Never really played a lot of FF games, which versions should I?

I’ve only played FFIV and FFIX loved them both. I really want to get all the games in the main series played I’ve been meaning to for a while and I have been saving up.

Anyway I want to know which versions are the most complete/best. There are so many ports/remakes/remasters/compilations I have NO idea where to start. The only one I know of that is universally the most complete is FF IV: Complete Collection PSP and I think the NEW release of VII on the PC is the best of that.

Anyway I have a NES, SNES, GBSP, DS, Wii, NGC, 3DS, PS1-2-3, and a PSP, no Vita.

If someone could help me make a list of the best versions of each game (FF1-9, I don’t think anything past that has been remade?) I would GREATLY appreciate it. Also any spin-off games that you think are worth mentioning let me know, I have Tactics for PSP and love it, so yeah. Also if there are any that are identically the same, like a PSP and PS1 remake, let me know as well. As well as any games that compliment the main series and are actually worth noting, like I assume Crisis Core is. I’m going to list what I think are correct but feel free to let me know if I’m wrong.

I – (PSP)
II – (PSP)
III
IV – (PSP) Complete Collection
V – (GBA) Advance
VI – (GBA) Advance
VII – (PC) 2012
VIII – PSX/PSN
IX – PSX/PSN

Hello. 🙂

As far as ‘complete’ editions of each FF game are concerned, that is somewhat subjective as to how exactly a ‘complete edition’ is defined. Really, it comes down more to personal preference, as certain versions might play better on a certain platform, but not actually be any more ‘complete’ in terms of content. At the other end of the spectrum, versions with extra content might actually play worse than original editions due to hardware issues and bugs (the PSP version of FF Tactics is an example of this).

Anyway, this is just my own person list of preferences, but the versions I regard as being the best for each title are:

FFI: PSX (the PSP and GBA versions are far too easy, to the game’s detriment)
FFII: GBA
FFIII: NES (sure, the DS remake is the only official English release, but it lost a lot of it’s charm in the conversion – if you can track down a fan-translated ROM of the NES version and an NES emulator it’s far preferable)
FFIV: GBA/PSP (the ‘Complete Collection’ is just the GBA version, with the sequel ‘The After Years’ bundled in, a nice bonus, but it’s not essential to the experience).
FFV: PSX (I haven’t played the GBA version so I can’t make an opinion on it)
FFVI: SNES (the PSX version suffered with terrible lag at times and poor music emulation – like FFV I haven’t played the GBA version of FFVI either so I can’t judge that)
FFVII: PC (original Eidos release and not the latest re-release – sure it’s buggy as sin with low resolution backgrounds that display blocky on modern PCs, and a poor MIDI substitute OST, and will most likely refuse to load under any version of Windows past XP, but if you don’t mind doing a bit of research and modding the game files it can be greatly improved in ways SE would never have imagined, from high resolution character models, to mp3 OSTs, to even bringing a certain deceased flower seller back postmortem as a playable character ;))
FFVIII: PC (apart from a few niggly bugs which can be overcome, the PC version is worth it if for nothing else, for including the Chocobo World Pocketstation minigame which was never available officially in English with the PSX release.)
FFIX: PSX (the only version available, but ah well.)

As for spin-offs and sequels/prequels, the only ones I really recommend are FFVII: Crisis Core (PSP), FF Tactics (PSX – don’t get the PSP remake, it has atrocious lag and the rewritten ‘ye-olde English’ dialogue is too artificial), and FFXIII-2 (PS3 – yes I know it’s a post FFIX title, but it’s surprisingly good and fixed a lot of FFXIII’s faults.)

There are other titles too but these are just my own personal recommendations.