FFX is a great game to start. Tidus is annoying innitially but he grows on you. The story is great and despite what some might tell you, the VA is actually pretty good(awkward moments notwithstanding). The characters are very interesting, especially Auron.

FFXII might not be a good place to start. The game is not bad at all but it is a love it/hate it game. Then again, you might have a better chance of liking it if you play it first and despite the relative complexity of the game's battle system, the game is suprisingly easy to get into. The story and characters is where gamers are usually divided. Some say the story is a nice change of pace and that the characters are well defined and are well-developed while others say the story is boring and the characters are under-developed.

If you are looking for great story, get FFX(not that FFXII's story is bad). If you are looking for great gameplay, try FFXII(not that FFX's gameplay is bad).

I played FF7 some at a friends' house, hated it (back in the day).

Didn't touch the series again until XII... which I heartily recommend to you! No more annoying random-encounters, no more oh-surprise-out-of-nothing-a-whole-monster-party-appears, no gameplay breaks AKA transitions to "battle environment", etc.

On top of it, it's all real-time... you got some sort of AI control on your partymates to automate them for tedious-yawn encounters and can switch anytime to full-on control when it's needed.

So, go try FFXII.

You should play Final Fantasy VII(the second coming of CHRIST!) as it is the most popular, and the most sold. The game takes a step away from the traditional FF romp of mystical worlds in a mideval setting and goes for a more industrialized world. The characters are the best. Especially the villain SEPHIROTH! HE simply cannot be matched in pure AWESOMENESS!

Then after playing it you can watch the movies about the game, FFVII:Advent Children, and Before Crisis. Maybe even dable into the awesome prequal to the game known as Final Fantasy VII:Crisis Core.

FFVII FTMFW!!!!!

Your missing out onthe greatest RPG series of all time. If you have a ps2, I would recommend Final Fantasy X. It a classic game even though I haven't finished it.

Soriku, I like you and all but I have to go with Xen on this one.  The battle system in FFXII is one of the most flexible ones in the series.  The strategy possiblities is enormous and characters can use any weapon as long as they have a liscence for that weapon.  The battle system is deeper than a lot of those "fully real time games".  Also, this is not a real time battle system or a turn based battle system.  It is a well done hybrid of both.

play ff7,ff8,ff10 and ff11(online), all of them are very good rpg's.

If you don't mind outdated graphics, start with either VII, VIII or Tactics, the three best of the series (though Tactics has nothing in common with any of the others). If you do mind, start with X. XII is great too, but it's very different of the other games in the series, so whether you love or hate it doesn't tell anything about how much you'll like/hate the other games

Sakaguchi said 'FFIX is his best JRPG evar created' I say 'It is the best JRPG evar so far' and you have to believe me...

Anyway a lot of the FF games are great and I can recommend you all of them between IV and X. My favourite is FFIX but FFVI comes damn close.

Get Final Fantasy IX and VI.

Play FFVI advance.

After you finish that, play FFIV DS and then play Chrono Trigger DS (even though it's not a Final Fantasy, it's still fantastic).