I remember the first time I played Mario RPG. I bought the game because at the time, I was subscribed to Nintendo Power and the rave reviews sounded pretty awesome. I think it was the first game I ever stayed up all night, and even into the next day, playing. After moving to Winnipeg, I eagerly awaited the release of the N64 but instead found myself eagerly devouring all the RPGs that I had not yet played on SNES. Earthbound, Secret of Evermore, Illusion of Gaia (didn't get far in this one) Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger. I was hooked.

When I saw FF VII for PS and played a bit of it, I bought a Playstation and played through several of the better games for the system including Xenogears, Wild Arms, and Final Fantasy Tactics.

You should try Final Fantasy 4 as well. You remember that hidden boss in Mario RPG, Culax or whatever his name was? The boss music from that fight is the boss music in FF4. Just a random thing you might not have known.

For once I'm on the side of the people who hate FF8.

Blehhhhhh. Magazines? Orphanages? Draws?

I didn't hate it but I agree. I don't know what the heck they were thinking. In fact, I didn't believe the orphanage thing when I first learned of it and thought there would be some other plot twist to make it better. But then, as Deni said earlier, the space scene occurred and I suddenly realized they were serious about all of it.
Best final battle music of the series though. It really needs an orchestral/techno rendition. And the opening was epic. And at least the CGI was consistent with the other art that time around. It was a huge graphical improvement in every way.

Oh, VIII has some of the best music of the entire series. No doubt. I loved the beginning of this game. The Garden was great, the military concept was fun, but then they let Squall develop as a character, and it all went down hill from there for me. I actually didn't mind the battle system. I was fine with drawing magic and junctioning it to stats. I dug a lot of stuff about VIII, but I just can't get past those twists. They're absolutely heinous.

Kinda hard to like an RPG when the plot sucks lol.

I wonder what the kids these days are being introduced to the genre with. WoW? FFXII?

Oh, wait, it's probably Kingdom Hearts. Kids are growing up on Kingdom Hearts... I feel for them (but it was kinda fun).

By the way, anyone really get into Xenosaga?

Colonel Skills, currently of The Dutchman fame, is madly in love with Xenosaga. God knows why. But he'll explain it to you in a way that doesn't make you hate him.

Turns out he's actually VG.

Wait, that would make you hate him. :(

Oh what the FUCK. That was just uncalled for.

You can PM me if you need any plot elements or anything explained or elaborated upon.

I must say I didn't like the military concept in FF8 because I like medieval stuff more. I did love drawing Ultimas though :)

It seems that way indeed, but I think a bit of that is the nostalgia factor and some of us might be a little jaded when it comes to rpgs now a days.

As for my rpg introduction: I believe the first rpg I experienced was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Awful start, I know. My brothers and I went over to our neighbor's house all the time and I played it there. The game didn't leave much of an impression on me or made me want to start playing games more often, even though we had our own consoles. I usually just watched my bros play games, but one day my younger brother rented FF6 and it was all over from there. After that came Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and EARTHBOUND. Listening to the music from Earthbound still makes me want to cry big bitch tears. ♥

Anyway, the only statement I don't agree with Denicalis about FF8 is drawing magic. What a horribly tedious and potentially broken system that was. FF8 would have been completely awesome if it had been about Laguna and his crew.

I'd recommend Lufia 2 for SNES. This game is often overlooked as it was released at a time when there were far better RPGs littering the market, but this is still a gem worth discovering, IMO.
I find the actual gameplay to be truly great among SNES rpgs, though the story leaves much to be desired and is full of holes. Also, the character development is... non-existent . Still, the puzzles and battles are for the most part fairly challenging and fun with the IP system. There is decent party customization, tons of secrets and the game will give the noggin a lot of exercise on the puzzle solving. For SNES dungeon crawlers and experience grinders, this game is tops.

I have reason to believe you didn't read one post in this entire thread Rainman. Do something to prove me wrong.

Reading through this thread..there is a lot of RPGs that came out back then that I never even knew were RPGs. I started with Super Mario RPG(not sure if I can count Zelda 1). And I didn't really get into it until FF7. After that game, role playing games were all I wanted to buy and all I wanted to talk about. I'm still that way today. 70% of my library is RPGs. My favorite is still Suikoden II and that was the second one I bought after FF7. Too bad..my copy is no longer working.

My first experiences at RPGs were at a friend's house who had all the latest and greatest video games. I sat there and watched him play A Link to the Past. He wouldn't let me play for whatever reason I can't remember but I do know that the opening sequence with the rain and thunderstorm entranced me. I had never seen anything like that before in a video game.

A few years later he had another RPG out, this one was Earthbound. I wanted to play but he told me it was too hard for me. After that, I believe I finally got a SNES, late bloomer, and I rented Final Fantasy II because it looked interesting. I got home, popped it in and I was severely disappointed with it. I kept getting into invisible fights and I didn't like the turn based combat system. I thought it was completely dumb so I promptly returned the game.

