[General Discussion] Getting Involved With The RPG Video Game Genre For The First Time.

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.