That's an easy one for me. In a way I was spoiled early because my first RPG was Chrono Trigger. I'm not even sure what compelled me to ask for it as a Christmas present. I probably saw it in a gaming magazine at the time. Needless to say, I was hooked and soon my friends were too. Chrono Trigger led to other SNES RPG classics like FF6 and Super Mario RPG.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Everything I was looking for in an RPG was there. The story, the gameplay, the scale, the spellcasting, the NPC interactivity. Amazing piece of gaming history. It is one of the titles I always end up comparing my own creative efforts against.

For me there are two answers to this question. The first is the original Legend of Zelda for the NES. Though not really a traditional RPG, it sparked my love for world-exploring, dungeon crawling games. From there I found my first true RPG years later in Shining Force for the Sega Genesis. It was such a great and powerful game and I wish more modern games would recreate the feel of this gem.

FFVII was the first RPG that I was introduced to. I was nine when I got my first copy. Didn't beat it (or indeed get out of Midgar) until a year later. When I finally understood what I was doing, I replayed it all through middle school.

Breath of Fire III was the one that made me love story. Aside from the obvious "dragon-child" selling point, I loved the character interactions and the fact that you went from childhood to adolescence. Plus it was the first time I ever took on a goddess.

Then there's Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. When I got these two, I was totally hooked. Cohesive story, wonderful mechanics, a beautiful score, and some of the damn finest characters I've ever seen. These two titles are the ones I draw the most inspiration from for my own projects.

引用自 Stoney Games：

From there I found my first true RPG years later in Shining Force for the Sega Genesis. It was such a great and powerful game and I wish more modern games would recreate the feel of this gem.

I'm really much more of a fan of Shining Force II. I liked its free roam and exploration aspect.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. This game really got me into RPG's, considering before that, the only RPG I played was Pokemon. The story, the intensity, the questing, it was in my eyes perfect. Thus I began to change from a strategy gamer that viewed RPG's as too complex tl;dr to one that can't imagine a life without an RPG game. So yeah, I'm a bit ashamed of myself though, that when I was a lot younger, I tought RPG's were boring.

Zelda II was the first ever RPG-ish game I played. Didn't beat that game fore years though, as I was only 4 years old when I picked it up. I call it more of an RPG instead of adventure game like the original LoZ game for the NES due to the fact of its gaining EXP to level up Max Health, Sword Damage, or Spell MP Cost reduction. The battle system was unique for the time, and some of the bosses and dungeons was just downright tough!

Later on I picked up Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, and there it was, a game I have loved every since and I will go back and play it at least once every other year. The story is great, the game play is balanced, and there are a lot of hidden items and semi-side quests to do.

Then we get to the N64 era and I play Quest 64(Eletale Monsters for Japan, or Holy Magic Century for Europe) and even though the game was a very dry story, no side quests or mini games, I found myself a game that would eventually become a basic building block for my own game I am working on currently. I have really been working on my game for about 6 years, and it started as an exact 2D clone of Quest 64, and now it is a complete original idea for story and world locations, but uses some of the deep down systems from Quest 64, just simply re-imagined for a better quality game.

Those are the games I think that really pushed me into what I do today, and will continue to do for years to come. RPG Maker is a program that allowed me to see one of my life dreams in game design, although not on a professional level, come to fruitation.

Telengard and Eamon probably. I did heavy programmatic extensions/customizations to Eamon. Phantasie too also was a awesome. Adventure Construction Set was my first graphical construction tools foray.

Pokemon series. They do count, right?

引用自 Dan：

Pokemon series. They do count, right?

Why wouldn't it count?

Megaman X-series.

the first Final Fantasy on nes

EarthBound. Just a classic for me.

Super Mario RPG

As a child I had no idea what RPG stood for when I picked it up. I only knew that it had Mario in it and I liked Mario games. Little did i know that this story would captivate me for years to come. The game play was fun, the story was funny and easy to understand. I had no idea what I had stumbled on to, all I knew is that I needed more.

The game that made me love RPG games was Final Fantasy III (the US Version) on SNES. One of the reasons is because it is one of the only games that growing up that I got to complete because I had a brother that would get through them faster than me and rub it in my face. That one though I acted like I was sick one day and played all the way through. My brother was peeved, but I was happy as heck! To this day I love that game and love RPG games in general.