My personal favs are Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones. Blazing Sword and Sword of Seals (those are the first US release and Roy's game respectively if you didn't know) are fine, but they didn't age as well as other titles. Geneaology of the Holy War had some awesome ideas that still endure in the series, but was brought down by some OBSCENE difficulty spikes that just frustrated me. Radiant Dawn was also good and the third tier classes were AWESOME, but it had a wonky difficulty curve and the end game was irritatingly hard, making the battles feel like a grind. Shadow Dragon was a back to basics approach and was well-crafted, though I do miss the supports.
PoR was the first of the series I played and I maintain that it MIGHT be the best-designed of the bunch. The supports are well-done, the skills system is great, the bonus experience is a nice way to keep new recruits up to speed, and the battles tended to be less frustrating with an agreeable difficulty curve. SS I liked due to the branching class paths (something I wish they'd bring back), dual story paths, and the fact that I COULD resort to just leveling my characters if I hit a wall which also helped bring some newbies up to speed. I am looking forward to the FE3 remake and praising the gaming GODS that perma-death can now be turned OFF
