My first exposure to the Final Fantasy series was in 1997 shortly after the release of FF7. I got swept up by all the hype about the game and bought it without really knowing anything about it (or the series).
I clearly remember launching the game, being impressed with the music and the cinematic feel (for the time) of the game. But then the combat started. Much to my shame I had a visceral, disgusted reaction when the menus popped up. I was thinking, “WTF is this???”
In 1997 I was a 30-year old father of 3 early in the stages of a very busy and demanding career. My limited gaming time was for blowing off steam and blowing things up - not reading menus and “taking turns” during combat.
Now, almost 30 years later, turn-based games are probably my favorite genre, and I have played quite a few jrpgs - including a handful of Final Fantasy games (IV, X, XVI, and the new VII remake/rebirth). Obviously, I still have a lot of FF entries to explore, but I plan on getting to many of them “soon.”
Looking forward to playing as many as I can on Xbox going forward.