The past two years I haven't liked Nintendo

[alien space marine]

I didn't care for FFII all that much, but then I didn't play it for very long either. It is noteworthy as the first Final Fantasy to give playable characters individual personalities and even split up the party from time to time, but that aside, it was nothing special, as you said. I actually sort of liked FFIII, though I certainly wouldn't call it great. I got pretty far in it before my computer crashed.

In my opinion, FFIV was the first great Final Fantasy game and that's where the series truly begins for me. It ends with FFIX, though I'm open to giving FFXIII a try. (FFX wasn't terrible, to be fair, but I didn't really like the main characters or their voice actors.)

Yeah, Tidus was a whee bit effeminate and he really sucked compared to other lead characters as he was not very powerful.