I used to not be into games as much as I am now, so I missed playing all the Final Fantasy games growing up. Hell, I didn't even know they existed when they came out. I know they are held in high regard, and are arguably the best JRPG franchise around. I feel that I should play at least one Final Fantasy game to see what the fuss is about, but i don't know if it is worth the time investment. I'm thinking of going with Final Fantasy VII since everyone seems to love it. Do the PS1 era Final Fantasy games still hold up? Which game do you recommend to a newcomer of the series? Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

Start with the second one, since you'll have nowhere to go but up from there.

@bmehlers: You might find this thread useful! :D

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/which-final-fantasy-game-should-i-start-with-1443040/

Well, I haven't invested much time in the final fantasy games either, but I would say go with 7 since that seems to be considered the best for the most part. I played a bit of FF10 when it released and thought it was pretty good. That may be worth trying with the upcoming hd re-releases that are coming about.

Well now is the time to get started.
We have Final Fantasy XIII-2-2:Lightning does someething coming out soon so all your favorite cha.. nevermind.

Get ready for a shit load of people telling you how wrong you are in thinking its the best JRPG franchise around and that FFVII is trash.

Now that being said, I would suggest playing either through FFVI or IX for a taste of the more traditional games in the series as it was in its beginnings. VII is fantastic too and a turning point in the style of the narrative for future games in the franchise though the gameplay itself isn't so different. Final Fantasy X is basically the model for the modern Final Fantasy.

As for holding up, well they hold up as well as they ever will. If you don't mind playing older games that is.

So yeah my suggestion is either VI or IX for a more traditional one and VII for historical purposes or simply because i think its pretty rad and X for a modern take on the series. You may want to wait for the HD remaster of X coming in the next couple months.

The only Final Fantasy game I've beaten was 13, but I really don't care for the series at all. I'm not really a fan of turn-based rpgs to be begin with.

I'd suggest IX, but it is a bit slow and a lot of the subtle nods to other games would go over your head. IX may be my favorite, but I recognize that it probably isn't the best one to start with. I say start with either VI or VII.

I think the time has passed. I've tried to revisit them on occasion and I just lose interest. That's my experience. Maybe if I hadn't played any of them before?

Final Fantasy is such a long running franchise that it's really hard to play any one game that gives you a sense for the series. Personally I usually recommend newcomers try out either VI or X. Six is the culmination of the series' 2d entries, and generally regarded as one of the best after VII. VII is where the series lost a lot of the older fans, personally I love it, but I can definitely respect that it hasn't aged particularly well, which is why I wouldn't recommend that one just yet. If you want to get a feel for the 3d games, I say go for X, it was the last one that represents 3d Final Fantasy really well before they started getting all weird.

FF4 on the DS. It's probably the easiest way to get into the traditional FF games without having to look at the 16 bit graphics of old. Otherwise, FF6. It's the pinnacle of the 2d Final Fantasy games and for some reason, has never been touched again since the PSX release. If anything, you'll get to hear how much better then SNES' midi hardware was compared to the Playstation's.

Do not play the Playstation versions of FF4/FF6. The cutscenes are neat, but the load times are the worst.

FF7 is everyone's favorite because it's everyone's first. Groundbreaking when it first came out, but when it comes to the PSX era games, FF9 is the one to play. The long, animated summons in FF7 were mindblowing. In 1997. Now it looks like colored marshmallows bobbing up and down. By the second time you've seen Knights of the Round, you'll want to gouge your eyes out. If you want to kill the ultimate weapons, you'll have to watch Knights over and over and over and over again. FF9 gives you the option to use quick summons.

Final Fantasy is one of the few series I know where almost every installment has its own proponents, other than maybe those first three NES games. IV is a pretty safe choice. It's been re-released on half a bajillion platforms, holds up reasonably well and is fairly indicative of a lot of story and character beats present in the series as a whole.

Agreed. There's a reason it has been put on every single device possible. ha. Outside of Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and maybe Doom, I think it may be the most ported game. Definitely most ported RPG.

Chrono Trigger. >.<

Alright, fine! 6. It's the best one.

Xenogears! >.<

@herbiebug: I played Chrono Trigger a couple of years ago and really liked it, but for some reason I stopped playing and never finished it. I was pretty far into it too. The only other JRPG I've played is Persona 3: FES, which I loved but felt was too long.

