1. Final Fantasy IV: Great story, music, gameplay and characters. What I liked about the DS version was the little map on the touch screen. When you explored 100% of the dungeon, you get an item. I had fun doing that. More RPGs should have that. I did like the difficulty it offered.
2. Final Fantasy IX: Wonderful setting, great music, and good story & characters. Zidane is one of my favorite main characters in an FF game. He has great personality, and isn't emo *cough*Cloud*cough*Tidus*cough*. Vivi was also a great character. Battling in this game was fun.
3. Final Fantasy VI: This game has the best music in an FF game. Really loved the Terra's theme. The story was alright, but the characters were something else. Kefka is the best villian in an RPG, imo. What I liked about this game was that pretty much every character in the party got their screen time. They got great character development through their background stories and events through the game, and it felt like every character was important.
4. Final Fantasy XII: What made me love this game was the battle system. The battle system was both fun and fresh. I wish more JRPGs had this type of battle system. FFXII had an insane amount of things to do: hunts, new places to explore, the pirate den (I think that's what it's called), etc. I spent hours and hours just doing optional stuff. I didn't like the story or characters though. I found it boring; maybe it was the way it was presented? Oh and I for one loved the music.
5. Final Fantasy Tactics: Good story, characters and music. It was my first strategy-RPG game, and I really enjoyed the gameplay. It got me into the genre.
