(Veterans) Remember Your Newbie Thoughts From Your First (Best) RPG...

[Chippy]

...And how do they compare to any RPG you play today?.

If you were to play a game that was as good as your best game from years ago - do you think it would be as good as when you were a newbie, or have you become acclimated/institutionalised to games as a veteran so much that "It'll never be as good as the first time" ever again?.

I just finished Vampire Bloodlines again after not playing it for several years, and it's still fucking awesome for me. I don't get people that say they suffer from fatigue or that older graphics are unbearable.

 

[smaug]

This question is gay as fuck.

 

[Lady_Error]

This question is gay as fuck.

That's because you played your first RPG this year.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

I started playing games like Final Fantasy VII and Diablo, which according to the media were the best RPGs ever, and I thought at the time these were all Skinner boxes with dull and repetitive gameplay. I was of course right. But the whole concept of representing your main characters with numbers intrigued me, so I kept playing aimlessly many other mind-numbing JRPGs, ARPGs and MMOs, until I found the NES (Famicom) version of Final Fantasy 2 by chance, which is a deeply flawed and repetitive game, but where its character attributes and systems were actually trying to portray what was going on in the world, unlike most other JRPGs where these are just there because heritage. Then I found the Master System version of Ultima IV, which dared to represent freaking behavior with numbers, after that there was no coming back, but this happened years after I started playing RPGs.

My point being, I fucking hated my first RPGs, and today I wouldn't even stand playing Final Fantasy 2, even if I still have fond memories.

 

[Cryomancer]

My first RPG was Might & Magic VII. I loved the game but could't beat the game as a child due language barriers. Promotion quests took a eternity to complete but i was amazed when i finally managed to fly in the game...

 

[Lady_Error]

I was lucky enough in that my first two RPG's were Eye of the Beholder 2 and Wizardry 7. I wasn't too impressed with EOB2 and couldn't figure out how to use weapons, so I kept throwing stuff at the wolves to kill them. Later I came to appreciate the atmosphere of the game, which is some of the best you can find to this day.

Wizardry 7 I bought due to glowing reviews in my favorite magazine back then and it is still one of my favorite games. The experience of playing it then and now recently is quite similar in how it draws you in and you use your imagination to fill in the blanks. Back then I only began learning English and the game's rich vocabularly required a dictionary by my side at all times.

 

[Terra]

My first RPG was either Rings of Power or Shining Force 2. Can't recall which as I played them around the same time but both played a strong part in drawing me into the genre.

Starting with Rings, I recall back then, your imagination filled in more of the blanks, so however primitive the world of Rings was back then, to me, it was akin to the living, breathing, sprawling worlds in Morrowind or Oblivion. You controlled a party of silent protagonists essentially as your party members never speak after being recruited. This is something that didn't bother me back then but I have come to utterly despise it in games I play today. I can still go back and enjoy it, but that's fuelled by nostalgia, any modern game with that sort of approach turns me off.

I was shit at the game, you were given very little direction and were quickly thrust out into the wider world to find your own way when one unlucky random encounter would quickly spell your death. It was pre-internet days so the best you had to go on were the hints in the manual that gave clues as to where to find the titular rings (one of which was wrong!) The sense of accomplishment when I finally finished the game after probably months of play was unprecedented probably to this day. I think it'd be hard to look past the rough exterior if I were going back in fresh now, but there is a gem of a game hidden underneath. I personally could still appreciate it due to nostalgia, but for a complete newcomer might find it a bit impenetrable.

Shining Force 2 on the other hand holds up extremely well; I recall my first act in the game was accidentally discarding the hero's weapon in the starting location, which made the first battle of the game... interesting. Graphically, it was much more visually appealing than Rings and possesses a timeless charm to this day - colourful sprites, a strong battle system and solid story make it very easy to jump in as a noob.

Rings was a wide open (bastard hard) world, the story was largely what you made it, if you wanted to walk into a city and murder half the population you could (and I did), Shining Force 2 on the other hand offered a structured, linear experience with a greater emphasis on character interactions/story. They both fostered an appreciation for different aspects of rpgs that I look for to this day.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tigranes]

I dont have to guess, because I regularly replay my first RPGs. I find them more or less just as good, which is why I got into the hobby in the first place. Obviously you can never play them the way you did the very first time.

