Couldn't forget about that one if I tried. ;)
Something we can agree on. Still remember - put in 65 hours on that game once upon a time. Still annoyed that they had a super high-powered NPC tag along for the last bits. Made the last part a cakewalk.

The FInal Fantasy 3 in question is the actual third one in the series, not the 6th being repackaged as 3 for North America like it was back in the day.
Between the two, I'd pick 4. If you like 4, I'd say go with 7 after that. If you like 7, check out 8. (At your own risk.) If you find yourself veering back to 4 during 7 or 8, go with 3 as an alternative.
If you find yourself eyeing 13 or 13-2, come back here so I can tell you how FUCKING AWFUL those games are and recommend you something that's worth your time and money.

Oooh. I grew up with Final Fantasy (actually, Dragon Quest, but FF games became more common). So.

I believe what I consider the best one, FFVI, isn't available for PC, unfortunately. (Great storyline? Yes. Great characters? Yes. Great hidden stuff to find? Yes. Interesting ways to level up abilities? Yes. Emotionally compelling? HELL yes.)

III is a very good, very old-school JRPG - expect to grind levels for classes - but is a lot of fun. FFIV is my all-time favorite; it's an old-school JRPG but with an excellent plot and characters, and the graphic revamp made it gorgeous, as well as adding in a bunch of things that were missing from the original U.S. release of the game. (I remember squealing with glee when I discovered emulators about 20 years ago; the first thing I ended up downloading and finishing on emulator was FFIV Hardtype.)

VII is vastly overrated (it was rushed to release and has several translation issues and small bugs, as well as missing content) but easy to get into and has a good story. I actually liked VIII, although I never touched the card game subplot/subquests because I suck at that game, and I still think the main female character should be slapped every single time she shows up on screen. It's got a lot of fun in it, as long as you can handle the way the magic/attribute systems work. (I tend to pull games like this out when I got bored and replay them, or just bits of them; FFVIII features enemies that level with your characters. I once played the opening area for over 10 hours before entering the first cave and hit level 100. Did you know that Ruby Dragons are EVERYWHERE if you do that? No, I didn't finish that playthrough. I think I actually lost the memory card.)

XIII and XIII-2 I have for the PS3 and I haven't finished either of them, although that's more due to my bad attention span with games than with any problem with them. I like them, although they're not anywhere near the top of the list of FF games. XIII is extremely linear, which is weird for FF games; XIII-2 is... not, although it kind of is, but in a weirdly open way. (It's possible to finish XIII-2 without ever seeing something like half of the story.)

I'm not what I would consider a Square fangirl, since I don't rush out and buy every single thing they publish in every single version every time they're released, and I've been swearing at them a LOT for the last several years... but I am a Final Fantasy fangirl. And Dragon Quest. I own the first FF game for NES, GBA, PSX, PSP, and iOS, and I've played it on every single one of those systems. So, yeah; I have a little bit of knowledge/opinion about those games. *g*

Crow, I knew I loved you. The order you recommended is what I'd recommend for anyone coming into the series via PC. (I really, really wish they'd put VI out for PC.)

For those confused about the numbering.... here's a ramble:

Final Fantasy was released in Japan, and later in the U.S. By the time it had done so well in the U.S. to look at getting sequels released there, the hardware had moved on, so the U.S. didn't get FFII or FFIII, which were made for the NES; instead, we got IV, which was made for the SNES, but to avoid confusing poor stupid Americans, they released it as FF2, since it was the second FF game released in the U.S. Because it was released in the U.S. after Japan, there was again a delay, so by the time sequels were considered, they decided to skip over FFV, released for the SNES (well, SFamicom) in Japan, and go straight to FFVI... which they released in the U.S. as FF3, since it was only the third one the U.S. had seen.

Yeah.

Imagine the confusion when they finally got around to releasing II, III, and V in the U.S. I can't remember if it was for GBA or PSX first, but there were a LOT of upset people who bought FFIII, expecting it to be FF3(VI).

