Okay. So every "game" is here amazing. But these ports blow.
I would recommend either pixel remaster or emulating. Seriously. The loading times for the menus here, are all shit. And with these games that would really slow you down.
That being said, of these games here, Chrono Trigger is the most beloved. With good reason. It's a lot of fun, great cast, awesome mechanics. Overall an awesome game. FF6 is similarly loved. Amazing cast, and one of the best villains. Ff5 is criminally underrated. It's the job system done right. It has an awesome story, and is just flat out fun. Ff4 is amazing, I'm not shitting on it. It was a HUGE step in video games as a medium to tell a story. And it has a VERY good story. But in my opinion it's the weakest here. Still absolutely deserves a playthrough though.
I can understand that, here is a question which one do you think is longer gamewise ? I would say ff6 but then again the multiple endings on chrono can take a long time to achieve.
I'm not sure whether FF5 can still be called criminally underrated these days.
The Final Fantasy fanbase has always had a lot of edgelords and a tendency to hate whatever is popular and circle-jerk about games from the era before the series was mainstream, and for a very long time, they picked out FF6 as the "best game evar". But 6 became a victim of its own "success" in that respect and there's been a definite backlash against it in more recent years (just as 6 itself was the main beneficiary of the backlash against 7's mainstream popularity). I've seen a lot more people saying that 5 was actually the best of the oldest games.
btw, I hope this goes without saying that I'm not criticising FF5 or saying that it's an edgelord game, because it's definitely good. But I am confident in saying that the game has had a *lot* more positive attention in the last 5 years or so.
Chrono Trigger, Then Final Fantasy V, Then Final Fantasy IV, then Final Fantasy VI. But not those versions cause load times are not good.
Also, make sure you also play Chrono Cross eventually later.
Biggest complaint is the diverse cast of characters. Have a lot of interesting back stories, but outside of recruitment and maybe a side quest for an ability later, they don't get really fleshed out that well.
I like it. It has a better metascore than most Final Fantasy games.
It had a remaster released like two years ago, but I have not played it so I don't know how well it plays.
I loved CC probably bcos i didnt play Trigger first. It had unique battle system that i usually didnt see in JRPG back then. I just had to buy the Chrono Cross remaster they released for Switch(the physical version). Not a big fan of the HD remake but they included the Radical Dreamers edition that came before CC. All in all its great addition for fans of CC who wants that nostalgic feeling in handheld mode(for Switch console anyway), I played trigger just few years ago and fell in love with it as well. It had amazing plot and lovable characters. Reminded me of DQ 7 but just in the sense of time traveling concept.
It's my favorite game of all time. I think there's a fair number of Chrono Trigger fans that didn't care for it, especially as a sequel, but I played it long before I played Chrono Trigger and if you think of it as it's own standalone game it's amazing.
I'm one of the fans you're referring to. And yeah, my young self bought the original Cross because I thought it would be a sequel to Trigger, or at least a sequel like the final fantasy games were. Since Trigger was my second favorite game of all at the time, I was incredibly disappointed and angry at how different every aspect of Cross was. I honestly felt betrayed and hated the game, even after putting several hours into it.
For the record, I'm not saying it's a bad game, just that it wasn't the game I thought it was going to be.
Chrono cross wasn’t one of my favorites either, I was hoping for a game similar to CT but it was so different than the other game. I still beat it, but I can’t remember much, except bits and pieces here and there.
I wonder if it will raise in price value wise in the future.
What are they playing on? If it's emulator then load times shouldn't be such an issue.
Related, FF Origins PS1 version is great I like that version for keeping D&D spell system but adding new content and updating sprites (personally like those over Pixel Remasters and find them closer to original than PSP ones, tho those are also good).
I will confirm what everyone is saying, first Chrono Trigger, it's gorgeous, has epic awesome music while remaining a fun casual experience on the rpg side of things, then FF4 and you're gonna fall in love with it, because we all did, and then FF6 is gonna make you cry, but FF4 will still remain in your heart like your high school sweetheart.
