What games should new people to FF series play?

[jyennie]

Hello. The reason why I made this thread is because I'm kind of a noob to Final Fantasy, being that I've only played FF XIII and XIII-2, but nothing else. I know this is a play for hardcore fans mainly so I do think the Final Fantasy forums are a good place to ask some questions I have;
What are the essential games people should play?
And which side series games are worth playing and which should be avoided?
And what would you rate all the main series games from most enjoyable to least enjoyable?

[GypsyElder]

All of them are worth playing. The XIII series was my least favorite (I was not interested enough even finish them) compared to the older PS1 & 2 generations.

My favorite is IX, but it's all based on opinion. I would suggest looking into the Playstation 1 & 2 versions first (PS1: VII, VIII, IX, PS2: X, X-2, XII etc.).

Check out the storylines and see which interests you most. They all, for the most part, use different fighting mechanics, so you'll find some more preferable than others.

Have fun!

[Pete]

I would be practical and see what you can find for cheap, between IV through IX. They're what most of us started with and the most easily accessible in terms of learning curves and fun. I wouldn't spend too much money if you were buying them, just in case you don't really enjoy them.

[loaf]

I just say 6-10 and then go from there.

[Rocky]

what kind of games do you like to play, OP?

tell me your favorites are and i can see what ff or square enix games would interest you

[SuperSabin]

The main FF series are a great series overall, my question to you is what platform do you own? If you are running a PC, you can easily have access to FFIII-X/X-2 (given you have a powerful enough pc for all of them), if you have a PS3, you can find most FF games in the PSone classics section with FF 1, FF 2, FF V, FF VI, FF VII, FF VIII, FF IX. If you have a PSP or a Vita you can even play FF III and FF IV if you get them from the store digitally or physically (FF III doesn't have a physical PSP copy here in the US though.)

If you own a PS2, definitely check out FFXII as well, open-world gameplay, and fascinating combat. My personal recommendation are around the FF V and FF VI games. If you want a unique experience, definitely play Final Fantasy V first, it has a job and ability system where you equip a job class on your character, and when you level up that job class, you learn an ability from that job class you can equip on any job class you choose to equip. It also has a fun, lighthearted story, and probably the funniest in the series with it's humor.

If you're more into the 3D FF's FFVII-XII are all great games, you can jump in at any order since they are independent from each other. That's about all I have to say on the subject, definitely let us know what interests you and we'll help you out!

[Magi of Worlds]

Why all of them of course! XD

[Homura]

For someone who got into this through the FF XIII series, I would definitely recommend playing FF X first -- which is good for a lot of the same reasons, only X is better.

After that, I would play through the classic "story trilogy" VII, VIII and IX.

Now you can either agree to downgrade your graphics even more for more good stories (IV and VI) or play a broken game.

I know this one is going to be controversial, but as the developers themselves say I don't think FF XII is a finished game. The problem, as some people make it out to be, is not really the political story. It's that you can go 5+ hours without a single cutscene. Meanwhile most of the game revolves around incredibly repetitive monster killing with almost no respite. Like with Xenoblade Chronicles, I think the only reason it has 90+ on Metacritic is because most video game reviewers are too lazy to play past the first 20 hours of the game.

XII has got some of the best art design and world-building in the series though, so if you are a patient soul I would still recommend giving it a look.

The rest of the mainlines are more retro JRPGs (I, II, III, V) that will probably be most interesting to you just for completion, if you're not into 16 bit grinding and looking for the right NPC to tell you where to go next. Oh, and there's the MMORPGs (XI and XIV). But again, this is something very different you have to enjoy in the first place.

Otherwise, from the spin-offs, the most worthwhile one is probably Final Fantasy Tactics. It's very different, but it's got a really cool story.

If you end up enjoying FF VII, I would also recommend playing Crisis Core for the PSP, which is a pretty good prequel. Phew.

[Pete]

I would actually stay away from all of the extra shit. Try to play the original snes versions of games, as opposed to the updated DS versions. They just don't have the same feel.

As for FF7, it's a personal stand, but I would stay away from all of the extra crap. Play the original first, and then see if you want to watch the story get retconned with things that ultimately don't make sense or matter.

[FinalxxSin]

If somebody is new to RPG titles in general, I would not recommend FFVIII first due to its Junction System. Other than that, it really just depends on what a person is interested in. Imo, at this point there is a game that may work for a person.

[Tiffany]

If somebody is new to RPG titles in general, I would not recommend FFVIII first due to its Junction System. Other than that, it really just depends on what a person is interested in. Imo, at this point there is a game that may work for a person.

VIII was my first FF game that I played actually I caught on pretty quickly, its not that tough. Tho certainly a pain when certain GFs are used with certain characters. Then those characters leave the party and you're kinda stuck with a slow assed summon because the GF hasn't bonded with you (or whatever the name they had for that was ha ha).

[FinalxxSin]

VIII was my first FF game that I played actually I caught on pretty quickly, its not that tough. Tho certainly a pain when certain GFs are used with certain characters. Then those characters leave the party and you're kinda stuck with a slow assed summon because the GF hasn't bonded with you (or whatever the name they had for that was ha ha).

I was like 10 and skipping tutorials I should have been paying attention too.... Took me a lot longer to really grasp things. Least FFVIII taught me not to skip tutorials. Ah the dream world thing. I didn't have too much of an issue with that because I could guess who was playing who based on summon compatibility. Plus, I got into a habit of writing down what I had junctioned where later on because of that.

[Pete]

You can pretty much get away with not knowing how to really master the materia and junction systems and still enjoy the story and be challenged. I didn't fully grasp the systems until my second playthrough, but became so ocd with it in ffx and ffxii that all of the characters had all of the same skills and there was very little difference.

[loaf]

I beat FF8 by using Lionheart and Auto Junction Strength. I had little to no magic. Literally just did Lionheart.

[Rocky]

I did pretty much the exact same strat, mostly just used the Revive and Recover command from Alexander/Leviathan, and junctioned the best strength magic on Zell so he could booya spam fights