I remember being sliiiiiightly interested in the previews for the first game (the concept really grabbed me), but it ended up getting mediocre reviews, so I didn't think about it much. A while later, my mom picked up FF1 in a bargain bin (good luck trying that now!), playing through the first night and a half before getting bored and handing it over to me. I was SO hooked, and now that copy is pretty much considered mine. Heh.
So I was pretty excited about the second game, so it went straight to my Christmas list, reviews (which ended up being far more positive than FF1's) be damned. And it was EVEN MORE AWESOME.
Then FF3...well. I LOVE FF1 and FF2 :P FF4 could certainly redeem things for me, though...