Square Enix is home to many of the greatest RPGs ever made, but not all of them are great options for newcomers. From the tedium of leveling in Final Fantasy 2 to the obtuse progression of Unlimited Saga, picking the wrong place to start could be a permanent turn-off.

Luckily, there’s a batch of incredible Square Enix RPGs that feature no such complications. Whether you’re looking to dive into Final Fantasy for the first time or branch out into more nice franchises from Square Enix, none of these games should pose a risk of steering you in the wrong direction.

Final Fantasy 10

The Perfect Final Fantasy Balance

There’s not exactly one perfect answer about which Final Fantasy game to start with, but Final Fantasy 10 might be the strongest contender. The leap to the PlayStation 2 brought a lot of modern advancements to the series, including a step-up in cinematic presentation that still feels impressive decades later.

At the same time, Final Fantasy 10 doesn’t completely abandon previous franchise staples. Despite an overhaul of the combat system, it sticks to a turn-based foundation rather than the action systems in some later games. The pace is better than Final Fantasy 13, the polish is better than FF15, and the colorful world and classic RPG sensibility that FF16 lacks are here in spades.

If you want to kick it old-school, Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 7 are also potentially strong starting points. As for the most recent games, FF7 Remake wouldn’t be a terrible idea, but it’s better to experience the original story of FF7 before the remix.

Dragon Quest 11

Decades Of Refinement

Don’t let the number scare you — Dragon Quest 11 is the perfect place to start the Dragon Quest series. Each installment tells its own story, and Dragon Quest 11 is the perfect culmination of everything the series has learned to date.

Unlike Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest has stuck squarely to the classic JRPG vibe, with turn-based combat, a quaint fantasy flavor, and a patently cartoon approach to character design. The refinements in Dragon Quest 11 are subtler, like ditching random encounters and delivering more engaging skill trees. After the glowing reception for the original release, Dragon Quest 11 S took things even further with quality-of-life updates and new content additions.

It might seem simple at a glance, but Dragon Quest 11 knows how to spin a story, delivering a fantasy adventure that actually manages to justify its lengthy runtime. With a charming cast of characters and strong pacing, it’s never in danger of spinning its wheels for long.

That being said, you’d also struggle to go wrong with games like Dragon Quest 8 or the new remakes of Dragon Quest 1, 2, 3, and 7. Even if the pace of new Dragon Quest releases has slowed to a crawl, fans of the franchise are spoiled for choice on modern platforms.

NieR: Automata

Let’s Get Philosophical

NieR: Automata isn’t the first game in the NieR series (to say nothing of its connections to the Drakengard trilogy), but it served as many players’ starting point for a reason. Thanks in part to the involvement of the action-oriented studio PlatinumGames, NieR: Automata polished the formula into an exceptional action experience that even RPG newcomers can appreciate.

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with robots, NieR: Automata embraces a very different tone from most Square Enix RPGs. As protagonists 2B, 9S, and A2 explore the quiet ruins, Automata digs into questions of philosophy and post-humanism. It’s far from the first RPG to take on a contemplative bent, but without cheery protagonists to confidently assert that Nietzchean villains are simply wrong, it’s willing to dive a lot deeper than usual.

There is, however, one thing to steel yourself for. The prologue of NieR: Automata embraces some challenging bullet-hell action, and it doesn’t feature any checkpoints until until maybe 40 minutes in. Once you’re over that hump, though, the rest of the game should be fairly smooth sailing.

If you play Automata and fall in love with the world of NieR, NieR: Replicant is the perfect follow-up. Replicant updates the original NieR to incorporate some of Automata‘s improvements, making it more easily palatable for those without the requisite patience to fall in love with the first game.

Chrono Trigger

A Classic For A Reason

Thinking of diving in with a 2D RPG from Square’s earlier days? If there’s one choice even better than Final Fantasy 6 or Dragon Quest 3, it’s Chrono Trigger. Created by Square’s “Dream Team” of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Dragon Quest‘s creator Yuji Horii, and Dragon Quest character designer Akira Toriyama (best known as the creator of Dragon Ball), the talent behind Chrono Trigger is evident in the final product.

Chrono Trigger makes use of an active-time battle combat system similar to classic Final Fantasy games, but for a retro RPG, it’s uniquely good at keeping up the pace. The game disposes of random encounters in favor of pre-determined combat scenarios, making every battle feel like it counts, and the system never seems to bog down in overlong fights.

The story of Chrono Trigger focuses on time travel, which opens up even more opportunities for a memorable experience. Throughout the game, players get the opportunity to see the game’s world transform across the eras, creating very different environments to explore and enemies to fight.

Today, Chrono Trigger can be most conveniently played on Steam or mobile devices. While the port was initially plagued with issues, Square Enix has updated it to make it a perfectly acceptable option. If you have a Nintendo DS and want to shell out for a more expensive port, the DS version might be the best way to play.

Kingdom Hearts

A Great Genre Introduction

Truth be told, Kingdom Hearts is barely an RPG. While the original game features genre staples like leveling, spells, and a narrative emphasis, the moment-to-moment gameplay is often more reminiscent of action platformers on the PS2. Throw in all the Disney characters and worlds that appear in the game, and it’s no surprise that Kingdom Hearts was many players’ first introduction to the RPG genre.

Kingdom Hearts 2 and subsequent games refined the combat further than in the original game, but starting with the first is still the way to go. Not only is it great from the get-go, but the original Kingdom Hearts also tells the most immediately approachable story. While later entries embrace increasingly convoluted storytelling, the first game’s plot is the perfect balance of simplicity and evocative mystery.

Newcomers to Square Enix RPGs might not fully appreciate the roster of Final Fantasy characters that appear in Kingdom Hearts, but you don’t need to know them all to make sense of the story. The narrative ultimately centers around new figures like Sora and Riku, with returning faces from Final Fantasy typically taking the roles of relatively minor side characters.

Conveniently, Kingdom Hearts is also available on modern platforms courtesy of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, which also comes with the follow-up spin-off Re: Chain of Memories. Don’t make the mistake of starting with Re: Chain of Memories, though, as its story and gameplay might feel significantly more alienating. As long as you stick to the original, Kingdom Hearts is the perfect way to get your feet wet with Square Enix RPGs.