I just realized that 1997 is Final Fantasy Tactics' 20th anniversary as well. Sorry FF2 and 3, I will play you after Tactics (for the fourth or fifth time).
My History with Final Fantasy:
I turn 35 in a couple of months, and therefore COULD have played all of the US games as they released. However, I didn't know what RPGs were when I got my NES, and I chose a Sega Genesis for my 11th birthday, back in 1993. I wasn't serious about video games yet, and just wanted Ecco the dolphin and Jurassic Park because Dolphins and Raptors are cool. It did let me play Phantasy Star IV and Shining Force 2, so I guess it wasn't a complete loss.
So as most people did, I started with Final Fantasy VII on PS1. FF7 started as a rental. I liked it well enough, but I think I was still in Midgar when I returned my copy. My first time trying Final Fantasy Tactics was also as a rental a couple months later. I managed to die on the tutorial level... I have no clue how, seeing as I was 16 when the game came out, and the tutorial level is babys first SRPG level difficulty. Anyhow, I thought the game wasn't that fun, and returned it after playing those 20-30 mins. However, I watched a friend play part of Chapter 1 shortly after that, and was hooked. I ran out and bought my own copy that week, and shortly after went out and grabbed FF7 (which I also loved when I had the proper time to play it). I've played every mainline game since (other than FFXV. Still holding out for the right PS4 deal given Canadian prices).
My first experience with V and VI were the PSX versions, but by 1999 I was big into gaming and JRPGs in general, so I went out and grabbed a used SNES. I found cart-only versions of Final Fantasy II and III (IV and VI) for $8 a piece, which I still have today. I still prefer the SNES version of Final Fantasy VI. The original 2D Final Fantasy IV is pretty meh, regardless of the system.
My first experience with Final Fantasy I was on an NES in the late 90s as well, but I got side-tracked after 8 hours or so and never beat the game. My first complete playthrough was during our 25th anniversary thread. I have never played through FF2 and 3, which is one of my goals for this coming year.
Over the past 20 years, I have accumulated a lot of versions of the 15 mainline Final Fantasy games, as well as some of their ports. With a few exceptions, I pretty much own at least one port of every major version of every game. Sometimes more than one port... It makes it easy to pick and choose which versions to play. I stupidly sold off a lot of my PS1 era physical games in 2001, and was forced to purchase many of them again years later. As such, I am stuck with a lot of green cases for those titles.
Just for fun (and because my wife and kid are out for the night and I have nothing better to do), here's my physical Final Fantasy collection. The digital half of the collection might be bigger by this point (most of what's missing in that pic on PSP, Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Some Virtual console and eShop stuff, PSN versions of the PS1 stuff (other than V and VI), Crystal Defenders on a couple platforms, Dimensions and FF5-6 + tactics on android, VII-XI, XIV + Type-0 on PC, plus whatever I am forgetting).
Major omissions in my collection are Mystic Quest, Dirge of Cerberus, most of the Crystal Chronicles stuff, 4 Heroes of Light, Lightning Returns, World of Final Fantasy, and of course FFXV. I will probably grab Lightning Returns for PC when I can get it cheap. World of Final Fantasy and XV require a PS4. I might grab Mystic Quest one day. I'm not interested in the rest.