The First RPGs you ever played as a child.

[Hadrian Hardrada Cicero]

Video games, we've played them as a child. Actually, we largely played a lot of games that were mostly either fighting, shooters, racing, puzzle, platform, and adventures with the last one I mentioned being the focus of today's thread. Rather one type of adventure games: RPGs.

At some point in our lives, we've likely came across these alluring games with deep storytelling, lore, and world building like never before. It's certainly unlike the typical story of defeating the bad guy and getting the girl. Though the numbers have confused us at first, we eventually quickly learn to adapt and pay more attention to what's going into the game and become emersed into the game itself. So that's what this thread is about.

What are the very first RPGs you ever played as a child? It doesn't need to be the very first, just the earliest you can remember. For me however, since my memories are like an iron trap: My very first RPG was...

(Not a really good RPG to start off to be honest but I was a kid, so it didn't matter only managed to get holy plains before quitting oof)
I'll be making a thread about this for the forceable future.
​

But aside from this game, it was mostly Pokémon before the next I was introduced and suckered in was MOTHER 2 or Earthbound by the time I was 10 years old. Which has since left an impact on me since.

So, what was YOUR first RPGs you ever played as a child? Feel free to discuss!​

 

[mydadiscar]

I was never an RPG person growing up. The first RPG I played was the Columbine one.

 

[Hadrian Hardrada Cicero]

I was never an RPG person growing up. The first RPG I played was the Columbine one.

Please never respond to any of my threads if you're going to be an edgy cunt.

 

[JihyoParkXX]

I was never an RPG person growing up. The first RPG I played was the Columbine one.

Started off with quite the banger I see!

 

[Mеченый Яков]

Secret of Evermore on my PC Emulator, this game is basically back to the future the RPG and it is fucking great.

 

[Mеченый Яков]

I was never an RPG person growing up. The first RPG I played was the Columbine one.

I remember seeing that game on youtube, i remember that the intention was more artistic than shock value, you played thanks to 4chan or where did you find it?

 

[Andy Kaufman]

Technically speaking Pokémon.
But not much later, I was in a gamestop-like store where they sold used games and I only saw the cartdige, not even the box art and decided to buy it based on that alone:

I only ever played this one and the one for the SNES but only a little bit and this made me get a wrong impression.
Sword of Mana was pretty dark, especially for me as a 8yo kid. Characters died and the overall setting wasn't really cheerful most of the time, the ending also was bittersweet. Had plenty of tragic moments, the overall tone was melodramatic and overall tragic and most of the time you just had to deal with it. I think at one point one of the Hero's long time friends gets sick or posessed or something and you actually had to kill her. The game wouldn't progress, your dude stood infront of her and you had to actually push A to swing your sword and then the screen turned red. Pretty heavy for young Andy I tell you.
The villains were complex characters, too, one of them also being a tragic character.

Then recently I checked out where the series is now and...

Yeah... dunno. Watched a little gameplay and it looked super easy and super cheery/lighthearted. You party members couldn't even die in combat, they just went down to 1HP. In SoM, if a party member died they turned into a useless ghost until you went back to a Golden Statue (the silver ones didn't revive them) or used a rare/expensive revival item.

I also remember whe plaiyng SoM, since I didn't have the booklet, I didn't know how leveling up worked. Whenever you level up, you could put a point into 6 or seven different classes like mage, theif, warrior, monk, knight, etc. and those would affect your stat increases. I just maxed one class every time but if you go instead, lets say 10 knight and 20 monk, you'd unlock subclasses that would give huge bonuses. Only years later when reading up on the game again I noticed

 

[mydadiscar]

Please never respond to any of my threads if you're going to be an edgy cunt.

What? It is the truth. That was genuinely the first RPG game I have ever played as far as I can think of.

 

[mydadiscar]

I remember seeing that game on youtube, i remember that the intention was more artistic than shock value, you played thanks to 4chan or where did you find it?

I heard of it somewhere, cannot remember where, and downloaded it out of curiosity. Pretty good game actually.

