I have had the brilliant idea of playing through all the "good" Final Fantasy games. Starting from 13 backward to 6 (excluding 11, obviously), I'm starting from the worst to the best (in terms of public opinion). I have been a huge fan of the series since I was a kid but have never finished one. I've gotten far in most but never beat any. How's my idea? Is it as sweet as I think it is?

I think you're missing out on IV.

I also think you should pick one and stick with it. Playing through all of the Final Fantasies, or even half of them, is a monumental task. Especially for someone who confesses to have never finished one despite playing several of them. I think it's best to pick one and focus on it.

Good luck!

If you want to play through the good Final Fantasy games then what you need to do is XII through IV, not XIII through VI.

You could skip V I guess but if you skip IV then what is even the point of your absurd endurance run anyway?

Like @believer258 said you should just start with playing one final fantasy to completion. So, so, so many people appear on these forums and say they are going to play all the final fantasies and then next thing you know we find them in a gutter with a needle in their arm.

Yeah, I don't think this is quite in order of "popular opinion". (Especially since "popular opinion" all too often means "the loudest people on the internet".) Just pick whichever ones you want to play and play them. Simple.

I'd also like to express my absolute disgust for the people recommending passing on FFV, as it has (in my opinion, of course) the best gameplay of the SNES-era Final Fantasys.

good is all subjective, as in the only good one is Final Fantasy Tactics =P

your "idea" is very time consuming one, like a time vampire.

I had the idea to play (or re-play, in some cases) through every numbered FF game starting from the beginning.

I stopped a couple of hours into FF3. It's just not possible. It's like trying to eat a 5-pound burger by yourself. It's really fun at first, but soon it goes bad. Real bad.

Sounds more like a bad idea, but I'd be impressed if you pull it off.

You lost me at sayin that XIII is the worst >:( that goes to IX

IV is probably the best. Popular opinion varies a lot apart from the love for VI so good luck with not having a weird list. Tactics is good, too. For the SNES ones you can play them on an emulator and speed them up 5x-20x, that makes them a lot more playable than pretty much every Final Fantasy aside from XIII (XIII still drags on the plot front but the combat is engaging and the ability to retry a battle immediately is a godsend). VIII is the most popular game in Japan. I don't think you can seriously play through the Final Fantasy series without playing I.

I don't know why you'd want to play XIII. It's not very good. The prequel to VII on PSP is better than it and will take half as much of your time.

This seems like an alright idea I guess but I don't think you should do them all one after the other. That's a lot of time playing the same style of game with not playing anything else to break it up.

First off, gross. IX is probably my personal favorite. And I didn't just play the games for a few hours, I played them to about 2/3 of the plot. I also will not solely play FF games. Over the course of a play session I usually jump between 4 games and FF would just be one of them. For those suggesting IV, maybe I'll look into it. I agree it'll be difficult but hell, I can't afford the new systems so something needs to take up my time.

@oneangryzeus:

You know for most serieses that would probably be a really bad idea, as the graphics would get worse and gameplay feature get stripped out as you step backwards through time.

But in this case It's probably alright since 4,6,7 are among the universally best loved ones in the Final Fantasy series. That's a massive time commitment how ever you do it though

What games are you looking to play?

If you want to play the so called good ones I don't see how anyone could skip FF V :O It's one of the best!

Maybe you could skip 8 but as controversial as it is I think you should play it too. A lot of people love it and even more hate it. Even among the Japanese it's not usually as well regarded as other Final Fantasy games from its time (even if it sold bucket loads). Then again, some will say it's the best. It's worth a try.

Considering you haven't finished one before, it doesn't really sound like you are going to enjoy spending so much time on this (and a lot of time it is going to take). But from an academic sense, I think it's a pretty neat idea. Good luck!

EDIT: @cloudymusic You finished 2 before giving up!? Mad props dude.

It's hard to stay excited about randomly triggered encounters after 20 hours.

I never finished FF7 and FF8... at least I think I never finished FF8.. there was this puzzle I couldn't figure out in like the very last dungeon. In FF7 I got up to disc 2 or 3.

@tobbrobb: 2 is all about exploiting how the system works and then there's like no challenge whatsoever; I suppose you could give up on it because it got real boring after you figured out the asinine levelling.

I think trying to play Final Fantasy in any sort of order is a flawed plan, but playing the worst ones first just sounds like a disaster. You should just pick the ones that you personally think are the most interesting.

@egg: You can disable random encounters in Final Fantasy 8.

@fredchuckdave: Yeah I didn't mean it was hard at all. It's just bad.

How so?

Also, playing the ones that are the most interesting may not be a good plan either. It creates a biased viewpoint. It might be a good idea to go in release order, popularity, or a mix of both.

Personally I'd go by platform. If your main system is PS3 then obviously play the PS3 ones first, and you'd play them obviously in order of release (FF13 -> FF13-2 -> LR) because that is the order most other people would have played them. (and in this case the stories are directly connected)

If one of the games is a spinoff then you could make a special exception for those. For example if there was a Final Fantasy Kart then you could play that first, or ignore the other games completely.

@egg Diablo learns an ability called "Enc None" that you can equip which will disable all random encounters. I bet you could totally beat the game with that on too, just get really good at triple triad, have your GF learn the ability that converts cards into items, have your GF learn the ability that converts items into magic, and then use that magic with the Junction system to compensate for your lower level.

@aetheldod: blasphemy, IX is the best. In all seriousness is Final Fantasy the only series where the difference if opinion swings so drastically from game to game?

Possibly, but it's also one of the few series that's a series purely in name only.

@bongchilla: No it is the worst!!!! >:(

I dont think there is another franchise that is so polarizing ... I mean we are speaking for over 10 numbered games at least , hardly any other game has done that.