I'm an offshoot of the second group I guess, I loved all the pre-CD games and 9, loathed 7,8, X-2, and 12, and am impartial about 10.

FF IV was the best handheld one.

My favorite Final Fantasies were FF2, FF5, FF6, FF7, FF9, and FF12, and I know Ill really love FF13.

FF5 was awesome because it had a good job system, and no other FF had it or was as good :(  It doesn't compare to FFTA2 though, which is so much fun with the customizability for the jobs and abilities.. though there's certain things I dont like about it.

I liked the strory development/pacing in FF10, but did not fancy the characters or the level up/stats/abilities system.

FF8 seriously sucks compared to other final fantasies. The story is horrible, and it really takes a special type of person to enjoy it, unless you're someone who just generally likes many kinds of RPGs.

Good stuff! I've got several Final Fantasy games I need to play.

Final Fantasy X = Best game ever. EVAR.

excellent must play: FFVIII, FFV, FFVI
better than othe rpgs: FFVII, FFIX, FFI
average: FFX, FFII
bad: FFIII
not a videogame: FFIV

Reasons?

nice list, I might grab your recommendations for PsP soon. I never finished FFXII either, for some reason I couldn't get into the story. I've tried on several occasions but ended up selling it.

FFIV has the worst most boring system in FF, battles are slow, you get 5 characters, why 5 characters? because every member in your team sucks so maybe putting five of them together they'll suck less. the world is horrid, the crapiest over(under)world in any RPG, bland, badly rendered just horrible. monster design is crap, fish look like cartoon, you get to fight the pacman ghosts, even summons are done in bad animation. story is a cliched mess, people call FFV's story cliched, but FFIV just blow fantasy-scifi cliches in every direction, !!!!oh no various members just die, all the sacrifices!!! !!sorry we didn't die, we were tired so we took a rest in kings dwarf underground palace!!! (tales of symphonia did this too) the bad guy is your brother, you are a decendant of an ancient powerful race and are bound by destiny, cliche, cliche, cliche. the final is very funny, you expect an epic battle, like chaos in FFI and what you get?? yes you guessed it, generic end of stage space shooter boss.

FFIII is pretty much the same as IV, but with a underdeveloped class system.

how can you possibly group ff8 with ff5 and ff6 ????

FF3 was bad? and FF4, which is considered the 2nd best among many classic FF fans is not a videogame??

obviously tastes differ... so making a list stated in a way like it's not just an opinion is odd...