The most importan RPG in your life...

[Wolf Kanno]

...that isn't Final Fantasy. Obviously, since this is an FF forum, I imagine FF is pretty special for everyone here on some level, but what other RPG had a profound impact on you as either something personal or just "Holy hell, this is a great game!".

[Depression Moon]

I guess Pokemon. First thing that came to my head and the Pokemon craze was a part of my childhood.

[Elly]

Phantasy Star, PS4 in particular... for me it just did everything right in a genre oversaturated in tired old medieval tropes and settings... it shattered the concept that RPGs had to be wizards and warriors versus dungeons and dragons... later the MegaTen & Persona series did the exact same thing... but, for me it started with Phantasy Star III, i went back and played I & II, and bought IV as soon as it came out...
i went into this thread thinking my answer would be Chrono Trigger, as i have beaten it more than any other game... but, upon reflection, my love of RPGs really took off with Phantasy Star III...

[Forsaken Lover]

Final Fantasy VII and Xenosaga Episode 1. They made me a fan of Japanese media and had an unparalleled influence on what I like in my stories and characters.

[Loony BoB]

Pokémon, for indirect reasons more than anything. I met my girlfriend by watching her draw Pokémon artwork on Twitch.

For just "oh this game is cool" stuff then Skyrim, I suppose.

[Fynn]

Hmmm....

Persona 3, probably, because it showed me games could be all about the human condition

Xenoblade Chronicles, because up until that point I hadn't been so engrossed in a world

The Baldur's Gate series because it's how my wife introduced me to WRPGs.

The Witcher games, because they're legit amazing and I can't even put to words how proud I am of my country for producing such immense quality products.

[Example]

Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2, the reason I was so obsessed with DBZ throughout my teen years.

[Karifean]

None, really. Final Fantasy and Warcraft III were the two games/series that actually had a profound impact on me. Everything else pretty much came from the last three years through visual novels, heh.

[Skyblade]

Golden Sun and The Lost Age had a very significant impact on me. It helped me to break out of a vicious cycle that my mind was locked in, and is one of the single most important parts of my personal growth and maturity.

Fire Emblem Awakening and Persona 3 are both directly related to meeting my girlfriend, so they've also had a very significant impact on my life.

[Del Murder]

Can I say Final Fantasy Legend? It's not a 'real' final fantasy since it is part of the SaGa series. It was the first RPG I ever played and it got me hooked on the genre.

If not, then I will say Secret of Mana, which opened me up to action RPGs which are awesome too.

[Spuuky]

Dragon Quest 1.

[FFNut]

It's either Earthbound, or Breath of Fire II. Both games were the games that took me out of the Square Soft bubble and let me see other great companies making great games too.

[Darth Ganon]

It's between Super Mario RPG and Pokémon Red/Blue, but I'm not sure which.

I rented SMRPG once because it was Mario, but was utterly confused as to what I got myself into. It was the very first RPG ever and I didn't get it at all. Then I ended up buying it for cheap when a local video rental store was closing and finally wrapped my head around the concept.

Then the next year came Pokémon that sparked my interest even more, leading me to get Dragon Warrior 1 & 2 for GBC and Final Fantasy Legends III.

Still, I wouldn't truly hop onto the RPG train until I played Final Fantasy VII (at the CONSTANT urge of a friend) when I was 16. The first two just got me going in the right direction.

[Galuf]

Ffv cos liquid flame made me come here

[Fynn]

Non-FF RPG, Galuf

[Galuf]

Non-FF RPG, Galuf

Ohhh im sorry im blind

uhh pokemon gen 4 alltogether. It, while brief, gave me some friends during school so thankful for that atleast

[WarZidane]

Secret of Mana. It's the first RPG I ever played, and 6-year-old me was impressed despite not understanding the game (what with it being English, a language that would take me another couple of years to learn). Been a fan of RPGs ever since, so I'm glad it introduced me to the genre all the way back then.

[Jinx]

None? I have other games I love, of course, but I don't think any of them are important in how they've affected my life.

