Going to add to Todd's point here. If you enjoy the game, try some of the older ones out. I'd recommend avoiding 13 and its offshoots as well as 15, as they are generally regarded as the worst. I'd also avoid the FF7 Remake too until you've played the original. I can't explain why (spoilers), it's just really advised to play the OG first.
If you enjoy the heavy political storyline from 16 too, I'd go for FF12-Zodiac Age next. If you want to experience more of what an OG Final Fantasy was like, go for FF10 or all the way back to FF6 IMO. Both are considered the bests in their series.
Well, I looked at all the others and none of them piqued my interest as much as 16, so that's why I got it.
Hopefully after I'm done with this one I'll be more open to trying the previous games. None of those really seemed up my alley from what I've seen, but I said the same thing about Persona and I ended up enjoying that. I was really on the verge of trying out 13 since it was on Game Pass, but I decided against it. Guess I was correct in doing so?
Aw fuck autism incoming.
Original 7 is important to have the context for 7 Remake, otherwise 7 Remake would come across a little nonsensical with it's delivery. It might be spoilery to say, but 7 Remake isn't meant to be a standalone or a replacement, you need to already know the story of 7 to really appreciate Remake.
I kind of like 13 but it's definitely not the greatest, Blinded by Light is such a good battle theme though. Heard it for the first time in Dissidia 012 and the song alone convinced me to play the game after avoiding it for years. The story in 13 is a bit what the fuck and the writing I remember being a bit fucking loopy, I can't remember specifics off the top of my head but there was like a solid 40% of the game I remember thinking "Just fucking kill each other and shut up". 13-2 is... a game. I'm not entirely against it but it definitely felt weird and I think there was too big a gap between playing 13 and 13-2 to really connect the story, I got lost in the sauce, got close to the end but ended up sidetracked with something in the game (probably grinding out monster companions) and didn't finish. Never got around to Lightning Returns because by then I just wasn't sold. Also never really got much into 15 but I'm going to force myself through it now that I've gotten the full series.
My takes: 1 and 2 aren't terribly important, I actually don't think I've ever played 2 to any real degree to be honest, 1 is good to see where it all started but you're not missing a ton. FF3 and 4 are both good games, 4 is one of my personal favourites of the series and has some of my favourite music of the franchise and I'm still super gassed that the latest FF14 expansion rolled with a lot of FF4 themes initially and then went hardcore into fanservice storyline for the post-launch content. The 3d remakes of 3 and 4 are also cheaper than the Pixel Remasters by a lot, so you're not out near as much. I hear 4: The After Years is bad, I'm sure I'll find out. 5 isn't bad but I'll be honest, I don't recall a lot about it in isolation. 6 is a good entry, a lot of iconic songs in that one, one of the better stories of the series and the iconic laugh. 7 is good, some classic bangers on the OST but some really annoying segments and if you're super autistic materia will drive you nuts, and like I've already said, 7 Remake isn't a replacement. There's also a shitload of other games that form a giant nebula of autism around 7 that aren't really available beyond Crisis Core
which is also kind of important to understand some broader aspects of 7 in general but will be important to understand 7 Remake and 7 Rebirth which is coming. 8 is okay but has some gameplay features that make it super easy to break if you like playing card games. I can't recommend 9 because
I never got to disc 2 any of the times I tried to play it in the past, I just don't like the cast. 10 is again a pretty decent game overall but it's been so long since I've played it I can't remember much specifically other than dodging 200 lightning bolts in a row without fucking up the timing, 10-2 is a skip unless you're super invested, you're not missing anything important.
12 is one I've been meaning to revisit since I don't remember a lot from it and I think I only got halfway through it or so, I understand the Zodiac Age release on Steam has some alterations to progression for the characters and that might make it a bit easier to get through since I got choked out autismgrinding license points back in the day. To be honest I feel like 60% of the selling point for FF12 was based around it being shared setting with the FF Tactics Advance setting and how
unbelievably fuckable rich and developed the resident bunnywoman Fran is. 11 and 14 both skipped for being MMOs, though while 11 is pretty barren and painful to play unless you are fatally autistic, 14 is an award-winning MMORPG with a fre- force of habit, it's actually got a pretty decent story for being an MMO and SE is taking a lot of efforts to put systems into the game so that a player can complete the entire main scenario quest line through all expansions without having to party with other people by allowing you to queue into the instanced dungeons with AI party members. It's an absolute ballache to start though because as good as it gets, A Realm Reborn (2.0~2.57 storyline, initial re-launch content and subsequent story patches) is super not interesting and you can really feel that it was a product of being pushed out in ~2 years as a last effort to save what would have been a title-killing failure to launch. It worked, but in hindsight with the rest of the game that comes afterwards holy shit it hurts. Heavensward onwards (3.0~) starts getting really good, though admittedly as well a lot of the better parts (or at least my favourite parts) of the subsequent expansions were the references and callbacks to the other games in the series. It's still not a must play, but it's a really good payoff for fans of the rest of the series and surprisingly accessible for an MMO. FF14 also has an entire raid series tied to Nier, and all the madness that entails, because you know, why not.
Out of side games though, I also personally recommend Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins, because it's a Soulslike FF-spin off with some truly ridiculous story direction. Very solid gameplay, camp as fuck story, plays like Nioh, satisfies loot grind autism with some satisfyingly vicious combat and serves as another bit of a fan service title to long time series fans.