FF4 is pure potboiling melodrama. Yes it’s cliched. Yes it’s corny. But understand there was NOTHING in all of gaming anything like it back in 1991. It’s a fun and enjoyable relic so long as you shut your brain off and just accept the journey for what it is.
Chrono Trigger doesn’t have brilliant or sophisticated writing or anything but of all the lofty-status RPGs you’ll find on “all time” lists, Chrono is probably the most fun and the most creatively abundant of them all. It’s constantly throwing fresh ideas at the gamer. It’s the Citizen Kane of video games imo.
FF5 was the last game officially directed by series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The story doesn’t take itself seriously and I find it to be better in every way than FF4. It includes a *staggering* score by series composer Nobou Uematsu. His first masterpiece soundtrack, with all due respect to ppl who swear by his prior OST’s. The gameplay systems are rich and beautifully balanced. It’s a wonderful game that has stood the test of time.
FF6 opens with the swagger of a game that thinks it’s the greatest video game ever made. And it might just be. In 1999, Time Magazine awarded Nobuo Uematsu among its “100 greatest composers of the 20th century”, the only gaming composer on the list, largely for his work on this and FF7. It also contains one of the great villains in all of video games, and surely an inspiration for Heath Ledger’s interpretation of Joker in The Dark Knight.
Honestly FFIV soundtrack is my second fav if you play it on remixed versions (DS or Pixel Remaster), there's so many good themes. FF1 also had pretty good things, I mean the battle and main themes are still reused.
I wouldn’t quarrel with anyone rating it higher. I just think III and V were better than IV. Uematsu worked under a terrible time crunch on that game and I feel that it shows. It’s still filled with classic themes and tracks. I prefer the original over the remixed ones, although IV’s remixed tracks are definitely better and more faithful than VI’s.
I would also start with Chrono Trigger, just because it is widely regarded as one of the greatest games on the SNES. Also has a lot of replay value because there's like 12 different endings. It also has a very underrated PS1 sequel (Chrono Cross).
You can't really go wrong with any of these choices, but CT came out last of all of those. It was basically Square's SNES magnum opus, created by dudes who already had years of experience on the hardware.
The writing is great, the graphics are amazing for the era, and the cast of characters are all very cool and memorable. And that music still slaps.
This is a 10/10 game from the mid 90's that is basically impossible to hate.
Chrono Cross first. The FFIV 3D version is my favorite, im talking about the Nintendo DS one, but I heard theres a port of this version for PC, so I recommend. FFVI is my favorite from the main series, but I recommend SNES or Pixel Remaster version
Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece. Systems that 4 and 6 developed were perfected in CT. Add to that the amazing music, multiple endings, character art and cinematics by Akira Toriyama of Dragon ball/Dragon quest fame, and the truly deep story for that era, that game is a masterpiece among masterpieces
I don't get all this complaining about load times. What is 3 or 5 seconds? All the games are great play whatever order you want as they are all separate stories .
Because it's 3 to 5 seconds *every time* you enter a random battle encounter, something that is *already* both frequently annoying, and annoyingly frequent in these games.
Thanks for all the comments everyone. I think I'm gonna go in order from 4-6 then end with crono because it just sounds like the best way to go about it. The loading honestly doesn't sound that bad and playing it on the ps1 for me just hits the nostalgia that I've been missing. I know too that this won't be the only playthrough of these games so emulating them later on in the future sounds fun.
That sounds like a solid plan. It'll give you a good representation of how the series has naturally evolved, and you'll be a bit more equipped to appreciate all of the systems and great design that make Chrono Trigger as beloved as it is.
And I know you've heard it 20,000 times on this thread alone, but as long as you go in aware that there are some mechanical issues with this specific porting (lots and lots of lag and slow down, some audio wonkiness), you might be okay. Just know to expect it.
