Final Fantasy

anyone have distinct memories of their first Final Fantasy or how they got into the series? share them!

as a kid, my parents sent me to live with grandma in Charleston SC every summer. there was an older boy that lived next door, met him while he was fishing in the lake behind my grandma's house. i don't know how it happened but i asked him "do you like games" and he, of course, said "yes" and we went to his house, up to his room, and he showed me his collection of PS1 games. i must have been 10 or 11 at the time.

anyways, he had FF8, which didn't look super interesting to me, but he came over to my grandma's house one day, brought ff8, and he played it on my grandma's huge old-fashioned projector TV (pictured); i remember being immediately entranced with the music; specifically Balamb Garden theme, and my interest in the series immediately increased.

that was my first "experience" with Final Fantasy, later during one of those summers my friend’s friend lent me their Game Boy Camera to “play with for the week,” and I subsequently traded it at the local Babbages for in-store credit (i was a psychopathic kid); these events were significant because thanks to that in-store credit, I was able to purchase a used copy of Final Fantasy 7; and at the time, my brain was immediately drawn to the spiky-haired guy holding a big sword on the cover. i spent the rest of that formative summer playing Final Fantasy 7.