Just got around to listening to the podcast this morning. Always a good time. I have to say, for me personally, Final Fantasy X was the best entry point to the series. I was mostly a Sega kid growing up. I did have an NES, but I mostly just played Mega Man and never really encountered RPGs outside of random rentals from the local video store. Genesis didn't have a ton of RPGs for me to encounter. I mostly played arcade style games (shmups, fighters, etc.) and never really messed with much else for a long time. I bought FFVII on recommendation from our local game shop and hated it because I just didn't grok the appeal of turn based combat and other conventions of the genre.
Then I played Panzer Dragoon Saga, which really changed me and made me much more open to trying different genres. A couple of years later, I returned to Final Fantasy to try again with X around the time of its launch, and I was completely hooked. The story, combat, visuals, world, and characters are all pretty great and really captivated me. Since then, I've gone back and played the entire mainline series. Though I've only completed seven of them, I really appreciate every entry, even the "bad" ones. VI and IX are my favorites, but I think X maintains a lot of what makes Final Fantasy unique while also being modern enough to not put off new players. The only thing I feel really holds it back is its English voice work and localization, but there are some good performances in there and I am still able to get emotionally invested in the story as it is presented.