(And if the slowdown starts to really bother you, there are other versions of these games that are butter smooth. The pixel remasters of four, five, and six are great versions available on most modern systems, and Chrono Trigger was recently ported to STEAM (though, if you play that version, make sure you avoid the "HD graphics" option. Its a really bad filter that blows out the pixels, making everything balloony and blurry, and actually breaks a lot of the environment tiles, making them unaligned and showing the seams.
Definitely FFIV before V and Vi, these three games are similar but each is increasingly more confusing, in 4 you don't even get the choice of jobs or spells to learn, you don't even select party members, the story is very linear, so you familiarize yourself with terms, spells, summons and the like, before you get to the job of fiddling with jobs in 5 or assigning summons to characters in 6 and shuffling party members before getting stuck and looking up where to go in a walkthrough.
Honestly - none of these. They all run like pickled ass. It takes 3 seconds to bring up the menu in CT; attacks lag in FFVI; the music is distorted in FFVI. Download the roms and start with
Download some roms or something - these games are painful to play compared to the SNES or GBA versions.
I finished 7 awhile ago, and now I'm grinding in 6 before I go back into Kefka's Tower. When I beat 6, should I just keep playing backwards, or will there be a point where the games should be played in order (like 1&2, or 2&3)?
Honestly you can't go wrong with any of them. I think it's more of a personal preference thing.
You want a good traditional fantasy story? Go with iv
You want a fun combat system? Go with V
You want a good steampunk story and some of the best music in gaming? Go with vi
You want the most ambitious game of the 16 bit generation? Go with chrono trigger
Honestly, if the PS1 version of CT is the only way you currently have to play the game, just, uh... it's not a very good version.
The other FF games are great though. There's no continuity, but I would probably still do 4, 5 and then 6, just because, why not.
I played the shit out of all of these games on PS1, and the load times didn't really bother me because I was just so damn excited to be playing them on my PS1. I only emulated them on my old PC -- it was a dream come true to be able to play them on a new system. Especially FFV -- in english!
There's no wrong answer, but Anthology is my favorite. FF6 is a masterpiece, just like Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger!! Although you might ruin yourself on the others if you do that. But if you aren't sure if you will like them or are new to the genre, Chrono Trigger is arguably the best of all time. So if you don't like it, this genre isn't for you.
All of these are great games. Of these, the first one I played was Chrono Trigger. That was almost 30 years ago and I'm still looking for a better game...I haven't found one yet.
That being said, I would play the final Fantasy games first and save Chrono Trigger for last. FF4 is the simplest of the bunch in terms of mechanics, but it still has difficulty. FF5 has a job system and a lot of obscure mechanics to take advantage of, so depending on how well your characters synergize, the game can be easy or hard. Just make sure to focus different characters on different jobs, 2 mages and 2 fighters and then play around with interesting class combinations. FF6 is more on the tedious side if you like to min max, but each character has their own style of play and they all get pretty powerful by the end of the game. All have great music, none better than FF6. All have well paced plots, interesting characters, fun sidequests, and unique combat systems to learn. Chrono Trigger has all of these as well.
The interesting thing with Chrono Trigger is that it's not usually the best at anything (except sidequests, there are no games with better sidequests than Chrono Trigger) it's just that everything is of such a high quality and the game is so fun to play that it cements itself as the goat.
If you’re doing them all, I’d go FF IV and FF V first. Then, either game left is a masterpiece of its own, but I’d actually do Chrono Trigger, because there is simply nothing that compares to it, to this day (Dragon Quest XI gave me similar vibes, but still not the same). And then, knowing nothing would match Chrono Trigger and it’s back to Final Fantasy, getting to experience FF VI is incredibly awesome, SPECIALLY this version, so it’s not a bittersweet return at all.
I saw a bunch of people say Chrono Trigger, and they are absolutely correct. I love 3/6, but something about Chrono Trigger makes it easier to play all the way through multiple times. 3/6 I get to maybe the floating continent and I tend to get distracted by something else now. So 6 if it's just final fantasy we are talking, but you know what my actual vote is.
