@liquiddragon: I voted IX and here's why, since you already know you like the PSX FF games.

While Vi and Iv are my personal favorites, I think for someone who intends to play all the games it's best to save them until after you've played the very oldest ones. Going back to the NES era games can be very very rough now (especially II which is easily the worst game in the whole series imo), as the series made huge improvements with nearly every release in a fundamental way that isn't true for the PSX and later ones. There's just so many Quality of Life stuff you might not realize you'd miss until you play one without them. So with the 2d games, I think it's generally best to to tackle them chronologically.

And you may want to bypass the NES version of III (Japanese III not the US III aka Vi) altogether in lieu of the Ds/PC remake.

Actually now that I think about it, III's remake may be the one you should play instead of the choices you listed.

It's a good bridge from the new to the old. If you like that, then I'd tackle I, II, IV, V and Vi and then IX. Because IX does have a lot of homages to the NES and SNES era games that you likely would appreciate more after playing the 2d ones. If you don't, then there's a good chance you won't like I or II.

fwiw I really liked Type-O it did have a very very different feel and tone from a mainline game though.

I adore 6 and it holds a special place in my heart, but personally I think 9 is by far the best FF game ever made to date. The NES FF games while are fine are a bit of a slow burn, I would highly recommend Dragon Warrior 2-4 if you want some very solid classic NES RPGs. They have better stories and over all just a lot better and more fun to play then the real early FF games. As stated above me FF 1 is not good and 2 is just unfairly difficult. The GBA versions if I remember correctly fix some of the problems those 2 games had. Also Final Fantasy Tactics is a real gem of a game I would highly recommend. Crystal Cornicles for the Gamecube is a hidden gem of a FF game but unless you have a few friends and 4 GBAs the game really is then a bit of a bore.

How long are these old ones? I debate playing IV and VI each year but never know when to squeeze them in.

IV is about 12 -25 hours without doing 100% completion and about 45-50hours 100% completion. VI is probably close to 30-40 hours without 100% and probably close to 60 plus hours for 100%

@slag: oh sweet, at least someone likes Type-0. I was starting to get bummed out about my purchase. It looks fun. Thanks for the guide. I don't know why but even as someone who considers himself a big fan of the series, 1&2 never interest me and 3 didn't even cross my mind. 5 is something I wanted to get to after I play the ones I listed plus Type-0 and Tactics. I didn't know about the 3 remake, only the 4. That one does look neat, gonna look into it.

@mrgreenman: I did consider putting Tactics but I've had trouble wrapping my head around it and a bit too intimidated by it. I love Valkyria Chronicles and XCOM:EU hooked me real good but they don't seem to occupy the same space in the SRPG genre as the ones like Tactics. Maybe you can provide some tips or point me in the right direction? Also, PSX or PSP version? I know War of the Lions has the beautiful FMVs and better translation but Austin Walker said the slowdowns were a deal breaker. I have both.

@liquiddragon: The slowdown in War of the Lions is quite bad, though you may not notice it too much if you have no experience with the original. If you want to/can emulate stuff (or if you can get custom firmware on a PSP), fan-made slowdown fixes do exist. FFT is my all time favorite game, so I've spent a great deal of time tinkering with it. My preferred way to play the game is either War of the Lions with the slowdown fix, or the original with WotL's translation patched into it (which I love, but some people hate for its old English); both options are surprisingly easy to do using emulators.

I know I'm SUPER biased, but my vote would definitely be for Tactics, 100% of the time. It can be a little daunting at first, but the game can very much be taken at your own pace, as their is never any punishment for not progressing the story within certain time limits. Meaning that, if you want to experiment or want/need to grind, you have all the time in the world to do so. You can even be an absolute crazy person like me and hit level 90 before doing the 4th story mission. My biggest piece of advice, though, is to keep multiple saves. Save before every story mission, and, if you get into a story sequence that gets you into a string of battles without returning to the world map, SAVE BETWEEN THOSE BATTLES IN A DIFFERENT SLOT. Many a playthrough in that game has been stopped dead by a very infamous fight because people didn't have multiple saves and were underleveled/ underprepared.