[Vyk]

It would probably be the real Dungeons and Dragons. My brothers got me into it when I was 6 years old. What a great way to encourage the use of imagination. Unfortunately they only stuck with it into my early teenage years. So once I became old enough and coherent enough, it was too late. But those are some fond and creative memories

As far as video games, I have a hard time pinning it down. I'd be tempted to say Shining Force was the first RPG video game the really gripped me in any meaningful way. But as simple as it was, it's predecessor did a similar job in captivating me

Shining in the Darkness was just a dungeon crawler. I'd played dungeon crawlers like Swords and Serpents on the NES and stuff. And this was after beating Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. Both of which just felt like games to me at the time. Which is weird, because I played them when they were new and revolutionary. But to me, they were just games that let you save your progress because they were really long

Shining in the Darkness had me attached to the characters and worry about their safety throughout the game. Which wasn't something I was used to in gaming. I had to rescue my father, and the princess, and make sure my friends at the local tavern were okay. It was a charming little game with a lot of personality. And for whatever reason I especially loved the cartoon aspect of the art style. I hadn't played a game like that before. Not a real one anyway. I mean there was Dragon's Lair, which looked pretty and cartoony, but wasn't a real game. It was gorgeous and addictive though. And to have a similar style in a real game was extremely nice in my childhood mind

Took me forever to own the game, but my local video store had both it and Shining Force, and I rented those things every chance I got until the battery save wore out in one of them and eventually acquired both through Electronics Botique mail order service through my parents. And what a glorious day when I could finally play them to the end. Shining in the Darkness was the first game where I stayed up all night to finish it. And is definitely the first game where I felt any sense of accomplishment for beating (I can't remember why I didn't feel that from Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior, as I definitely beat both of those prior. But it may have had to do with those being my brothers' games and Shining being my games, on my console [Sega Genesis/Mega Drive])

[Lyndis Highwind]

Fire Emblem, especially the Blazing Sword. It was a big part of my childhood, and it helped me bond with my older brother which is very important to me.

[The Captain]

Do we consider Link To The Past an RPG or Action/RPG? If so, that would be it. If not, also count me among the Secret Of Mana truthers.


Take care all.

[Pete for President]

Dark Souls cause it is full of life lessons.

[Laddy]

Planescape: Torment helped me really put the idea that actions have consequences far beyond the scope you can imagine into perspective. You cannot change the past, but you can make amends for it. Life is a gift, experience it to the fullest but never at others' expense.

[Rocket Edge]

Final Fantasy VIII. The first RPG I spent time with to appreciate and I got so emotionally involved and obsessed with the feel, sound, story, & characters of the game that the love I have for it will never be surpassed.

[Scruffington]

Final Fantasy VII and Xenosaga Episode 1. They made me a fan of Japanese media and had an unparalleled influence on what I like in my stories and characters.


Ffv cos liquid flame made me come here


Final Fantasy VIII. The first RPG I spent time with to appreciate and I got so emotionally involved and obsessed with the feel, sound, story, & characters of the game that the love I have for it will never be surpassed.

Look at all these people who didn't read the OP. :P

The most important RPG to me is definitely Paper Mario. It was basically my gateway to the entire genre, and it's filled with such imagination and charm that it's easily one of my all time favorite games.

Whenever I think of Paper Mario, I always get nostalgic and remember how happy I was playing it as a kid. It's a timeless game for sure.

[Chibi Youkai]

Grandia. It was my first JRPG, and pretty much the game that made me fall in love with video games. I'd played tabletop D&D, and its associated video games with my parents, but the original Grandia was what opened my young eyes to good, if extremely campy, storytelling. I didn't even realize there was good gaming out there that was not D&D related until that point.

[krissy]

Dark Souls cause it is full of life lessons.

like don't open that chest without hitting it first?

[Rocket Edge]

Look at all these people who didn't read the OP. :P

73645

I kid, but seriously if FFVIII is put aside I'll say... Kingdom Hearts. Not exactly getting points for originality here with these choices. Again, I loved the feel of the game at the time.

