Start playing Final Fantasy, which game to play first?

[heffalump]

I - Just a simple turn based classic RPG grind. No real story. Can be fun.
II - The first one with a story, old, but worth your time
III - Haven't played it
IV - A bit tedious, but a classic. Definitely worth playing at least once.
V - Haven't played it
VI - One of the greatest video games ever created. I still listen to the music CDs I have of from this game.
VII - Not very good. Very long. Really crappy first gen playstation graphics when everyone thought going 3d was cool before it stopped looking like crap. Most people played this as their first FF game, and have very rosy glasses when looking back at this game. Kind of like people asking for classic realms for WoW. Things might have been great back then, but really? Things were actually very crappy back then.
VIII - Very bad. Bad magic system, bad characters, bad story, very boring. Kind of like watching a Twilight movie. Complete waste of time.
IX - Back to the classic styles. Good stuff.
X - Some wonky things, but this is where the 3D starts to actually work instead of being in the way. Some voice acting was really great (some was bad) and overall was a good game.
XI - MMO - is it even still running? I hate that they wasted a number on this.
XII - Haven't played it.
XIII - Haven't played it.
XIV - MMO, stick with Warcraft. Lots of negative feedback from this one, like high up executives stepping down over failure.

[Thehavalina]

In general they're all seperate stories, however VII, X, and X-2 take place on the same world (however VII takes place at a very different time.) My personal favorites are X, VII, and VI, but they're all pretty damn good. VIII and IX are pretty standard JRPGs but not bad by any means, and XII was also very fun.

[Naevan]

I really wanted to play FInal fantasies,but oh man,they are so fucking old that i can't do it.

So I started from FFX <3 Loved it,and i loved ffx-2 too. They really hook me up and made me cry tho,rly emotional story and nice battling system on both.
The lightning character ffx was meh... I didn't like it. All other FF's as i've heard/seen in movies/other games like Kingdom Hearts have epic stories,this one,sucked big time. :/

[Oerba Yun Fang]

XIV - MMO, stick with Warcraft. Lots of negative feedback from this one, like high up executives stepping down over failure.

From what I heard, the entire original team that worked on FFXIV is gone, either fired or "resigned" (read: they resigned so they wouldn't get fired). And I actually believe it. That's just how bad FFXIV was.

[OrcsRLame]

In general they're all seperate stories, however VII, X, and X-2 take place on the same world (however VII takes place at a very different time.) My personal favorites are X, VII, and VI, but they're all pretty damn good. VIII and IX are pretty standard JRPGs but not bad by any means, and XII was also very fun.

Do you have an official source for Spira=world of FF7? If I recall, the only evidence for that is the character Shinra from FF10-2 that says he wants to start a company. To me though, that one has always been hard to call, as it could have just been a reference aimed at the fans.

Edit: Nevermind, found it myself! From the Final Fantasy wiki, "In Final Fantasy X-2, Square Enix dropped hints of a connection between the Planet of Final Fantasy VII and Spira, as Shinra and Rin discuss the potential of the Farplane as an energy source, though Shinra states the technology to safely and successfully refine energy from the Farplane would not be developed for generations. This connection is confirmed in the Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimania guide, where Kazushige Nojima states that Rin would fund Shinra's efforts to refine energy from the Farplane using the Vegnagun's remains, but failed. His descendants, a thousand years later when space travel was developed, would travel to the Planet and found the Shinra Electric Power Company."

What does it mean when it says, "travel to the planet"? Is it talking about the Farplane, or the world of FF7? So confused now.

Second Edit: Read the reference, it seems the planet of FF7 was indeed colonized by descendants of Shinra, huh, the more you know. Wonder if there's any other subtle connections between 7 and 10/10-2. Cloud is Tidus' descendant!!! /tinfoil hat

[Solmyr13]

Since 7 and 8 do tend to get debated a lot, here's my take on it.

FFVIII is the WORST to start with, though I did enjoy playing it. The Draw system punishes you for using magic and forces you to constantly be at 100 of a magic you have equipped. The weapon leveling system was fun though and the card game gave you something insanely addicting to do when you were bored at certain points. Though i still say it's impossible to know where to get all the cards without cheating (Rinoa's dad having Ifrit and you had to lose a certain card to him first was just... -_-)

FFVII is fun but... I don't know. There's clearly the elite squad you HAVE to use and once you level everything up (and sell your first mastered All), magic and money are just worthless and it's a huge grindfest at the end. Not only that, you can't even use your best weapon until the end because it doesn't level Materia, your forced to use things like Apocolpyse (triple materia growth) even though its a shitty sword.

Final Fantasy X was my favorite, to be honest. I liked the story, I liked the switching people in and out of combat and I loved the leveling system. You could level your characters up a certain way and later on still have ways to enhance them. For instance, once you got the "Any Node" key (where you can put a point into any node on the map), giving Yuna who had her high magic the Ultima spell helped greatly when you needed a constant healer. Like VIII, Blitzball was something fun you could do when you hit a slight rut and was bored.

[Korru]

Good

FF3
FF5
FF6
FF7

Ok

FF1
FF4
FF9
FF12

Avoid it like the plague

FF2
FF8
FF10
FF13

[Xeones]

IV and VI are great, if you're fine with the graphics.

VII, VIII, and IX are all fantastic games. Ignore the hate they get, you know band wagon and all that. X is pretty good, by no means the best. XII and XIII are best just avoided, I can't really even justify considering those final fantasy games.

[Gallahadd]

play Ten, then play Tactics, then play Ten again, frak the rest.

[Mavecryst]

I'd say determine what level of graphics you can stomach, then decide which story you'd like. In the end, it's mostly "save the world" stuff, but some do it better than others, of course. And there's a distinct Final Fantasy feel to most of the series which you will kinda understand once you play a few. This excludes 13, which imo lost the feeling of a final fantasy. As a game it was ok, but as a final fantasy it failed.

