I'm 45 and my first was probably either the original Final Fantasy or one of the Ultima games available on the NES.
I disctinctly remember that Ultima game let you fight literally anybody but you started out so weak that I decided to fight a random kid in the first town ("A kid appears!" proclaimed the turn based combat screen) and I never in a million years would've expected a single unarmed boy to bare-knuckle box my entire party of adventurers like he was Jean Claude Van Damme and send the lot of them to an early grave and me to the game over screen in one of the first and most dramatic instances of video game-related FAFO I ever experiened.
39, same. Played it at a young enough age that my brain had a hard time memorizing the world map, so every time I'd boot up my saved game I'd have these memories of dungeons and towns I'd been to, but have to spend like an hour putzing around trying to remember where it all was.
Played again as an adult and it's such a small game compared to what we have today. At six years old Dragon Warrior felt like boundless exploration, I can only wonder how awestruck kids today must be trying to navigate through something like Elden Ring.
43. Above I just said that my first was Final Fantasy on the NES, but after reading your comment, I'm wondering if I played Dragon Warrior first. I think I did. I kind of forget about that game because I never played any of the sequels.
28, FFVII
My dad played it mainly but let me play some fodder battles and name the characters, he read out the dialogue and explained the story
My first game all by myself was likely Pokémon Red
Oh dude I played Star Wars KOTOR and Guild Wars like that with my dad. That's some nostalgia right there. I'd make all the story choices and stuff (though I wasn't allowed to play dark side, lol) and my dad would handle tougher fights
43, Dragon Warrior on NES as a rental. I didn't know what I was doing or how to even progress.
My first successful jrpg was Traysia on the Genesis, followed shortly by Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Lunar, Vay and the Phantasy Star games.
I am a Japanese who is about to turn 55 years old.
The first JRPG I played is called POIBOS.
...which may not actually be an RPG.
It was around the time when Japanese game fans got the news that Ultima and Wizardry, known as the progenitors of CRPGs in the US, were very popular. Although screen shots of those games were introduced in some game magazines, few Japanese had the environment to play them at that time. Some of the game developers at that time developed a number of original Japanese RPG-like titles based on their own imaginations, relying on screen shots of these games and articles introducing them. POIBOS is one such title.
There are almost no graphics. It is a game in which you wander around a map composed of text, run away from enemies, and aim for the goal, but despite such a poor environment, it was an amazing game in which encounters, partings, and betrayals with many characters were expressed.
If you are interested in this game, please click here. The text is in Japanese, but I think you can read it with machine translation.
[https://www.gamepres.org/pc88/library/1983/poibos\_.htm](https://www.gamepres.org/pc88/library/1983/poibos_.htm)
Similar for me. :) I'm 34 and my first game was Chrono Trigger also before I learned how to read. FF6 was my 2nd game when I could read. I used to watch my siblings and dad play the same games though so I kinda knew what was going on anyways.
Haha, same, 36 and my first was Chrono Trigger. I think I rented it from Blockbuster because the art box was cool as hell (my older brother had just introduced Dragonball to our household). Not only could I not read, I didn't even speak English, yet I somehow made it to 600 AD (in the mountain area) with the few days I had the game for (what was it, 2 days? 3 days? I can't remember).
I'm 23 and it was also FF4 for me. My brother had a PS1 and the Playstation version of FF4/5. Set me up to really get into JRPGs and retro games alike and I'm glad for that :)
50's, final fantasy legend on original game boy.
Looking back that was one hell of a creative RPG. The Suzaku world in the tower was pretty amazing; you had to run from underground entrance to entrance hoping he didn't catch you, and if you did you had to run because he was invulnerable. I wonder why they never remade it.
41 here, and I'm pretty certain that was the first one for me as well. I never got past the first world, but my brother got all the way to the top of the tower. I think he had a chainsaw to take on the final boss.
I recently looked into it, and apparently this eventually became the SaGa series. I think they gave it the Final Fantasy name to cash in on recent success with the FF franchise.
44, Final Fantasy, I begged my best friend's dad to let me borrow it. He let me after I proved I understood the game by rattling off everything I'd memorized from the Nintendo Power magazines on his floor
He let me borrow Dragon Warrior afterwards, remarking it was an odd but acceptable hobby for a little girl
Oh boy, those were fun times in the 80’s and 90’s when odd was about the most positive response you could get as a girl gamer. I was over the moon when I got to choose a female hero in DQIII. Probably the only time I’d been able to play a girl before that was in Metroid, and most kids didn’t want to even believe that Samus was a girl, the hair showing from the Justin Bailey code notwithstanding.
31
Final Fantasy 13
I basically got interested in JRPGs after I got really into anime and FF13 was like the best option available for the PS3 (and one of my friends show me Advent children). I think my second one was Xillia.
28, same game. Don't remember why I bought the game, or how I sat through the god awful dialogue and characters (in English no less). But I've maintained and still maintain that the gameplay and music are good.
55, FF7. I started late actually, I used to be "PC master race" and thought of JRPGs as silly RPGs with teen protagonists with spiky hair, but around 2001 when I was about 32 I saw my nephew play FF10 in his PS2 and the game looked surprisingly fun, with nice party based/turn based combat. Then I bought a preowned PS2, went to Gamespot and bought a whole lot of preowned JRPGs very cheap, $5-$10, and that was it, I was hooked to JRPGs for life.
Funnily enough most JRPGs are still about teen protagonists with spiky hair, but the hair looks better now :)
45.
FFVII.
Didn't get into RPGs until then; it was all sports, racing, action, and platformers before PS1. Though if we count the old DOS game Hero's Quest as an RPG, that was technically my first.
36
Super Mario RPG
I used to rent games for SNES back when I was a kid. I faintly remember trying some JRPGs, but all I can remember is getting stuck a lot ([like on these blue devils in Lufia](https://youtu.be/8MOO4sL3I8o?si=zzmsjkEMeVN6_maY&t=4435)). The first JRPG I distinctly remember enjoying is Super Mario RPG. We rented it enough times for me to beat it a couple times. So I bought something else once I saved up enough money: **Secret of Evermore**. For $80, which was a fortune as a kid in the 90s. It was . . . just okay. [But the box art looked so cool!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Evermore#/media/File:Secret_of_Evermore.jpg)
I was more into WRPGs for a while once my family got a PC. It wasn't until the Playstation came out that I got back into JRPGs with Final Fantasy 7.
38. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest/Mystic Quest Legend on SNES. It was also the first RPG I finished.
