X was my first, and is still my favourite.
VII was good.
VIII was... weird.
IX was REALLY good.
XII was fine, but its world didn't really grab me.
XIII wasn't just a disappointment, it was the seminal disappointment of my youth, the moment we all must have sooner or later of coming to understand that even the important people in this world don't know what they're doing.
XIII-2 was slightly less horrible but Lightning Returns felt like they had completely given up and handed writing duties over to the hair stylist or something.
Haven't played XV yet. From what I'm hearing it isn't a complete return to form in terms of the writing, but it's still fuck-loads better than XIII, so I'm looking forward to trying it.

Final Fantasy III on the DS, very lovely game.

Final Fantasy IV on the SNES. I didn't understand anything that was going on, though, but it was hella fun fighting against those two first enemies on the boat.

Tactics Advance. Also my favorite of the few I've played.

I believe it was FF4 on an emulator way back in the early 2000s. It may have been FF5, I can't quite recall.

Does Bravely Default count? I've heard it plays similar to the old Final Fantasy games, but truth to be told I didn't like Bravely Default all that much, especially the extreme padding near the end. I also didn't care for the generic story or uninteresting dialogue. What is a good Final Fantasy to start with? keep in mind my opinion on Bravely Default though. I'm also not keen on playing a 3D game with PS1 era graphics, especially when FF VII is getting a remake next year, if they don't delay it at least. .

Final fantasy XI downloaded as a PS classic on PS3. I got quite far into it, but then got distracted by current gen games and never picked it up again. It was pretty good, what I played of it.

Agreed. The story captured me even when I was a kid playing it. It's a very charming game.

FF7, never looked at gaming the same way since. 

1 on the NES back in the day,