Enix was a little smarter, but only by accident: They released Dragon Quest ("Dragon Warrior," due to copyright issues), then did II, III, and IV... and then they had issues and there was a little merger, and then DQVII was released for PSX with nary a mention of the missing V and VI. (Sadly, because they were good games.)

Third screenshot I saw in IV has a giant duck!? Must be the one for me. :-)

I wasn't sure but thought that was probably the case. It's a wonder they haven't released 6 and 5 yet...

That sounds about right. 8 is mostly rubbish, but has plus points (although that might just be nostalgia talking as it was my first JRPG and got me into the whole genre).

I wish they would release 12 on PC (and 9!), from what I played of it I thought it was great.

From what I've read, 3 is the hardest game of the whole series. Also not surprised that the job system wasn't great, 3's the first game in which that was implemented. Imagine they improved it in 5 and I know it was good in Tactics.

Also, it seems like you might end up getting your wish. Kinda surprised that Square-Enix has released so many of their old titles for PC, but it works. If I can end up with 3, 4, 6, 9 and 12, I'll be happy. =)

Lol. You'll love FF then, it's full of that kind of stuff...

Watch out for this guy (I assume he's in four, they're in most FF games), they're one of the most deadly enemies :)

The very first FF....Remarkable for its time, and still has good points today. Would rather play that than some "triple-A" games that are currently out.

I can confirm that. 3 is rock hard (largely because of not being able to save in Dungeons and typically annoying FF bosses that kill you all in one hit or something), and the jobs are useless... no carry over between them, magic is limited to a number of uses which are only replenished by sleeping, which you also can't do in dungeons, so you're limited to casting you're most powerful fire spell to like three times per dungeon :/

I imagine it's a side effect of releasing a lot of them on android and iOS... depending on how they do it it's probably not much of a leap to add PC compatibility while you're at it..
But I would love to fill the gaps and play the games I missed out on.

Absolutely. There's a reason it's been installed on my iPhone since my first one was forced on me by my then-employer. I'm a little scared sometimes that I actually find myself missing the ORIGINAL version, though; I remember spending something an hour just buying 99 potions. (Click A, select potion, click A, click A.... repeat.) And the grind for gold for buying the end-game magic was *atrocious*. Although I still believe that the original FF (the NES version) was one of the hardest old-school RPGs released. Between the magic choices and the difficulty ramp and the lack of savepoints... yeah. (I'm old-school enough that lack of savepoints doesn't really bother me in games. I look at "save anywhere!" as a modern luxury - I appreciate it, but I don't necessarily miss it if it's not there.)

The magic thing's a holdover from FF 1. Same system, based on D&D I'm sure, where you only get so many shots before you're completely out.
The job thing doesn't surprise me, and neither does the no sleeping in dungeons. Square Soft wasn't so great with the whole difficulty curve thing back then. -laughs-

Wow, this is quite a response. Think I'll grab 4 and have some fun. ;)

I don't remember if Tonberries are in IV... wow, my memory is failing. LOL. But I'm really fond of them, even if I spend most of my game time dealing with them by running the hell away! FFX-2 has my favorites - the giant ones in the hidden dungeon. Even while they're killing you, they're terribly cute.

Actually, they're just cute, full stop. But I'm a little biased. :D

Running tally of games I now want to play more because of today's conversations - Final Fantasy 1. Final Fantasy 3. Final Fantasy 4. DOW Soulstorm. 7th Saga. (Kill me now.) -shakes head-

The original FF could definitely kill you if you didn't have a good idea of what each class would do, and a Fighter/White Mage/Black Mage/Black Mage or Fighter/White Mage/Red Mage/Black Mage mix would mean you could kiss a few dozen hours of your life goodbye coin grinding, like you said.
Remember beating the last boss in my sleep. Not meaning that figuratively. It was kinda like time jumping, and I was apparently fighting them while more asleep than awake. -laughs-
Good call. Enjoy. =)