Been playing with my new FTO for a dew days - wasn't able to solve it without help. I went with the Bencisco method and it's a really fun solve. It did take a bit for me to fully grasp solving centers (it's like 4x4 Yau method, but with a restriction). And I still don't fully comprehend solving the last 3 triplets, but I can always get them.
Some of my favorite twisty puzzles are ones that don't take a lot of learning. Just intuitive moves if you have a method. So more like solving a puzzle than following a list of steps. The FTO is almost that. The few algorithms I had to learn are basically intuitive once you see them once.
I definitely see myself picking this cube up a lot to solve for fun. My main complaint is that sometimes the puzzle is just solved after solving the centers. I actually really like the last step, but often multiple steps get skipped at the end. But then that's just an excuse to scramble it up again!
I solve the FTO by piece type. Corners first (skewb-style), then edges (su-ne), and finally a bunch of 3-cycles for the little center triangles. Am I correct in remembering that Bencisco's method is more of a reduction approach? What puzzle is it reduced to? A tetraminx?
I think I recently bought a stickerless FTO. I should dig it out and try some alternate solutions... I've heard that the newer FTOs turn much better than the old LanLan or Diansheng ones...
The Bencisco method is theoretically very similar to 4x4 Yau, but it doesn't actually reduce anything. It's basically layer by layer. So you solve the 6 center pieces of one face, then two of that face's corners. Then you turn the cube so that face is on the side and use the unsolved corner and slice moves to solve 3 more faces. And then the last layer is this whole thing that I sort of just do things until it's solved ๐