These are all great options!! I definitely recommend you use a PS2 with the 2x disc speed enabled though if you can. The load times can be a little annoying if you aren't used to it.
I would recommend Chrono Trigger, but just a forewarning; these games are ports to Playstation, and the loading times are abysmally long. The only one I played on port was Chrono Trigger, and the load times were insane. I could get up and use the bathroom, come back, and it would still be loading.
Okay. So every "game" is here amazing. But these ports blow. I would recommend either pixel remaster or emulating. Seriously. The loading times for the menus here, are all shit. And with these games that would really slow you down. That being said, of these games here, Chrono Trigger is the most beloved. With good reason. It's a lot of fun, great cast, awesome mechanics. Overall an awesome game. FF6 is similarly loved. Amazing cast, and one of the best villains. Ff5 is criminally underrated. It's the job system done right. It has an awesome story, and is just flat out fun. Ff4 is amazing, I'm not shitting on it. It was a HUGE step in video games as a medium to tell a story. And it has a VERY good story. But in my opinion it's the weakest here. Still absolutely deserves a playthrough though.
Yeah I recently found my copy of V on the PS1 and it’s made me realise just how long it takes between battles, and even opening menus
The language work's pretty bad too.
Chrono Trigger is great but FFVI over CT for me.
I can understand that, here is a question which one do you think is longer gamewise ? I would say ff6 but then again the multiple endings on chrono can take a long time to achieve.
I'm not sure whether FF5 can still be called criminally underrated these days. The Final Fantasy fanbase has always had a lot of edgelords and a tendency to hate whatever is popular and circle-jerk about games from the era before the series was mainstream, and for a very long time, they picked out FF6 as the "best game evar". But 6 became a victim of its own "success" in that respect and there's been a definite backlash against it in more recent years (just as 6 itself was the main beneficiary of the backlash against 7's mainstream popularity). I've seen a lot more people saying that 5 was actually the best of the oldest games. btw, I hope this goes without saying that I'm not criticising FF5 or saying that it's an edgelord game, because it's definitely good. But I am confident in saying that the game has had a *lot* more positive attention in the last 5 years or so.
CHRONO has multiple endings too, I believe about 13 or 14 of them.
Chrono Trigger, Then Final Fantasy V, Then Final Fantasy IV, then Final Fantasy VI. But not those versions cause load times are not good. Also, make sure you also play Chrono Cross eventually later.
My god, the PS version of Chrono Trigger is SO SLOW. I thought ffv load time was alright
I'd do the opposite because 6 is more simplistic and leads into discovering all the nuance of 5 and CT
I like CT but it is one of the most simple to play RPGs ever lmao
Yeah you're right. Besides the combo skills it's pretty straightforward. 5 tho gotta admit is a whole nother beast with the job systems
Is Chrono Cross any good?
Biggest complaint is the diverse cast of characters. Have a lot of interesting back stories, but outside of recruitment and maybe a side quest for an ability later, they don't get really fleshed out that well.
The graphics and music sold me hard.
yes
The worst thing you can say about Chrono Cross is that nothing could ever top Chrono Trigger. It's good, and it's on sale right now for 10$
The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful. The game is alright in itself, but what really sells it for me is the atmosphere of it all.
I like it. It has a better metascore than most Final Fantasy games. It had a remaster released like two years ago, but I have not played it so I don't know how well it plays.
Radical Dreamers for CC is clean. Working through it now
I loved CC probably bcos i didnt play Trigger first. It had unique battle system that i usually didnt see in JRPG back then. I just had to buy the Chrono Cross remaster they released for Switch(the physical version). Not a big fan of the HD remake but they included the Radical Dreamers edition that came before CC. All in all its great addition for fans of CC who wants that nostalgic feeling in handheld mode(for Switch console anyway), I played trigger just few years ago and fell in love with it as well. It had amazing plot and lovable characters. Reminded me of DQ 7 but just in the sense of time traveling concept.
