What Is Your First Game That Got You into Their Franchise?

[Merlin]

Starcraft Battle chest collection got me into the SC franchise so I was pretty stoked when I heard about the development of Wings of Liberty but disappointed when SC: Ghost got cancelled.
Pokemon Soulsilver was my first Pokemon game I owned and got at least 1 game from each generation after until the Sun and Moon series.
Final Fantasy 1 was my first FF I've owned (I now have FF I, III, IV) but I would watch my cousin play Final Fantasy IX on the PS1 prior.
I really enjoyed Earthbound and if I could get Mother 1 and Mother 3 I would.

Resident Evil 2 got me hooked into the franchise and same for Metal Gear Solid 4.

That's all I can really think of because these were pretty much the game series I grew up passionate about for the most part.

My fellow starcraft ghost comrade. No one remembers it until I bring it up. I wanted that game so bad, and still do...just not under current actiblizzard, maybe in 5 years when they sort their crap out. Anyhow, I was very happy they gave Nova her own mini DLC campaign at the end of SC2. That was really nice. They did us a solid on that one.

Genuinely curious how you didn't touch pokemon until HG/SS. Were you an older kid when the originals came out or something? There is clearly some strange gap here. Everything else is in the ninties.

[Just_KMask]

I am probably considered younger than most folks here but a lot of my cousins and siblings grew up well during the nineties.
I would say I did not have the opportunity to personally own any Pokemon games until middle school (2009-2010) and I would always watch one of my cousins play the crap out of those GBA gen Pokemon.

And I agree with the Nova campaigns!!

[Victorfury]

My choices are probably the following:

Super Mario 64 (N64)
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
GTA 5
Persona 5
Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition
Probably Xenoblade Chronicles 2 once I finally get round to playing that

[Ceejay0875]

Legend of Zelda Link to the Past
Final Fantasy II
Etrian Odyssey
Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey (SMT as well as the Persona seriea)

[nmlss]

Ocarina of Time was my first Zelda. I never owned a Nintendo console prior to the N64 and never been a huge fan of that kind of game, but once I saw the first OOT images on magazines, I loved it. To date, I'm still not a huge fan of the NES and SNES Zeldas.

As with Mario, I played Super Mario Bros. on the NES (well, on the NES clone called NASA), but just like with Zelda, the first one I got was Super Mario 64.

[sigmar]

I think it was Silent Hill 4 The Room that got me into that saga, also, Castlevania Lords of Shadow, got me playing the old titles from the NES era.

[METALmurderer]

Wow.... making me think...

My first game I really got into that got me into a series was The Legend of Zelda on NES... then again, I never bought a Wii, but growing up I had all of them that I knew of (Console thru and including Windwaker and GB Color games, including Seasons and Ages)

Beyond that, going by genre
RTS: Command & Conquer for Windows 95
FPS: Halo 1
MMO: World of Warcraft
Fighting: Soul Caliber
RPG: Final Fantasy 7
Action/Platformer: Devil May Cry 3
Stealth: Splinter Cell

The sad thing is a lot of them seem to have strayed away from what I loved about them (most notably C&C, Final Fantasy, WoW). At this point I've given up on hoping they'll go back to the old formulas that worked well and just polish em up to modern graphics/engines.

[JimBoDean]

Tsr’s pool of radiance, and the dragonlance games. Microprose’s flight sims. Lucasarts oh man. Secret weapons of the luftwaffe. X-wing. Soo many too pick from. Oh and leisure suit larry and the land of the lot lizards.

[Cantis]

Warcraft 1 on floppies and Diablo 1 had me buying anything Blizzard without question... well, until Activision. The original Fallout and X-com still get my attention from time to time.

[Atraxian]

Franchises I'm/was into and first game I played:
- Final Fantasy + Bravely Default (Final Fantasy 7 and Tactics) - occasionally restarting Final Fantasy 8 and 9 and playing up to the last disk.
- Pokemon (Pokemon Gold, yeah, I played Gen 1 after Gen 2) - now occasionally playing romhacks of GBA, NDS and 3DS games for added difficulty.
- Starcraft + Warcraft (Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 2) - occasionally replaying Warcraft 3 campaign to this day.
- Monster Hunter (Monster Hunter 3) - still playing Monster Hunter World and patiently waiting for the expansion.
- Mass Effect + Dragon Age (Mass Effect 1 coming from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1)
- Diablo (Diablo 1)
- Fire Emblem (Fire Emblem 7)
- Command & Conquer (from the first Command & Conquer).

I was kind of a Blizzard Fanboy until they started dropping the ball with Diablo 3 and Stacraft 2. Warcraft 3 + The Frozen Throne was the top
Same with Squaresoft, until I played Final Fantasy 10 and lost any hope for the series going forward... At least Bravely Default was a nice throwback, but Bravely Default 2, while being mechanically superior is just "meh" in terms of plot.
Dragon Age 2 was a massive disappointment and Dragon Age Inquisition was so boring that I gave up soon after settling in the castle. MA: Andromeda... No comment.

I occasionally go back to old games part for nostalgia and part because I don't really like anything new. They are like watching an old movie or reading an old book. A cozy and comfortable feeling of familiarity that brings up happy old memories.

[Scott Knightley]

Final Fantasy VIII got me into Final Fantasy and is still my favorite Final Fantasy so far

[Valdern93]

For me FFVIII was my gateway to JRPG's and the series as a whole, that stuck for me until they started becoming really grindy to annoying levels
KOTOR got me very badly into star wars games and began my love for the developer Bioware(and the more recent heartbreak)
Pokemon (Big Surprise) Blue was one of the first games i ever had personally and gave me my love for pokemon
Age of Empires 2 got me into the RTS genre
DOOM 2 nothing more to be said
COD 2 (still my favourite)
Mass Effect 1 (to my still present heartbreak)
Dynasty Warriors 3 brought me to the warriors series on of my favourite beat-em-up series
Ocarina of Time 64 gave me my love of Zelda series and i still believe it is one of the greatest games ever made still to this present day
MGS2 for the beginning of something truly special (saddens me that the Tactical-stealth genre is practically dead at this point in triple AAA industry)
Fallout 3

[Phabe Jewell]

Kingdom Hearts 1
Call of Duty 4
Starwars Battlefront (2004)
WoW Wrath of the Lich King
Assassins Creed
Mass Effect
Gears Of War

[Emergent_Gamer]

For me - it was “The Last Ninja” on the Commodore64. The best multi-loader game series of that era. You could even go as far as saying that the series (while it lasted,only 3 or 4 games worth mentioning) was ‘AAA’ quality for its time. And the music, Oh! The sweet sweet 🎵! 😂