I was a fangirl. I can admit it. I was raised with an NES controller in hand. I missed out on the SNES due to mild insanity involving the Genesis (which I also love), but I still loved Nintendo. So when the Playstation came on the scene, I was deeply entrenched with the N64 I'd seen in Nintendo Power.
I'd missed out on Final Fantasy IV and VI, so the shift there was not a stinging blow, and the games I still love and play today are mostly on the Nintendo 64, but there were some great games that I did miss out on, and may never get to play now, on the original Playstation.
Sure, I'd played it a few times, was mildly impressed with what I saw, but was never all that eager to get the console and dig through the games themselves. Instead, I was much more eager to play Rareware's platformers, Nintendo's long running legend, and my gateway drug to RPG's, Ogre Battle 64.
It was with the last one that my first interest arose in the system. Ogre Battle Special Edition was a rerelease of March of the Black Queen for the console, I, however, didn't know that at the time, there was more than one Ogre game at all. Final Fantasy Tactics sat on the shelf above it at the game rental store, it looked remarkably similar to Ogre Battle as well.
The interest in the system had begun, though I'd thought it merely an interest in RPG's...which it was, in part. I however, didn't realize that the Playstation was the system for RPG's. So, I started looking for other RPG's. Nintendo had Quest 64, a mildly entertaining adventure about a young wizard, and Aidan's Chronicles: The First Mage. That was it.
And I had them both. I played them both to death, but I wasn't sated yet. By this time, it was 2000, and another white box of wonder had arisen. This time, it was the Dreamcast. I saw Sonic in 3D and had to play it. And then the commercials for Shenmue. I had to have this system. And I got it that Christmas with both of those games, and Phantasy Star Online episode 1. My delve into RPG continued.
About a year later, I was walking through the then FuncoLand looking for a new game to play. It was then I came across Timestalkers, a dungeon crawler with fresh dungeons everytime you played, and a monster training based party reminiscent of Pokemon. The game was pure awesome, and I went through so many watch batteries training my monsters to be great.
I was hooked on turn based JRPG's at this point and had no where to turn for something new. For three more years, I went without a true RPG experience, and even had to rebuild most of what I had due to theft.
In that span, I'd won a Xbox. Don't ask me how, I don't know. I just won one of the promotional ones from Taco Bell, with most of the launch titles. While this was good for moving me out of my Nintendo comfort zone and introducing me to the Halo series, there still weren't any RPG's to be played. There was Shenmue 2 though, and that held the tide until I came across KotOR.
I discovered Knights of the Old Republic on accident. Seeing Star Wars on the label, I thought it was part of the Jedi Knight series I'd played here and there and was willing to give it a try. Was I surprised or what? It's was one of the serendipatious moments that makes life amazingly great. I jumped back into RPG's with a passion...but I still didn't have a Playstation.
Then, Crystal Chronicles came out. While Ogre Series was the father of the FF Tactics series, Crystal Chronicles is how I really started discovering Final Fantasy. It was 2005. I started my sweep through the Final Fantasy Games, quickly purchasing as many of the GBA rereleases as I could. I fell in love with the series.
In 2006, I went to a sleepover for a friends sweet sixteen and her brother was playing Kingdom Hearts. I'd heard about it, but never gotten the chance to look at it to in depth. I was enthralled with it, and ended up playing it all night with him from beginning to Monstro. I had to play the game, finish it...figure out the story.
Playstation 2 was the only way I could do it though, and the 360 had just come out, and the Wii was soon on it's way. I'd have to wait nearly two more years before getting the system, but when I did...I fell in love instantly. I still don't like the controller, but I was annoyed at how much I'd missed out on.
The fact that it was backwards compatible made it even better. This spurred a purchasing of all of the PS1 FF games save VII (money being an issue) and an reintroduction to one of my favorite series, Castlevania.
I'm a cautionary tale for fans of specific consoles. There are a lot of good games out there, and if you judge by only the big titles, you're going to miss out on a lot of them...like I did with the Playstation.
-Sara
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