Final Fantasy games in order: Release and FF story timeline

radiotimes.com:

If you’ve been caught up in the hype surrounding Final Fantasy 16 but are new to the Square Enix JRPG franchise, you’ll want to know how to play the Final Fantasy games in order.

Fortunately for you, there is no strict order necessary to play any of the mainline entries in the long-running series — you can start with 16 if you want to — but there is something of a chronological story timeline at play thanks to a number of direct sequels.

In this guide, we’re sticking with the main instalments only. We’d be here forever if we tried to explain about the dozens of spin-offs and sister series. No Final Fantasy Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, Chocobo or others here, we’re afraid.

With all of that in mind, it’s time to find out how to play the Final Fantasy games in release date and chronological story timeline order.

The best way to play the Final Fantasy games in order is to stick to their release dates. People who have been fans since day one have been playing them this way and it’s as good an order as any other.

Before we dive into the list, though, we’ll be listing the games in order of their original Japanese release year, name and platform (we’re using NES instead of Famicom, before you write in).

The series has a storied history of initially missing entries and name changes here in the West. Nowadays, the names and release years below are widely accepted by all players.

Here are the Final Fantasy games in release date order:

In the list above, the games in bold are the mainline entries, and those not in bold are sequels, prequels and remakes in which gameplay/graphics are dramatically different.

It’s worth pointing out, too, that the majority of the games above are available on modern platforms as well as those listed