I voted for IX, because it's easily the most underrated of the whole series. It's a really great game that was obscured at the time because Squeenix was already promoting X for the PS2. I actually strongly dislike VIII quite a bit because the enemies level up with you, making grinding and leveling up pointless. Also, noone's voted for X-2 for a few reasons I can think of: A.) you need a working knowledge of X and it's ending to really understand what's going on, B.) it really has a very stupid storyline. C.) it has the gall to have a "percentage of game complete" meter, while having some VERY strict stupid storyline things to complete to get 100% that you wouldn't assume right off. On the bright side, it does have one of the best combat systems in the series. And finally, part one is actually really really good. The only problem is that the original NES version is a little light on the story side, and has a couple of problems with its mechanics that the remakes fixed (difficult save system, broken targeting system etc) that can easily be blamed on it being made first.