How to get into Final Fantasy

The Final Fantasy series is over 30 years old, which can be pretty daunting for a new player. How are you ever supposed to catch up? Well, the good news is that every mainline entry in the series tells a standalone story. So that makes things slightly easier. But even so, where do you start? This isn’t a list of every Final Fantasy game. Some of the really old ones, while great games, are best played by people already familiar with the series. Instead, here’s a selection of what I think are the best ones to play today on PC.

Play first

Final Fantasy XII (12)

A scrappy street kid who dreams of one day becoming a sky pirate teams up with a motley crew of adventurers and joins a resistance movement rebelling against the mighty (and mighty evil) Archadian Empire. There are better Final Fantasy games, but this is a great introduction to the series for a newcomer. It’s polished, playable, and gorgeous to look at—and you won’t have any problems getting it running on a modern PC.