 

[Mеченый Яков]

I heard of it somewhere, cannot remember where, and downloaded it out of curiosity. Pretty good game actually.

It is well done tbh.

 

[zalaz alaza]

I used to watch my uncles play one of the first Ultimas on their C64. I always wanted to try it but they said I was too little.

On Atari I played E.T. but I always got stuck in the pit. It sort of sucked.

The first roleplaying game I played all the way through was Dragon Warrior.

After that I played Final Fantasy. It took me a year or so to complete it and more or less set the structure for every following RPG that came out.

To note, I remember a point when RPGs stopped coming with paper maps and I thought of that as significant. It really bummed me out as a kid. Frequently, back in the day, the games(especially computer rpgs) would come with all sorts of content about the lore of the game and a map or series of maps for the game that you could look at while not interfacing with any tech device. I think maybe that has begun again w Baldurs Gate and such?

 

[Legacy]

My parents were big fans of Ultima so I played that series quite a bit growing up. Made my first Ultima Online character when I was 6 years old in 1998. Later on I picked up console RPGs including Guardian's Crusade, Legend of Dragoon, Kingdom Hearts, etc. and kept going from there. Guardian's Crusade was a bargain bin kid-friendly JRPG that went completely under the radar but I still enjoy replaying it once in a while to this day, although nowadays the only JRPGs I tend to get through are the entries in the Persona series

I recently posted about how I started playing the Ultimas before I could even read, which really was too young but I had a blast mucking about in Ultima 7 all the same


On the subject of maps, I inherited a few cloth maps from the Ultima series. I miss when games came with tactile elements that engaged you away from the screen, but I can see how it's not feasible in the market nowadays. Ultima also had flavorful in character journals and guides for their manuals which which were fun to go through

 

[punishedgnome]

The first one I have a clear memory of playing is Faxanadu. I know that's not a traditional JRPG or anything, but I think it's still safe to call it an RPG. You go around talking to NPCs, gain experience and gold from killing enemies and use that gold to buy new weapons and armor. Sounds like an RPG to me.

 

[Sidewinder91]

Earthbound:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viP2-Mz4aaQ


I'm still impressed how interactive the world is.

Just little details, like being able to get the phone number for a pizza place, then be able to order a pizza and have an NPC deliver it to you. In recent years there's been a lot of wacky Earthbound inspired games but I still think Earthbound is the definitive modern day JRPG.

 

[juicy_ricky]

I didn't get into RPGs until I was about 9-10...so this would be roughly 2000/2001. First one I can remember playing and finishing(not including Pokemon) was either Final Fantasy 8 or Fallout - I got them at roughly the same time so I'm not too sure. When KOTOR came out my mind was fully blown - first RPG I played through several times. Whole lot of CRPGs got played as a kid - didn't really get into JRPGs again until my early 20's. Now it's all about Shin Megami Tensei for me....

 

[juicy_ricky]

Earthbound:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viP2-Mz4aaQ


I'm still impressed how interactive the world is.

Just little details, like being able to get the phone number for a pizza place, then be able to order a pizza and have an NPC deliver it to you. In recent years there's been a lot of wacky Earthbound inspired games but I still think Earthbound is the definitive modern day JRPG.

It blew my mind that all the NPCs have different dialogue after you beat the game!

 

[Sidewinder91]

It blew my mind that all the NPCs have different dialogue after you beat the game!

I'd actually forgotten all about that, damn.

Still have my old cartridge. Gotta find time to replay it, sometime.

 

[Crash_overdrive]

One of the earliest RPGs I played as a kid was Septerra core. Never beat it as the disk it came on would always freeze on shell one.

 

[Radical]

I have the most vivid memories of Realmz, a Mac shareware game from the mid 90s obviously based on 2nd edition dungeons and dragons.

 

[Weary traveler of the web]

the first rpg i ever played is Fallout 3, ill never forget stepping out of the vault for the first time and being amazed that i could really go anywhere!