First, allow me to say that I have played every mainstream Final Fantasy, including some spinoffs like Tactics, Dissidia, and Crisis Core. I played the originals first. Not remakes.
Judging based on the originals only, it's hard for me to put the original Final Fantasy anywhere but at the bottom of a list of mainstream Final Fantasy titles. You have to grind too much, the game is swarming with disastrous bugs that make the game even harder or unplayable (many spells don't work, many "secondary" effects don't work such as weapons effects or armor effects, Intelligence doesn't function correctly, status ailments don't work right, ect), and the characters are bland/lame and otherwise forgettable.
With that being said, there are some pluses: Garland, Chaos, surprisingly decent story considering what the game was, classes, the Four Fiends, and nostalgia. Despite that, I have a hard time rating the original FF higher than II or III, or even XIII which I detest.
Do you think I'm being too harsh on this game given it's age? Should I reconsider and rank it higher? Where do you rank the game?