I would do what others mentioned.
Good clean power, no breadboards etc.
Use manual reset mode, not auto until you know the board works and communication works, first thing first.
Use 9600 baud for testing.
Use esptool and see if you can talk to the board, a simple flash check or erase etc. or something else that has verbose output
Loopback test your ftdi adapter via a terminal or putty, make sure it works.