Your Origin of Jrpging.

[Spooniest]

How did your journey towards TFF begin? What is your origin when it comes to RPGs?

I first knew what RPGs were by watching the 16 year old kid across the street play the Phantasy Star/Final Fantasy/Ys games. ...I learned what HP were. And that RPGs like beating your ass if you walk past point xy27-43.

Ok, so you? I remember writing a soul song called "Being a Hero" (my family is from poor side of chicago) as a 6 year old child because of the music in Phantasy Star II's final battle inspiring me. I was also in the basement, with a towel wrapped round my neck and a shower rod half (made of aluminum I'm guessing) for a sword.

So go for it, how did you first get interested in this?

[Pete]

Oh well I was a wee lad of 14. I was getting into the PlayStation ports of FFV and VI, and wanted to look up information with my sweet new cable modem. I stumbled upon this little community and for better or worse, haven't left.

I would suppose that my first ever rpg was Landstalker for the Genesis. It was quirky but fun. I appreciated the style and gameplay at a young age. When I was 10, my friend showed me FFVII , and we played the opening sequence together. I was absolutely amazed by it. I later got the pc version. When I was 12, my parents got me a PS1 and FFVIII for Christmas. Life changing nerd moment. Later on, Square announced the FF Anthology, which I made my dad take me to get, which brings me back to that first paragraph

[Unknown Entity]

First JRPG was Final Fantasy VII. Then Final Fantasy VIII. FFVII turned out to be one of the favourites, and I still often go back to playing it.

I don't remember having too many J/RPGs on the PSOne or the PS2. I was much older when I grew to appreciate them much more. I like RPGs in general, but I find some JRPGs to be a bit off putting in terms of length, combat and characters.

[loaf]

If we just talking about Final Fantasy then it would be probably FF8 on a old friend's PS1 and his uncle gave him some games and FF8 was one of them. We thought you could eventually have like 8 players following you lol. We couldn't get far cause we didn't know what to do but then one time I spent the night and actually read the dialog and got to the SeeD exam annnnd I think I got past that but then had to go home and basically wanted more.

Think later that year a friend got FF9 for Christmas and I just remember the characters, visual and such were so great.

(Going to replay FF9 now cause of this)

[nix]

First JRPG was Final Fantasy VII. Then Final Fantasy VIII. FFVII turned out to be one of the favourites, and I still often go back to playing it.

I don't remember having too many J/RPGs on the PSOne or the PS2. I was much older when I grew to appreciate them much more. I like RPGs in general, but I find some JRPGs to be a bit off putting in terms of length, combat and characters.

Yeah same, JRPGS werent a thing over on our shores prior to VII, in fact you would be hard pushed to find any JRPG that was converted to pal prior to FF7. Breath of fire 3 was one that stood out, but that was out after FF7. Now im not including gameboy, im sure there were alot on that, but i only broke out the gameboy when traveling, which was seldom, and id likely only be playing a platformer on it anyway. I'm sure there were some on the SNES/SEGA systems, but they werent a big thing on our shores back then and being a lil nipper without much cash, splashing out on a random game in hopes it was good wouldnt have been done, you would just go with the big name games you knew would be good. I also never bumped into any JRPG's back when renting games was a thing, and i used to rent ALOT, never came across any

(Going to replay FF9 now cause of this)

Sick, i recently replayed FF9 recently on steam, i was worried it would feel slow and clunky and out dated and id stop playing by the first boss, but i hammered through up until the last dungeon stretch, passed Garland. but then took a break to play another game, ill go back to it soon. To this day it holds the best FF battle music, the beats!

[che]

To this day it holds the best FF battle music, the beats!

FF9 is the best everything.

FFVII was my first and brought me here. For better or worse.

[Rocky]

I got my start on videogames and jrpgs from my SNES. Owned both ff4 and ff6, played and beat them both.

Got a ps1, owned and completed ff7, ff8, ff9, fft, and a bunch of other rpgs because thats what i liked to play

My grandparents got that cable modem around the time FFX was getting hyped up and ready to be sent to the states.

What mainly got me posting here on the forums was when tff used to have an IRC chat with a bunch of other ff websites on it, so thats where i met other people from different websites while also making a forum account here so i could talk whenever and not just when people were around in IRC.

[Pete]

I'm still waiting for clan wars to start

[FinalxxSin]

I think it started off with me with FFVIII. I took many years for me to understand the importance of paying attention to tutorials, because jeez did that make life easier once I did. The story and music still today hold up enough for me to go back and play it if I felt like it. I can't say the same thing about all of the other FF mainline games.

[Zargabaath]

I wasn't much of a gamer in my early years, I spent my days outside playing baseball. My first experience with a RPG was Pokemon which then led me to Dragon Warrior Monsters. Then in the early days of AOL and the such I heard of a sequel to Dragon Warrior Monsters and wanted to get that. Well that game turned out to be the combo of Dragon Warrior 1 & 2 for the Gameboy. I was bit confused since gameplay and the Dragon Warrior was different from DWM. And that is how I got involved with them RPGs.

[SuperSabin]

I grew up on the NES and SNES at the same time so I had access to Final Fantasy 1 and 3/6, both which I haven't beat back then because I wasn't very good at videogames back then. I also played Secret of Mana which is another game we owned back in the day (awesome game imo.)

From there I also played other rpgs, I was introduced to chrono trigger which is what my friend had and I learned about even more of them through emulation like Illusion of Gaia, FFV, Secret of Evermore, Ys, Paladin's Quest and much more and that is how I got into JRPGS or RPGs in general.

