Best of the NES/Famicom Generation

What it says on the tin. Between the first three Final Fantasy games, which is your favorite and why?

I have a soft spot for II, honestly. Idk why, I think there's just something about the music and atmosphere that keeps me coming back. Also love the levelling system and it's the reason why I love the SaGa games so much. The characters are super basic, but at the same time super memorable? Like Minwu - just his design makes him stand out

It's a toss up between I and II for me, but I give the advantage to I because it was the original that started it all. That and I enjoyed picking my classes and naming my characters at the beginning.

II was fun as smurf, though, but I learned from a member here how to play it without having to hit yourself all the time. Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!

I like III the best (original NES version) because it's the closest to something like 4, while also being a challenging-enough entry with a focus on the job system.

I like them all, but I go back to the original more than the others. I even got one of my kids to sit through the first one with me. Not all the way, but we got about halfway. I love aspects of all three of the games, but FF feels right.

Ehhh . . . FF1 and 3 basically bounce back and forth for my second favorite entry in the series, but I'll go with FF1 here. I like the sense of adventure and exploration in both of these games, but FF1 manages to do it better than 3, if only due to its lack of any real story. While you do need to do things in a set order for the first third of the game, and realistically have a proper order for the remaining bits, FF3 is much more 'Talk to person, get quest,advance story' than FF1, which relies a LOT more on you piecing together what to do next from random conversations and actual exploration. Hell, I didn't know Astos told you where to find the CROWN for the longest time, I just wandered into the murder hole as a kid and found the damn thing. Of course, there are exceptions to this in FF3, like I don't think anyone tells you to get into Hein's floating tree or to get shot down over . . . uh, Garuda-ville, but the general trend is still there.

There are also a ton of little things in the original here and there I like more than in 3, like the main dungeons, magical equipment, OXYALE (Seriously, this is the best idea I have ever heard of in my life), its short length and challenge running it, and the fantasy races in the game, like Elves, Dwarves, Mermaids, Dragons, and Androids.

Forgot to post in my own thread ^^;

I feel FFIII is the best entry. FFI is a classic with some neat elements to it, but also struggles with design issues caused by an amateur team. FFII is interesting and I appreciate the experimental nature of the game, but like FFI, not all of its ideas work out like I feel they should. In the case of both titles, I feel later titles took their ideas and refined them into something better. For FFII, it was Romancing SaGa but for the original FF, it was III.

I feel it's a more solid game, with more to do, more options to play around with, and a few QoL features like re-targeting in combat, and the Fat Chocobo for inventory management; that the game just plays like a smoother experience from it's two predecessors. I also feel it takes many of the best elements from the first two titles, namely a lot of gameplay freedom and a better focus on narrative that is explored through the supporting cast. I feel it also has the right difficulty curve compared to its NES siblings.