The First RPGs you ever played as a child.

[<SIXX>]

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...

View attachment 27254
(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!​

If in may ask i have mother 3 for emulator anyway to play the first one ??? if you know not in Japanese though in English thru an emulator

 

[JihyoParkXX]

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!

Fallout 3 along with Skyrim, Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring are the few games that make me feel like I can truly go everywhere. The sense of adventure you get from these are above all other open world games.

 

[Max Chill]

View attachment 27260

Holy crap this game looks fun

 

[VelvetApe]

The first RPG game I played was a pirated PS1 game called Shao Lin, which was a fighting game with RPG elements and a very simple story. You play as a little kid and as you win fights you gain experience until you are an old man.

 

[juicy_ricky]

Outside of Pokemon...probably the older CRPGs like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Planescape etc. On console FF8 if i'm remembering correctly? Good times

 

[Rikstah]

I think baldurs gate 1 is the first RPG I played as a kid, either that or FF8 cos I played them both around the same time.

BG1 was a really challenging RPG for a kid (born '88), only got into games like this on PC because my older brother was into PC gaming in the 90s and brought alot of these games home.

IMO Baldurs gate 2 is still the greatest RPG of all time.

 

[juicy_ricky]

I think baldurs gate 1 is the first RPG I played as a kid, either that or FF8 cos I played them both around the same time.

BG1 was a really challenging RPG for a kid (born '88), only got into games like this on PC because my older brother was into PC gaming in the 90s and brought alot of these games home.

IMO Baldurs gate 2 is still the greatest RPG of all time.

I was born in 91 so I feel that - really challenging! I credit stuff like BG1+2 for motivating me to learn how to read really well at a young age because my god...mountains of text in those old games. Pretty sure my uncle gave me Planescape - when I saw the D&D logo on the Baldur's Gate box I picked it up on sight knowing nothing about it. I'd say easily best rpg of all time. The depth of everything is unrivaled even in 2023!

 

[vulonkaaz]

Skyrim, i don't know if it is the first rpg I've ever played but definetly is the most impactful, the game simply came with the xbox i got one christmas, one day i tried launching it not expecting much and not too long after that i was spending my nights on uesp's wiki

 

[punishedgnome]

When I was a child, I used to think turn based battled were dumb. The first proper JRPG I played all the way through to the end was Super Mario RPG which didn't come out until I was in middle school.

 

[Yuiui]

First played pokemon for gameboy color and advance and then got into Final Fantasy with the GBA versions

 

[ETierhuman]

Fallout New Vegas is as far as i can remember if you don't think mine craft survival mode is an rpg.

 

[Mеченый Яков]

The snes version (on an emulator) of Ultima 7

 

[brentw]

I honestly can't remember the first RPG I played.
Hmm
Renting Super Mario RPG is probably the oldest I can remember. But I'm sure that wasn't the first.
Dammit, this is going to bug the hell out of me.

 

[haitoy0u]

Final Fantasy IX. I was 12yo when I played this gem. I loved everything in this game: the music, the plot, the characters, the gameplay, etc.

 

[wot]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 aka SaGa. This wasn't the best RPG to start a kid off with due to how radically different it was from most:

• There are no experience points or leveling up. Each race has their own way to improve: mutants have a chance to gain stats/moves after each battle, monsters can eat the meat of other monsters to transform into a different (and potentially better) one. Humans? You have to spend your hard-earned cash on stat-improving items. Without a manual, it took me a while to figure out how monsters worked, so I sat there wondering why my party's mutant had so much better stats than everyone else despite not doing anything.
• The game has a lives system. If a character dies, the only way to revive them is to take them to a "house of life", where it'll cost you one of their lives to bring them back. No lives? They're dead. Permanently. Time to go to the town guild and recruit a replacement (at least that's free). You can buy extra lives if you have 10000 gold to spare. Also, the first character you create can't be removed from the party, so they're dead weight if they run out of lives.
• Most items have limited uses. That includes weapons. This means that some of the money you make from battles will go towards buying replacements.

By some miracle I managed to beat the first world and get halfway through the second before giving up. I don't even know how I did it. But I still like the game despite all the gripes. The setting's very interesting, the OST is catchy thanks to Nobuo Uematsu, and there's a bug that lets you kill God with a chainsaw.

And now, because it's stuck in my head again, here's the tower theme with nonsensical lyrics:

 

[CopiumDen]

Dungeon Master (Atari ST version).

There's definitely been other CRPGs I played during that period as well, but nothing has made an impact like this one.
Phantasie III: The Wrath of Nikademus comes to mind as one of the earliest ones as well, but have no recollection of whether it was any good or not.

 

[Sketch Relics]

I really liked Quest 64 as a kid, it had some neat ideas like being able to dodge attacks by physically moving yourself after the attack animation starts, the spells are really cool, and the music and enemy design is rather memorable.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbDWGib8NxU


Not actually from the game, but an excellent cover none the less.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC6fc3bAM0Q


Dare to compare.

As for my actual first RPG..... err I'm not sure.
Well that's not quite accurate, I remember it, but since I was too young to have good reading comprehension I don't know what the name of the game was, or what you were trying to do really, but I remember the graphical style.

It was... something like this, I don't remember if it was an Ultima game or not, but I do remember the starting town having a fountain. I want to say that your party was preset or had a preset option cause I don't remember having to make a party and combat was a grid based tactics game like the old DnD games or... you know Ultima. It may have been PC or Mac, my parents flip-flopped between the two.

 

[IsaiahQuinn54]

EarthBound was the first RPG I ever played, I got interested in it after seeing Ness and Lucas in Smash Brawl and used to play it on those shitty online Flash Emulators until my Dad got a friend of his to homebrew my Wii and put it on there with Snes9xGX. Besides the other Mother games, I've never really liked turn-based RPGs in general, but as a kid EarthBound totally captivated me for probably a whole summer. I was ridiculously obsessed with it and I still play it every now and again as a bit of a comfort game. Onett is still one of the comfiest locations in any game.

 

[selfKaiHarness]

First PS1 RPG i've played years ago is The Legend of Dragoon. Back then me and my sis used to play this game and we didn't get very far into the game. I used to suck at playing games like this when i was like 4 years old. I wish to return to playing this but the disc we had is scratched to shit and wouldn't get past the chase section very early into the game. Plus, that disc wouldn't read anymore due to old age so there you go.

The first PS2 RPG i've played was Kingdom Hearts, yes the first one not the final mix JP version. I had a blast playing this game and this influenced me to play more action RPGs in the years down the line, it also made me less fearful of the darkness in my child years. It's one of the first action RPGs i've played during the PS2 era and the first time i got the game was through Hollywood Video which it's a movie/video game store, it was also the time they were steadily declining in the number of stores dwinding with each closing, Yes, it's a Disney/Final Fantasy crossover y'all know that as well as i have. This is one of these games that lead me to being a veteran fan of the entire series. Lots and lots of good memories playing this game and the disc i had was the greatest hits version but it's a bit scuffed, it wouldn't get past one of the cutscenes to the final boss 70% of the time and the credits were skipped a little bit but nothing too serious.