Personally for me, I'd say start with 7. Pre-7 final fantasies were still enjoyable, but in today's context I find it difficult to go back to them due to their graphics. While I do and have gone back to 3 and 4 a couple of times, I don't enjoy them as much as I used to, even with nostalgia. For me the best mix is in 7 and 8. Never really liked 9, though there are concepts in the game that I did love to bits. Like chocobo treasure hunting, that was a really fun sidequest.

7 is longer than 8, so if you have time you can start on that, otherwise go with 8. Don't listen to other people's ideas on each game's stories/gameplay, try it out yourself and see if you like it. Each game is different, so you're gonna have alot of haters/lovers of each game. I've enjoyed every combat system in the series with the huge exception of 12, which I found ludicrously boring. However, some do like it, so as I said, have a feel for them yourself.

Keep an open mind! Hope you find yourself a fan of the series soon!

[Lillpapps]

Even tho FF8 is my favorite I would not recomment it as the first FF game you play. The mechanics are a lot more confusing then the other games so if you dont read up on the draw system and where to draw the best magic etc you will be quite nerfed.
I would say start with either 10 or 7. 7 is really easy and short (less then 20 hours). No advanced mechanics at all.
10 has a lot more to offer in terms of content and if you like the game you have 100+ hours of playtime pretty easily.

[Rixarius]

Good

FF3
FF5
FF6
FF7

Ok

FF1
FF4
FF9
FF12

Avoid it like the plague

FF2
FF8
FF10
FF13

...wat. I can't take this list seriously if you have both 8 and 10 on the avoid list and have 3 on the good list.


But on topic, all of them are good in their own way. My personal favorites are 6, 9, 10, and Tactics. Tactics actually has an amazing story. As does Tactics advanced. I even like 13, as much crap as it got, it is a solid game just with an extremely slow build up. It's really all preference honestly. I have yet to play a non-MMO Final Fantasy that I hate.

[obdigore]

IV and VI are the best in the series.

IX was pretty good as well, even if I never finished it.

I have not played any after IX because once they started playing dress-up I couldn't take the series seriously anymore.

People just love VII because it is the first one they played, generally.

[Charrison25]

I just recently got into final fantasy and this is how i did it

Step 1. Watch Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Motion Picture), be amazed by cool fight scenes and amazing graphics

Step 2. Put FF VII in your playstation....laugh at the horrible graphics and take it out
Step 3. Google GBA emulators, download it and download FFI, FFII, FFIV, FFV, FFVI
Step 4. Play FF I & FF II at double the speed because they don't have much of a story
Step 5. Play FF IV, and FFV at normal speed they actually have an interesting story
Step 6. Play FF VI and be amazed at how good the graphics are and how amazing the story is (graphics almost as good as Megaman X)

If you actually played all 5 games you are now a FF fanboy, and thats a good thing because you will need your new fanboism to stomach FF VII bad graphics

Step 7. Put in Advent Children again to remember what the characters look like
Step 8. Play FF VII and use your imagination to pretend all the characters look like Advent Children, take imagination breaks often
Step 9. Play FF VIII and IX if FF VII didn't completely destroy your fanboism
Step 10. Play FFX its my personal favorite
Step 11. YouTube secret ending to FFX-2 and NEVER PLAY THAT GAME EVER
Step 12. Play FFXII if you feel like it (I never played it)
Step 13. Play some Kingdom hearts games. (hell you made it this far why not)
Step 14. Play FFXIII the game is meh at best, but your fanboism should blind you and you should be able to finish it anyway

Skip all the FF MMORPGS because they are bad

[ThatInternet]

Start with 9,

it's the ultimate example of what the series is. it has all the elements and a fantastic story, and the battle system is not overly convoluted.

that's my recomendation but my play order was this: 8,9,7,4,1,10,2,12,13. I have started 6 a lot but have never gotten too far into it.

[mark182ass]

I would have to say it's a toss up between VI and VII for the best FF for me and no, I am not going to say one is better than the other. They were both great. They both had great stories, great villians, and great battle systems. (Although near the end of VII with the right materia setup the game does become way too easy)

OT: Kefka > Sephiroth <- This is my opinion and not a stated fact.

[someoneelse]

ff6 hands down. awesome story and great soundtrack. played this back in the day, don't know if the graphics will appeal to you but i still remember it as probably the best game Ive played.

[Gunz]

What is the best way to play the PS1 games? On PSP, PS3, PS1, etc?

[Kittahsmash]

Play whichever ones you like best from how they look after doing some research on how each game plays I've been playing and following FF since the days of lore, so my first game was 6, then 4, then in order from 7 through 10 and 10-2. I skipped 11 because I hated the idea of an MMO FF, played 12 for a little bit before I got bored, played and beat 13, and stopped afterwards.
I find that people always really enjoy the first final fantasy that they play. I played 6 first, and thusly love 6 to death, and think it is far superior to 7 or 8 (or whatever the 'hotly debated' best FF's people have mentioned). My stepbrother meanwhile, absolutely loves 4 and played it first, and then grew to like 10.
Just remember that besides 10/10-2, and 13/13-2, each story and world is different. The main thing that each FF has in common with the other games throughout the entire series, has something to do with Crystals. The later FF's turned the Crystals into Espers/Materia, and have sortof been phased out in the later games (though 13 still has Crystal in it)

[Xami]

6 and 9 are considered by many the best in terms of "classic" Final Fantasy. 5 also to some extent, had great music, but a bit dated, and 4 was known for its high difficulty level. 7, 8, 10 and onwards are all "playable movies."