Support NeoGAF

[DarkShadowXI]

It's the weekend, GAF. I'm hit with nostalgia on this Friday afternoon and am wondering:

What was your first JRPG or Western RPG? Did more than one pull you into the genre?


Earthbound (SNES)

Mine was Earthbound on the SNES.

I had tried RPGs on the NES and SNES, but I didn't understand them and they were super boring to me. I couldn't play them for more than 5 minutes. I'd watch my friends play, but I wanted to play Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, or anything else, instead lol.

My friend's parents bought Earthbound for him and I was captivated by the giant box it came with, along with the strategy guide. I remember it taking up a ton of space on the shelves at the local K-Mart.

Once I got home to play it, it was just such a treat. I loved how it took place in modern times and the soundtrack was so good. It took me forever to beat it, but I eventually did. It was such an awesome experience and I didn't even realize I was playing an RPG.

Final Fantasy VII (PSX)

I'm including my second RPG, because of the impact it had on the rest of my life. This game...absolutely blew my mind.

I had to get the strategy guide with it. I was insanely hooked on the game at maxed out my characters to level 99. I did absolutely everything you could possibly do in this game. It's still a beloved franchise to me and always will be. I still have my copies of the game and guide.

It's the same thing. I didn't realize I was playing an RPG. The thing that I used to ignore turned into the thing that I couldn't ignore.

It's so weird to me how I didn't like the genre at all, but it eventually grew on me and became my favorite one...by a mile. It's pretty much all I play now and I still can't get enough of them: Final Fantasy, Persona, Tales of Series, Trails of the Sky, Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Pokemon, you name it.

 

[Kupfer]

Was and still is an awesome game

 

[pudel]

Dragon Age: Origins

(yeah, was a bit late to the RPG party )

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Zelda count? Zelda 1 is still goat.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Final Fantasy 1 on NES…something about walking around grinding Ogres outside of the Marsh Cave unlocked something inside of me.

 

[Topher]

Ultima IV

 

[Denton]

First ARPG: Diablo 1996

First RPG: Fallout 1997

First JRPG: Final Fantasy XV (to this day the only JRPG I finished, tried few others but they bored me, FFXV did too with its horrible sidequests, but main story was decent)

 

[jshackles]

I mentioned this in the Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remake OT, but the first "turn based JRPG" I remember playing was the original Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and only because it was sent to me for free from Nintendo Power. I had played other fantasy games that could be considered "role playing" like Deadly Towers, Legacy of the Wizard, Legend of Zelda, and Faxanadu - but Dragon Warrior was what made me an RPG fan (and DQ fan) for life.

Followed up soon after by this GOAT

 

[Robot Carnival]

Sword Of Mana and Live-A-Life on SNES. best of Squaresoft.

 

[TintoConCasera]

What was your first JRPG

Secret of Evermore on the SNES, 1995

Lovely game, although I was way too little to be able to beat it, like 5 or 6 years old or so, don't remember.

What blew me away was to see a game translated to my native language, spanish. Most games back then came in english.

Oh, that and the music. I was surprised to learn many years later that it was composed by Jeremy Soule, most famous for the TES games.
The more you know man.

or Western RPG?

I think my first, proper RPG on the computer might have been KOTOR, but I'm not sure.

I was very cool. Didnt' manage to pull me into the genre but I sure enjoyed my time with that game.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Hmm... it was in the famiclone I had back when I was a child. Either a Dragon Ball Z III: Ressen Jinzouningen with cards or Saint Seiya or maybe even Captain Tsubasa (if you take the soccer match as a battle). In English I think it must have been Secret of Mana which I rented. I then bought Final Fantasy VI. On computer was some indie shareware game, a dungeon crawler launched from DOS with wireframe graphics in color, I will never find it again, I just remember I edited the binary and did some debugging magic til I realized it checked if C:\some_name_i_cant_remember.txt existed as a system hidden file and if so it would let you play the full game.

 

[Saber]

The first actual RPG I played was Dragon Quest Monsters for GBC. That cemented my adoration for DQ.

 

[lughnasadh123]

SNES FF2.

 

[Sooner]

Dragon Warrior

 

[Loomy]

Final Fantasy V

 

[Sethbacca]

Dragon Warrior free from Nintendo Power. Good times.

 

[The_hunter]

Pokemon Red and Blue, and then Kotor.

 

[nikos]

I want to say it was Final Fantasy VII even though I've been gaming since the 80s. I may have encountered some RPGs before it, but I don't remember any and it was the first I actually learned and finished.

 

[Muffdraul]

AD&D: played it with my friends when I was around 11 to 14, middle school. Back when D&D was first blowing up. It was fucking great, nothing beats it.