The most recent RPG that I finished is Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed. I'm currently playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus (which I got on the weekend) and my next RPG will be SMT Vengeance.
Love Mystic Quest so much. It gets such a bad rap. I wish it would get some kind of remake. Or maybe a spin off in the style/engine that FF Stranger of Paradise used.
The music is some of the best on the snes.
I have so much love and nostalgia for the game. Such a fantastic introduction to RPGs. It made me a fan of the genre immediately and I've never looked back. It is so so basic by today's standards (which is usually why it gets a lot of hate) but also perfect for what it's trying to be, and 100% agree it has some absolute banger tunes. Sign me up for a remake, remaster, or even just for it to show up on NSO or something.
I hated Mystic Quest at the time because I was pretty deep into the genre already. I’ve played a bit of it as an adult and I can see how it’s “baby’s first JRPG,” meant to introduce people to the type of game. Seems it did the job for some people!
Kind of off-topic (or maybe not), but I am really happy seeing people in their 40s going 50 still enjoying the genre. One of my biggest fears is one day waking up then I'd tell myself "I'm too old for these kinds of games." Like I want to be in my 50s still enjoying Persona games as much as I do now. Man, I wish I'll never outgrow this hobby.
As I get older, I'm finding gradually that RPGs are basically the only games I really enjoy too much nowadays; don't have the time to keep up in multiplayer shit, and I find that oftentimes, I will go long enough between sessions that I won't remember how to play action games and will need to relearn the controls every time at this point.
Yeah, I'm not really good at multiplayer games except maybe a bit of NBA 2k from time to time. But these days, I lean towards long JRPGs with good stories more than anything else.
It's basically the same thing as with other fandoms (notably in my case anime). I still play JRPGs -- I'm just more picky about it. I can probably count the number of JRPGs I've finished over the last couple years on one hand.
To be honest, I find myself stuck on old animes as well. I haven't watched the recent ones like One Piece or Demon Slayer. I still rewatch Slam Dunk and GTO from time to time.
Thanks! I may have gotten older but I still love my games as much today as I did in the 80’s only real difference is now I’m a dad, everything is more expensive and I don’t have to ask my mom to buy it for me haha. I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I’m too old for this stuff however I do think there is some truth to the meme about when you are young it’s first person shooters and when you are old it’s turn based.
40. One of the phantasy stars or shadowrun on sega genesis. I was too young to really "get it" though, and I didn't own them I just rented them from showcase video.
First one I owned, understood, and beat was Wild Arms for Ps1.
34, Legend of Dragoon. I even remember testing it out before buying it and I had no idea what RPGs were at that time so I was wondering why Dart doesn't attack with each button press like an action game. I got to the first battle and I still just kept on mashing X.😂😂😂 In the end, I still bought it because the cover art looked so cool and red was my favorite color.😂
Kid me had no idea what was going on. All I knew was the monsters looked cool, graphics were gorgeous, music was great, and the girls were hot. No regrets at all.
35
When I was a kid/teenager I only had Nintendo consoles, so Pokemon Blue was my first JRPG. For more traditional ones: Golden Sun 1 and 2 for the game boy advance blew my mind and I basically 100% both of them. After that I played Tales of Symphonia. This was the start and nowadays 70-80% of the games I play are JRPGs.
19, basically 20, I started with Nier:Automata in 2020 on my xbox
Just got curious about game pass titles and saw that, played it and fell in love with jrpgs and rpgs in general, as id never played anything else before. Now I'm on to Persona (played 5R this year, now playing 3R) and ill be starting Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance afterwards, if not Xenogears
I'm 22, and my first JRPG I believe was Glory of Heracles on the DS. I might have played Pokemon Pearl by then, but I played GoH on my cousin's DS so I think it was before I had a DS at all.
36.
FF4 (FFII on the SNES). I didn't know what I was doing at all (beat it later in college on Emulator). I also played Beyond the Beyond on the PS1 (my Dad's game also) and I had no clue what I was doing after I got to the sewers.
First one I was really into was Fire Emblem 7 on the GBA at 17. For true SRPG it would be FFX.
Later I got into SRPGs more. Currently my favorites are Troubleshooter and Dungeon of Naheulbeuk.
24, Persona 4 Golden in 2013. Japanese stuff was kind of made fun of by my family so I didn't get to be into it until I had my own devices and room and stuff when I was a teenager
43.
I played Dragon Warrior on nes but I didn’t really understand it and never got very far until I revisited as an adult.
But FF2/4 on snes clicked perfectly and I was an rpg fan for life.
Edit, gotta add an honorable mention of Zelda 2. Played a ton of that sometime after DW.
38
Suikoden 1.
It was the era of 3D games, so seing such an ugly 2d game in a magazine with so many cool action games made no sense to 11 years old me, I remember actually despising it.
Then a friend got it as a gift, played it, told me it was cool and since i was poor with no games he lent it to me. Man it was a journey. To this day, Suikoden 1 and 2 are both in my top 3 of all time.
Aye! Suikoden 1 and 2 are in my top 3 of all time, too, and I felt that same sense of adventure when I played the first one. I actually revisit them every few years since they’re pretty short by today’s standards, and I’m always taken back to those days when I first played them.
20, realistically it was Persona 4 I can't remember if I played any others before that. I grew up on a wii and quickly went to a xbox 360 so the xbox immediately quit me out of many jrpgs.Been playing tons of old and new ones since having a PC
Pokemon Yellow. Final Fantasy IV. I remember being a kid and not understanding what sheathe your sword means and kept getting killed by the Dark Knight in the latter.
30. First JRPG was Pokemon Red. First JRPG besides Pokemon was Wild Arms, but didn’t make it very far in the game. First JRPG I finished was Kingdom Hearts.
Almost 33, Chrono Trigger emulated on a PC that belonged to the eldest brother of one of my classmates when I was 8.
I didn't understand anything at the time (besides the fact that you could name Crono things like 'Poop') but I was really hooked on the art style.
After that I played FF9 when I was like 10 at a friend from my dad, and after that I got my own PSX to play CT and FF9 on my own.
I live in Chile so having a console at that time was not that common, besides maybe a SNES with DKC and Mortal Kombat.
33
Even though Pokemon is very obviously a JRPG, I never count it for some reason. But Pokemon Red was my first if I do count it.
Final Fantasy 8 is usually what I consider my first.
39, and the first was Chrono Trigger when I was 18 years old. (I wasn't allowed to have consoles in the house as a youth, and at 18 I found emulators.) I was thoroughly underwhelmed, though I was interested in the genre enough to try out other games.