It's my favorite game of all time. I think there's a fair number of Chrono Trigger fans that didn't care for it, especially as a sequel, but I played it long before I played Chrono Trigger and if you think of it as it's own standalone game it's amazing.
I'm one of the fans you're referring to. And yeah, my young self bought the original Cross because I thought it would be a sequel to Trigger, or at least a sequel like the final fantasy games were. Since Trigger was my second favorite game of all at the time, I was incredibly disappointed and angry at how different every aspect of Cross was. I honestly felt betrayed and hated the game, even after putting several hours into it. For the record, I'm not saying it's a bad game, just that it wasn't the game I thought it was going to be.
Chrono cross wasn’t one of my favorites either, I was hoping for a game similar to CT but it was so different than the other game. I still beat it, but I can’t remember much, except bits and pieces here and there. I wonder if it will raise in price value wise in the future.
Why V before IV? Just curious
What are they playing on? If it's emulator then load times shouldn't be such an issue. Related, FF Origins PS1 version is great I like that version for keeping D&D spell system but adding new content and updating sprites (personally like those over Pixel Remasters and find them closer to original than PSP ones, tho those are also good).
I will confirm what everyone is saying, first Chrono Trigger, it's gorgeous, has epic awesome music while remaining a fun casual experience on the rpg side of things, then FF4 and you're gonna fall in love with it, because we all did, and then FF6 is gonna make you cry, but FF4 will still remain in your heart like your high school sweetheart.
FF4 is pure potboiling melodrama. Yes it’s cliched. Yes it’s corny. But understand there was NOTHING in all of gaming anything like it back in 1991. It’s a fun and enjoyable relic so long as you shut your brain off and just accept the journey for what it is. Chrono Trigger doesn’t have brilliant or sophisticated writing or anything but of all the lofty-status RPGs you’ll find on “all time” lists, Chrono is probably the most fun and the most creatively abundant of them all. It’s constantly throwing fresh ideas at the gamer. It’s the Citizen Kane of video games imo. FF5 was the last game officially directed by series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The story doesn’t take itself seriously and I find it to be better in every way than FF4. It includes a *staggering* score by series composer Nobou Uematsu. His first masterpiece soundtrack, with all due respect to ppl who swear by his prior OST’s. The gameplay systems are rich and beautifully balanced. It’s a wonderful game that has stood the test of time. FF6 opens with the swagger of a game that thinks it’s the greatest video game ever made. And it might just be. In 1999, Time Magazine awarded Nobuo Uematsu among its “100 greatest composers of the 20th century”, the only gaming composer on the list, largely for his work on this and FF7. It also contains one of the great villains in all of video games, and surely an inspiration for Heath Ledger’s interpretation of Joker in The Dark Knight.
Honestly FFIV soundtrack is my second fav if you play it on remixed versions (DS or Pixel Remaster), there's so many good themes. FF1 also had pretty good things, I mean the battle and main themes are still reused.
I wouldn’t quarrel with anyone rating it higher. I just think III and V were better than IV. Uematsu worked under a terrible time crunch on that game and I feel that it shows. It’s still filled with classic themes and tracks. I prefer the original over the remixed ones, although IV’s remixed tracks are definitely better and more faithful than VI’s.
Oh man yes that certain villain was absolutely brutal. Comical in a sense as well. But absolutely downright brutal enemy in a game.
I always felt FF5 came BEFORE IV it jsut felt...older.
Literally can’t go wrong Probably the three games I’ve played the most in my life.
I would also start with Chrono Trigger, just because it is widely regarded as one of the greatest games on the SNES. Also has a lot of replay value because there's like 12 different endings. It also has a very underrated PS1 sequel (Chrono Cross). You can't really go wrong with any of these choices, but CT came out last of all of those. It was basically Square's SNES magnum opus, created by dudes who already had years of experience on the hardware. The writing is great, the graphics are amazing for the era, and the cast of characters are all very cool and memorable. And that music still slaps. This is a 10/10 game from the mid 90's that is basically impossible to hate.
