FF1-3: Haven't played them. I think I've got the ROMs, though. I'll probably wait for Square to release them on the GBA or whatever their most recent plans for the older games are (I know 1 and 2 are on the Wonderswan Color...).
FF4: The second FF game I played. Borrowed the cartridge from a friend for a whole semester in 8th grade. Pretty good, although the forced party system did rather annoy me and I hated that everyone came back to life at the end. Good soundtrack; Rydia's Theme is still one of the best.
FF5: Played it almost all the way through emulated. Got bored when I was leveling up for the last area (I got my ass handed to me by some Ice Dragon hiding in a treasure chest and decided to power up), never did get around to finishing it. It didn't make a big impression on me. Pretty good music.
FF6: My first FF game. I rented it for a weekend (convinced my mom to let me keep it a couple extra days). The day I had to return it, I thought I had beaten the game. Then Celes wakes up on an island.
I bought it the next week. Great story, excellent music, good characters. The pinnacle.FF7: This and a PSX were the only things I asked for for Christmas the year it came out. We had Christmas at my grandparents' house that year, and that day and the next 3 days I spent in the basement playing 10 hours a day. I racked up 40 hours of gameplay in 4 days; a record for me. I think I had just gotten outside Midgar when I went home. I place this one just above FF4 in overall quality. Pretty good music, decent but a bit too disjointed storyline. Great graphics for the time (I got Twisted Metal along with the PSX, and its graphics were almost unwatchable next to FF7's). The first appearance of optional, mega-powerful bosses (in the US version, at least) and multiple sidegames. I took down Ruby and Emerald easily enough, and spent hours racing and breeding Chocobos. It was also the first appearance of actual lyrical music (A One Winged Angel), and it sparked my interest in video game music. I spent hours with a friend trying to transcribe and translate it before I actually found lyrics online for it. I blame FF7 for my 27 albums of FF MP3s.
FF8: Bought it the day it came out. Loved it. Second only to FF6. I loved the character development and how it was more a focus for the story than saving the world. I felt the ending was kinda rushed, but it did tie things together pretty nicely. Excellent music, again, easily on-par with FF6. Eyes on Me was surprisingly good for an English-lyric song in a Japanese game. The CGI was a whole level above FF7's. I liked the shift in equipment and magic systems. Summons did take a while the first time through the game, but the 2nd time through, I used them maybe 3 times (against Ifrit and I think I used Boosted Eden a couple times against Bahamut). I never did fight Omega Weapon, though I hear it was a bitch and a half to beat. I adored Triple Triad.
FF9: Again, bought the day it came out. Didn't make much of an impresison on me. I liked it about the same as FF7. Good character development (particularly Vivi), and good humor (the interactions between Garnet and Zidane were good), but the story was even more disjointed than FF7's. I've only played through it once. Good music, and Melodies of Life works well. CGI wasn't that much better than FF8's, although the scene where Garnet cut her hair off was excellent (almost a demonstration of the hair in FF:TSW). Never did find the Ultimate Side Bosses. I didn't like Tetra Master as much as Triple Triad; it was too complicated for its own good.
FF10: I bought it the day it came out, even though I didn't have a PS2. It sat in my DVD rack for months until I got my PS2 three weeks ago. I'm liking it a lot, but I don't think it'll eclipse FF6 or FF8. I'm not quite through the game (just waded my way through six dozen random encounters on Mount Gagazet). I'm not overly fond of the equipment system yet, but I love the leveling system. Blitzball could be fun if it wasn't so fucking frustrating to play when you've got crappy players. The graphics are just stunning. There are points where I've got to look carefully to make sure it's playing a CGI movie or if it's doing a real-time render. Some real-time scenes look better than some CGI movies in FF7. The uber-sidebosses have been seriously ramped up in power (many exceed a million HP), but, luckily, the leveling system allows for your characters to be superpowered beyond anything else in Final Fantasy.
The plot's been kinda predictable (I won't spoil anything, but I knew he was a badguy when I laid eyes on him, and I had a suspicion what defeating Sin means for the Summoner), but as long as it's good, a little predictability doesn't hurt. The music has been pretty good so far, but not on the level of FF8's. Suteki da ne is pretty good. Listening to the OST long before I played the game, Otherworld and the Prayer tracks are extremely off-putting. I even made a playlist without them in it. In the game, though, they work well.
Final Fantasy Tactics: I've only played about 3 hours worth, and haven't played more because my TV's screwy and makes playing the game near-impossible.
Chrono Trigger: I didn't think it was the end-all be-all some people think it is, but it is a pretty solid game. I love the Techniques and battle system in general. Great music, although I didn't realize it when I originally played through.
Chrono Cross: I loved it. I liked it better than CT, actually. Awesome music (with the lone exception of the battle music, Gale); I think I actually like it better than FF6's (I -MUST- have an extended version of Time's Scar!). The way the game changed as you went through it and how it integrated CT into it was interesting. The battle system was the best I've ever used (although FFX's is really creeping up on it). The 40 playable character thing was a bit much; I don't think they should've sacrificed character development for it, but it's just another thing CC did that no other game really has. I'm really hoping there's another Chrono game in the works.