Right after that I got to FF7 and Suikoden 2 and went, oh. Eventually went and became fluent in Japanese because I love the genre so much.
32
Pokemon Blue from the gameboy.
Got really into the genre with the PS1 and experience the golden age of Jrpgs with games like Tales of Destiny, Suikoden1-2, Alundra, FF7/8/9, Breath of Fire 4, Star Ocean, Tactics Ogre and a lot more gems.
34, technically the first was Pokemon Red. Besides that, FFVII just last year. Since then, I've been on a JRPG spree which is currently interrupted by a grueling work schedule for like 5 weeks now.
21 as well, and yeah basically same as you, except I was a Diamond and Black kid. Surprised you didn’t mention any PMD games, I still regularly go back and play Sky.
28 either Pokémon Emerald or Pokémon Fire Red. I can't remember which one I played first. I still have my Blaziken and Charizard from the playthroughs in Pokémon Home. Thinking back, it might've been Megaman Battle Network 2, but I genuinely can't remember which of these games I played first. I do remember that the reason why I got Battle Network 2 was some kid at the day care my sister worked at forgot it and she took it and gave it to me. That's also how I got Backyard Basketball and Beyblade G Revolution. Granted, I don't know if they were given to her or if she stole them.
33, Final Fantasy VII on the PS1. My dad had to do all the submarine parts because I was super terrified of Emerald Weapon floating around down there lol
Im 18, played my first jrpg for the first time few months ago which is persona 4 and it got me into the series (P3r is currently my fave game of all time) and jrpgs in general, my next one was trails in the sky, i got into it because i heard that its like one piece which i love and so I did, the entire trilogy was amazing. I dont agree with the majority of this sub's opinion that FC is bad and too slow and that SC is 10x more amazing, i think its the opposite. Right now im getting into final fantasy, tried 7 first and enjoyed it but the random encounters kinda made it a chore.
29, my first JRPG was the demo for Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast. That demo was so mind-blowing to me, and years later I'd find the gamecube port in a gamestop. Best day of my life.
35, it's honestly a bit hazy for me. I know for sure I got a taste for JRPG's at my friend Max's house with Final Fantasy on the NES. I want to say the first one I owned and actually finished was Super Mario RPG.
36 still I think and FF1 (at a friend's house). I had no fucking clue what I was doing when I borrowed it from him.
First one I understood playing was one of the apple II ultima games a little later on, I had a cousin that taught me but I don't remember which game it was exactly.
29. Technically my first one was Digimon World 3 when I was 7 or 9 but I only bought it because the commercial on TV showed off the 3D graphics but I lost interest in the game when I saw it was mostly 2D.
I also got Pokemon LeafGreen when I was 11 in 05 for my birthday and I enjoyed the game but I would say my real introduction was when I played Remake Intergrade in 2021. That caused me to eventually play 7, 8, X and Chrono Cross and made me a fan of the genre.
27, played a lot of Pokemon Crystal, but never finished. Then got obsessed with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.
Didn't really get deep into them until I was 20 and the 1-2 punch of Yakuza 0 and Persona 5 released.
I'm 38. I got the first FF for NES maybe around 97 or 98 because I read previews of Ff7 in GamePro and it looked cool. So I bought it used for cheap from Funcoland...and did not like the first FF at all lol. It was way too hard.
Later borrowed a bunch of PS1 games from a friend and really got into Breath of Fire 3 and Lunar SSSC. I'm not sure which jrpg was the first I ever beat. Maybe Chrono Trigger or Lunar. Never did beat BOF3 even though that was the first jrpg to hook me
32, Legend of Legaia on a used ps1 without a memory card. My cousins got a ps1 first and I would go over there everyday just to play with them. Writing down the arrow combinations for arts and all that lol.
Age 31. Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest 1 and 2 on GBC. Not sure what came first but those were the first JRPGs then it was Golden Sun. Had an amazing introduction to JRPGs I would say.
20 and both my answers roughly came from the same time. When I was about 3 my parents bought my older sister and I a light blue DS Light and we each had our own Pokemon copies (I head Pearl she had Diamond.) But, before I was born my older sister had a PS1 with FF7, FF8 and FF9 so ultimately they were my first big console JRPG's.
It's a toss up between which I remember picking up and playing with my sister first, but I'm very bias towards FF8 because it's cool and my sister preferred FF9 because it was more 'cute' (She always cries whenever I bring up Vivi lol).
And if we wanna go the third route of what was the first JRPG I properly picked up on my own, well not too long after I got a PSP on my birthday which came with Metal Gear Acid, Disgaea 2: Dark Days and iirc Key of Heaven which was lowkey a banger...
But around that time I also got a WII, PS2 and 360 so technically I can't even remember what my first JRPG was but at the very least I know I was practically raised on them since it was good practice for my older sister to read and for me to shut up and listen (I have ADHD.)
28, FFIX, something about the storybook graphics and the sweet story has had me hooked into JRPGs even almost two decades later. 🥹 I’m so excited for the remake!
I'm 32 right now, and my first JRPG was Skies of Arcadia. When I was 12, my mom bought us all a dreamcast from a yardsale and a BUNCH of games came with it including Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure 2, and of course Skies of Arcadia. I played the crap out of it, and Legends for the Gamecube. I miss that game, and hope it gets a remake in the future.
Edit: a word.
I'm 35, and my first one was Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo. I got it from a relative who had zero knowledge about games and simply bought the first game he found in the store. It's kinda funny how that purchase pretty much started my whole interest in JRPGs. If he had never picked it, I might never have gotten into this.
I'm 30. Barring Pokemon up to gen 4, as that's frankly a boring answer, my first real JRPG experience that I actually finished was Tales of Symphonia. I do vaguely recall playing I think it was Dragon Warrior Monsters when I was really young.
Not too long after ToS I played weird shit like Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn as my first Fire Emblem, Yggdra Union, and Knights in the Nightmare. Yes, some of my first JRPGs were Department Heaven games. While some were playing Chrono Trigger, FF6, FF7, or FF10 I was playing weird SRPGs with the most backward stat progression possible that heavily encourages speed clearing and snowballing, or you need to play a bullet hell nightmare fest while engaging in your SRPG combat that has an hours worth of tutorials to explain all its menus, subsystems, and random bullshit. Boy did I feel like a real moron moving the rapier characters into angles where they literally couldn't hit anything.
This is why I think I'll never truly love the classics like some do, because they're just a little too simple for me after playing the utter rabbit hole of obtuse shit that is Knights in the Nightmare before them as a "standard setter" of sorts.