All that said though, Tactics is a beautiful, wonderful game and I suggest everyone at least TRY to play it in any form available to them. But again, I'm pretty damn biased.

@markus1395: What about positioning? This what I don't get. In a game like Valkyria Chronicles, you can crouch and sit behind sand bags to greatly decrease the hits you take but something like FFT, melee attacks force you go up to your enemy which leaves you wide open for the other side to gang up on one of your guys. It is normal for a lot of your guys to fall? I felt like I was just constantly on revive duty.

@liquiddragon: It can be a bit a bit tough at first, for sure. I would recommend doing just a bit of grinding as soon as you can at Mandalia Plains, just to get a few extra levels. Have your whole squad stick together and let the monsters come to you, then surround them once they get up to your squad. Take them out focusing on one at a time, and things should go pretty smoothly. You'll still have some guys falling early on, but just make sure they don't fully die and you should be fine. You should find that you have less people falling just a few battles in, as long as no one straight-up dies and you have to replace them.

Once you gain a couple of levels and have all the Squire abilities with the squires you are using that you want to get (just read about them in the abilities menu, and get what you want! The great thing about FFT is you can kind of play it however you want; people have beaten it in insane, crazy ways), and by then you should be able to turn them into knights. Head to Eagrose/Igros (depending on the translation) Castle to buy armor for the knights, and at that point you should be able to move on in the main story quite easily. Just stay on top of all the abilities and getting what you want and keeping an eye out to see if you've unlocked any new jobs.

Honestly, it's been 14 years since the first time I beat the game, so I hope my advice for someone who is new is helpful, haha. Just some early recommendations- A good early squad is the Main Character, 3 Squires, and 1 Chemist. The game is actually legitimately a bit... sexist, in that men are better at all the physical classes, but the tradeoff is women are better mages. So I generally use 3 male squires and 1 female chemist. You can either change the male chemist you get at the beginning over to a squire, or use the warrior's guild at Gariland to pick up a new squire.
My second recommendation is the good squire abilities to pick up- Gained JP Up is a must, Focus/Accumulate (again, depending on translation), is very good, and Move +1 and Counter Tackle are both very helpful as well. That said though, I always recommend experimenting and getting what you think sounds cool.

If you do end up playing and want my crazy, rambling, FFT obsessed help, don't hesitate to ask! I could talk about FFT forever.

For some reason 9 is really divisive, but I adore it.

I'll have to go ahead and recommend 6, though. It's one of my favorite games ever made.

@markus1395: dude, that's awesome. Sound like great advices, thanks a lot.

@liquiddragon:

Yeah the battle system of Type-0 is neat, granted the graphics are a little weak since it's a remaster of a PSP game, but it's got pretty fun combat. It's not a perfect game by any means, you'll need multiple playthroughs to 100% the game and the story and characters are a bit tropey. Still there is enough there to have kept me hooked and it's not terribly long by FF standards. As long as you go into it expecting for it not be a high production showpiece or a deep story (like the mainline entries), I think you can enjoy this fun side game. I also think Type-0 gives you a glimpse into FinalFantasy's next creative lead as FFXV's Tabata directed it. I'm pretty curious to see what he can do with his own entry that he gets to build from the ground up (versus rescuing FF XV)

Fwiw I thought FF 1 was absolutely incredible, but I also played it back in the day. That's the one that got me into the series. But games are just straight up better today, FF included. So it is one of those games where the context of when it was released is critical to understanding its' greatness. I figure it's got to be a pretty tough sell for many newcomers who probably got into games playing honestly better stuff. You can't "unsee" everything games have done better since then you know? Makes total sense to me why those games wouldn't look appealing to you. They are pretty barebones affairs compared to the SNES ones, but you can see the glimmers of the story telling ambition in 1 and especially 2 and 3, despite having a bland story, is where the FF battle system really started to gel.

