LogFAQs > #969441301

IV, V, VI, and VII are imo the easiest ones to just pick up and play all the way to the finish, and almost without exception I do recommend trying to play them in that order.

IV has not aged all that well (they compromised quite a bit of the story due to technical limitations, resulting in certain odd things happening due to the lack of ability to switch out party members and a very... hmm, concise? script, but it's well-paced and the game overall is fun and a good early example of gameplay-story integration). That said, it is my personal favorite, and with the exception of VII, IV is the only game in the series that has multiple versions worth checking out- the 2d version and the 3d versions have noteworthy differences, party switching and bonus dungeons with more bosses and brand new story content in the 2d remakes vs the 3d remake's souped up enemies, augment system, new game +, superbosses, and thought bubbles adding a bit to the script. I'd play the 2d version first simply because some of the monsters got reeeeally souped up in the 3d version and you might actually want a guide for the augment system because if you use it poorly you can kinda screw your save over. FFIV also has some mods worth checking out if you like it. Most recent one is called Ultima, and it is a mod for the SNES version.

V's story is probably the most... "dragon quest-ish" of the bunch mentioned- it has a less grim tone overall due to most of the main characters being utter goofballs. It has a class system which is a lot of fun, though it results in the characters having less of a unique identity unless you build each of them differently. Also if you like the game, the custom classes mod is really fun.

VI's gameplay tries to strike a balance between IV and V by having each character come with unique abilities and different gear they can equip- but they can pretty much all learn every spell if you're willing to work for it. This is probably the first game in the series that was very clearly built with the thought in mind that people might do speed/challenge runs, imo. The game starts out pretty linear and then branches out in the second half quite a bit which can result in some wonky difficulty spikes. A lot of people consider this game and VII to have the best stories of the series.

VII... I mean... people rave about it incessantly for a reason. It's really good. It probably has the best atmosphere of the series. It also has a lot of overlap with VI in many respects so if you like one, you'll probably like the other one.

As for the others?

IX, I really like (it's one of my favorites actually, I love it), but VIII and IX both have a couple sequences that make me less likely to want to just pick up and play them, and while the games started to have issues with load times and over the top animations slowing things down in VII, it gets particularly annoying in VIII and IX imo. Most people also don't care for the Trance system in this game, and like many games, the latter end of the game is a bit rushed. That the game is still excellent despite its issues says a lot, but I think YMMV on this one more than the others.

VIII is probably the biggest YMMV example from IV-IX. I think the first disc is okay- not great, but it is unusual and promising- and then the game just throws itself into the depths of the ocean in terms of quality/enjoyment for me and never recovers. But who knows? You might love it. It definitely is one of those installments in the series that seems very love it or hate it.

III is the first game in the series with job switching. A lot of people describe as just a worse version of V, which I don't think is entirely fair, but most NES games don't age very well. I still think its worth playing as long as you like NES games. You may occasionally run into annoyances like having to change your class to cast a spell to proceed.

II people seem to almost universally hate due to its leveling system and its level design (which I don't think is fair because FFI had very similar level design and doesn't get nearly as much crap for it). Oddly, I think its story is... really good for a NES game? I enjoyed it, anyway. If you don't want to play it, I'd try watching someone else play it instead. Much like III has some overlap with V, II has some overlap with IV.

FFI is about as standard an NES rpg as you can imagine, like... one step up from Dragon Quest 1. VERY replayable due to you selecting your party members' classes right at the start and then playing through the whole game with that formation.