Final Fantasy: The Complete Chronological Play Order Guide

Final Fantasy has no single timeline — each numbered entry is its own standalone world. Here's the order that actually makes sense to play them in, release order vs. sub-series order, and where to find each game today.

A Saga Without a Single Timeline

Square dropped the original Final Fantasy in Japan on December 18, 1987, as a last roll of the dice for a studio on the edge of bankruptcy. Hironobu Sakaguchi's gamble paid off so completely that it spawned sixteen mainline numbered entries, two long-running MMOs, and a web of spin-offs that now spans nearly four decades.

That history is the source of the confusion. Unlike Resident Evil or Metal Gear, there is no connective Umbrella Corporation or Big Boss thread running through every entry. Final Fantasy VII has nothing to do with Final Fantasy IX. Ivalice, the world of XII, shares no continuity with Eos, the world of XV. "Chronological" here doesn't mean one continuous plot — it means the order that actually respects how the games were built to be experienced, sub-series kept intact rather than scattered.

What Ties the Saga Together

Crystals, summoned beasts, and a recurring cast of archetypes are the saga's real connective tissue, not a shared calendar. Chocobos, moogles, the Cid who shows up in some engineering role every single game, spells named Firaga and Curaga — these are the saga's signature, repeated and reinvented rather than continued.

Square Enix uses each numbered entry to reset the cast, the setting, and often the entire combat system from scratch. Final Fantasy VI is a steampunk opera about an Empire weaponizing magic; Final Fantasy X is a tropical pilgrimage story told through Spira's cycle of sacrifice; Final Fantasy XVI is a Game of Thrones-flavored war between nations armed with living Eikons. Picking an entry point isn't about catching up on lore. It's about picking the era and combat style that sounds most appealing and starting there.

Release Order vs. Sub-Series Order

Most of the sixteen mainline games can be played in pure release order without losing anything, because they don't reference each other. The exception is the handful of entries that got direct sequels or prequels, and those need to stay grouped so the story lands in the right sequence.

• The Final Fantasy VII compilation: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is a prequel and belongs before the main game. Final Fantasy VII Remake and its follow-up, Rebirth, retell the original story and should be played as their own self-contained arc, either instead of or after the 1997 original.
• Final Fantasy X and X-2: X-2 is a direct narrative sequel picking up two years later, not a separate game to slot in by release year.
• The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy: XIII, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII form one continuous arc around Lightning Farron and should be run back to back.
• Final Fantasy XI and XIV: both are MMOs built around live subscriptions and ongoing expansions rather than a single finite campaign. They're worth experiencing for the saga's best raid design and most ambitious worldbuilding, but they sit outside a single-player chronological run and are easy to skip on a first pass through the series.

The Recommended Play Order and Platforms

This list runs oldest to newest, with every sub-series folded into its proper slot. Square Enix's Pixel Remaster line has made the earliest, hardest-to-find entries more accessible than they've been in decades, so lean on those versions unless you specifically want the original hardware feel.

• Final Fantasy I-VI (Pixel Remaster): 1987 through 1994, remastered with cleaner sprites and quality-of-life fixes. (PC, PS4, Switch, mobile).
• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion: the Zack Fair prequel, now playable in modern form. (PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S, Switch).
• Final Fantasy VII: the 1997 original that turned the series into a global phenomenon. (PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S, Switch).
• Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth: the ongoing retelling, split across Midgar and the wider world. (PC, PS4/PS5; Rebirth is currently PS5-exclusive).
• Final Fantasy VIII Remastered: Squall, Balamb Garden, and the Junction system. (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch).
• Final Fantasy IX: a deliberate return to the series' medieval-fantasy roots after VII and VIII's sci-fi detour. (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch).
• Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD Remaster: Spira's pilgrimage followed directly by Yuna's sequel. (PC, PS4, Switch).
• Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age: the Ivalice-set entry built around the Gambit system. (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch).
• Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns: the full Lightning Saga, played in that fixed order. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360; PC via digital storefronts for all three).
• Final Fantasy XV: an open-road buddy story across Eos, built around Noctis and his three companions. (PC, PS4, Xbox One).
• Final Fantasy XVI: the most recent mainline entry, trading turn-based roots for full action combat under Creative Business Unit III. (PS5, PC).
• Final Fantasy XI and XIV (optional detour): the two MMOs, best treated as a parallel branch rather than a stop on the main route. (PC, PS4/PS5 for XIV; PC, PS2, Xbox 360 legacy support for XI).

Why This Saga Is Worth the Commitment

Few franchises let you watch an entire medium mature in real time the way Final Fantasy does. Playing I through XVI in order means watching turn-based combat evolve into the Active Time Battle system, then into Gambits, then into the full action combat of XV and XVI, each shift a genuine swing at reinventing what a Final Fantasy battle even is.

The soundtracks alone justify the marathon. Nobuo Uematsu's work on IV through X still gets orchestral tours decades later, and the series has never stopped treating its score as a lead character rather than background noise.

Don't treat this list as a rulebook. Jump in wherever a setting or combat system grabs you, then circle back for the rest once the saga has its hooks in. The chronological order above exists to protect the handful of entries that actually need it, not to gatekeep the other dozen worlds that are perfectly happy to be visited out of order.