Final Fantasy VIII was my first Final Fantasy game. I was thirteen. I went into a GAME, picked up a box in the 'preowned' section, looked at the title, thought, Hmmm, I vaguely recall hearing good things about this series in a magazine somewhere, and bought it.

I knew literally nothing about Final Fantasy. I didn't even know what genre it was. Even had I known, it probably wouldn't have meant anything to me; I don't think I knew what 'RPG' meant at the time, although I had played Pokémon Red. But I thought I might as well give Final Fantasy VII a try.

The 'VII' there was not a typo. The box I picked up wasn't a Final Fantasy VIII box. It was a Final Fantasy VII box. It didn't even have enough holders for Final Fantasy VIII's four discs. But the man behind the counter must have put a copy of Final Fantasy VIII in by mistake.

I didn't realise what had happened until disc two, when I went on the Internet to find out why I'd died when D-District Prison had drilled into the ground. (It was a cutscene! I didn't know I could move!) Why did all these sites keep saying they were about Final Fantasy VIII? Squall was in Final Fantasy VII, right?

I still remember the 'hang on, maybe...' realisation and going to check the number on the actual discs. It had been VIII all along! My world had been turned upside-down.

In summary, I first played Final Fantasy VIII by accident. But it was an extremely fortunate accident! I think it was the perfect Final Fantasy game to hook me, because I identified so strongly with Squall. Even though I had absolutely no idea how to play (I was capable of junctioning GFs, at least, but I had no idea what junctioning magic did and ended up using GFs over and over again to get through every fight), I persisted, because I really cared about the characters.

Final Fantasy VIII is not a perfect game. But it's my favourite game. I'm so glad that a weird little slip-up brought it into my life.

• Go back to the infirmary.