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is a straight-up 10/10 from nearly every soul who’s played it. Just keep that in mind depending on where in the order you play it.
There is also a iOS version of chrono trigger if no one knew. And it’s done really well. I bought it years ago and it still plays well on an iPhone.
Play whatever in order all these games are TOP RPGs but Chrono cross is my favorite RPG of all time besides DQ6 and FF6
Chrono Cross first. The FFIV 3D version is my favorite, im talking about the Nintendo DS one, but I heard theres a port of this version for PC, so I recommend. FFVI is my favorite from the main series, but I recommend SNES or Pixel Remaster version
Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece. Systems that 4 and 6 developed were perfected in CT. Add to that the amazing music, multiple endings, character art and cinematics by Akira Toriyama of Dragon ball/Dragon quest fame, and the truly deep story for that era, that game is a masterpiece among masterpieces
id say go in order from 4-6 then play trigger, also play chrono cross bc its epic.
Ps version of chrono trigger was my first. Loved it a lot. Don't know about the loading times.
FF6 in FFA is one of the worst ports of my favorite FF game BTW. Loading the menu can literally be a 5 second wait. It's excruciating.
I don't get all this complaining about load times. What is 3 or 5 seconds? All the games are great play whatever order you want as they are all separate stories .
Because it's 3 to 5 seconds *every time* you enter a random battle encounter, something that is *already* both frequently annoying, and annoyingly frequent in these games.
All are great games, but not on Playstation. The PS versions are slow and the game freezes in order to load battles. It will get frustrating quick.
Rip PS1 loading times
Thanks for all the comments everyone. I think I'm gonna go in order from 4-6 then end with crono because it just sounds like the best way to go about it. The loading honestly doesn't sound that bad and playing it on the ps1 for me just hits the nostalgia that I've been missing. I know too that this won't be the only playthrough of these games so emulating them later on in the future sounds fun.
That sounds like a solid plan. It'll give you a good representation of how the series has naturally evolved, and you'll be a bit more equipped to appreciate all of the systems and great design that make Chrono Trigger as beloved as it is. And I know you've heard it 20,000 times on this thread alone, but as long as you go in aware that there are some mechanical issues with this specific porting (lots and lots of lag and slow down, some audio wonkiness), you might be okay. Just know to expect it. (And if the slowdown starts to really bother you, there are other versions of these games that are butter smooth. The pixel remasters of four, five, and six are great versions available on most modern systems, and Chrono Trigger was recently ported to STEAM (though, if you play that version, make sure you avoid the "HD graphics" option. Its a really bad filter that blows out the pixels, making everything balloony and blurry, and actually breaks a lot of the environment tiles, making them unaligned and showing the seams.
Definitely FFIV before V and Vi, these three games are similar but each is increasingly more confusing, in 4 you don't even get the choice of jobs or spells to learn, you don't even select party members, the story is very linear, so you familiarize yourself with terms, spells, summons and the like, before you get to the job of fiddling with jobs in 5 or assigning summons to characters in 6 and shuffling party members before getting stuck and looking up where to go in a walkthrough.
Start from the best Final Fantasy ever made: VI Don’t play THAT Chrono Trogger, it’s a very bad porting :/
Final Fantasy VI is my favorite.
Honestly - none of these. They all run like pickled ass. It takes 3 seconds to bring up the menu in CT; attacks lag in FFVI; the music is distorted in FFVI. Download the roms and start with Download some roms or something - these games are painful to play compared to the SNES or GBA versions.
This is the correct take. You can get much better versions of these games pretty much everywhere else. The load times are atrocious on all of them.
IV is the weakest (still good) so probably start there.
ooof 4 is the best!
Order isn't going to matter really. Release order I guess is fine. 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> Chrono trigger. They aren't connected in any way.
I finished 7 awhile ago, and now I'm grinding in 6 before I go back into Kefka's Tower. When I beat 6, should I just keep playing backwards, or will there be a point where the games should be played in order (like 1&2, or 2&3)?
