Where were you...

When you first heard of Final Fantasy?

I was living in Davenport, IA (thanks in advance for your sympathies), and the people across the street had a NES. My sisters were telling me about it, and saying things like "you can't play it, because you have to know how to read and do math" and I was sad.

Flash forward a few years, and my friend Robbie introduced me to Final Fantasy IV. I had a NES by this time, but when I asked my mom if she would get me a SNES for Christmas so I could play Final Fantasy 2 (as it was then known), she said "we'll see."

Apparently, a SNES was too pricey, and I ended up getting Final Fantasy 1 for the NES that Christmas.

I was not disappointed for long. :)

Took me 14 days to beat it the first time.

In my living room in my house in my hometown.

My dad finally broke down and gave me his credit card to buy a psx and a couple of games instead of renting from the video place.

A demo of FF8 came on the sample disc that came with the PlayStation.

I'd already played Parasite Eve.

I was living in Utah in the basement of an ancient Franciscan church that my grandmother was running an acting school out of. My mom, my dad, my three sisters and I were crammed into a single bedroom and most of my books, movies, and everything my family owned was packed away because there wasn't room for anything else in there. I was eleven, I think.

While living there, my uncle let me play his playstation and I discovered FFVIII. For the next few months I used it as an escape to get away from the hell I was living in, and it's been my favorite FF since.

I honestly don't remember, though if I were to hazard a guess I'd say it was probably in one of those ancient Nintendo Powers that I used to subscribe to.

I was living in the gorgeous house of my childhood, watching my Stepdad play FF8 on a really beat up old TV. I was transfixed, and forever changed.

I think I was a young kid watching TV:

Sigh.. Time to be embarrassed. My first introduction to Final Fantasy was X-2. I traded a DS game for it and I only did the trade cause I was young and I thought the girls on the cover looked hot.. Never did I think that I would end up criticizing that same point years later. Luckily playing this one (And sucking horribly at it) led me to play X! And from then on, I was hooked to that series.

...when they built that ladder to heaven.

Was round a friends house when he was playing FF7. It was the bit on the shinra cargo ship, so I had no idea why a pineapple head, wolfman and Mr T. were all partying on the love boat.

I saw Final Fantasy VI at a video game rental store, back when I used to rent SNES games all the time. I thought it looked cool, but I never played it until years later, when it came out on PSX.

I remember hearing about Final Fantasy VII when it came out, from kids on the school bus. They thought the part with Don Corneo was subversive and cool, and thought it was funny you could dress Cloud up as a girl. I don't know why I was such a frugal kid, but I figured I could probably rent it a few times and beat it, and it would cost less than buying it, so that's what I did. Until I got through the first disc and my memory card became corrupted. I threw a fit, and ended up buying it after that so I could finish. From then on, I was a fan of the series. I still remember the hype in school about FFVIII and people talking trout about FFIX. Good times.

I was visiting my cousin and in his room I fought a battle against Cagnazzo in Final Fantasy IV... or I watched him playing it. I don't really remember.

I was visiting a friend and he was playing FF7. It looked awesome and he said everyone was playing it.
It was already Platinum, so I went straight out and bought it with some saved up pocket money. I thought I had just joined the cool crowd.

FF8 came out, probably about, 2 weeks later. And while everyone was getting stuck into that, I was stuck in Cosmo Canyon. :(

i was a tiny human and we (my older brother and I) rented FF1. never got past Elfland as a kid. oh well.

It was one of the games my mom bought us when we got our NES.

I was in a video game shop in the UK, aged 17. PSX was the latest thing. My then boyfriend and I were trying to decide on a game to spend our hard-saved cash on. We spent ages browsing, but nothing really grabbed us.

I was pretty much tearing my hair out by this point, when my boyfriend came up with an idea.

"There's a new role-playing game coming out soon, from Japan. It's really huge over there."

"Great! What's it called?"

"Final Fantasy 7."

"7? What happened to the other 6?"
(If like me, you live in the UK/Europe, you probably asked this question too. Don't pretend you didn't...)

So we got it, and played it together a bit. I only saw the Midgar scenes; I thought it was OK.

The following year my boyfriend was a bit strapped for cash around Valentine's Day, and he ended up giving me the game as a present. At the time I thought it was a real cheap cop-out gift and felt a bit short-changed. Little did I know that it would completely change my life...

When I was like, eight or nine, my uncle bought FFVII and FFVIII. Never opened FFVII for some reason. He played through FFVIII and I watched him a bit. It looked cool and I asked if I could play some time and he said "it's kind of complicated, it's more for older people." And I just took his word for it and never thought about it again until he took me to his girlfriend's house for dinner. They told me I could go into the basement and use the playstation if I got bored and so I did, and there was FFVII! I tried it and I got stuck because I couldn't figure out that Jesse's leg was stuck and I decided that the game was complicated and for older people. Years later, the two of them are married with two kids and I have a great relationship with Final Fantasy.