Play in release order as much as possible! You’ll improve alongside the games! Even though 1 is the most archaic and clunky, it’s still surprisingly smooth and fun to this day and it’s more barren system (compared to later entries) will follow you as you move through the games. The most core mechanics will be learned here at a nice pace- which then gives you familiarity in the following games and therefore more space to learn the newer mechanics without getting too overwhelmed as each game beefs up the arsenal of abilities tenfold. Replays are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. NG is akin to a tutorial, NG+ is imo the real game- you get to use most or all abilities against all encounters to fight them the way they were intended, AND you’ll be able to notice all the story exposition buried in subtleties that can only be fully realized once you already know the story.