ff13's combat reminds me A LOT of ffx-2...I know it's not to everyone's taste but gameplay and feel wise, it's almost the same as 13.

This is probably my biggest dissapointment of the year. I enjoyed the battle system very much and the art is stunning. But the story is just so... disjointed and inconsequential. To give you an idea:

*minor spoiler ahead*

The game would totally make sense if you cut everything that happens after your first fight with Barthandelus in the Palamecia and skip straight to the final fight. Half the game's story is just so insiginficant that you could safely ignore them with little deviation of the plot.

That is just sad.

Anyways, I'd probably recommend 8 as my favourite 'modern ff' despite XIII having the superior combat system, the story of 8 was simply a lot better.

As mentioned Final Fantasy XIII's battle system is an evolution of Final Fantasy X-2's battle system so if you want to go with pure combat that might be a good choice, though chances are you probably won't like the story. If you go with X-2 grab X as it's the prequel to X-2. Combat in Final Fantasy X is probably the most strategic of the 13 main titles, though the combat's rarely ever utilized cause the game's too easy. Final Fantasy 1-9 are essentially the same gameplay wise, especially the first 4; standard turn base affair, though he series doesn't really try to tell a story until Final Fantasy IV. To sum up I say start with IV and work your way up. If you like and get a feel of the games then grab the first 3 for kicks and see how the game's progressed since the beginning.

I don't think we should recommend FFX-2 to him, while its gameplay is similar to XIII he might be put off by everything else, but if he buys X and is invested in the characters he should get x-2 as its important to see how everything turns out.

X IMO has the best battle system in the series.
X-2 being the second best!

get final fantasy 10 and 10-2, final fantasy 8 for starters

The Xbox man is back? O_o

FF X, FF XII

Final Fantasy XIII was great. You should get FF4 as well (if you can handle the dated graphics).

Thank you everyone I am really confused by your statements about how FFX is slow but FF12 is different to FFXIII but FFX is similar to it. O_o
I got FFXII today from my store, I also saw FF11 on the shelf for xbox 360, is that good?