The Big 5

[Laddy]

What are the 5 best examples of the series?

For me, IV, VI, VII, IX, and XII are all different experiences in a variety of unique setting each with strong gameplay, storylines, and atmosphere.

[The Man]

VI, IX, V, VII, and IV roughly in that order (in terms of quality I would place V and VII roughly equally, but I got more enjoyment out of V). Of course, there are large portions of the series I haven't played long enough to develop a meaningful opinion about, such as VIII, everything before IV, and everything after X-2.

[Del Murder]

I pick the same as The Man, but in different order.

6-7-4-9-5

[Pumpkin]

IX, Tactics (does that count?), VIII, X, XII.

[VeloZer0]

4,5,6,7,9 are the best examples for me. As awesome as tactics is I can't make a case for including it if we are looking for ones that exemplify the series.

[Pike]

I - Really sets the direction of the whole series right from the beginning
III - Jobs and classes and everything.
VI - the quintessential "classic" FF.
VII - the quintessential "semi-modern" FF.
X - the quintessential "modern" FF.

[Madame Adequate]

I - Really sets the direction of the whole series right from the beginning
III - Jobs and classes and everything.
VI - the quintessential "classic" FF.
VII - the quintessential "semi-modern" FF.
X - the quintessential "modern" FF.

This is a Correct List and should be enshrined as such.

[Spooniest]

I dunno, I always thought the big 5 were:

big 5.jpg

[Loony BoB]

The best five examples is definitely a very vague thing. They could be examples of all kinds of things - the best five examples to show off what the games in the FF series are like would have to be varied, while the best five examples of the quality the series can achieve would have to be my favourite five. I'm going to go with the former.

I, V, VII, XI, XII.

By playing these games, I feel you're going a long way towards saying you have experienced a large amount of the gameplay mechanics, settings and atmospheres you can experience in the full series.

Note that I've not yet completed III, IV or IX. Was rough to not put in X, but I just didn't feel it was different enough from the first three games, at least not as much as XI & XII.

[DMKA]

FFVI, FFVII, FFX, FFXII, FFXIII

[Quindiana Jones]

V, VI, VII, IX, XII. I dunno about getting the full FF experience, but you're certainly getting the best one.

[maybee]

1. Final Fantasy I. Final Fantasy I brought Square out of bankrupt and brought birth to the Final Fantasy series.

4. Final Fantasy IV. One of the most remade and re-booted Final Fantasies out there.

2. Final Fantasy VII. One of the best selling Final Fantasy games, brought Western players to the series. First FF game to gain a whole lot of sequels, prequel, movie, anime OVA and cellphone games.

5. Final Fantasy X-2. First game to be a Final Fantasy sequel.

3. Final Fantasy IX. Game that showed homage to the past Final Fantasy games, and was epic to boot.

[Del Murder]

I interpreted this question differently. For the best 5 FFs, see my earlier post. For the best 'representations of the series', they would be:

FFI - Started it all and is also a pretty fine representation of the 8-bit RPG era.
FFV - FFIII started the job system, but FFV perfected it.
FFVI - The character-driven story really started with FFIV but FFVI is just better in pretty much every way.
FFVII - Made FF mainstream and one of the best entries in the series.
FFX - Either this or XII as the representation of the 'modern era' FF.

Basically the same as Pike's list but I replaced III with V because V is the perfection of III.

[Dr. rydrum2112]

VI - The last of the old guard, and just a great game. There was nothing like it at its time.

VII - Great plot, some twists & a remarkable deaths. The game that changed RPGs forever. And still the best place for mini-games in an RPG.

VIII - Best setting & world, interesting take on game difficulty with the increase in enemy levels.

X - Amazing everything at the time it came out, still my favorite battle system (minus the limit of 3 in battle) and still my favorite character development system.

I - it started it all, and everything is due to its success - it cannot not make the list.

edit: this is in no particular order, just listed.

[Bolivar]

IV and IX were tribute games, so those two need to be there.

II set the pace that every game would be different, you can't understand Final Fantasy without that.

V had a huge job system, it's also maybe the best balanced example of FF combat, add in good dungeons and it's a keeper.

VII, it put the series on the map and was the crossroads for the series, with some vestiges left over from the Nintendo games, but firmly in the style of the PlayStation games.