As the title suggests, what are some of the best Final Fantasy games in your opinion? Please note that this is my first time entering the series, which I started with Final Fantasy VII. Once I'm done with Final Fantasy VII, I look forward to playing another Final Fantasy game in the series, and another one, and so on. Currently, I'm stuck between choosing Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy XII. So in addition to my question above, maybe you can also give me your opinion when it comes to those three games I've listed so that I can choose among them which to play first? I've read that Final Fantasy VI is the best one in the series, but I don't know about you guys.

Thanks!

I'm not particularly fan of the FF series but FF6 seems like a good idea to me.

My favorite is Final Fantasy VI, FFVII Remake Integrade is good, even if I dislike the modern combat systems. FF IX is probably the best one, even if it doesn't feel the best to me personally.

FF IV is really good too, as is FF V. Everything before XI is worth playing if you haven't.

I don`t know if there is the best FF game, but there are few of them that are conidered as best.
Personaly for me best FF game is X, VII, XII and IX
TEach one of them are unique and amazing game in its own way. I can`t say this is the best FF game, but for me those are the ones I like the most.

I don`t know if you played any FF game before, but if you haven`t I would go with X first. There is remastred edition containing both games X and X-2 in the pack, then XII Zodiac Age (Zodiac is remastered version of original XII).
Each of them is different, different story, different characters, different game mechanic now its all up to personal preference I think.

I like V the most, the Job system is really fun

Final Fantasy 5 is, by far, the best game in the series.

I also like 1, 2, and 3, though those games, particularly 2, might be a bit harder to get into. I actually found FF6 to be when the series started to decline, though it at least gets points for its female main character and its non-linear later part.

Thanks guys for your replies! I guess I'll go with VI, then V, and finally IX for now. May I know why you think this way? Did Square Enix change some elements from its previous FF games' mechanics in the later games or something? Or the stories of the later games just aren't as engaging? I'm actually currently playing FFVII right now, seeing that the remake is done in parts and that I don't want to wait too long for all the parts to be released. I might actually just give FFX a try one day in the future, since I'm not really that interested in its story after getting myself spoiled of its plot (where everything was actually just a dream? Please correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore I'm putting that game quite low in my priority list. But thanks again for your reply!

One more thing. What do you think of FFXII Zodiac Age? Have you played it? If yes, is it any good?

Yes I have XII is amazing game one of the best, thats why is more expensive then XV for example.
Unique fighting system, story is amazing and lot of customizations regarding skills...
In my opinion one of the best FF game ever made.

Just avoid XIII, in my opinion of the worst FF game. I bought it I spend 70 hours and just quit never finished it.
First its in real time, combat is bad, story is weird and characters are very shallow.

Yes you are.

The world itself and the characters progress and X-2 adds to that layer of world and character progression (and the in-engine interlude sequence and the litte audio story that came after it). They are not a dream. Everything else is up for spoilers, so I will leave it at that.

There was definitely a big change in the series at this point. In fact, I believe that the director changed between FF5 and FF6, with FF6's director going for a more cinematic experience, rather than the more gameplay-focused experiences of the early titles. Among the consequences of this is that you're spending a lot more time watching cutscenes and a lot less time actually playing the game.

One significant change is that the classes/jobs that were a huge element of the series, and perhaps defined the feel of the series, disappeared with FF6. Classes like white and black mage, for example, are gone at this point in the series.

Also, FF5 has this wonderful job system, where you can give a character a job (what other games typically call a class, so like Knight or White Mage), learn some of the job's abilities, change the character's job, and then equip one of those abilities on the other job. For example, by changing a black mage into a knight, you can equip Black Magic on the knight and get a knight that can cast black magic. There are tons of combinations, some of which interact in interesting ways, but you still can't make a character who is capable of doing everything at once.

FF6, by contrast, throws that away rather than building on it. Characters have unique abilities, but everyone can learn every standard spell, have all of them available at once, and in doing so you know longer have trade-offs when choosing which roles characters need to fill; everyone can fill every magic-oriented role at once, without sacrificing fighting ability.

FF5 actually builds off earlier games in the series. FF1 has character classes for your characters, but you can't just change them. FF3 is the first game in the series to use the term "job", and you can change them, but can't equip abilities from other jobs. FF4 is a bit of a step down, giving each character a fixed class, but forcing party changes as the plot progesses (instead of letting you choose your party). FF2 is a bit of an outlier, but it still has the feel of character classes, particularly with one of the early characters being a white mage. (Though, to be truthful, FF2 feels like it could have been SaGa 0, with its unorthodox approach to character growth. No levels; instead, your actions during combat dictate stat growth.)

It is not a dream. To explain further would be big spoilers, but it is definitely not a dream.

I see. Thanks for the explanation!

As you know, I've never played any of the earlier FF games so I don't know much about their stories. But could the reason behind the change is to make the stories in the later FF games work? What I mean by this is that if you could change the jobs or classes of the characters, the stories will need to adapt to those changes you make (please correct me if I'm wrong). Do the appearances of the characters adjust as well when you change their jobs? But again, I guess the fact that many people like FFV means that this isn't a problem. Okay, got it. Thanks for clarifying it for me guys!

Thing is, I consider gameplay to be the most important thing in a game, and am of the opinion that the story (if present) needs to fit the gameplay and not the other way around.

In FF3, character appearances do change when you change their jobs; however, the characters you control don't have any real role in the plot, so there's no reason the story would need to adapt.

In FF5, character appearances change only in the menu screen and during combat (and not for dead party members), so the story doesn't try to take into account character jobs.

In any case, the job system allows for much richer gameplay than you get in the rest of the series, and I'd always say it's worth sacrificing story for better gameplay.

Remember, in FF1, the story was just a matter of having to restore light to the elemental crystals (orbs in the NES translation), at which point a plot twist is revealed and you can access the final dungeon. A game really doesn't need much more plot than that (though FF1's big fetch quest to get the key does have a bit of plot, and there's the whole thing with a certain ancient civilization).

(Incidentally, a mostly-fantasy world with some high-tech ancient civilization is actually a common theme in the early FF games, particularly 1, 3, and 5.)

Edit: Also worth noting that, after you've played the game once, you've already experience the story. You have not, however, experienced all the possible gameplay the game has to offer. Hence, gameplay-focused games hold up much better on repeat playthroughs than story-focused games. In FF1, FF3, and FF5, you can just use jobs (classes in FF1) you didn't use the first time, and get a completely different experience.

If i had to choose, i'd say 6 and 12.

Good FF games would also include 5, 7, 8, 10, and 13-2 and 13-3.

Meh or others would be 10-2 and 13.

Not so familiar with 1-4 and 9, so not sure. But what i did play i don't recall being the most impressed.

Ah I see. In that case, I'll have to agree with you in terms of replayability, especially since many story-focused games nowadays have very little to no replay value in them. Thanks!