IX was probably my favorite when I first played it followed by VI, but when I tried to play IX a few years ago it was a bit too slow for me to keep playing it. I still enjoy going back and playing VI.

FF12 is a masterpiece, still worth playing

FF9....it was just magical

My only familiarity with the FF series has been Tactics on both GBA and PSP (which are goated games!), 7 Remake, and most recently 16. Which my opinion has really soured on the latter as time has gone on, and 7 Remake had a great third act, but it was a real slog to get through the story with way too much filler and awful side content, and hearing Rebirth has the majority of those same issues.

I feel like I missed out on something special in the series glory days. I don't have anywhere near the amount of time I used to have to game. Barely able to get through my backlog while trying to play day one games I'm interested in, but anyone got recommendations of a few games in the series that a newcomer can play? Looks like the entire franchise is available on PC.

I haven't played many of them (but have played several) and VII is the best.
The characters, the story, the music, the cinematics.
And hey, the gameplay isn't perfect (sometimes cryptic, slow battle speeds) but it's still fun for sure.
FFVII is a paradigm shift for the industry. The same way we talk about films that changed cinema forever (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Citizen Kane, Star Wars, Toy Story, etc.) FFVII is one of those games that you can mention along Pong, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64, LOZ: Ocarina of Time, GTA III, Minecraft, etc.

6, 10 and 12 are the best ones

Play X. It's easy, respect your time and have great story and worldbuilding. It's still the peak Final Fantasy in terms of art design. It's very unique in the sense you will never find another game with similar art design of X. The presence of voice acting and quality 3D graphics improves the experience significantly compared to 2D and PS1 entries 

Gameplay wise, it's the most refined turn based Final Fantasy, although pretty easy it's fun to go trough the sphere grid system and the fact you can change your party during the battle allows for neat combinations and combat options. Unlike older Final Fantasy It's not very grinding and exp formula allows you to level up your party on the get go without bothering much with repeating battles again and again  

The only weak point is the game design being way too linear and later bosses become a slog because Square just made them immune to almost all stats effects, which remove the strategic layers and makes you brute force trough cheer damage points 

That point right there is already winning me over! lol That was something that always pulled me away from getting into JRPGs was the grind and constant repeating battles. The only franchise that ever got me into that kind of gameplay were the original Pokemon games.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Its between 6 and 9.

My personal top 10 include (excluding sequels and spinoffs)


1. 6
2. 9
3. 7
4. 4
5. 10
6. 15
7. 13
8. 12
9. 8
10. 5

As most people know who read my top 50 lists. It is always between FFVIII and FFX.

FFX usually wins due to recency bias, but even replaying FFVIII was an amazing experience.

They both have great worldbuilding and the characters feel real and are the most relatable to me. Total immersion happens in these 2 FF unlike any other. Nothing about playing them is frustrating in any way unlike modern or ancient FF.