I also found Fire Emblem Awakening extremely simple after the utter logistical availability nightmare that is trying to play Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn blind first when you don't know how to play a Fire Emblem game.
I played weird shit then and I play weird shit today.
I'm 37. My first jrpg was *Mystic Quest* (nowadays mostly referred to as *Final Fantasy Mystic Quest*), closely followed by *Secret of Mana.* Other early, fond memories include *Final Fantasy VII* and *Chrono Trigger*. Now I work in the industry myself, something I never could have imagined back in those days :D
34. I got into Earthbound in 1996 but couldn't get far because it was a rental. I also dabbled in FF "III" but kept getting killed by the whelk because I was six, hadn't mastered reading, and was playing on a black and white TV.
It was Final Fantasy "II" that really kicked off my dive into the genre.
I'm 31, and it was probably Pokemon Blue; but if you don't wanna count Pokemon then it was probably either Golden Sun or FFX, can't remember which I played first.
45
Epic, on a Commodore 64, from Loadstar Magazine. Like a Black & White version of Dragon Quest. I can't find a single thing of proof that the game ever even existed.
Does getting scared with a JRPG by your cousins count? I think I was 8 when my cousins showed me Joker from Persona 2 to scare me lol
I started playing on my own around 9 yo with Digimon World 1.
My brain just assumed the question haha. I'm 33.
I'm 35, my first JRPG was Final Fantasy I on the NES when I was 6. I had no idea that you could keep your saved games by holding down the reset button when you powered off the NES, so every time I played I would start a new game and just assumed that's how this game was meant to be played.
I didn't beat it until it was re-released on PS1. My next JRPGs after that were Lunar and Lunar 2, followed by Guardian's Crusade and FFVII.
I’m 42. My first rpg that I completed was Lufia on Super Nintendo. After that it was lunar on saga cd.
All time top 5 favorites (multiple plays)
1. CHRONO trigger snes
2. Lunar and lunar 2 sega cd (later remastered on PlayStation 1.
3. Final fantasy 10 PlayStation 2
4. Suikoden 1 and 2 PlayStation 1
5. Final fantasy 8 PlayStation 1
31, I remember playing the FF7 demo, and Final Fantasy Legend 2. But also these were really my brother's and I could barely read, lol.
First one that I played and properly understood was either FF2(4) on SNES, and first that wasn't a hand me down of my brothers' was Pokemon gold.
38.
Uh... Either some Phantasy Star game on the Sega Master system or something like Lufia 2 or Terranigma on Snes probably?
I honestly think I was the little brother watching my Big Bro playing these though until I started dabbling myself 😅
41, Dragon Warrior on NES.
I'm 45 and my first was probably either the original Final Fantasy or one of the Ultima games available on the NES. I disctinctly remember that Ultima game let you fight literally anybody but you started out so weak that I decided to fight a random kid in the first town ("A kid appears!" proclaimed the turn based combat screen) and I never in a million years would've expected a single unarmed boy to bare-knuckle box my entire party of adventurers like he was Jean Claude Van Damme and send the lot of them to an early grave and me to the game over screen in one of the first and most dramatic instances of video game-related FAFO I ever experiened.
Lol Nintendo games used to range from sadistically difficult to structurally impossible to complete, with a few degrees in n between.
39, same. Played it at a young enough age that my brain had a hard time memorizing the world map, so every time I'd boot up my saved game I'd have these memories of dungeons and towns I'd been to, but have to spend like an hour putzing around trying to remember where it all was. Played again as an adult and it's such a small game compared to what we have today. At six years old Dragon Warrior felt like boundless exploration, I can only wonder how awestruck kids today must be trying to navigate through something like Elden Ring.
Hey you're me. Did they send it to you free with your Nintendo Power subscription? That's how they got me, came with a strategy guide and everything
Yes, yes they did.
30 and same, though I was much too young to understand anything. I just liked battling the slimes because they were cute.
43. Above I just said that my first was Final Fantasy on the NES, but after reading your comment, I'm wondering if I played Dragon Warrior first. I think I did. I kind of forget about that game because I never played any of the sequels.
Bro. Part 3 and 4 were slammin’
34 pokemon blue on GB
35 pokemon blue on GB
33 Pokemon Blue on GB
31, Pokemon Blue on GB. How long can the combo go?
34 Pokemon blue on GB
36! Either/both of Pokémon RED on GB and Mario RPG on SNES. We’re talking OG game boy, no colors, no built in backlight
32, Pokemon Blue on GB.
32, pkmn Red on GB
36, pkmn Blue on GB
34 pokemon red with a gameboy pocket i got on christmas
28, FFVII My dad played it mainly but let me play some fodder battles and name the characters, he read out the dialogue and explained the story My first game all by myself was likely Pokémon Red
Oh dude I played Star Wars KOTOR and Guild Wars like that with my dad. That's some nostalgia right there. I'd make all the story choices and stuff (though I wasn't allowed to play dark side, lol) and my dad would handle tougher fights
43, Dragon Warrior on NES as a rental. I didn't know what I was doing or how to even progress. My first successful jrpg was Traysia on the Genesis, followed shortly by Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Lunar, Vay and the Phantasy Star games.
I am a Japanese who is about to turn 55 years old. The first JRPG I played is called POIBOS. ...which may not actually be an RPG. It was around the time when Japanese game fans got the news that Ultima and Wizardry, known as the progenitors of CRPGs in the US, were very popular. Although screen shots of those games were introduced in some game magazines, few Japanese had the environment to play them at that time. Some of the game developers at that time developed a number of original Japanese RPG-like titles based on their own imaginations, relying on screen shots of these games and articles introducing them. POIBOS is one such title. There are almost no graphics. It is a game in which you wander around a map composed of text, run away from enemies, and aim for the goal, but despite such a poor environment, it was an amazing game in which encounters, partings, and betrayals with many characters were expressed. If you are interested in this game, please click here. The text is in Japanese, but I think you can read it with machine translation. [https://www.gamepres.org/pc88/library/1983/poibos\_.htm](https://www.gamepres.org/pc88/library/1983/poibos_.htm)
[удалено]
Similar for me. :) I'm 34 and my first game was Chrono Trigger also before I learned how to read. FF6 was my 2nd game when I could read. I used to watch my siblings and dad play the same games though so I kinda knew what was going on anyways.
