Board 8 > What franchises did you have an "unusual" first entry into?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (then played THUG2 before THUG1)
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (I've still never actually beaten a Zelda game, furthest I've gotten was Four Swords Adventures >_>)
Touhou: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody (before any of the shmup games)

the Fate/Zero anime was my first experience with the Fate franchise

if we include mediums as a whole, my first VN was Umineko

My first Castlevania game was New Generation, aka the Mega Drive game.

The Mega Man that got my first love in the series was Mega Man: The Wily Wars.

I legitimately can't think of any.

I usually try to go out of my way to always start every series in order or at the very least with the most recommended.

FFV for Final Fantasy.

Dunno about weird. But I'd say the following;

The Legend of Zelda
Despite having had a NES and a normal Gameboy, the first Zelda I've ever played was The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. Fortunately, despite the Oracles being relatively forgotten compared to the rest of series, I loved them and am happy that was my first experience with the series.

Castlevania
This one isn't weird in terms of quality or anything, but I'd say me starting on Dawn of Sorrow is interesting considering it was a sequel to a game on a system I had owned for years already and I was already hooked on the fairly similar Metroid-series by then. But Dawn of Sorrow was the first time I thought about playing a Castlevania game. I remember playing it for about 6 hours straight after I got it in the mail, so it was a good first impression!

I honestly can't think of any, most series I've either jumped in at the first entry or at an extremely popular one (and often a soft-reboot).

The first Spyro I owned/beat was Season of Ice for the GBA, maybe that counts? But I got it because I liked playing Spyro on my friend's PS1.

Edit: On second thought I'm pretty sure my first Sonic game was Sonic Chaos for the GameGear which would definitely count

Ohhh

THUG is a good one. That was my first Tony Hawk game.

I wanna say Yakuza 1 PS2 is a weird entry point since most people seem to have joined from 3, 0 or Kiwami.

I can't think of anything, tbh. I played Dishonored 2 before Dishonored 1, but that doesn't feel very odd. There aren't many series I've hopped into in the middle of their run, and the ones I have make sense for their entry points, like Morrowind or Trails in the Sky.

My first Final Fantasy was Spirits Within, if you want to count that. (I was then loaned VII that same night.)

Mega Man (DOS) for me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Man_(1990_video_game)
https://megaman.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Man_(DOS)

I was a PC-only gamer back in 1990s until early 2000s because my parents wouldn't buy me a console. One of the game I have in my 386 PC is Mega Man, it was terrible and unfairly hard. Because of that and my minimum exposure of console games (I did play console games in my friends house but nobody has a Mega Man game) I didn't understand the appeal of platformer Mega Man games, not knowing the DOS game is a completely different game from the original NES one. I played non-platformer Mega Man games though, namely Battle Network via emulator which has become one of my favorite game series but I never bother trying the main platformers.

It wasn't until around 2015 I finally knew that the DOS game isn't the same as the original, oh how surprised I was after knowing that 20 years later...

Not sure how unusual some of these are, but I can list them anyways I guess

FF - X was my first and Id never heard of the series until then somehow
Sonic - Spinball was technically my first and after that it was Adventure 2.
DQ - 8 was my first and like FF Id also basically never heard of it before then I believe lol
Trails - Cold Steel. This one probably isnt too unusual, but with how connected the entire franchise seems to be most people probably play the Sky ones first.

For non-gaming I started the Dragon Ball series when it was on the Buu saga. Watching that got me interested in the series so I watched DB and the previous DBZ arcs.

Castlevania animated series and AVGN episodes are all Ive ever experienced of the series. Ive never touched a single game.

I don't think FFX and DQVIII are strange entry points. Both of those were big hits in their franchises, and the first available on PS2.

Yeah, the more unusual thing is me having never heard of either before then. For FF especially thats weird because of how popular it was even before X. For DQ maybe less weird since 8 is probably around the time it got some real attention in NA? I dunno. To this day Ive only finished 8, 4 and 11 and only touched some of 3. The rest Ive never played at all.

Kingdom Hearts II - Spent a good chunk wondering where certain members of Organization XIII were until I realized they were killed in an earlier game.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Didn't play PoR until years later

voltch posted...

I wanna say Yakuza 1 PS2 is a weird entry point since most people seem to have joined from 3, 0 or Kiwami.

Eh, why would people start with 3?
0 and Kiwami makes sense, but 3 over 1 is just plain weird.

And obligatory, "Orphanage is the worst segment of Yakuza series".

My first Zelda game was Link's Awakening. Does that count? I can't think of anything else that even remotely qualifies.

The only Star Wars movie I've seen is the Holiday Special

Underleveled posted...

Hmm

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has got to be up there (didn't have a PS2 at the time but wanted to play something from the series)

Probably this for me
Now that it's on PC I can finally play it for real

Ultimaphazon posted...

My first Zelda game was Link's Awakening. Does that count? I can't think of anything else that even remotely qualifies.

Probably not
But that reminds me - the first Zelda game I played was also Link's Awakening. However that was a Pokemon romhack (in text only) that I legit thought it was a Pokemon game. They changed the shield to be a "Kakuna". The Owl was Hoot Hoot and the Wind Fish was Celebi
I got stuck somewhere and stopped playing. Only years later played it again as a proper Zelda game
Now that is a unusal entry point!

Resident Evil Village was my first game in that series sadly enough

blasster posted...

Eh, why would people start with 3?

Im guessing because it was the first entry on the ps3. Maybe some people wanted to try the series and didnt own a ps2.

FFTA is the first to come to mind

Suikoden 3 and Lunar 2 PSX come to mind. Perhaps the original Warcraft may be considered unusual too?