This, for the most part. It's a fine game, but if you've never played a Final Fantasy game before, that's NOT the game to start with, it has not aged particularly well, especially not if you weren't into games during the PS1 era and has some tolerance for that generation's quirks and graphical style. The SNES era games absolutely hold up the best, and are available on all kinds of devices, I think FFX and FFXII hold up quite well too (apart from FFX'es abysmal voice acting) , so if you're willing to wait, maybe the FFX HD collection could be worth waiting for?

I really don't think Final Fantasy XIII was terrible either, if you've got a PS3 or 360 and can find a cheap copy of that, it's not a bad place to start, I'd think.

13 is terrible, so anything but that and you should have fun time if you like rpg games. Well 11, 13 and 14 since 11 and 14 are mmo's and don't really count as FF games and should have their numbers taken away and given a surname of some sort instead.

@zelyre said:

The first Final Fantasy I played was 1, and that's one of my least favorites. My favorites are 6 and 7 and I played them after 1, 4, and 5. There are reasons to like FF7 beyond nostalgia, even if you don't agree with them. Also you're emphasizing summoning too much. You can beat every monster in that game without ever summoning a thing.

In this order:

4 > 6 > 9 > 10 > 10-2 > 13 > 13-2 > 13-3

I was a huge FF fan back in it's day - I'm no longer, as I don't have the time to play 50+hr RPGs. If you're curious as FF to see what all the fuss is, it's really hard to select which one because the thing with FF that made it so great (at least one of the qualities) is that it was on the edge of technology. It was the Uncharted of it's time - FFVI looked amazing when it came out, FFVII and FFVIII was insane graphically.

So if you play them now, you're not going to have the same context. Of course, the games are fine without that - but it definitely is a big part (at least for me). As for which FF you should play to see what it's all about, I personally recommend FFVII because it's my favourite, but I would also recommend VI and IX because they're also good 'snapshots' of what FF is about.

Pretty much agree with this guy here. FFIX was my first (and my favorite) but I would recommend X over it if you want to play one of the 3d Final Fantasy games.

The problem with coming into Final Fantasy cold at this point in time is that it's hard for new players to understand that what the games are "about" has changed continually since the first game.

The first game, for example, is very much a stats based-grind heavy RPG game. It's more diablo than it is what JRPGs came to be known as. For tha reason, a lot of people who like newer FF games will say that the old one is bad, or "doesn't hold up", when in reality it was a game for a whole different fanbase than a modern FF game would have.

I would say that, honestly, Final Fantasy 7 is both the best and worst FF game to play. It's the game that was the catalyst between "old" and "new school" FF fans. It has a lot of the FMV and flash, but it also has a lot of the character of the older games. It also has the materia system which was really good. It's also the game that almost every JRPG afterwards copied. It's one of the worst though because it was leveraging it's graphics and whatnot more than any of the other games and, like a woman who relies on her looks instead of having brains, when age sets in it doesn't hold up.

Personally I think Final Fantasy VI is the one to play. Even though Final Fantasy IV is my favorite, VI is probably objectively the best one in my opinion.

I've played a bunch of them. Within the past month, I purchased FFVII on Steam to check out what all the fuss was about. A lot of their more... eccentric gameplay moments don't really hold up all that well. Also, I feel like as a whole, the game was good, but vastly overrated, and I went into it trying really REALLY hard to love it. I also bought FFVIII once I finished it just cuz i wanted to see the game that had Squall as the protagonist. In my opinion, it's a much better game. The controversial gameplay elements like the Draw and Junction systems and enemy scaling were really impressive to me. Also the graphical jump from VII to VIII is like night and day. In summary, start with either VII or VIII, but if you want the better one, go with VIII.

Honestly, if you want to play any of the Final Fantasy games older than X, you're going to have to come at them with the understanding of them being old games. I don't see how FF6 holds up any more than FF7 mechanically or story wise. If you can accept and enjoy old games, then you can accept and enjoy pretty much any of them other than the NES ones just fine.

I'm of the opinion that the easiest FF game for someone with no experience of the genre to approach and get potentially get into is X. If you like that game it's easiest to branch out from there and has the least chance to repel you immediately. XII is a good and approachable game too, but it's very very different from the other games and IMO won't really help you get into the rest of the series if you start with it first.