Tunnels of Doom: My first "video game system" was a TI994A computer, and Tunnels of Doom was basically its one and only "D&D type video game." No story, no dialogue, just a party of 4 characters (you got to choose the class for each, but there were only three classes) exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, collecting treasures. I didn't hate it, there just wasn't much to it. It was what it was.

Final Fantasy IV: I lost all interest in video games once I got into puberty and didn't bother with them all through high school and college. Then after I finished school I ended up buying an SNES because I had to buy something that cost about that much to get my credit kickstarted. I mentioned that to an old buddy, and he said "Oh man, you gotta get this game called Final Fantasy 2, it's awesome, it's just like D&D." I bought it, I played it, I hated it. I thought I'd be creating my own characters and exploring the world freely, accepting and rejecting various quests at will. Basically I imagined a 16-bit 2D single player version of World of Warcraft. When I played FFIV I thought "OK I get what he meant, but this is like D&D in all the wrong ways."

Final Fantasy VI: A couple years later I was using the internet thanks to my job, and in my free time I went to whatever websites I could find. I became a regular on this little video game BBS hosted by some European university (but most of the users from American or Canadian) and we had a pretty cool little community. When FFVI came out, these people would not accept that I didn't want to play it because I hated FFIV, and they literally just badgered me until I gave in and played FFVI. And I loved it. For one thing, I knew what to expect and I was more open to following a narrative. And for another thing, IMO it's just a far better game in general than FFIV.

 

[DarkShadowXI]

I mentioned this in the Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remake OT, but the first "turn based JRPG" I remember playing was the original Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and only because it was sent to me for free from Nintendo Power. I had played other fantasy games that could be considered "role playing" like Deadly Towers, Legacy of the Wizard, Legend of Zelda, and Faxanadu - but Dragon Warrior was what made me an RPG fan (and DQ fan) for life.

Followed up soon after by this GOAT

I forgot that Dragon Warrior was sent out for free! My friend had it and we couldn't figure the game out lol

Little did I know that we passed up on an absolute gem.

 

[Aesius]

Watched my older brother and our neighbor play through Dragon Warrior when I was about 5 years old. Early 90s.

A few years later, maybe 92-93, we got Dragon Warrior III, and by then, I was old enough to actually play through it myself.

My brother and I became huge RPG fans early on. I still enjoy turn-based JRPGs but I definitely lean more towards action-adventure RPGs now.

 

[DavidGzz]

All I played were NBA Jam, Street Fighter 2, etc. So I didnt play an RPG until Beyond the Beyond on PS1. It was amazing to me but got shit reviews. But it was so new to me that I loved it. I did play Castvania and Simon's Quest before that but I don't think they count.

 

[Mayar]

Ultima IV

You can hint about your age in a less obvious way, old man.

Pool of Radiance

 

[kevboard]

Pokémon Yellow

 

[DarkShadowXI]

Ultima IV

My friend's brothers played these games and we were very intimidated by it. They also wouldn't let us play it lol

 

[vodka-bull]

First one that hooked me was Golden Sun on the GBA and Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube.

 

[Kindjal]

Final Fantasy II (IV) on SNES.

 

[Sticks]

Pokemon Yellow probably. I did play a lot of snes roms at the time so Chrono Trigger too obviously. Skies of Arcadia Legends is the last 3D JRPG I really enjoyed.

Western side of things.... Diablo 2, Kotor

 

[KellyNole]

 

[falling into hell]

I'm sure most of you don't even know the game. My first rpg was Legends of Valour for pc. While I played the heck out of it I never finished it lol.

 

[Dacvak]

Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, FF Tactics (if that counts), Golden Sun… Probably a few more.

But I played those games back when I had more patience, and a lower threshold for quality.

But I definitely want to mention that the only two RPGs I've loved in the last decade are Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3. Shoutout to FF15, but I mostly enjoyed that because of the combat.

 

[omegasc]

Phantasy Star on the SEGA Master System. It was pretty big in Brazil due to it being the very first title to be translated by TecToy. Apparently it took their "specialists" three months to beat it.
I had such a great time playing it with my friends that I fell in love with the genre.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Phantasy Star 1&2 on the Sega master system. Probably my first.

 

[Filben]

Fallout 1 on my Windows 95 PC. I was I think 9 years old and was blown away because I only knew Sega Master System 2 and N64 games before that. When I got my first PC with Diablo, Tomb Raider, Commandos and Fallout 1 it was like a completely different world.

Fallout 1's world, lore, and gameplay mechanics got me hooked for months and influenced my game preferences for decades.

 

[Jigsaah]

First RPG is probably original Zelda on NES. If thats not really considered an rpg by today's description I guess my first would have been Final Fantasy VII. Been playing the franchise ever since.

 

[cartman414]

Zelda II.

