Well let's get down to it then. I'm kinda new to Final Fantasy myself but I know enough about it.
First of all the story. The story revolves around four crystals of Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth. These crystals basically keep the balance between Light and Darkness and if the balace is broken they'll call upon four people to become warriors. Sometimes they're the Warriors of the Light and sometimes they're the Warriors of the Darkness. It depends on which becomes more powerful If darkness becomes more powerful, they'll be the Warriors of the Light and vice versa. That's about all there is to the basic plot of it to my knowledge.
The characters switch from game to game like they do in Zelda (kinda they have different names and aren't related to each other). In Final Fantasy I you can name all four warriors from the beginning and choose their jobs and that's about it (at least for the NES/Famicom version).
In Final Fantasy II you have four youths (whom are obviously the crystals' chosen warriors) who's parents were killed in a war during an army envasion by the empire of Palamecia. However the fourth youth separated from the other three and took the place of the emporer of Palamecia and is preparing to attack the rebellion staged by the other three.
And for the sake of not making this post uber long, I'm not going to list every character from every game and their backstories.
The gameplay is fantastic. It is a turnbased RPG with random encounters (meaning you walk around and all of a sudden the screen will turn to the battle screen) and I-IV just follow the classic style of "choose your action" while from V on, ones have monsters attack you while you are making decisions meaning you have to make good decisions fast. From III on there is a job system in which instead of being stuck to one job for the entire game, you can switch them at will at almost any time and more jobs are unlocked as you restore more crystals and from then on, this has been the case.
All in all, they're fantastic games and I highly recommend them all, although be aware that there's some confusion in the series. Let me explain.
Final Fantasy games always come out in Japan first. When they got Final Fantasy for the Famicom we got Final Fantasy for the NES. When they got Final Fantasy II we got nothing. Again, when they got Final Fantasy III we got jack squat. When they got Final Fantasy IV we got it as Final Fantasy II. They got V while we got nothing. They got VI while we got it as III for the SNES. Then they got VII and we got VII as VII. From then on there were no more confusion. Japan gets VIII we get it as VIII etc. Here is how the confused ones are available in English. (btw, thanks to Wikipedia for providing the info below)
Final Fantasy I is available in English on the PSP as Final Fantasy Anniversary Addition, the PS as Final Fantasy Origins, and the GBA as Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls.
Final Fantasy II is available in English on the PSP as Final Fantasy II Anniversary Addition, the PS as Final Fantasy Origins, and the GBA as Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls.
Final Fantasy III is only available in English for the DS as Final Fantasy III.
Final Fantasy IV is available in English for the GBA as Final Fantasy IV Advance, the SNES as Final Fantasy II, the PS as Final Fantasy IV (I think), the DS as Final Fantasy IV, the PS as Final Fantasy Chronicles, and the PS Final Fantasy Anthology (NA Version).
Final Fantasy V is available in English for the GBA as Final Fantasy V Advance, the PS as Final Fantasy V, and the PS as Final Fantasy Anthology (Euro and NA Versions).
And Final Fantasy VI is available in English for the SNES as Final Fantasy III, the PS as Final Fantasy VI (I think), the GBA as Final Fantasy VI Advance, and the PS as Final Fantasy Anthology (Euro Version).
I hope you found this useful. If you need additional info about the FF series click
here.