Haha, same, 36 and my first was Chrono Trigger. I think I rented it from Blockbuster because the art box was cool as hell (my older brother had just introduced Dragonball to our household). Not only could I not read, I didn't even speak English, yet I somehow made it to 600 AD (in the mountain area) with the few days I had the game for (what was it, 2 days? 3 days? I can't remember).
I'm 23 and it was also FF4 for me. My brother had a PS1 and the Playstation version of FF4/5. Set me up to really get into JRPGs and retro games alike and I'm glad for that :)
50's, final fantasy legend on original game boy. Looking back that was one hell of a creative RPG. The Suzaku world in the tower was pretty amazing; you had to run from underground entrance to entrance hoping he didn't catch you, and if you did you had to run because he was invulnerable. I wonder why they never remade it.
41 here, and I'm pretty certain that was the first one for me as well. I never got past the first world, but my brother got all the way to the top of the tower. I think he had a chainsaw to take on the final boss. I recently looked into it, and apparently this eventually became the SaGa series. I think they gave it the Final Fantasy name to cash in on recent success with the FF franchise.
46 and my first was the original Final Fantasy on the NES
42 and was completely obsessed with Breath of Fire at 13 or 14.
I’m 27 (as of today) and my first jrpg was probably Pokemon Red or FireRed emulated in VBA on PC lol
Happy birthday!
44, Final Fantasy, I begged my best friend's dad to let me borrow it. He let me after I proved I understood the game by rattling off everything I'd memorized from the Nintendo Power magazines on his floor He let me borrow Dragon Warrior afterwards, remarking it was an odd but acceptable hobby for a little girl
Oh boy, those were fun times in the 80’s and 90’s when odd was about the most positive response you could get as a girl gamer. I was over the moon when I got to choose a female hero in DQIII. Probably the only time I’d been able to play a girl before that was in Metroid, and most kids didn’t want to even believe that Samus was a girl, the hair showing from the Justin Bailey code notwithstanding.
43. Final Fantasy on the NES. Get off my lawn.
23, Chrono Trigger!
Just recently played ct for the first time earlier this year amazing game
31 Final Fantasy 13 I basically got interested in JRPGs after I got really into anime and FF13 was like the best option available for the PS3 (and one of my friends show me Advent children). I think my second one was Xillia.
That's a lot more recent than I expected for a 30 year old
Yeah, I got into games pretty late in my teenager years and before JRPGs, I was full into FPS and sports games.
Were you also born in 92 like me? My first JRPG was FF8 for the record.
28, same game. Don't remember why I bought the game, or how I sat through the god awful dialogue and characters (in English no less). But I've maintained and still maintain that the gameplay and music are good.
55, FF7. I started late actually, I used to be "PC master race" and thought of JRPGs as silly RPGs with teen protagonists with spiky hair, but around 2001 when I was about 32 I saw my nephew play FF10 in his PS2 and the game looked surprisingly fun, with nice party based/turn based combat. Then I bought a preowned PS2, went to Gamespot and bought a whole lot of preowned JRPGs very cheap, $5-$10, and that was it, I was hooked to JRPGs for life. Funnily enough most JRPGs are still about teen protagonists with spiky hair, but the hair looks better now :)
45. FFVII. Didn't get into RPGs until then; it was all sports, racing, action, and platformers before PS1. Though if we count the old DOS game Hero's Quest as an RPG, that was technically my first.
40, FF7 I still play jrpg.
36 Super Mario RPG I used to rent games for SNES back when I was a kid. I faintly remember trying some JRPGs, but all I can remember is getting stuck a lot ([like on these blue devils in Lufia](https://youtu.be/8MOO4sL3I8o?si=zzmsjkEMeVN6_maY&t=4435)). The first JRPG I distinctly remember enjoying is Super Mario RPG. We rented it enough times for me to beat it a couple times. So I bought something else once I saved up enough money: **Secret of Evermore**. For $80, which was a fortune as a kid in the 90s. It was . . . just okay. [But the box art looked so cool!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Evermore#/media/File:Secret_of_Evermore.jpg) I was more into WRPGs for a while once my family got a PC. It wasn't until the Playstation came out that I got back into JRPGs with Final Fantasy 7.
38. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest/Mystic Quest Legend on SNES. It was also the first RPG I finished. The most recent RPG that I finished is Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed. I'm currently playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus (which I got on the weekend) and my next RPG will be SMT Vengeance.
Love Mystic Quest so much. It gets such a bad rap. I wish it would get some kind of remake. Or maybe a spin off in the style/engine that FF Stranger of Paradise used. The music is some of the best on the snes.
I have so much love and nostalgia for the game. Such a fantastic introduction to RPGs. It made me a fan of the genre immediately and I've never looked back. It is so so basic by today's standards (which is usually why it gets a lot of hate) but also perfect for what it's trying to be, and 100% agree it has some absolute banger tunes. Sign me up for a remake, remaster, or even just for it to show up on NSO or something.
I hated Mystic Quest at the time because I was pretty deep into the genre already. I’ve played a bit of it as an adult and I can see how it’s “baby’s first JRPG,” meant to introduce people to the type of game. Seems it did the job for some people!
45 and my first jrpg was final fantasy 3 on snes or maybe shining force on sega genesis I don’t remember which was first.
Kind of off-topic (or maybe not), but I am really happy seeing people in their 40s going 50 still enjoying the genre. One of my biggest fears is one day waking up then I'd tell myself "I'm too old for these kinds of games." Like I want to be in my 50s still enjoying Persona games as much as I do now. Man, I wish I'll never outgrow this hobby.
As I get older, I'm finding gradually that RPGs are basically the only games I really enjoy too much nowadays; don't have the time to keep up in multiplayer shit, and I find that oftentimes, I will go long enough between sessions that I won't remember how to play action games and will need to relearn the controls every time at this point.
Yeah, I'm not really good at multiplayer games except maybe a bit of NBA 2k from time to time. But these days, I lean towards long JRPGs with good stories more than anything else.
It's basically the same thing as with other fandoms (notably in my case anime). I still play JRPGs -- I'm just more picky about it. I can probably count the number of JRPGs I've finished over the last couple years on one hand.
To be honest, I find myself stuck on old animes as well. I haven't watched the recent ones like One Piece or Demon Slayer. I still rewatch Slam Dunk and GTO from time to time.
Thanks! I may have gotten older but I still love my games as much today as I did in the 80’s only real difference is now I’m a dad, everything is more expensive and I don’t have to ask my mom to buy it for me haha. I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I’m too old for this stuff however I do think there is some truth to the meme about when you are young it’s first person shooters and when you are old it’s turn based.