[Edge7]

This is a really tough one. I'm inclined to say the Tales series, specifically the Team Symphonia games (all the games barring Legendia that came out in America from Symphonia to Vesperia) , because that's how my brother and I met some of our current best friends back in Middle School. If I had to narrow it down to one, I'm gonna say Abyss if only for it being my second favorite Tales Game (Tales of Destiny R being the first).

A close runner up is Fire Emblem Blazing Sword for teaching me that games with menus can still be fun and engaging (I remember being disappointed FFX didn't play like Kingdom Hearts until I noticed that each character had a specific role akin to Fire Emblem. If not for that game, I probably wouldn't be on this forum today.

[Zora]

The Trails/Kiseki series.

The series itself is tightly scripted with each subseries (currently Sky/Liberl, the unreleased Crossbell, and Cold Steel/Erebonia) existing in the same universe, so while the core cast of characters changes every few installments its extremely fun to speculate where the series is going next.

Given that both my boyfriend and I played this series--and, additionally, the fact he introduced the series to me, the amount of speculation we've put into this series has probably elevated it to the most important RPG for me.

[The Last Ancient]

Xenogears is still one of the best, most moving, most insane, game I've ever played. It took me several playthroughs for my young mind to understand what was happening. Also one of the best scores in the history of video games imo.

[botnslave]

That isn't a ff. Ok it's either mass effect or jade empire. Do those count? Pretty rpgish in my books. No? Well if I had to trace back the earliest RPGs I played that I remember enjoying it was probably illusion of Gaia or super mario RPG. But neither of those affected me as much on a deep personal level like the psx eras ffs did. But there is a title that definitely is not an RPG that did.... Metal Gear Solid. That game absolutely blew my mind in terms of what I thought a video game was and how to tell a story.

[Mercen-X]

I think it's easier to list the rpgs I didn't like. For example, the InuYasha rpg I felt was a poor excuse for a game. I didn't like execution if Unlimited Saga. Most online or point and click rpgs make me physically sick.

Games that surprised me: Dark Cloud, Threads of Fate, Legend of Legaia, Dual Hearts, Guardian's Crusade

[Night Fury]

Probably Mass Effect 2.

I was listening to the soundtrack the other day and got quite emotional over it because - it sounds super lame - but that game really got me through a horrible time when I lived away from home. Just playing a mission a night and getting swept up in it all took me out of my shitty situation and was a routine. Yeah.

[Sarisa]

Tales of Phantasia. It was one of the first RPGs I got after Pokemon, and I really liked how the battle system made you feel involved as opposed to just "select attack, select items, select flee" etc. I remember I was so sad when I beat the game because I didn't want it to end, and I started frantically looking for some sort of sequel. This led me to the Tales of series in general, which was a big part of most of my teenage years. I've beaten Phantasia, Lengendia, Abyss, Symphonia, Graces, and Xillia; and I also own Destiny, Eternia, Symphonia 2, Xillia 2, and Zestiria. I actually have 2 Tales cosplays with plans for more, so the series has definitely had a pretty big impact on me.

[Darkhero]

Golden Sun. First RPG I played all the way through and what cemented my love for the genre.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Mother 3. I had been going through a rough time and something about it really grabbed me. I was already a fan of Earthbound and I can see why people prefer that game but I think Mother 3 is probably my favourite in the trilogy. The world, humour and especially music are amazing. The only complaint I have is that some of the characters could have had a bit more development/interaction because they had a ton of potential, but nevertheless all the extra dialogue hidden in the game if you retrace your steps throughout the chapters is pretty impressive.

[Christmas]

It was some Taiwan RPG that i played. I got a much better experience with it compared to the ancient DQ3 that bugged out and traumatized me. Subsequently i fell in love with this genre and the rest is history. :bigsmile:

[tidus79]

Final Fantasy X (Ps2) I really loved it! I still have good memories of this game :)