Final Fantasy (1987) for the NES.

The game that kicked off what would become the most iconic JRPG series of all time. A lot of people mistakenly think it was the first JRPG—but it wasn’t. What it was, though, was the one that introduced most Western players to the genre.

The mechanics are straightforward, heavily inspired by Wizardry and Ultima with their obsession over stats and party composition. Yet so many of the things we now consider JRPG archetypes—job classes, elemental magic, overworld exploration—were solidified here.

I never owned Final Fantasy as a kid, but when I finally got my own NES years later, this was one of the first cartridges I hunted down.

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