I dont know if I would have found them just as compelling if I was 50 years old when I started them. Zep can probably tell us that.

 

[Trashos]

My first RPGS were Fallout, Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, in that order. I thought I was so lucky that I had found a genre where games were so incredible, whether they focused on setting, combat or storytelling.

And then I played the rest of the RPGs.

I can still appreciate good RPGs when I find them, and it is painfully clear that it is not me who lost interest, it is the direction the RPGs took later that sucks. With a few exceptions, luckily.

 

[Bah]

My first RPG was Wasteland. It set a pretty high bar to follow, but the other ones that had the most influence on my tastes were Dark Sun, Might and Magic IV-V (World of Xeen), and Fallout. These ones have stood the test of time for me, and I enjoy replaying them.

 

[octavius]

My first real RPG was probably Out of the Shadows for the ZX Spectrum.

My first RPG on the Amiga was The Bard's Tale, followed shortly by Faery Tale Adventure (I still listen to the music at YouTube occasionally, especially the combat music is fantastic) and somewhat later Dungeon Master.

I can't play most Spectrum games now due to the very cumbersome UI for most of the game, especially when emulated.
I still think the earliest DOS/Amiga RPGs are fun to play. I have yet to see a modern RPG where you can throw things through bars like in DM, though.

But I think I can objectively say that the Golden Age for PC games was 1998-2001, even though at that time I was too old for it be nostalgia talking now.

 

[Riddler]

One of the first RPGs I played was BG1 and overall it was a very enjoyable experience. I had no idea how DnD worked however and I could barely speak any English which made things very difficult. I remember starting chapter 5, getting to Baldur's gate and having no fucking idea what I was supposed to do or where to go. I spent fucking days in the city trying to figure out what I was supposed to do by mostly trial and error...

This experience also made me wholly unsympathetic to people who think games are too difficult. If I made it through Baldur's gate without understanding the game system and not being able to understand English, as an 8 year old, then other people should be able to make it through whatever piss-easy game they are playing as a teenager/adult.

 

[Daidre]

My first RPG, and the second game in my life, is Icewind Dale. It was communal effort with my dad and older sister but none of us had any ideas what D&D is, how it is supposed to work and what "Level up" button on character screen is for.

In the end, after weeks of very enjoyable suffering we arrived to Belhifet with the whole party of 1st level characters 4/6 of whom were 15 HP dwarf fighters. Technically it was the same lone dwarf who was cloned again and again from the party management screen after his predecessor died. Poor guy, but at least he was inheriting some really cool equipment with an every new cycle.

Our amazing journey ended there: last fight starts with a couple of Iron Golems Cloudkill-ing party from the two sides and that spells unavoidable doom for 1HD creatures.

PS Yxunomei was another piece of fun - we found particular place at her door where you could pelt her with +2 arrows from the edge of her aggro radius and avoid a proper fight altogether.

 

[Garbage]

My first RPG was Tales of Phantasia, to this day I still don't know who would pick Mint over Arche.
I still like mage girls.

 

[Lilura]

But I think I can objectively say that the Golden Age for PC games was 1998-2001, even though at that time I was too old for it be nostalgia talking now.

I agree mostly... but if you go 1998 then that excludes Diablo, Daggerfall and most notably Fallout [authoritative source].

And if you say 1998, you're basically saying Baldur's Gate and Fallout 2 are more influential/valuable than those three.

I think your ending is right, though (2001). Because 2002 brought some real shit into the genre (comparatively speaking), and most fans of the genre were at the pinnacle of their cultivation, which made 2002 look even worse.

And of course, the genre never clawed its way back. Line up current gen games for execution and give them a raking, I wouldn't blink an eye.

 

[whydoibother]

My first RPG was Diablo, and I remember calling it a strategy game, thinking its a strategy game, feeling like I am playing the cyberhacker version of chess, etc.
My first RPG that I actually played like an RPG, and I knew enough English to comprehend, was Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. For those that haven't played it, it was a more combat focused and more linear version of Fallout and Fallout 2.
I only ever started favoring RPGs over other genres after getting into Neverwinter Nights around 2004-2005 I think. And then I mostly started favoring turn based games over action games around 2006 with my Civilization IV mania.