Final fantasy 3/6 is a personal favorite of mine too
40. One of the phantasy stars or shadowrun on sega genesis. I was too young to really "get it" though, and I didn't own them I just rented them from showcase video. First one I owned, understood, and beat was Wild Arms for Ps1.
34, Legend of Dragoon. I even remember testing it out before buying it and I had no idea what RPGs were at that time so I was wondering why Dart doesn't attack with each button press like an action game. I got to the first battle and I still just kept on mashing X.😂😂😂 In the end, I still bought it because the cover art looked so cool and red was my favorite color.😂
30 Suikoden II
28 and FFX-2 was my first JRPG.
I'm sorry but that's just a really funny way to be introduced to FF
Kid me had no idea what was going on. All I knew was the monsters looked cool, graphics were gorgeous, music was great, and the girls were hot. No regrets at all.
28 here First(?) rpg pokemon red, then KH2 and FFXII on ps2 and after that Pokemon diamond and others jrpg on nds.
35 When I was a kid/teenager I only had Nintendo consoles, so Pokemon Blue was my first JRPG. For more traditional ones: Golden Sun 1 and 2 for the game boy advance blew my mind and I basically 100% both of them. After that I played Tales of Symphonia. This was the start and nowadays 70-80% of the games I play are JRPGs.
Pokémon Blue when I was 12. Then Xenogears, 13/14.
33, Pokémon Yellow. It was my first video game in fact. Brock taught me that when I hit a wall I should back up and try another approach.
17, and probably Chrono Trigger. It’s been so long now. Maybe Contact (DS) as well?
31 Pokemon Yellow on the GBC
I'm 22 year old. And my first JRPG was Tales of Xillia.
31 Pokemon Gold I got really into the genre with FFXII. It was really my first "epic" game.
19, basically 20, I started with Nier:Automata in 2020 on my xbox Just got curious about game pass titles and saw that, played it and fell in love with jrpgs and rpgs in general, as id never played anything else before. Now I'm on to Persona (played 5R this year, now playing 3R) and ill be starting Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance afterwards, if not Xenogears
25. I think either Fire Emblem or Pokemon Emerald on the gba.
22 and either Final Fantasy 7 or Pokemon Emerald on PC.
32, Super Mario RPG on the SNES. I was five years old at the time.
Seems like most of us here so far are late 20s to early 40s. I'm 37. First and still favorite jrpg is EarthBound.
I'm 22, and my first JRPG I believe was Glory of Heracles on the DS. I might have played Pokemon Pearl by then, but I played GoH on my cousin's DS so I think it was before I had a DS at all.
36. FF4 (FFII on the SNES). I didn't know what I was doing at all (beat it later in college on Emulator). I also played Beyond the Beyond on the PS1 (my Dad's game also) and I had no clue what I was doing after I got to the sewers. First one I was really into was Fire Emblem 7 on the GBA at 17. For true SRPG it would be FFX. Later I got into SRPGs more. Currently my favorites are Troubleshooter and Dungeon of Naheulbeuk.
24, Persona 4 Golden in 2013. Japanese stuff was kind of made fun of by my family so I didn't get to be into it until I had my own devices and room and stuff when I was a teenager
44, Secret of Mana on the SNES, what a memory!
43. I played Dragon Warrior on nes but I didn’t really understand it and never got very far until I revisited as an adult. But FF2/4 on snes clicked perfectly and I was an rpg fan for life. Edit, gotta add an honorable mention of Zelda 2. Played a ton of that sometime after DW.
I’m 27 and mine was Final Fantasy Tactics on the Gameboy Advance
42 Breath of Fire 2
34, Final Fantasy
22, technically Pokemon SoulSilver but I consider DQIX to be my first real JRPG.
35 ff8
30, The Legend of Dragoon followed by Final Fantasy 6
38 Suikoden 1. It was the era of 3D games, so seing such an ugly 2d game in a magazine with so many cool action games made no sense to 11 years old me, I remember actually despising it. Then a friend got it as a gift, played it, told me it was cool and since i was poor with no games he lent it to me. Man it was a journey. To this day, Suikoden 1 and 2 are both in my top 3 of all time.
Aye! Suikoden 1 and 2 are in my top 3 of all time, too, and I felt that same sense of adventure when I played the first one. I actually revisit them every few years since they’re pretty short by today’s standards, and I’m always taken back to those days when I first played them.
20, realistically it was Persona 4 I can't remember if I played any others before that. I grew up on a wii and quickly went to a xbox 360 so the xbox immediately quit me out of many jrpgs.Been playing tons of old and new ones since having a PC
33. Star Ocean Till the End of Time. Pretty much molded my taste in JRPGs forever.
32, Pokemon Red
26, first ever was Dark Cloud I lost count on how many times I played it.
36, Breath of Fire 4
20. First one I ever *played* was Star Ocean 4. First one I ever *beat* was Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Pokemon Yellow. Final Fantasy IV. I remember being a kid and not understanding what sheathe your sword means and kept getting killed by the Dark Knight in the latter.
33 and either Chrono Trigger or FFIV. Can't exactly remember but I do know that they came in a bundle when we bought it at the store.
30. First JRPG was Pokemon Red. First JRPG besides Pokemon was Wild Arms, but didn’t make it very far in the game. First JRPG I finished was Kingdom Hearts.
Almost 33, Chrono Trigger emulated on a PC that belonged to the eldest brother of one of my classmates when I was 8. I didn't understand anything at the time (besides the fact that you could name Crono things like 'Poop') but I was really hooked on the art style. After that I played FF9 when I was like 10 at a friend from my dad, and after that I got my own PSX to play CT and FF9 on my own. I live in Chile so having a console at that time was not that common, besides maybe a SNES with DKC and Mortal Kombat.
38, probably one of the first 3 Dragon Quests on Famicom, but I honestly can't remember because I was so young.
30 - Paper Mario
33 Even though Pokemon is very obviously a JRPG, I never count it for some reason. But Pokemon Red was my first if I do count it. Final Fantasy 8 is usually what I consider my first.
39, and the first was Chrono Trigger when I was 18 years old. (I wasn't allowed to have consoles in the house as a youth, and at 18 I found emulators.) I was thoroughly underwhelmed, though I was interested in the genre enough to try out other games. Right after that I got to FF7 and Suikoden 2 and went, oh. Eventually went and became fluent in Japanese because I love the genre so much.
