in my mind, final fantasy X is THE greatest in the series. honestly, the only one that comes close to it is FF9.
the other ones (7,8, 6, 12 etc) are all good but none of them are even in 9 or 10's ballpark.
linearity isnt a bad thing when the game is this cinematic. also, the voice acting was awesome. i dont understand how people disliked the voice actor for tidus.
and the battle system in X was easily the best of the series as was the sphere grid.
i will admit though that the minigames of X are a complete disgrace....