So for games before 2005 or about there, if I play them now I absolutely do not play them like I used to. I know English enough to get whats going on, for one. I can read what the stats and systems do without having to guess them, like I had to do with Diablo. I don't consider them advanced Tetris, all about the high score. For games after that, I play them now how I used to play them, more or less. The last time I felt like playing something completely new was doing the tutorial for the Oculus Rift, where you are putting diskettes in, shooting the nerf gun, etc. I couldn't get the smile off my face for these divine 20 minutes of pure joy. Thats how I felt learning what things do in my early days gaming, and not knowing how to read English.
Closest such new experience in RPGs in the last few years was the spellcrafting in Magica, the elemental interactions in Divinity Original Sin, and now the thought cabinet and inner monologue debate in Disco Elysium, but they are nowhere near the level of excitement that moving from Captain Claw to Diablo was.

 

[overly excitable young man]

My first RPG was Gothic coming from Zelda A Link to the Past.
I didn't know what RPGs are and compared it to Zelda the whole time.
I expected that i find new items in Dungeons i have to complete.

Had no way to play Ocarina of Time back then or i would have ended up as a massive Zelda faggot.
Somehow lost interest in the whole thing after playing Gothic.

Gothic is still one of the best games ever created. Nothing has changed.
I loved it a ton as a child and i like it even more now.

Then i remember playing Diablo 2 and Might and Magic 6 at a friends house.
A little bit later i played Baldurs Gate 2.

 

[howlingFantods]

First (j)rpg: Pokemon sapphire

Kid crack. If my parents weren’t good parents, I’d have foregone eating and sleeping for this game. I talked to my friends about it, daydreamed about it, and drew fan art about it (in the margins of my homework packets). I can’t say that a game has so totally possessed me since. If I were to replay it today, it’d bore me; and I’d feel the sadness of the years between me and 7 year-old me. got me all wistful and misty-eyed

 

[Cyberarmy]

Champions of Krynn or Dark Sun, not quite sure which one I played first. Turn based combat captiveted me thanks to my love for chess. I had little to none English (only a few words, phrases from my father "Follow Me" tapes) so had to play with a dictionary.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Got Dungeon Master out of one of those Russian pirate CDs with >1000 games (probably closer to 100-200, most of them were the same game but renamed). The dungeon crawling aspect of it still holds up today, and it probably always will, but even back then I hated how RT blobber combat works so it's not a game I care to replay.

 

[Aemar]

Around the time I got my first computer I also got my hands on the Diablo demo, something that seemed more enthralling than the majority of the strategy games I had played up to that point. Pretty much the first foray into anything that resembled an RPG. Immediately afterwards I got a copy of Might and Magic 6, a game that, much to my surprise, shared the same universe and even a couple of essential characters with Heroes of Might and Magic II. I was inextricably hooked on its great atmosphere, the great number of locations and dungeons, and last but not least, the excellent soundtrack.

 

[smaug]

My first “RPG” was probably Skyrim (that I actually tried to get into and enjoy) back in 2015. Game was fun at first, but eventually the walking and combat bored me just after 10 hours. I did enjoy just walking around the world looking at pretty landscapes though.

zoomers gonna zoom

 

[Atchodas]

My first game that got me hooked on Isometric RPGs was not even RPG it was Commandos 1 which is tactics game, however after playing that I was convinced that good games can only be Isometric which led to me trying out stuff like BG & PST and got me hooked on this kind of stuff for years to come

 

[smaug]

My first “RPG” was probably Skyrim (that I actually tried to get into and enjoy) back in 2015. Game was fun at first, but eventually the walking and combat bored me just after 10 hours. I did enjoy just walking around the world looking at pretty landscapes though.

zoomers gonna zoom

I will say though, that playing Skyrim which eventually lead me to research the other TES games (notably Daggerfall) and that eventually would lead me to the RPGCodex, wherein I discovered a whole host of games I never knew existed.