 

[Mengy]

I'm probably showing my age, but my first RPG was Adventure on the Atari 2600, though its not what is typically known as an RPG today:

My first "true" RPG would probably have been Bards Tale I on the C64:

 

[Topher]

My friend's brothers played these games and we were very intimidated by it. They also wouldn't let us play it lol

I "played it" but I really had no idea what I was doing. lol

 

[calico]

There were sort-of RPGs like Quest for Glory and HeroQuest, but probably FF7 / BG1 were my first more recognisable RPGs. Both amazing, but I definitely think of BG1 as the quintessential RPG, whereas I barely even make that 'RPG' connection when I think of FF7.

 

[Humdinger]

Morrowind, 2001, on the original Xbox. It chugged like hell and looked like crap, but I loved it. It opened my eyes to how immersive a game could be. All that I'd played prior to that had been shooters and platformers - fun enough, but nothing compared to the hundreds of hours I spent in that game.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

Final Fantasy 1 on NES…something about walking around grinding Ogres outside of the Marsh Cave unlocked something inside of me.

Gotta get that 195 gold from them to buy the expensive Silver Sword for 4000! You did great!

 

[JimmyRustler]

I think my first one was FFIX, though I don't think I knew what I was doing back them.

My first real dive into an RPG was Oblivion on the 360.

 

[simpatico]

FF VI(III) on SNES, Shadowgate or Wizardry

 

[Gambit2483]

My first serious RPG?

Then the following year...

After playing these 2 gems I was officially a fan of the genre and never looked back.

 

[lachesis]

Ultima IV was my first RPG - and that's when I was learning BASIC for Apple II....
However I didn't know English, so I couldn't get into it. Bards Tale and all too.

But I got into RPG via Ys on MSX platform in 1987 (Simplest form of battle with no fuss - just ram into enemy half sprite away)

Also Maze of Galius on MSX (1987 as well) - Technically it's a proto-metroidvania game, but has a lot of RPG elements to it.

Obviously 1987 was my big gaming "aha" year with RPGs with action elements - as language played less importance.

 

[Aion002]

Shin Super Robot Wars (which is a tactical jrpg) on Ps1 in 1996.

My mom bought my ps1 from a friend of her that worked with imports from Japan.

When I was a kid I loved robots, so my mom asked for some robot games with the console.

I got Zero Divide (a fighting game) and Shin SRW.

Unfortunately my mom didn't know about memory cards... I remember playing it a lot the first 3 hours, so much that even though I was 9 years old and didn't know a single word in Japanese, I still enjoyed it a lot.

Eventually she bought me a memory card and I was able to make some progress in the game. Unfortunately I never finished it, but I have fond memories of it. I also never played another SRW game, but I did play most SD Gundam Generation games (which are quite similar).

 

[Havoc2049]

Pool of Radiance

^^^This was actually my second RPG on my Commodore 64C.

My first RPG was Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception on my 64C. It was also one of the first times I double dipped and bought it again when I upgraded to an Atari ST.

 

[Mengy]

^^^This was actually my second RPG on my Commodore 64C.

My first RPG was Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception on my 64C. It was also one of the first times I double dipped and bought it again when I upgraded to an Atari ST.

That Battletech game on the C64 was awesome, my brother and I played the crap out of that!

I also had all the AD&D Gold Box games too, man they were so much fun.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I got into RPGs both western and eastern at about the same time. While I had played games like LttP and whatnot, I don't really consider them RPGs. I had also played some NES RPGs but was too young, or didn't get completely into them at that time - I was into Mario, Sonic, etc..

But then I played a demo in the PC Gamer magazine for Daggerfall. This game blew me away in so many respects - I had no idea games could be like this. The demo took place on a modified version of the Isle of Betony - pretty much with all the basic things you might expect to give some illustration of the game. I played that demo soo much until I was able to get a copy and spent hundreds if not thousands of hours. I'll never forget because the full install was 650 megs or so and my HDD was 1 gig only, so after Windows I could pretty much have only Daggerfall installed. And that was okay.

A year or so later maybe, I was at my cousin's house and he was playing a game - I didn't recognize it but became entranced with the gameplay systems. Leveling up a party, choosing magic and skills to equip at will.. the narrative setup. I was stuck in one of the areas I consider to be the least enjoyable in the entire game - Corel Prison desert place - but became immediately infatuated with this game. I had to borrow his Playstation to play this - eventually getting my own and became a huge fan, playing the older titles and the new ones going forward. As well as a fountain of other JRPGs like Chrono Cross, DQ series, Shadow Hearts, etc.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

Can't quite recall if I rented Shining Force or Phantasy Star IV first. Nonetheless I ended up getting both carts and cemented my love for both jrpgs and srpgs.

On the crpg side I had a somewhat rocky start with Thunderscape on my first PC. But luckily that was remedied later when I discovered Daggerfall and Fallout.