One other note, the FF 3 remake team, I think, went onto make FF: The 4 Heroes of Light and then the Bravely Default series. If you play the FF 3 remake I think you'll get a decent taste of what those games are like. It's kinda neat, in a way the Bravely games remind of what FF might look like today if they stayed as consistent to their NES identity like Dragon Quest did. Kinda like an alternate universe thing.

Saw you commented on tactics too. I didn't recommend that one because it is not a mainline game and very different from those, but boy is that one is incredible. Boy, you are in for a treat with that one. fwiw I think it is the best PSX Final fantasy game. The story is simply one of the very best in all FF and the combat for the time felt . All I can say is don't be intimidated, unlike Fire Emblem or other SRPGs you can grind pretty much whenever you want to and there is no permadeath, which means there isn't anything in the game you can't handle that a little elbow grease won't solve.

fwiw I've only played the PSX version and I thought the translation was plenty good enough there, Wouldn't surprise me if the War of the Lions version is better enough to make it worthwhile to play that one.

@slag: cool man. I think I'll enjoy Type-0 based on the non-mainline FFs I've played. The fun mechanics over the grand epic of the main ones is a great change of pace and there really isn't much expectations going into the prequels, sequels, and spins offs. The director is definitely a small reason I'm interested in it too.

I do want to check out 1, 2, & 5 down the line but there are other essential JRPGs I've yet to play like Suikoden 2 and so many more that I do need to be kinda picky, plus spreading them out has really allowed me to enjoy pretty much all of them. The more you put in, the more you get out of the games in the genre generally so I think it's best to take my time with each of them. I thought I was close to being through with the FF series but looking at it in its entirely, it seems like I'm only past about the halfway point. lol

How is the difficulty of the FF3 remake? I know that was the main complaint of the 4 remake. I think I'm gonna look into finding a good price on a used copy of the DS version or keep my eye out for a sale on Steam or PSN for the PSP version.

I always wanted to get into Tactics and based on the poll, I've committed to 6 and Tactics for this year. Still knee deep in 15 atm so that'll be a record of me but I feel like I can handle it. :D

@liquiddragon: I think spreading them out is definitely the right call, that's certainly how they were intended to be played. You can definitely burn yourself out if you over do it. And you're right you want to be able to take your time, relax and enjoy the spectacle in these games. The nice thing about what you have left is that the 2d stuff tends to be shorter in length than the PSX onwards ones.

I didn't find the ff3 remake too challenging, it felt middle of the road FF wise. I think I grinded a little bit before the final dungeon, but I'm not sure I ever had a game over. Fwiw In general I don't think FF games are very difficult. I think V is the only one that gave me any real problems.

III remake is certainly a lot lot easier than the NES version of III though. Not to mention it actually has characters with personality and story, while the NES version doesn't. I'm not sure how that stacks up versus the IV remake, as I had played 4 so many times by that point that I didn't replay it again when teh remake came out. IV is considered an unusually hard FF game though, enough so they made it easier when they brought it stateside initially.

@slag: sweet. I read a lil bit on the wiki when you mentioned the III remake and wasn't sure what to think about the new characters. Hey, which version did you play? I always feel weird about DS ports on other systems but I played GTA: Chinatown Wars on the PSP and had a great time so maybe it's no big deal?

@liquiddragon: I played it on DS .

I got it on Steam too for convenience sake if I ever felt like replaying it (FF is my favorite franchise so there's a chance I will), but haven't messed around with there so can't speak to that port's quality. The DS game I don't really recall being a game that really needed a second screen (it was just maps and stuff I think), so I imagine the PC version is likely alright (unlike the Steam versions of V and VI which are of the iOS versions of those games, they absolutely butchered the original SNES sprites).

The characters are kinda hokey, but it's a world of improvement compared to what the original was and at least there is something.

@slag: Alright man, thanks. Maybe, I'll look into it a lil, I'd prefer not to play on a handheld. lol Sry, one last quick question. Which version of IV is ideal? SNES ok?

