Your First JRPG

Joined
Jan 18, 2021
Location
Bristol, UK
When was the first time you experienced the JRPG genre?

For me, it has to be Wonder Boy in Monster Land on an arcade machine back in 1990.

It was very unusual to see an action rpg as a coin up game. I don't think there was anything like that in the arcades. I was unable to complete the game, but I had tremendous fun with it as a child.

Before that, the closest thing I played to rpgs in general was probably the text adventure games on those microcomputers.
 
I guess this is showing my age, but it would be the original Final Fantasy for the Nintendo in 1987. The ironic part is that the game was more of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign than anything else. Many of the tropes gamers correlate with Final Fantasy were not born yet.

 
FF7 was my first experience (my uncle and I {15 years after he did} cut our teeth in arcades, so the longest game that was non-arcade that we played was the Strike series). Hated it to death back then, still strongly detest it today; what an overrated crock of mediocrity.

However, Pokingmen Blue and Silver on the GB was probably my first true foray into the genre, but that was all I played still, until Skies of Arcadia.

PDS stoked a small flame in me for RPGs, so I got it and beat it in 2008 and it absolutely blew me away at how phenomenal it was. Thanks to that, I decided to give JRPGs on consoles, another dedicated, serious chance and that was with (as mentioned above) SoA.

From there, it was on to Grandia 2 (played them back to back in May-June 2010; both took me around a month combined and I had an absolute blast), then nothing until I was sidelined by cancer from work and Uni in early 2011, when I picked up the Lunars for Sega CD; to this day, Eternal Blue is my 5th favourite game of all-time and I adore it to pieces.

Since then, I believe I have played about 15 JRPGs or so from beginning to end (and more that I didn't complete, just browsed at, but still need to play):

- Vay
- Magical School Lunar!
- Evolution 1
- Evolution 2 (though these two are more Rogue-like, they are basically a sub-genre)
- Pier Solar
- Segagaga
- Time Stalkers (like Evolution)
- Phantasy Star
- Phantasy Star II
- Phantasy Star III
- Phantasy Star IV
- Albert Odyssey: The Legend of Eldean
- Ryu ga Gotoku 7

I never replay long games (outside of the 'mues, some RGGs and Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2), but I am seriously considering going back to SoA one more time, as it is arguably the best JRPG I've ever played and Eternal Blue... but I do have EB for the Saturn, so if I replay it, it would be there!
 
Final Fantasy VIII demo from Official PlayStation Magazine back in 1999. I remember being intrigued, though ultimately not fond of, the turn-based battle system, but the giant robot crab chase at the end was quite exciting.
 
Dont really remember. Probably something like Phantasy Star 1, Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness or Secret of Mana. It was the Phantasy Star Series which turned me into a major fan of the genre. Played a lot of JRPGs on the Playstation 1, such as the first Final Fantasy which I enjoyed a lot and also the second one. FF7 was good but I never found it outstanding, FF 8 was fun and I loved the shit out of Grandia. Since then, JRPGs have been my favorite kind of games.
 
Final Fantasy X. Up until then I had only played WRPGs.
 
I think mine was the original Dragon Warrior on NES. I was too young to understand that it was a game in the "JRPG genre", so I didn't really get back to playing more JRPGs until my pre-teen/early teens on Dreamcast and emulators and the like. I don't remember how I came across this info, but I believe Dragon Warrior used to come with Nintendo Power subscriptions, so that's probably how I got the game.

While I like them, I wasn't someone who wanted to go and play everything in the genre, but I've played a decent handful. I suppose some of my favorites are Chrono Trigger, Skies of Arcadia, and Persona 5. I'd like to go through the whole Phantasy Star series at some point, and finally play through the entirety of FFVI.
 
Can’t even remember my first action-RPG, and I don’t even think I ever completed one fully. I know I tried playing the original FFVII when it first came out, but I couldn’t grasp what I was supposed to do and never got past the opening stage. Honestly, my first actual JRPG that I ever finished is probably Yakuza: Like a Dragon. And if you follow the Yakuza thread, you all know the love/hate relationship I have with that game.

We’re estranged now, but I keep hoping to work things out some day.
 
I guess it would be Pokemon Yellow and Gold although I never really considered those to be RPGs. They obviously are, but Pokemon was such a phenomenon and I always had shied away from the genre otherwise, RPGs never clicked with me growing up.

Until I was about 11 or 12 that is - I remember that I came across Mega Man Battle Network on GBA in 2001 or 2002, and only then did I consider myself an RPG fan. That was more of a card based/action RPG but after that I tried Golden Sun which was my first true JRPG experience. Adored that game and its sequel! From there I was a huge fan of the genre and started picking up games I had missed on the Dreamcast - Evolution, Grandia 2 and believe it or not a little game called Shenmue which was obviously recommended as an action RPG, but if it weren't for the prior discoveries I may have never been led to it.

I missed out on most Sony RPGs including Final Fantasy, but explored a lot on GBA, Dreamcast, SNES and Gamecube.

Hard for me to find the time to even consider diving back into a massive RPG but I have a few in my backlog on Switch that I want to take a stab at.
 
Original Final Fantasy 7 in 1997 on the ps1. Was not impressed though. Unfortunately I made my first experience in 3d with Tomb Raider and the Original Resident Evil so I was hocked to more realistic look of these games. The anime look of FF7 was total let down for me. Than the very bad German translation also did not due the story justice. It made the game look more comical. I did not get hooked into the FF7 lore until recently. The FF7 Remake made interested into the whole world of characters. Thanks to the Remake I am fan of the lore now.

The first JRPG I really enjoyed and I love up to this day was FF8. FF8 is next to FF 10 the best Final Fantasy of all times.

Changes are quite high though that 10 could be replaced by the FF6 as my number 2. I am playing it now on the ps3 and I really like it so far. But the jury is still out an that game. I won't rate it until I have reached the credits.
 
It was Final Fantasy VIII on PS1 in 2000 (I was playing it and Shenmue back to back)

I never really played RPG's before. I was mostly a fighting game fan. I was mostly an action game fan. I was mostly into fast paced arcade games. So the idea of a turn based system didn't seem like it would appeal to me and I never bothered. Then everyone at school kept going on and on about Final Fantasy VII before eventually moving onto VIII. My best friends wouldn't shut up about these games. So I finally cracked and I asked for FF VIII for Christmas of 2000 and decided I would finally try my first RPG.

And I kind of fell in love with it. It took a little bit to get my head wrapped around the junction system and what not, but once I did...it just clicked and I fell in love with that game and its story. So that's why I always say FF VIII was my FF VII moment.

Strangely enough, it was actually Shenmue that made me want to crack my RPG virginity because you would always hear that Shenmue was a new type of RPG...so I guess in my mind I thought "play an old RPG and a new RPG back to back and see how they differ"

But Shenmue turned out to be much more than an RPG in hindsight.

But I fell in love with FF VIII none the less and that began my casual dives into RPG's....I'm not hardcore about RPG's but I will play the occasional RPG if it appeals to me.
 
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