]

I really feel I was spoiled in the sense since the first RPG I ever played was Final Fantasy 7. I never knew what was so special about RPGs but all my friends were about them. I have yet to find another RPG that comes close to FF7. Tactics was close. I went through the Suikodens, Breath of Fire III, Xenogears, and a slew of others. Right now I am working on La Pucelle but it's not like I expected. Still good, not as good as Tactics.