Hi guys i've always been hearing that the final fantasy franchise is one of the greatest gaming franchises ever made unfortunately i've never had the chance to play, but i really want to get into it could someone tell me please which game i  should start with and is the franchise really that good and what is the story about, cheers!

It's like watching an anime where you press a button continue + find stuff + get to custimze a little but not too much + be the hero + larger than life stories/villains/situations and more approachable than most JRPGs

Square Enix invests a lot of time and money on FF. They only release it when it's done. That's what's great. You know you buy a top notch product.

Story and battle system is not always the best RPG you can find, but production values of the FF series is among the best in the industry.

Well it is of course somebody's opinion that the FF games are so good. Personally I've hated the series since FF8. FF7 was the last one I played through. My favorites are still the SNES FF games.(which is why I own these http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b258/smbu2000/misc/DVC00138.jpg , also not pictured is FFV which I bought later :) )

The franchise as a whole isnt amazing, but there are some stunning games amongst them. FF7 when it was released was the best RPG I played, not looking back its ages terribly and games like Secret of Mana have once again took over it. Some games in the series were just terrible FF9 for example.

After FF9 I have so much hate for the main series which is a shame as 10 was ment to be fantastic and I refused to try it, but I am looking in to the Chocabo game on the Wii as it looks like it adds something different.

start with FF6. then play 2,7,3,4 and 5. lastly play 9. Forget the rest they are rubbish.

 Um, it IS fantastic.  It's easily one of the best FF's overall.

Final Fantasy X is probably one of the worst Final Fantasy games in the series.  Simply awful.

I think you are going to get a mix of what you should start with. Everyone has their favorite and are going to tell you to play that one first. I think you should try them all. Start with the first one and work your way up. But skip 7, just kidding try it. Thats the only way to get a good perspective on which is good rather than listening to fanboys cry about which one they love the best.

Everyone seems to be giving different advice which is good and which are not. To b honest, I like all the FF games I've played. Compared to most other games even the worse of the main FF series games are better then those. Bad for a FF game in my view is still better then nearly all other games.

Here's some advice, try them all, work out for yourself which are good and which are not.