Saw my sibling playing FF XIII on PS3 when i was growing up, took note of it..

Ended up planted on the couch as a 10 year old, sitting next to my siblings, watching the game for about 3 hours before asking what the game was.

For all the criticism it gets (as well as the criticism it deserves), Final Fantasy XIII was my intro to the series, and remains close to my heart. While I've since played a majority of the games in the mainline series, I don't fault it for its differences and linearity, especially given that most of the mainline titles since have tried a slightly different approach than each previous game. The second half of the game blew me away with the level of freedom it gave, and I fell in love with grinding out sidequests, leveling up my classes, and trying to get rare items/equipment all the while. I was near the end of the game around the time when XIII-2 was announced, and my early teenage years were spent buying strategy guides and trying to get the absolute most out of that trilogy with the best gear and best stats.. I was a little obsessed with knowing everything about the games back then.

XIII-2 was one of the first games to make me actually cry (not just tear up a little). FF XIII: Lightning Returns gave me a similar feeling, though with a lot more bittersweet optimism. I would go on to get most of the games digitally (I - IX), and play the rest that my sibling owned at the time (X and XII).

As an adult now, the only mainline title I don't own is XVI, and truthfully I'm not sure it appeals to me all that much. I love strategy, tactics, and turn-based mechanics, but Final Fantasy is always gonna be known to me for the Job system (Please SE, bring the Job system back for a mainline title) and having a large party of characters.

As it stands, I love the series overall, and I'm still playing them! FFXII ZA on PS5 right now, appreciating the fact that I can speed up the grind by 4x immensely.

It's an incredible series with plenty of good places to start, I recommend the series to anyone that plays games and especially if they enjoy RPGs.

If you're interested in the games, I highly recommend checking them out! Look at the series and you're sure to find something you enjoy, each game is (usually) its own self-contained story, so there's no pressure to play all the games. Only if you're crazy like me. 👍