I probably spent a lot of my free or leisure time playing games throughout my life. In my early years I was fortunate that my family decided to get a NES or Nintendo Entertainment System. It was mostly for my older sibling perhaps but I also had some opportunities which was nice. While I was 6 or 5 at the time, I couldn't read that well but the few games we had to start with were a racing game called Rad Racer, Mario Bros, Zelda, Rampage, and Dragon Warrior. Now as a forming youth, it was fun to play these type of games but they all lacked something that couldn't keep my interest; all except Dragon Warrior. Dragon Warrior was my first rpg, a jrpg to be exact. Dragon Warrior is actually Dragon Quest I and it would unknowingly help shape my tastes for RPGs in the years and decades that followed. I had my sibling help translate the menu and I just stumbled my way through the game but with imagination, excitement and perseverance. Unlike a lot of games I actually finished Dragon Warrior I. Which really was a rarity for me as for some reason or another I just lose interest after things get too easy, no more character progression, no more excitement or mystery to solve. Looking back with these somewhat old eyes, it was a basic rpg with not much to it and would feel real boring real quick had I played it again. Coincidentally I picked up and played the recent Dragon Quest for PC and there is much to appreciate for its creative spirit that remains the same to it's IP and satisfying to relive that series again with a sorta of nostalgia. However, I found the game easy and the mood and tone not to my liking. Perhaps I had changed having experienced so much. Perhaps I compare it to my true favorite games.
Not that this was the end of it mind you. Back during this time and for a great while longer, we had rental stores to rent games over here and there was even places to buy used games at. Might and Magic for NES comes to mind with its classic dungeon crawl, the first I had experienced of the sub genre or rpgs. Later on as you would expect I played Dragon Warrior 3, never finished it and then got gifted Dragon Warrior 4 for NES. DW4 was perhaps my favorite game for the only platform my family would go on to own for quite some time. I had completed it perhaps only a couple times. During this sad era of gaming drought I would go on into sports and paperback novels.
It wasn't until many years later that my family got the Sony Playstation 1/PSX and while I had missed out on the many, many Consoles/Systems in between I had been very lucky to be in this era, as I consider the golden era of jrpgs at least for me. I am also grateful for my time spent and fun had. I pretty much played every rpg on that console, mostly renting and as you can imagine not finishing many. I would like to say my first rpg for the PSX was "Beyond The Beyond", a very important true favorite of mine and one that in my eyes made up for missing out on Super NES Console. Beyond the Beyond had SNES sprites (something that I had never experienced), a interesting beautiful story if not slightly above basic, companions, secrets, coming of age concepts, class upgrades, puzzles and that traditional turn based rpg mechanics from Dragon Warrior. I completed Beyond the Beyond multiple times. Little did I know that this would pale in scope & comparison to Final Fantasy 7 and then Final Fantasy Tactics which I would go on to complete both. I won't write more on those except those were my first entry into the Final Fantasy Series and I had indeed missed out on the previous entries. I imagine they are more popular worldwide and don't need descriptions, but I would later regard them both as true favorites.
Now I had completed Xenogears but the game didn't hit the same way as FF. I also finished the Vandal Heart series but #2 while a more truer rpg than the first, was exceptionally hard with chess like combat and hard secret alternative endings. Worth experiencing but not favorite material. I wished I had finished Wild Arms but I got stumped midway in a play through never to be finished. I had just about rented every other psx jrpg or later in life found other "ways & means" to play them all, every single one, why not? I could really go on and on but I feel sticking to the highlights are more important.
I can't leave the PSX era without commenting about my #1 true favorite games of all time, Suikoden I & II. Still to this day, they are far more important than perhaps anything I ever played, yes even Baldur's Gate or Fallout 1 & 2. Although a tough choice, its a personal matter for sure. I feel that Suikoden, Baldur's Gate and Fallout deserve more words than what I had already typed but its late and my post is already long enough. I didn't even discuss Breath of Fire or Star Ocean or the entire PS2 Era including the likes of Lunar Silver Star Story etc, not to mention many PC Games.
Btw my favorite games of all time Suikoden are getting a HD remaster on steam. There is also a spiritual successor and a lot of creative talent from Suikoden series is involved with making "Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes" after a successful kickstarter, also on steam. I feel there is more to be said perhaps I might have to return for a follow up post.