And since everyone else is making baiting statements: Lost Odyssey is the best Final Fantasy game. Come at me bro.

Dissidia. I'm not joking. It's awesome.

FFVII isn't bad for newcomers, but it is old graphically, and the localization is really spotty. Final Fantasy IV and VI are both good choices to start with, though so is X. The key point to remember though is that the series switches up mechanics and worlds with each new numbered entry, so your experience with one won't match your experience with another.

@bmehlers:

VI is you like SNES style RPGs. IMO this it s the best in the series. But it is 2d and 16 bit

Vii if you want to play the most culturally celebrated one to get why it matter to people. I don't think the early PS1 graphics have held up very well though.

X if you only want to play just one. It's being rereleased with new graphics and is a decent fusion of what is good from the different eras of the series.

If you're only going to play one and it doesn't begin with this intro, you're doing it wrong.

The only FF game's I have played are 13 which was my first, and 8 which I wanted to try out. 13 was just bad and 8 was so fucking confusing for someone who was starting out I just gave up.

You should kick anyone who recommended those games.

Play FF6, 7, 9, 12

Some of those are better than other but they are among the best in the series. if you want to Play FF3 and 4 on the DS.

Everyone will tell you that VII's overrated. Don't listen to them. The battle system is kind of bland, but everything else about it is a brilliant mix of old-school adventure gaming, atmosphere, character management, and cinematic storytelling.

Start there, then work your way backwards. Check out XII if you want something a little different, but for the most part avoid everything after they introduced voice acting. XIII has a cool battle system and is pretty to look at, but they removed most of what makes Final Fantasy what it is.

6 or 10 for a first-timer based entirely on what has aged the best.

Final Fantasy 6 is fantastic, and 9 is probably my favorite of the series. I haven't played 4, but I know it's held in high regard as well. Aside from 9, which was a return to form, everything after 6 was significantly less interesting to me from a gameplay standpoint simply because the characters all ended up exactly the same. It started with Materia in FF7, then it was Junctions in FF8, after that was the sphere grid in 10, then the License Grid in 12, and finally the Crystarium in 13--all these made it so your characters had the exact same skill set and stats, with maybe some gear differences depending on if the character was a caster or a fighter. I think the only unique characteristic of each character was what kind of weapon they used, and limit break-esque moves, as they could all equip all the armor and accessories (FF12 had the characters eventually able to all do everything, however).

FF6 and FF9 are my personal favorites because the characters were unique from a gameplay perspective. They equipped certain kinds of weapons, certain kind of armor (though I think accessories were universal?), and had skill classes that belonged only to them (to use FF9 as an example: Zidane was a thief, Freya was a dragoon, Vivi was a black mage, etc.). The roles they played in battle also bled into their personalities and character designs.This isn't to say that the more recent Final Fantasy games aren't good, but that's a big problem in my opinion.

That said, my personal recommendations are: FF4 (DS remake preferably), FF6, FF9, FF10, 4 Heroes of Light, and Crystal Chronicles (the sequels weren't bad, but weren't great either). FF7 is worth it to see what the fuss is about, but I still think that game has a mess of a story, and the translation had a bit of a rush-job.

Yep, it takes quite a few lapses in story logic.

Depends on what you want to get out of it. If you want to see a retro-style JRPG, I highly recommend FFVI, it's probably the best with some of the best music in gaming history, outstanding characters, a great villain, etc.

FFVII has a special place in my heart, but not simply because it was my first. People like to trash-talk it a whole bunch, but it offers great variety, I enjoyed the materia system a lot, the story takes surprising turns in where it takes you, and at the time, it had impressive graphics.

FFX is my favorite PS2 game, it's rather linear and the voice acting isn't the best by today's standards, but it offers a beautiful story of love and sacrifice, religion and faith.

The dark horse would be Final Fantasy Tactics, the writing is tremendous and the story is very mature.

@gokaired: I kind of want to try out an old 2d one just to see what it's like. 6 is the best of the 2d ones is the common consensus?

at this point i would recommend starting with ten when the hd version comes out, not my personal favorite, though still really good, but i think thats going to be a good starting point

VI, followed closely by IV, are the best of the 2D entries.

You sir, are correct.