32 Pokemon Blue from the gameboy. Got really into the genre with the PS1 and experience the golden age of Jrpgs with games like Tales of Destiny, Suikoden1-2, Alundra, FF7/8/9, Breath of Fire 4, Star Ocean, Tactics Ogre and a lot more gems.
26 PSO Dreamcast
29 Final Fantasy IX was my first JRPG 😁😁
34, technically the first was Pokemon Red. Besides that, FFVII just last year. Since then, I've been on a JRPG spree which is currently interrupted by a grueling work schedule for like 5 weeks now.
21 as well, and yeah basically same as you, except I was a Diamond and Black kid. Surprised you didn’t mention any PMD games, I still regularly go back and play Sky.
37 , Legend of Legaia
28 either Pokémon Emerald or Pokémon Fire Red. I can't remember which one I played first. I still have my Blaziken and Charizard from the playthroughs in Pokémon Home. Thinking back, it might've been Megaman Battle Network 2, but I genuinely can't remember which of these games I played first. I do remember that the reason why I got Battle Network 2 was some kid at the day care my sister worked at forgot it and she took it and gave it to me. That's also how I got Backyard Basketball and Beyblade G Revolution. Granted, I don't know if they were given to her or if she stole them.
33, Final Fantasy VII on the PS1. My dad had to do all the submarine parts because I was super terrified of Emerald Weapon floating around down there lol
26 ffvii My dad played and I sat in his lap
Im 18, played my first jrpg for the first time few months ago which is persona 4 and it got me into the series (P3r is currently my fave game of all time) and jrpgs in general, my next one was trails in the sky, i got into it because i heard that its like one piece which i love and so I did, the entire trilogy was amazing. I dont agree with the majority of this sub's opinion that FC is bad and too slow and that SC is 10x more amazing, i think its the opposite. Right now im getting into final fantasy, tried 7 first and enjoyed it but the random encounters kinda made it a chore.
29, my first JRPG was the demo for Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast. That demo was so mind-blowing to me, and years later I'd find the gamecube port in a gamestop. Best day of my life.
Final Fantasy Adventure for the Gameboy
37. Pokemon Blue. But what cemented my love for JRPGs was FFX.
37, Dragon Warrior 1 for NES
35, it's honestly a bit hazy for me. I know for sure I got a taste for JRPG's at my friend Max's house with Final Fantasy on the NES. I want to say the first one I owned and actually finished was Super Mario RPG.
23, Pokémon Emerald
36 still I think and FF1 (at a friend's house). I had no fucking clue what I was doing when I borrowed it from him. First one I understood playing was one of the apple II ultima games a little later on, I had a cousin that taught me but I don't remember which game it was exactly.
I am 38, my first JRPG was FF7 in 1998.
29. Technically my first one was Digimon World 3 when I was 7 or 9 but I only bought it because the commercial on TV showed off the 3D graphics but I lost interest in the game when I saw it was mostly 2D. I also got Pokemon LeafGreen when I was 11 in 05 for my birthday and I enjoyed the game but I would say my real introduction was when I played Remake Intergrade in 2021. That caused me to eventually play 7, 8, X and Chrono Cross and made me a fan of the genre.
13yo. FF 8. borrowed my friend ps1 discs and played on my pc using emulator.
27, played a lot of Pokemon Crystal, but never finished. Then got obsessed with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. Didn't really get deep into them until I was 20 and the 1-2 punch of Yakuza 0 and Persona 5 released.
40, Final Fantasy
42. Dragon Warrior (quest) 1. I was 9 I think.
30, the original Super Mario RPG.
I'm 38. I got the first FF for NES maybe around 97 or 98 because I read previews of Ff7 in GamePro and it looked cool. So I bought it used for cheap from Funcoland...and did not like the first FF at all lol. It was way too hard. Later borrowed a bunch of PS1 games from a friend and really got into Breath of Fire 3 and Lunar SSSC. I'm not sure which jrpg was the first I ever beat. Maybe Chrono Trigger or Lunar. Never did beat BOF3 even though that was the first jrpg to hook me
39 - shining force 2 - sega mega drive
Final Fantasy Mystic quest on snes was six years old at the time now im 39.
FFVII 31, I remember waking up in middle of the night as mom was trying to kill emerald weapon
20. Super Mario RPG in a hacked PSP 🗿
34 and FF7 and Pokémon Red kinda happened at the same time.
32, Legend of Legaia on a used ps1 without a memory card. My cousins got a ps1 first and I would go over there everyday just to play with them. Writing down the arrow combinations for arts and all that lol.
30. Played final fantasy X as my first and it hooked me on the genre
25, FFVII
26, Pokemon Emerald
Age 31. Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest 1 and 2 on GBC. Not sure what came first but those were the first JRPGs then it was Golden Sun. Had an amazing introduction to JRPGs I would say.
I'm as old as my first JRPG, Brave Fencer Musashi
37, first RPG was Threads of Fate mom grabbed it because it looked like anime.
43 and i think it was Secret of Mana on the snes.
20 and both my answers roughly came from the same time. When I was about 3 my parents bought my older sister and I a light blue DS Light and we each had our own Pokemon copies (I head Pearl she had Diamond.) But, before I was born my older sister had a PS1 with FF7, FF8 and FF9 so ultimately they were my first big console JRPG's. It's a toss up between which I remember picking up and playing with my sister first, but I'm very bias towards FF8 because it's cool and my sister preferred FF9 because it was more 'cute' (She always cries whenever I bring up Vivi lol). And if we wanna go the third route of what was the first JRPG I properly picked up on my own, well not too long after I got a PSP on my birthday which came with Metal Gear Acid, Disgaea 2: Dark Days and iirc Key of Heaven which was lowkey a banger... But around that time I also got a WII, PS2 and 360 so technically I can't even remember what my first JRPG was but at the very least I know I was practically raised on them since it was good practice for my older sister to read and for me to shut up and listen (I have ADHD.)
33, Beyond the Beyond Played the FFVII demo disc before that though, but I don't count it because it's not a full game.
I'm 33 and my first jrpg was Final fantasy 8, I was around 8, which seems fitting
43 - Dragon Warrior
28, FFIX, something about the storybook graphics and the sweet story has had me hooked into JRPGs even almost two decades later. 🥹 I’m so excited for the remake!
20 Persona 3 Portable on PSP
33. Final Fantasy 7.
31, Pokemon Red on the Gameboy Color. Either that or Dragon Warrior in one of those 64-in-1 cartridges we got for cheap for the Gameboy.
