Originally Posted by
Byrthnoth
Offtopic, but:
I is nearly unplayable, imop.
II/III after wasting a few hours grinding through I with neither an enjoyable plot nor an enjoyable battle system, I didn't even check out its NES compatriots.
IV wasn't engaging or fun, so I can't really rate it because I barely played it.
V was awesome. Fuck plots, we have a job system!
VI was pretty great for SNES, but I feel the translation was likely terrible and the game would have been even better if it had a good translation (Kafka coming off as evil instead of funny, etc.)
VII was okay, but I could never bring myself to care about Aeris or (honestly) the plot in general. It was still enjoyable enough though. I liked Red XIII's story best.
VIII had an annoying draw system and Squall was an emo kid. Other than that, I liked it.
IX was fine until half way through the game when the plot totally changed because they realized they would only make it to disk 2 saving the princess.
X was a soap opera and it was way too easy to become ridiculously powerful. I hated this game more than any other FF.
XI was trash. Never play it.
XII wasn't very engaging for me, but perhaps I've gotten too old for the "Surprise, you're saving the world!" plot twist.
XIII/X-II/whatever - Did not play
Random other games:
Suikoden III - Play I and II first if you want, but it works fine by itself too. Forget that they made IV, V, and Tactics and don't taint your impression of III.
Bahamut's Lagoon - Get it emulated, which is the only way you can play it because it was never translated. Dejap translation group, I think.
Kingdom Hearts - It was so much cooler than I thought it would be when reading about it. II is super-easy-mode, but I is balanced pretty well. I sense the spirit of Tanaka.
Star Ocean 1/2 - Both good and pretty fun to play. 3 had better graphics (it was on PS2), but was a worse game in my opinion.
Grandia II - NA translation is pretty funny. Gameplay/etc... not so much maybe. Still funny.
Disgaea - Great game. I never played any related sequels though.