What was your first Final Fantasy and what did you think of it?

I know this is probably a thread that's been done a million times over, but I'm not inclined to go searching through 2835 pages of forum threads just to go find one to necro. Besides, it's a fun topic!

In any case, I started on... FFXIII. Yeah.

To be fair, I didn't think it was all that bad back when it came out, and I still don't think it's as terrible of a game as its reputation would make it out to be. It's very, very flawed and I wouldn't call it a good game outright, but there's enough redeeming qualities to make me give it a "flawed, but enjoyable" rating. Even now I still occasionally go back to re-experience it, though I'm definitely not doing all of the sidequests ever again. The game's grind gets downright stupid at the end.

FFXIII-2 is a good game, though. Y'all can fight me on that one.

From XIII I branched out to IV and III and a whole lot of other JRPGs besides. It's probably the game that got me into the genre, so I'm pretty grateful to it.

Anyway, what's y'alls stories?

For me it was the first final fantasy. I saw previews of it, after enjoying phantasy star on the master system. After that, the North American releases of 4 and 6(II and III). Then FFVII up to FFX. After that quit playing to play FFXI for far too long, missing out on other releases. I enjoyed the graphics back then, later on the story. I think 4(II in US) started to make me interested in the story by then, got hooked since. I do play other games to this day, and oddly Lunar: Silver Star Story is oddly one of my fav games still over FF, not sure why.

Technically mine was the very first FF game on the NES in the very early 90's, courtesy of an arcade and a very sus arcade machine that turned out to really be an imported NES under the hood running a pirated '8-games-in-one' cart, one of the games inexplicably was FFI (I distinctly remember seeing Castle Corneria and a Red Mage).

Growing up I wondered why I never saw this arcade machine mentioned anywhere as an official FF port, until years later I belatedly discovered said arcade cabinet was a pirate which had been manufactured by a small local company that passed them off to unsuspecting arcades and used imported consoles like the NES instead of actual arcade boards, until they unsurprisingly went out of business circa 1994. So yeah, I guess it really doesn't count.

My first proper introduction to the FF series was an imported US SNES and FFIV which a local video library (remember them?) offered for hire in 1995, and my younger brother and I rented it for a few days, and we were both hooked. Much later in 2000 I tracked down another imported copy of FFIV so the cycle was complete (I live in Australia and PAL territories only got FF Mystic Quest prior to FFVII, so importing was the only way to play the earlier games back then). And now that EW is full of FFIV references, I'm a very happy miqo'te. :D

My love of the series (okay, obsession) was confirmed when FFVII was released though, and now I'm very much a FFanatic. ;)

FFXIV was my first final fantasy. It's a pretty decent mmorpg, the best one out currently. It has quite a lot going for it, it's a shame I hadn't started playing it sooner!

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was my first! I was probably 4 years-old at the time, and because I couldn't read, I just could *NOT* wrap my head around the game! I remember playing a ton of Mario and Mega Man games on the NES, but being one of our first SNES games, it just looked SO much cooler than anything else I'd ever seen! And the MUSIC!!! I *HAD* to know what was going on!

So I have a lot of sentimentality for the game, because it's essentially the game that taught me how to read. But I replay it every couple of years, and it honestly holds up as a "Beginner RPG". It has some snappy dialogue in some sections, doesn't take itself too seriously, has I'd argue some of the best sprites on the entire SNES catalogue, and some KILLER music (Battle and Boss themes are top-tier, I'd also throw Lava Dome in there).

It constantly bums me out that Square-Enix often seem to pretend the game doesn't exist. I guess maybe that's recently *started* to change (I saw Benjamin appears in one of the Theaterhythm games), and I would love to see it get a little more credit and treatment as a legitimate game (same with FFTactics, honestly).

Dirge of Cerberus. Gun customization and shooty stuff was pretty fun, and the main character had a slick design. I remember nothing else really.

Played or Finished? As I have different answers. Played was first one. Finished? IV. IV is what I point to for when people complain about how linear XIII was. It takes awhile to get your first airship in IV and even then it can't reach everywhere.
It for many Western audiences is the example in the series of what a summoner looks and feels like. A look when summoning happened or was used didn't change til X. Where most people used summons sparingly due to mp cost and how far away the next save point or exit was.
IV for many people also gave them a healthy fear and dislike of creepy dolls.

I haven't played any of the FF games ( outside of FFXIV ofc lol but that's different ).
I am really looking forward to the FF7 Remake on PC tho.

Tactics. Loved it.

Final Fantasy VI, or III as it was labeled for us back in the day. I love it and have a lot of nostalgia for it, even if some of its cracks have become more apparent to me in recent years.

My second was Mystic Quest but while I liked it and I was able to beat it as a kid unlike 3, I don't have as fond of memories of it.

I think VII was next. At some point we got an NES copy of the original but i forget when and I didn't really like that one.