Popping the Cherry...

[Kupo]

So I think it's fair to say everyone here at MR loves Final Fantasy. Some of us love some games more than others, some of us can't decide which we like best and some might only have played one or two games. It doesn't matter since we all share that affinity for the Final Fantasy name.

So I ask you this. Which was your first and how did it lead into (if it did) an FF obsession.

For me it was IX though X sort of led me to play it. I think it was 2003 so nine years ago and my aunt had just got a ps2 and a copy of FFX. I was watching her play through it and fel in love but no matter how much I nagged she wouldn't let me play it ( though that might have had something to do with me deleting a game save previously...). Eventually though she said I could set up her PS1 and play one of the other FF's she owned.

In complete 11 year old stupidity I thought the games followed each other in order so liking X i chose to play IX. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE! Since it was one of the more cartoony looking ones i think it suited my age group perfectly and from there I went on to play X and then VII. I didn't play any more for AGES but I was hooked, completely and utterly.

So here I am, a Final Fantasy addict.

What about you guys?

[The Unsent]

When I was a child, I used to watch a friend of mine play FFVII for the original Sony Playstation at his house and was mesmerized with the game-play, battle system(s), and somewhat "blocky" looking characters. A few years later, I got my very own first Final Fantasy game, FFVIII, as a birthday present and was instantly hooked. Shortly thereafter, I took some leftover birthday money and bought a used copy of the Greatest Hits version of FFVII as well.

Over the next decade-and-a-half, I have played the main series of games, from FFVII up until FFX-2, but I have also played the spin-off game Final Fantasy Tactics.

Currently, I have gone back to where it all began with Final Fantasy Origins (FF and FFII), courtesy of the ePSXe emulator and ROM for Microsoft Windows, but every few years or so (and, in fact, this very moment), I always find my way back to FFVIII.

Nostalgia never truly dies.

[Bharune]

My first was a demo of FFVIII, back on the PSOne. It was probably on one of the demo discs you used to be able to pick up at stores, but my bro and I thought that FFVIII demo was the coolest thing on the place of the planet. We had never played an RPG before then so we didn't understand a thing about the battle system, but I remember how ecstatic I was when I accidentally summoned Leviathan. I was probably 11 or so at the time, haha.

Anyway, I wanted to get FFVIII at the store but it hadn't been released yet (at least not in America) so I picked up FFVII instead. I remember I was a bit disappointed because, again, I didn't have much appreciation for the amazingness of RPGs at that point. I played some FFVII, but I think I didn't hugely delve into FF until VIII came out, which I played the most. After VIII, I went back to VII.

It helped that I grew up with the internet xD I remember I joined my first Final Fantasy RP before FFX came out (I was 13), and my love for FF and RPing just escalated from there :3

[Griever]

For me, my addiction started when I was 11, and a commercial for FFIX happened to play on the TV. It caught my interest, and my mom's, right away - so we went out and rented it not long after. I was hooked immediately, but I only managed to play through the very beginning of the intro, not even all the way through the Evil Forest, before we had to return it. Then for my 12th birthday, I got FFVIII, the first RPG I actually owned myself, and I got so excited I screamed my head off...and I hadn't even played it yet. I probably would've been twice as loud if I had. >__>

So, then, I went into playing FFVIII, and I absolutely fell in love. By that point, I was officially a huge series fan, and now I sort of count both VIII and IX as my first FF, because of how short of a time I got to play IX. We picked up FFX the day it came out, and a PS2 two weeks later, and if that isn't a sign of an addiction, I don't know what is.

Coincidentally, I picked up XIII several months before I got a PS3...

Anyway, by the time I was in my freshman year of high school at 14, I met Bha, and she dragged me into the world of FF RP, so we'd pass notes in the halls with little posts every day when we couldn't get online. I haven't gone back. XD

[Bharune]

Sounds like FFVIII was both of our firsts! XD Though I technically had FFVII before VIII came out, I didn't really play it much until I got FFVIII.

I still have those notes, K-chan xD Course they're illegible due to your tiny, pencil writing <3 I don't let my RP partners to write in pencil anymore, haha~

Hard to believe that was almost ten years ago...