@liquiddragon:

Understandable, I really think the Steam version of III is most likely fine but it can't hurt to check.

I honestly don't know which version of IV is ideal, that one in particular has what seems like a million versions (SNES, SNES NA, PSX, PSP, iOS, DA Android, Steam SNES Easy type, GBA and others I think? It's crazy, I haven't played most of them). The SNES is the one I have the most nostalgia for although it's probably the worst now, however I liked the PSX version the best because it added a run button into it (which really does make the game go faster in towns and dungeons and stuff) while removing the cut content from the NA SNES release. I wouldn't worry about getting a version that has FF IV-the after years unless you really need to play everything. It's very ....not great.

I suspect the PSP complete collection version is likely best although I haven't played it, since it includes FF IV -Interlude- and I don't think any other version does.

VI is one of my Top 3 games of all time. Granted, I played it when it was cutting edge, so I may have some bias. It's still a great game and many people seem to have enjoyed it, having come to ot years later.

IV... man, I like this game, but it's hard to come back to. I'm currently replaying the Advance version, which restores the original Japanese difficulty. It's hard, and not a fun, challenging hard. So many enemies have status effect counter attacks, that the trick is often to one shot them. That means overleveling by grinding. There are some great grinding spots (Mt. Mysidia with solo Cecil - for example) but anyone new to this game could get frustrated. I'm currently in the Sylph cave and having to unfrog my team after nearly every battle. Or whatever the status effects Marlboro give (all of them?). It's still fun but kinda also tedious.

So, yeah, if you play IV, maybe start with the SNES version unless you have a real affinity for the old 2D JRPG style of heavy grinding and trick encounters.

I wish they could make FF games like they used to. I have not played 15 but I can imagine I won't like it that much. I have not loved a FF game since 10. I'll give 12 another try with the remaster but I doubt it will change my mind that it is a single player MMO rather than a FF game.

I voted for FF6 since the story is more interesting than in 4 and I never liked 9 much. I started FF with 7 back in 1998 and loved it, 8 was great too despite major flaws but 9 was the first time a FF game disappointed me. Still it is far superior to 13. 13 doesn't even feel like a JRPG. At least I have Persona 5 soon and I am enjoying Trails of Cold Steel.

The FF7 remake might be good but I bet they will change the gameplay into some kind of action-RPG. I don't understand why they need flashy gameplay when Persona 3 and 4 showed that you can have really interesting old school turn based combat.

@slag: haha Yeah, it's insane how many times they've repackaged the thing. I guess I'll figure it out when I eventually get to it, I'm sure I'll have a couple more to choose from by then! Thanks agian.

@viking_funeral: thanks!

From what I understand, most people lean towards either the PSP or DS version of FFIV. The DS version really is a remake - it's 3D top down, has cutscenes and voice acting, they've revamped the difficulty and everything, etc. The PSP version is far closer to the original SNES version - the graphics have been updated, the difficulty matches the original Japanese version, rather than the easier North American SNES version, and the whole thing has been translated from scratch again. Anyone looking to play Final Fantasy IV for the first time should probably be looking at one of those two versions. I'm all for the PSP version, by the way - the only other SNES game I can name that has been updated and re-released so exceptionally well is Chrono Trigger for the DS.

@justin258: Cool man. That Complete Collection looks nice, I'm gonna keep an eye out for a deal. Thanks.

It's really like comparing apples and oranges. The series may have the same name but the games couldn't be more different while still being called RPGs. There are "eras" of Final Fantasy games and each has their champion. Of the ones you're asking about though, VI is likely the most enjoyable. The others are no slouches, but VI is widely considered perfection in the classic RPG community.

@liquiddragon: I'd recommend getting it digitally. That way you have PSP, Vita and PS TV as options to play it. I started replaying it again on my PS TV recently, and it's nice to be able to play that version on a TV.

Also my vote is for any version of IV. In my mind it's still the definitive FF, and not just because it's my favorite game. There's a reason they've remade it so many times.