[LocoColt04]

Am I the only one here that actually started with Final Fantasy I? Oh gosh.

Crystalis was also there for me, intermittently, because my cousins had it but I didn't. Then our old boy Psiko bought and shipped me a copy as a surprise some number of birthdays ago.

[loaf]

Ps2 was the first console I had that had FF titles. Ps1 was at the friend's house.

I was Sonic, Mario, Zelda and Rareware until I discovered Final Fantasy.

[che]

Ps2 was the first console I had that had FF titles. Ps1 was at the friend's house.

I was Sonic, Mario, Zelda and Rareware until I discovered Final Fantasy.

You know nothing, Loaf Snow. Super Mario RPG, Seiken Densetsu! Leisure Suit Larry! AWW YISS

[Alpha]

I guess RPGs must have started for me with Pokémon Red/Blue. I got Red and a Gameboy Pocket for my birthday. My Dad must have had a raise or something because usually mt birthday presents were much worse than this. I remember taking it home and then that night my eldest brother taking a turn, and getting poisoned in Viridian Forest. After the battle, the screen started bleeping black (due to the poison), and I thought he'd broken it. I got so mad lol.

Then I remember, probably two years later (?) being at my best friend's birthday party. He had a PSX and got given Final Fantasy VIII from a mutual friend. I remember being so struck by the quality of the graphics, and the entire concept of a game that was so strongly story-driven. We got very confused playing it though, trying to go through the wrong set of gates at the exit to Balamb Gardens (fuck those gates). I so wanted to see what was on the other side of the gate, that as soon as my brothers and I inherited a PSX from a family friend, I scrimped and saved up to buy FFVIII.

Later, I sold my Gameboy Pocket and Pokémon Red to buy FFIX for $120 NZD, That must be more than most new titles retail for now. I love FFIX, but I still regret selling those two items.

[Taco-Calamitous]

I'm still waiting for clan wars to start

lol. Poor guy's gettin' senile, thinks its 2003 still

Crystalis was also there for me, intermittently, because my cousins had it but I didn't. Then our old boy Psiko bought and shipped me a copy as a surprise some number of birthdays ago.

I LOVED Crystalis! It was my favorite game, back in the day.

I think my first JRPG proper was the original Dragon Quest (called "Dragon Warrior" here in the US), which my bro got with a subscription to Nintendo Power. I didn't actually play a Final Fantasy until '99, when I was in Middle School. That one was FF3j (as opposed to FF3a, which was actually FF6j. Or Simply FF6, now.)

[Spooniest]

Such great stories

[Xanatos]

Pokemon Red/Blue would be my first JRPG, RPG in general, but I always credit FF IX for pulling me into the genre because thanks to IX for the first time I was truly engrossed in story and characters in a video game. I only played IX for a while though after which I had to return the discs to my cousin, I did get FF VIII soon after that which to my surprise was shockingly different, so you could say VIII had its hands in it as well.

[che]

Pokemon Red/Blue would be my first JRPG, RPG in general, but I always credit FF IX for pulling me into the genre because thanks to IX for the first time I was truly engrossed in story and characters in a video game. I only played IX for a while though after which I had to return the discs to my cousin, I did get FF VIII soon after that which to my surprise was shockingly different, so you could say VIII had its hands in it as well.

Hope you played a couple discs before you had to give it back. I think disc2 starts with the wall, and it's such a great story. Not sure if you'd enjoy the ending of FFXIX now or not, but it's quite deeper than the rest of the story.

[Michael Swayne]

FF9 is the best everything.

^ This. So much this!

As for me, it would actually be Final Fantasy IX in terms of JPRG games. My brother's friend came over with his game collection and sitting there among the racing games and hunting games was this large CD case with some beautifully made images. I asked about it, and I was told that it would be a game perfect for me, because of it having a story. At the time, I loved to read. Anyway, after my brother and his friend got done playing Gran Turismo, I was able to pop in Final Fantasy IX, and instantly loved it. The character designs, the music, the story, all of it!

I asked to borrow the game when my brother's friend had to go back home. He let me, and I played all the way through to the end of Disc 1. When I was prompted to switch to Disc 2, I was hit with a crushing blow. The second disc wasn't being read on my PlayStation console! I couldn't move forward in the story! I felt that my life was over! I wanted to die right then and there, and I felt as defeated as Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Quina felt after their battle with Beatrix. When I told my brother's friend about it, he was like, "it's all right, man! I have a save file that is right after that part that would get me back into the story. It wasn't the same, though, because it wasn't the WHOLE story. I mean, you go from Zidane and crew clearly defeated by the Alexandrian General to Steiner and the Princess trying to navigate some town that it always nighttime. How could I be expected to fully enjoy the game after that?

Eventually, I bought the game from my brother's friend, when he was moving away. Best $7 I ever spent, because I was also given his memory card of save files as well. But it wasn't until I was an adult that I bought a fully working game from a website that I am pretty sure does not exist any more. And when I finished it, I then bought other games in the series, and then other games from Square Enix, and then other games from the JRPG genre, etc.

[Rocky]

Ff9 would be the GOAT if every random battle didn't take half an hour with everything being bogged down to a snail's pace

Another minor gripe I have is by disc4 when all the world is opened up, the whole world is covered in mist so it's hard as hell to get around and see much of anything. It did make chocobo travelling unusually comfy though, with the ukulele music and all.

At least it beat ff8 though. Getting Ragnarok near the end of disc 3 = sweet! Not being able to backtrack to anything in disc 4 = lame.....