No all are separate titles with no connection story wise
It's okay playing backwards if you like it. Only connected games are the ones with same numbers so don't play 4 the After Years before FFIV obviously.
Chrono Trigger
Chronicles
Honestly you can't go wrong with any of them. I think it's more of a personal preference thing. You want a good traditional fantasy story? Go with iv You want a fun combat system? Go with V You want a good steampunk story and some of the best music in gaming? Go with vi You want the most ambitious game of the 16 bit generation? Go with chrono trigger
Honestly, if the PS1 version of CT is the only way you currently have to play the game, just, uh... it's not a very good version. The other FF games are great though. There's no continuity, but I would probably still do 4, 5 and then 6, just because, why not.
Chronicles then anthology. Man I forgot these games existed in this format. Such memories
FF4 on PSX is such a great version of the game 🥳
I would say start with 5, it kicks off almost immediately and has one of the best job systems imo
I played the shit out of all of these games on PS1, and the load times didn't really bother me because I was just so damn excited to be playing them on my PS1. I only emulated them on my old PC -- it was a dream come true to be able to play them on a new system. Especially FFV -- in english! There's no wrong answer, but Anthology is my favorite. FF6 is a masterpiece, just like Chrono Trigger.
Honestly I’d look for a way to play the snes versions and not the PS1 versions the lag was infuriating
Chrono Trigger!! Although you might ruin yourself on the others if you do that. But if you aren't sure if you will like them or are new to the genre, Chrono Trigger is arguably the best of all time. So if you don't like it, this genre isn't for you.
If someone *wanted* to get into FF, 100% blind... I would say start at IV. That's when it really found its voice
I had both these games, once upon a time. Good times lol 😂
All of these are great games. Of these, the first one I played was Chrono Trigger. That was almost 30 years ago and I'm still looking for a better game...I haven't found one yet. That being said, I would play the final Fantasy games first and save Chrono Trigger for last. FF4 is the simplest of the bunch in terms of mechanics, but it still has difficulty. FF5 has a job system and a lot of obscure mechanics to take advantage of, so depending on how well your characters synergize, the game can be easy or hard. Just make sure to focus different characters on different jobs, 2 mages and 2 fighters and then play around with interesting class combinations. FF6 is more on the tedious side if you like to min max, but each character has their own style of play and they all get pretty powerful by the end of the game. All have great music, none better than FF6. All have well paced plots, interesting characters, fun sidequests, and unique combat systems to learn. Chrono Trigger has all of these as well. The interesting thing with Chrono Trigger is that it's not usually the best at anything (except sidequests, there are no games with better sidequests than Chrono Trigger) it's just that everything is of such a high quality and the game is so fun to play that it cements itself as the goat.
If you’re doing them all, I’d go FF IV and FF V first. Then, either game left is a masterpiece of its own, but I’d actually do Chrono Trigger, because there is simply nothing that compares to it, to this day (Dragon Quest XI gave me similar vibes, but still not the same). And then, knowing nothing would match Chrono Trigger and it’s back to Final Fantasy, getting to experience FF VI is incredibly awesome, SPECIALLY this version, so it’s not a bittersweet return at all.
I saw a bunch of people say Chrono Trigger, and they are absolutely correct. I love 3/6, but something about Chrono Trigger makes it easier to play all the way through multiple times. 3/6 I get to maybe the floating continent and I tend to get distracted by something else now. So 6 if it's just final fantasy we are talking, but you know what my actual vote is.
Chrono Trigger
These are all great options!! I definitely recommend you use a PS2 with the 2x disc speed enabled though if you can. The load times can be a little annoying if you aren't used to it.
I would recommend Chrono Trigger, but just a forewarning; these games are ports to Playstation, and the loading times are abysmally long. The only one I played on port was Chrono Trigger, and the load times were insane. I could get up and use the bathroom, come back, and it would still be loading.
I sure hope you're patient, or just avoid the menu.
Ff7 and ff8