Flashforward a bit more and I'm browsing through an EGM and I come across an article on Earthbound. I was entranced by it and really enjoyed the graphics of it. I convinced my mom to get it for me, I was in the eighth grade I believe. Sure it was a bit hard but I certainly enjoyed it.

Thanks to that game I later got into Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III (VI), Link to the Past, Super Mario RPG and many, many others. One of my favorite memories is when I first played Chrono Trigger. I rented it from this start up video rental place called Video Update. They had a ton of video games that Blockbuster didn't have plus their games came with the instruction manuals. I popped in Chrono Trigger, a dust storm was brewing outside, and I started playing. I was enthralled by the music, graphics, story, combat, everything! But I had to turn it off yet, for some reason I didn't know how to save. I was in the overworld and didn't think to look in the menu and select save. I had to return the game shortly after. A fantastic game though, and I borrowed it from a friend years later and played it extensively at my grandma's during the summer while our house was getting remodeled.

I agree with you about that. everything was fine until that whole--"we were here together at an important time of our lives, but we forgot..." WTF?! Talk about contrived. (Although "Max Steel" paid homage to the game's Fisherman's Horizon crash scene--kind of funny...)

Anyway--on topic.

Does "Lord of the Rings" for the SNES count as RPG? If it does, then that and Link to the Past are the two games that got me hooked into the genre. Unfortunately, I didn't finish LotR because it had some weird glitch, but I was hooked. I've played LttP, OoT, Majora's Mask, and Four Sword Adventures, and LttP remains my favorite. I didn't discover Final Fantasy until VII, when it was recommended to me by a friend after I got my PSX.

Now, the weirdest introduction to a game series has to by mine to Suikoden. No referrals, no watching people play, and no reviews. I saw the cover art for the game, picked it up, and thought--"Wow--based on Chinese legend. I'm going to get this." And the rest is history.

I am intrigued by how many people in the thread started with the free Dragon Warrior + Nintendo Power deal. Unfortunately, as the only game I bothered with for NES, given my age, was the given Mario Bros + Duck Hunt package, I had to wait until the SNES period to savour the sweet, sweet fruits of the RPG genre.

It was pretty much a random rental from the local movie place, Jumbo Video. I had already saturated myself with random fighters such as World Heroes 2, Art of Fighting, Street Fighter 2 and such so I wanted to change it up a bit. I think as late as Grade 4 or 5, I got Final Fantasy VI because it had a cute white creature (now known to be a moogle) on the front. The front was simple and elegant, while the back was amply gorgeous.

I remember puzzling over the manual and how long it was. Taking in all that info for the first time, which would eventually become standard rpg fare knowledge one day, was a lot! I brought it over to a friend's place after I thought I understood it and remember saying about how "hard it was to get used to, but how good it was after you get used to it." I happily pressed A on Fight over and over, using Runic whenever magic was cast.

In addition, the rental copy had a save file at the last save point and everyone was maxed out and learned and had everything, but at the time I was confused. Shortly afterwards, the rest is history and I went on a binge, retroactively progressing to Final Fantasy IV. Steadily building and coming across treasures such as SMRPG and Secret of Mana, both of which I admittedly rented a minimum of...5 times each ^_^; Earthbound and Breath of Fire also come to mind.


On a side note:
The interesting part was through rental copies, I had goals to aspire to, since they'd come along with the experiences of everyone who's played them. People would usually have final save points which were mostly good. They'd be stupid sometimes (Earthbound - Ness in Magicant with no other weapon other than the Gutsy Bat ;_; ). They'd be well off most of the time (Secret of Mana - Kakarra Desert, Super Mario RPG - Valentina's Castle). Sometimes they'd be hilarious (Earthbound - Ness Special = PSI Sex Omega!)

The first RPG that I ever played was the original Final Fantasy, when I was about 4 or 5 years old. My parents had a NES and a few games, and one of the games they played a lot of was, actually, FF. They'll never let me forget this because of how protective I am of my save files, but I used to play their save files, get their characters horribly dead/lost/broke, and then save. I even have a vivid memory of "beating the final boss", which was, in all actuality, taking my dad's end of the game save file and beating the boss with his super powered characters.

Prior to getting into RPGs, all I was ever interested in were first-party Nintendo games and PC shooters. I played the original FF on NES at the house of one of my brother's friends around age five, declared it bunk, and went back to Super Mario World.

I played FFVI/III three years later and loved it to death. Earthbound came shortly afterwards. Smash Bros came out and none of my friends knew who Ness was.

Time passes. I discover emulation around age twelve and storm through every Snezz arr pee gee I can find.