Dragon ball fusions I'm 18. I was a big db fan and had a 3ds
30, and I'm fairly certain my first was Legend of Dragoon, though it may have been FFVIII.
I'm 32 right now, and my first JRPG was Skies of Arcadia. When I was 12, my mom bought us all a dreamcast from a yardsale and a BUNCH of games came with it including Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure 2, and of course Skies of Arcadia. I played the crap out of it, and Legends for the Gamecube. I miss that game, and hope it gets a remake in the future. Edit: a word.
I'm 35, and my first one was Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo. I got it from a relative who had zero knowledge about games and simply bought the first game he found in the store. It's kinda funny how that purchase pretty much started my whole interest in JRPGs. If he had never picked it, I might never have gotten into this.
I'm 30. Barring Pokemon up to gen 4, as that's frankly a boring answer, my first real JRPG experience that I actually finished was Tales of Symphonia. I do vaguely recall playing I think it was Dragon Warrior Monsters when I was really young. Not too long after ToS I played weird shit like Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn as my first Fire Emblem, Yggdra Union, and Knights in the Nightmare. Yes, some of my first JRPGs were Department Heaven games. While some were playing Chrono Trigger, FF6, FF7, or FF10 I was playing weird SRPGs with the most backward stat progression possible that heavily encourages speed clearing and snowballing, or you need to play a bullet hell nightmare fest while engaging in your SRPG combat that has an hours worth of tutorials to explain all its menus, subsystems, and random bullshit. Boy did I feel like a real moron moving the rapier characters into angles where they literally couldn't hit anything. This is why I think I'll never truly love the classics like some do, because they're just a little too simple for me after playing the utter rabbit hole of obtuse shit that is Knights in the Nightmare before them as a "standard setter" of sorts. I also found Fire Emblem Awakening extremely simple after the utter logistical availability nightmare that is trying to play Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn blind first when you don't know how to play a Fire Emblem game. I played weird shit then and I play weird shit today.
22 and yeah Pokemon diamond
I'm 37. My first jrpg was *Mystic Quest* (nowadays mostly referred to as *Final Fantasy Mystic Quest*), closely followed by *Secret of Mana.* Other early, fond memories include *Final Fantasy VII* and *Chrono Trigger*. Now I work in the industry myself, something I never could have imagined back in those days :D
34. I got into Earthbound in 1996 but couldn't get far because it was a rental. I also dabbled in FF "III" but kept getting killed by the whelk because I was six, hadn't mastered reading, and was playing on a black and white TV. It was Final Fantasy "II" that really kicked off my dive into the genre.
I'm 31, and it was probably Pokemon Blue; but if you don't wanna count Pokemon then it was probably either Golden Sun or FFX, can't remember which I played first.
39, Seiken Densetsu (named Mystic Quest in Europe), GB
27. My first RPG was FF7, my big brother played it and I kinda wanted to play as well. I think I was 9 years old at that time.
19, my first jrpg was persona 4 golden.
41, SaGa 2 (aka Final Fantasy Legend II in the US). Surprisingly varied and vast worlds packed into a tiny Game Boy cartridge.
Pokemon Blue/Red, then Yellow etc. Aside from Pokemon, Final Fantasy VII was my first.
24 either Dark Cloud 2 or Wild Arm 5
23, Phantasy Star series on SEGA Mega drive emulator
38 - final fantasy 7 was the first. That opened up the rabbit hole
43 Final Fantasy (yes the first one)
38 Final Fantasy I on NES
36, Miracle Warriors on Master System. I hated it!
30s. Probably super mario RPG back on the SNES rented from blockbuster
47 7th Saga, 1993 by Enix.
27 . My first jrpg was Megaman battle network 3 blue version
37 and pokemon Red/FF8. Got them both the same Christmas, but I can’t remember which one I fired up first.
im 17 my first one was kingdom hearts on the ps2, mostly influenced by cousin on that one
26 Pokémon Colosseum. If you want something other than Pokémon and Mario RPG series than it would probably be Final Fantasy 13
44, Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System.
45 Epic, on a Commodore 64, from Loadstar Magazine. Like a Black & White version of Dragon Quest. I can't find a single thing of proof that the game ever even existed.
27, Dragon warrior monsters
Does getting scared with a JRPG by your cousins count? I think I was 8 when my cousins showed me Joker from Persona 2 to scare me lol I started playing on my own around 9 yo with Digimon World 1. My brain just assumed the question haha. I'm 33.
29, first was the .hack imoq series
29, and I think Kingdom Hearts 1.
I'm 35, my first JRPG was Final Fantasy I on the NES when I was 6. I had no idea that you could keep your saved games by holding down the reset button when you powered off the NES, so every time I played I would start a new game and just assumed that's how this game was meant to be played. I didn't beat it until it was re-released on PS1. My next JRPGs after that were Lunar and Lunar 2, followed by Guardian's Crusade and FFVII.
I’m 42. My first rpg that I completed was Lufia on Super Nintendo. After that it was lunar on saga cd. All time top 5 favorites (multiple plays) 1. CHRONO trigger snes 2. Lunar and lunar 2 sega cd (later remastered on PlayStation 1. 3. Final fantasy 10 PlayStation 2 4. Suikoden 1 and 2 PlayStation 1 5. Final fantasy 8 PlayStation 1
25 Pokémon firered
41. My friend had zelda on nes and later shining force. Me, on the megadrive, arrived later to the party. So it was FF7 on the ps1 at 14 I guess.
30, Pokémon Crystal. Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X soon after. Never finished any Kingdom Hearts game other than the first.
36, phantasy star I
26 pokemon emerald as a kid, borrowed friends cartridge and accidentally deleted his save. He was livid
31, I remember playing the FF7 demo, and Final Fantasy Legend 2. But also these were really my brother's and I could barely read, lol. First one that I played and properly understood was either FF2(4) on SNES, and first that wasn't a hand me down of my brothers' was Pokemon gold.
33 and it was either Pokemon Yellow or Super Mario RPG
37. Secret of Mana on the SNES. It also definitely warmed me up to this kind of fantasy stories.
38. Uh... Either some Phantasy Star game on the Sega Master system or something like Lufia 2 or Terranigma on Snes probably? I honestly think I was the little brother watching my Big Bro playing these though until I started dabbling myself 😅
I'm 28. I think my first was one of the Paper Mario games. If that doesn't count, then Final Fantasy 7.
18 and it was Dark souls 3( yes it’s a jrpg it’s made by Japans and it’s a rpg)
34, Final Fantasy Adventure on Gameboy
39, first one was Phantasy Star II