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Hey, Pokemon Blue's fun, if utterly void of any real redeeming intellectual value, and Sailor Moon: Another Story is neat! Nothing shameful about liking it.

My rise to RPGs was fairly simple and quiet in comparison. Back in the olden days, when I was 7, I got an NES. My earliest games for it included Startropics 1, The Legend of Zelda 1, Crystalis, and Magic of Scheherazade. All but Zelda I had a blast with (the first Zelda, like every one following it, was only mildly entertaining, and I only ever even finished it 10 years later). They piqued my curiousity enough that, when I got a Super NES, I showed interest in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (I was a stupid child) and Secret of Mana (but not too stupid). SoM was fun enough that I kept enough interest in the genre to buy later games for it. In addition, Gameplayers had a little Subscriber's bonus in their magazine consisting of a booklet with detailed information and pictures of Shining Force 1. Now, SF1 has a NEAT cast to it, and I LOVED this little thing--I became an expert on the game, even though I had no Genesis and would play it for the first time a decade later!

The big event, though, came when I was 11. I became frothing-at-the-mouth crazy to obtain Chrono Trigger after I read a review for it in Game Players, where Jeff "Lucky" Lundrigan gave it a 95% and sung its praises like the RPG expert he always was. I got it for Christmas. I played it. I played it again. Again. Again. Again. Again. I suspect I've played and beaten Chrono Trigger more times than I've played all other RPGs put together. Well, maybe not--I've replayed Fallout 2 a shitload, too. But close to it, certainly. Chrono Trigger was the big one--I knew this was the only genre of video game I could ever truly love. And thus was born The RPGenius. Also Ess Tii Eph Yu, later. And after playing 96 RPGs for almost a dozen different game systems released over a period of 20 years, Chrono Trigger is still my favorite RPG of all, and I still consider it the third greatest RPG ever made, just below Suikoden 2 and Grandia 2.

So yes. My story is about as interesting as it is short. You are still ahead, Byuu.

Am I a dork because I still play pokemon?

First encounter was FFIV, FFII back then. Followed promptly by FFIII. Later on was pokemon and FFVII. Then FFVIII and FFV and FFTA. Since then I've played more RPGs than just Final Fantasy, but those are my roots. My favorite would be Tales of Symphonia, followed by FFIX, and then FFV and FFVI

I started RPGs very late in the game. Unlike many who've probably had their start at the NES or SNES era, I began on the PlayStation/N64 generation. I didn't own an NES or SNES at the time, and even if I did have access to them, it'll be playing Contra III and Super Mario Bros.

Can any guess my first RPG? That's right, Final Fantasy VII. At first I was not very intrigued with games that require me to read walls and walls of text. Can't say that I remembered everything vividly, I was still quite young and very ignorant. What really got me into RPGs was the strategy mini-game at Fort Condor. I would play that game hours on end. It was an amazingly simple game, and a great stepping stone for me to appreciate the turn-based strategy-like combat.

From there, I tried out Final Fantasy Tactics. Obviously a perfect fit into my rise to "RPG fandom." This game though filled with the masterful combat and customization, was really what got me thinking deeper about the storyline in RPGs. It became one of my favorites.

Final Fantasy VIII was next, but I didn't like that game so much. It was recommended by my friend because she said that I shared my name with one of the playable characters in there.

From there, my family moved around a lot, which confined me into playing handhelds more often. Pokemon because one of the games that passes much time, but I really dislike the repetitiveness of it. After being situated, I came back to my PlayStation with Final Fantasy IX, a game that I fell in love with almost immediately.


I'd say those are the main games that brought me into RPGs. Obviously, I've played many more, but those seem to be to the main ones that have convinced me to go back and play the NES and SNES RPGs as well.

.>... (I can only say that the Illusionist was my favorite class...)

...

You know, I've recently been embroiled in a discussion over FFTA. Two, actually, on the GameFAQs boards.

Maybe I'll post some of that here, just to spite you for that. xp

Sounds like I'm just an oddball, even in the weird way I found gaming, ha.

My cousin was playing FFIV and was being a total dork with Namingway and named his Edge after myself. Soon afterwards, I began picking th game up when he wasn't around and playing my own little save except I didn't want to be a ninja because I thought purple hair was so gay back then. I still do.

There you have it.

But I was never really picky about genre's, really so this being my first RPG wasn't all that big of a milestone as I'd play any game I could get my hands on back then. The only thing that made it remotely important was that it was my first taste of fantasy that was mroe 'mature' than what I had available at the time. I mean, I was 6 at the time it was released and the idea that some of the good guys could die was more than something I could handle at the time. (I literally bawled at Tellah's death and the entire game became my personal vendetta to smash Golbez's face in. Talk about preteen emotional rollercoaster.)

So yeah. FF IV's all to blame.

@ Sio : SRW Games are the s**t! Thanks for reminding me! I played those suckers when they were in Japanese back on the SNES and loved them ever since. I blame them for making me the mecha nerd that I am now.

If you can convince me that FFTA is in anyway at the level of caliber to FFT... I'll give you all my gold -.-