Started with X and played Xll , Vlll then stopped. Tried Xlll but I didn't like it.

1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and Mystic Quest are good. FF10 has Blitzball which makes it worth playing and FF10-2 has a decent quest system and amazing combat system which makes it worth playing. FF2 isn't for noobs, so don't play it. FF3, 11, 12, and 13 are the worst in the series so don't bother.  FF12 has a lot of good qualities, likable characters, well developed towns and landscapes, a great quest system, amazing graphics for a PS2 game, but the combat kills the game, and it's not tjust not controlling your characters, the combat is boring as hell.

I'd say start with Mystic Quest.  First off, it's a beginner RPG, but it's got a lot of  good qualties to it that make it fun.  You can switch your weapons at any time.  Some enemies are weak against axes, some enemies are weak against bombs, other enemies are weak against claws, others are weak against certain spells.  You use the weapons to progress through the game as well, using a sword to push a switch, axe to cut through trees, bombs to blow stuff up, or the claws to climb .  It's a pretty good looking game graphically, it's got fairly good music, and a decent story.

FF3j bro, comon. Also remade for the DS in full 3D and remastered music.

Play IV, V and VI in that order (I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, just skip to the next one if you don't like one of them), then play VII, if you think VII is a step forward play IX next, if you think it was a step backwards try VIII. If you like IX more than any other FF at this point stop right there, you're done with the franchise. If you like VIII, play X, X-2, XIII, XIII-2, you should like all of those. If you don't like VIII, play X, if you like X continue with the rest in the prior sentence, if you don't like X then avoid them all, and try XII. If you don't like IX then try X, like? don't like? I already told you what to do. If you don't like XII, it's OK, it's not even a Final Fantasy game. If you like XII, it's OK, it's not even a Final Fantasy game...well, jokes aside, you should try XIV if you're up for MMOs. And of course if you liked a lot IV, V or VI, try the PSP/DS remakes of I, II, III, IV.

Too many things I hate about in the game.  Lots of grinding, dungeons that force you to use specific classes, and some classes are pretty much the exact same aside from subtle differences.  FF3 was an expirmentational game in my opinion.  I don't give it bonus points for being an expiremnt just because it's different.  Atleast we got FF5 out of it.

I'd recommend FF4 DS, but the order I'd recommend FF4 would be Complete Collection, PSX, SNES, then DS.  I wouldn't recommend the bug ridden GBA version at all.  PSX version of FF4 actually has fast load times just as good as the SNES version.  It's the PSX versions of FF5, FF6, and Chrono Trigger that are painfully slow.

The only one I've played is FF13. Its an okay game, with great graphics. If you want to get into the story from the beginning, props to you. I'd be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content you'd have to catch up on.

The numerals.... Roman Numerals Everywhere!!

i own the US version, but have played both US versions and PAL versions((PAL version through emulation.)  I've heard the JP version had the same bugs as the US version also.

The US and JP versions have a ton of lag when there are two or more enemies on screen and you cast a spell.  There's lag during most summons regardless.  Enemy speed is broken for the first half of the game(example, Mist Dragon might take one action by the time you're done killing him.)  Edge's long range weapons take off half damage in the back row, so they're incorrectly tagged as short range in the data I'm guessing.  Sometimes when a character attacks, they'll immediately flash again and you can act with them again(and this can happen multiple times in a row, it's also often.)  

The PAL version fixes most of the issues, but it's actually worse than the US version.  PAL version has no lag, none of the other issues, Edge's weapon does back row damage in the back row.  The multiple turn glitch is still there but it's very rare and might happen once or twice the entire game rather regularly.  So what's the issue?  The PAL version has a massive amount of button lag.  They fixed all the visual lag, now whenever you move along the menus in battle, there's a bunch of button lag.  Now it's possible this could have been on the emulator that I was playing, but nothing else was lagging, and I don't think emulators are going to just introduce button lag, especially when every other game I've played on it, games like FF5 Advance nad FF6 Advance worked fine and didn't have the button lag(I own physical copies of them both, but last time I've played them was on my PSP.)   The button lag on the PAL version was so annoying that I quit playing the game a third of the way through. 

I started following the Final Fantasy franchise with VI (known as FF III in the US at the time).  While I had played IV (II in the US) and the original Final Fantasy earlier, I was too young to appreciate them when they first released.  I remember playing Final Fantasy VI for the first time and being absolutely stunned at how deep the storyline and character development was (compared to many other console games at the time).

I imagine that a part of what made Final Fantasy VI special is probably not going to be seen by people who didn't play it back then when it first released, because since then, storytelling and character development has dramatically improved with games like Metal Gear Solid, Grim Fandango, Planescape: Torment, to modern games like The Last of Us.

I think that Final Fantasy IV is probably better at attracting newer players, largely because the title has seen far more updates to make it age better (I'd recommend the Complete Collection).  I've personally enjoyed every FF I've played, even the ones that had mixed receptions (e.g., VIII, IX, XII, and XIII), but ultimately, VI will always have a special place in my heart because of its impact at the time.

I was 16 when I played it on emulator, and I didn't notice any of that. I just remember the great music, the plethora of towns, basically most of what I liked in FF1 I got just 10 times more of. But I now own it on DS so I might play through it again now that I'm older. I don't think it'll matter to me how much gringing there is and how similar classes are, since I'm used to that (FFV, VI, VII). Actually, the grinding might annoy me though I'll admit.