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.
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])
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.
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.
Dark Souls cause it is full of life lessons.
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.
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.
Str8 Pimpin'
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.
Pull my Devil Trigger!
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.
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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.
Str8 Pimpin'
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.
Returners Represent!
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.