First RPG I played was that Mario one on the SNES. I rented it but didn't know how to play it. First RPG I bought was Pokemon Red for GB, but I didn't really become a fan of the genre until I played Breath of Fire III.
Final Fantasy 10. Because before that I only had a N64 and that console didn't have any JRPGs... but started catching up on PSone titles immediatly after finishing FF10. As for favorites... Baten Kaitos (GC), Suikoden 5, the whole Tales of series, Symphonia was the first and love Graces for the great system and absence of unneeded luggage.
Pokemon Yellow, but I don't think I actually finished it until I was older. I think the first one I finished, was Paper Mario for N64.
I started playing video games when I was very young, but I did not really get into RPGs for a long time.
Now, they are my favorite genre.
My first RPG was maybe Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube. I remembered the 2nd area with draining health. That place gave me a ton of nightmares when I first entered it.
Pokemon Red. When Piracy wasn't a problem before, a local game shop was selling pirated Gameboy games for PC, in it was Pokemon Red. It had a bug at a certain area where you can't proceed anymore. But as kids, we just kept repeating the whole thing, and even leveled up a butterfree to 99, ridiculous I know. But kids had no concept of 'being fed up'. The next month our aunt bought a gameboy color and pokemon cartridges and the rest was history.
i cant remember what the game that introduced me to rpg. But i've played ffviii and tales of destiny
but since then im a fps/shooter guy and for some reason now im looking a rpg games again.