[Griever]

I KNOW. I was thinking the same thing! It's so strange. But I have absolutely no regrets about doing this for so long XD

[covina]

The Final Fantasy I remake on the GBA was my first, actually, back when I was in junior high. xD
I was up all night multiple nights a week playing that. Then II, then skipped straight on to VII.

[desir]

I remember hearing alot about FF and when I saw the trailer for FFX-2 It seemed interesting way back when. I was given X for christmas and since then I was hooked on it. I think that was my first real RP game and I got hooked on all kinds of them afterwards, in fact that's what basically all of my games are except for Megaman X <.<

Afterwards my cousin gave me VII because he didn't understand English (he lived in Mexico) I loved it, though not as much as X since the summons didn't stick around. I played III which was a gift as well for DS, as well as X-2 then XII. Then I played Dissidia which I love to death, especially when the second came out. <3

[Cloud]

I lost my FF virginity at a young age, about nine if I remember correctly, to VII. It was rough at first, since I was used to gentle caress of Super Nintendo games like Super Mario and Tetris, so a game with the complexity of VII made me realize that the relationship was going to need a lot of effort on my end, or at least that would have been true if I realized how complex it really was aside from all the menus and such.

I dunno, girls seem to grasp this concept faster than guys, they seem to always look past the shiny pretty exterior of pixelated breasts and spiky hair and see the vast richness that is the story. Being a young boy, I got hooked on the game play, liking the feel of the game and the rush of winning a boss battle for the first time. It wouldn't have been until much later did I come to appreciate what VII really did for me, it opened up the vast world of RPG games that otherwise I may have missed out on because of that mustachioed plumber jumping onto poor unsuspecting turtles.

Sure, it was fun, but when it was all said and done, you'd finish the game with eight-hundred lives, a gazllion points, but no feeling of accomplishment. And that is what got me hooked on VII, when I'd finish Disk 1, Disk 2, Disk 40...... I'd feel like I had completed some great feat of human endurance, that some how I managed to overcome this beast of a game and find out what the hell was up with Sephiroth. (I'm sorry dude, but Shinra killed the space program, you're stuck on the planet if you like it or not, so DON'T destroy it. Jenova's head will only get you so far.)

The true greatness of FF would be lost to me for years until the release to Advent Children. It had reignited my interest in FF. Went back and played VII, then realizing that I had been missing out on the best part. The story was better than anything else I had been playing, newer games couldn't compare. From there I played IX, X, X-2, XI, XIII, I was hooked. Regretfully I've never been able to complete any of those aside from XIII, and obviously VII (working on X right now), because of various reasons, but that doesn't stop me from loving them. Amazing characters in unforgettable settings.

[Beebee]

My first was FFVI, although on the Super Nintendo it was FFIII haha. I think I was 8 or 9 as well when I played it. Then I went back and played FFIV (FFII on the SNES), then jumped back up to play VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, XIII, and XIII-2 haha. I bought FFIII on the DS when that came out, but I didn't like it very much. I found the story pretty boring. I didn't mind Tactics, and I enjoyed Dissidia though

Sigh...I feel kinda old now LOL

[frostflare]

Actually, Trueth be told I was poped by VII. I had never even heard of Final Fantasy before then...becuase I was a sega gamer..and if you can't guess...I sorta stuck to games like Boogerman and Castlevania. But when we got our first ps1(of many) we bought 3 games for it as starter games. Resident Evil, Final Fantasy 7, and Tomb Raider...all three of them are still dear to my heart.

I have never played any game before it...and i played everyone after it except 9 and 11...Only becuase i don't like sub fee's(i want to play it...i do..but I hate sub fee's) and i never heard of 9 until 10 showed up and i was like. WHAT!? WHERES nine! By then we had picked up 10...so yea.

I have beaten every single one i've played...and I still have not touched 13. 12 and any FF game set in ivalice(Tactics, and revenent wings) are amazing. Ivalice is my favorite world. lol..but yea im not very exciting.

I did cry when Aeris died though...I mean cry cried. And I retried the gem like 35 times with all the myths trying ot kill tifa instead. I HATED HER BOOBS...I mean WHY!? she got on my nerves....But of course none of them worked....rumers are evil. Im still trying to get a silver chocobo, but I bet thats a rumor to lol.

[Bharune]

Don't give up, Frost! You can totally get that silver chocobo! <3