Ultimaphazon posted...

My first Zelda game was Link's Awakening. Does that count? I can't think of anything else that even remotely qualifies.

Not really. 1, ALttP, Link's Awakening, Ocarina, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Link Between Worlds, and Breath of the Wild all make sense as entry points. Several others can work too really.

I played the Shantae series in a weird order.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Shantae: Risky's Revenge
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Shantae
Shantae and the Seven Sirens

My first Final Fantasy game was Mystic Quest.

Still an awesome (albeit easy) game.

LiquidOshawott posted...

FFTA is the first to come to mind

That's mine too but thinking about it, FFTA isnt all that weird. It's the first FF on a Nintendo console since ... FFVI? and FFTA sold well for a GBA game.

Come to think of it, FFTA was my first FF game, too. I mean, I have vague memories of playing a cousin's copy of FFX, but TA was the first time I spent a significant amount of time in one. Having not owned an SNES or PS1, I guess it's not that weird.

Trails of Cold Steel count? I had seen everyone on here raving about Trails in the Sky but I never put two and two together that they were the same series until after seeing discussion topics on here for Cold Steel.

And Star Ocean 3 I guess?

EDIT: Dragon Warrior Monsters fits too.

The only ones I can think of that might fit this is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow being my first Castlevania game or MGS2 being my first MGS game.

I think everything else I played as a "first" seemed like a pretty normal entry point even if they weren't the first game released in that series.

the fact that four people here have said cold steel and this place is significantly more in touch with jrpgs than the general populace should tell you whether or not it counts

MMXcalibur posted...

My first Final Fantasy game was Mystic Quest.

Still an awesome (albeit easy) game.

This is not suprising if you grew up with it in the 90s. It came at a much cheaper price point and was heavily advertised as babby's first role playing game. It hit bargin bin prices pretty quickly too. Final Fantasy 4(2) and Final Fantasy 6(3) remained expensive games.

Zelda: Four Swords Adventures was the first one I played.

Yeah, I don't know either, I guess I didn't know Wind Waker existed, and I wanted to use the Gameboy/GameCube cable?

In terms of beaten games in a franchise (as opposed to merely attempted):

Ocarina of Time
Resident Evil 2
Circle of the Moon
Final Fantasy X
Witcher 3
Kirby 64
Star Fox 64
Metal Gear Solid 2
Silent Hill 2

I'm honestly not sure if any of those would be considered "unusual." Maybe Castlevania is the closest.

A lot of the ones listed make sense.

I started Halo with ODST because it was the most recent game out when I got a 360, that's probs a weird one. I also played MGS2 first as it was on the collection on that console. I've still never played MGS1 or 4!

I've started other series with their second or later entry, but those are probs the most unusual ones.

Oh wait, I guess I technically got into Ace Attorney with AA3 from the GBA version that had a translated patch of the first trial. I can count that one, even though the case itself takes place before AA1.

First Bomberman game was Bomberman 64.

and my first RE game was 4, so the rest of the series was a definite shell shock after that.

i always do release order too so i guess my "unusual" ones are just ones like street fighter 1 or uh

ok yeah that's the only really unusual one, i can mention other games with more mainstream sequels but they're not nearly as mainstream even then

i did play (part of) shadow hearts 2 before 1 since only 2 and from the new world were at my local video stores i guess that maybe counts. still haven't played koudelka

also i guess i was just one of those weirdos that played (most of) the original utawarerumono before the sequels happened (i went back to finish it a few years ago)

oh yeah also the first ace attorney i played was investigations (since i'd already watched playthroughs of aa1-4 by the time it came out...). i did of course go back to play the rest myself regardless though, albeit maybe also unusually through the wiiware ports for trilogy and later the 3ds remaster of aj

oh yeah, and kind of notably i guess, the first initial d game i played was another stage on gba, as opposed to any of the arcade ones (since i never saw an initial d arcade cabinet in nz until a couple of years ago...)

oh heres an actual weird one

i think the first Street Fighter media I engaged with was the Street Fighter Look and Find book. Its like a Wheres Waldo but for SF.

maybe Id played SF2 in an arcade already, but I would have been pretty young so probably not? It would definitely have been the first SF thing I owned.

Xuxon posted...

playing street fighter before street fighter 2 would be pretty unusual

I saw SF1 at arcades almost at the same time as SF2. First I actually played was the famicom pirate game called Master Fighter II.

Mega Man -> Mega Man 7

Bomberman -> Robo Warrior

Can't think of much else.

Mana Khemia for the first Atelier game- I didn't know it was the same series until literally a few weeks ago.
Tales of Destiny for the first tales game (most peoples first is symphonia, Abyss or Phantasia.)

I've been around forever so I tend to have started with the first games in the series, or at least the firsts games in america.

My husband has a funny one though. His first Fire Emblem was Radiant Dawn. Not even Path of Radiance.

Alanna82 posted...

Tales of Destiny for the first tales game (most peoples first is symphonia, Abyss or Phantasia.)

It's not that strange as a first, since it was the first US release Tales game. So if you were someone with a PS1 in the 90s and predominately played RPGs, Tales of Destiny could have very been one of them.

Heck, it's only the 2nd game in the series, so even in Japan it could have been a lot of people's first entry to Tales.

NFUN posted...

the fact that four people here have said cold steel and this place is significantly more in touch with jrpgs than the general populace should tell you whether or not it counts

if you think that's unusual

I started with Sky and am playing them all in order

My first Pokemon game was Pokemon snap, I loved the show but my mum wouldn't buy me a Gameboy since i already had an N64. She thought one console was enough