For 35 years, the Final Fantasy franchise has captivated fans with its anthology style of storytelling, keeping things fresh with new characters and stories. It even has a tendency to set the time periods somewhere between past and future in each game while keeping them connected with the same plot: a group of young heroes gathering to fight a great evil threatening their world while they exploring their internal struggles and relationships with each other — a universal theme that people can relate to.
If you’re new and want to get into the Final Fantasy series, there are 16 numbered games (with Final Fantasy XVI now available on PS5), a few direct sequels, and a prequel to the first game. It sounds like a lot, but we’re here to help you make the journey into the RPG franchise a little smoother.
Jump to:
Which Final Fantasy Game Should You Play First?
Looking at the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole can be overwhelming as most of them have hundreds of hours of content to play through. If you want to ease yourself into the franchise, we recommend starting with Final Fantasy VII. This game left an indelible mark on the game industry for having the easiest gameplay and combat systems to get a hang of, especially with the Limit Break system, and giving us the most memorable characters, like Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Sephiroth. Its popularity inspired Square to create Kingdom Hearts in collaboration with Disney so that some of its characters could interact with Disney characters.
Final Fantasy VII even came out with a feature-length CGI and Final Fantasy VII Remake, which has prettier graphics but retains the same story with themes of pro-environmentalism, identity, and moving on from loss — elements that previous Final Fantasy stories did not have. Either version of the game is fine to pick up and play.
How to Play Final Fantasy Games in Chronological Order
If you want to do a deep dive into the Final Fantasy franchise and play all of them in chronological order, here’s the full list of games and the order in which to play them. Though you can play most of the mainline numbered in any random order and still be fine as there is no direct continuity between them.
1. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin takes place in the kingdom of Cornelia, a dark fantasy world version of the setting of the original Final Fantasy game. Jack Garland and his companions and fellow Warriors of Light, Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia — each carrying a darkened crystal representing earth, wind, fire and water — set out to find Chaos and destroy him, restoring light to the world. Despite what the prophecy foretold about the heroes, each Warrior grows skeptical about their role.
You can change characters’ jobs on the fly, but with Jack as the player character you can only switch between two positions. No matter his job title, Jack has a decisive finishing move that crystallizes enemies and shatters them to restore a portion of his magic meter once the enemy's break gauge is depleted.
Read our review of Strangers of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
2. Final Fantasy
Centuries after the events of Stranger of Paradise, Final Fantasy introduces four new young Warriors of Light, each of them carrying an orb representing the four elements that have been darkened by the four Elemental Fiends. At first, they’re tasked by the King of Cornelia to rescue Princess Sarah from the evil knight Garland, but their journey expands to defeating the fiends and restoring the orbs to their former glory, thus saving the world from eternal darkness.
Final Fantasy gets its name from series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s threat to leave the games industry and go back to university if it didn’t sell well, and Square Enix dealing with the notion of the game being its very last due to the threat of bankruptcy. Ultimately, the game sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide and grossed over $21 million, saving both the company and Sakaguchi’s career.
Read our review of Final Fantasy.
3. Final Fantasy II
In Final Fantasy II, Firion, Guy, Maria, and Leon become orphans after the Palamecian Empire destroys their hometown and kills their parents, rendering them orphans. They join the Wild Rose Rebellion and, under the guidance of Princess Hilda, who initially deemed them too young to join the army, journey to stop Emperor Mateus’ plans to take over the world with his hellspawn.
Unlike the first Final Fantasy, the sequel had no character creation or job system because Square wanted the game to be more story-driven rather than filled with heavy gameplay mechanics. This game is notable for introducing a couple of staples that would forever define the series: chocobos and the recurring inventor character Cid.
Read our review of Final Fantasy II.
4. Final Fantasy III
Another group of four orphaned teens — Arc, Refia, Luneth, and Ingus — are drawn to a crystal of light in the Altar Cave after an earthquake hits the village of Ur. The crystals grants the youth a portion of its power, their first set of jobs, and instructs them to restore balance to the world.
Final Fantasy III is the first numbered game in the series to feature the job-change system, allowing players to change how the characters would battle monsters throughout the game. Instead of staying in one job or class, they could explore other job options and see which one suits each character. The 2006 Nintendo DS remake retained the elements of the original game, but gave the characters more well-rounded personalities.
Read our review of Final Fantasy III.
5. Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy IV centers on Red Wings captain Cecil Harvey, who questions the King of Baron’s motives after he and his knights steal the Water Crystal in a raid on Mysidia. After the king strips him of his title as punishment for disloyalty, Cecil sets out on a quest with Kain Highwind and the allies they meet along the way to stop the sorcerer Golbez from seizing the other crystals in order to save the world.
This game introduced the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which allows characters to perform a move when their gauge is full. Whereas a party is limited to four people in the previous games, Final Fantasy IV allowed a party of five characters.
Read our review of Final Fantasy IV.
6. Final Fantasy V
Adventurer Bartz Klauser comes across a fallen meteor and finds four strangers, including King Tycoon’s daughter Lenna, and set off on an adventure to save the Crystals from falling apart, a phenomenon caused by Exdeath, an entity trying to free himself from imprisonment and gain the power of the Void. The group becomes Warriors of Light and focuses their attention on defeating Exdeath and stopping the Void’s energies from plunging their world into darkness.
Final Fantasy V expanded on the job system, giving players more than 21 jobs to choose from. To make the job system even more interesting, you can combine a skill you learn from a certain job with a different skill from another job in order to defeat challenging dungeons and bosses.
Read our review of Final Fantasy V.