Best Final Fantasy game and why?

Well first off, I have played Final Fantasy I, II, and IX but I never really considered myself a huge Final Fantasy fan. That was until a few days ago. My friend lent me his copy of Final Fantasy VII, and I stayed locked in my room for like three days until I beat it and unlocked all the secret items. That's besides the point. I'm looking to play another Final Fantasy and I'm going to buy one online. Out of the main series and the ones I haven't played yet (III, IV, V, VI, VIII, and X) which would you say is the best, and why?

my favorites and why

1 - you can choose 4 out of 6 party members and construct any style of party you want which means you can make an evenly balanced party and the game will be hard but not impossible. or you can choose 4 white mages, not upgrade their class and give yourself a real challenge (trust me, its totally possible)

4 - lots of character classes again, the story was pretty good. characters have a kind of "class change" like ff1 but its usually plot related (cecil, rydia, tellah and even kain gets more powerful)going underground and to the moon was awesome, i wish they'd do this in another ff. lots of hidden secret stuff and side quests make this an awesome game. i recommend the gba version that has the bonus dungeon and the ability to pick your party at the end of the game (or is it after you beat it?)

6- everything was awesome, graphics, gameplay, music, lots of hidden stuff (LOTS!) and i really liked the esper/magic system

Final Fantasy 6, best music, story, and characters. This FF game has the largest amount of main characters in any main FF game. It was also the first and so far only (until FF13 is released) FF game to have the main "main" characters be female, yes Celes and Terra are the main characters. The esper magic system was the has the customization of the newer FF games but each character also has their own special thing, unlike the new FFs, where are the characters can be interchangable.

6. Everything about it was great. Music, Story, Gameplay, Graphics. It's a long game too, but not long enough to make you bored. Also building your characters magic using espers worked perfectly.

Final Fantasy VI. Best characters, best mix of seriousness and humor/light-heartedness, best music, best story, best villian............on and on........

My username is based off Final Fantasy VI character Cyan Garamonde, my favorite character of one of my favorite games ever.

FF6- It took all of the good things from the other FFs (Except the job system.) and perfected them. (Of course, that's my opinion.)

XII and X.

Final Fantasy 2 for its leveling sytem. Not based on experience but based on what you do in battle. (ex. you use a bow in battle your bow lvl will increase)

And Final Fantasy 12 for the more of the new concept of real time fighting.

I've beaten them all and IX is the best for me. Everything about it comes so well. siLVURcross

Defintetel 6 and 9 because they both do everything fantastically.

I loved X. The voice acting and character expressions and such added another dimension to the story for me... and I loved the story/game anyways.

X was my favorite, it had a great story and a lot of cutscenes, of course i like a game that is heavy on the story. I really liked the battle system, you could change one character for another at anytime that you choose. It also had a lot of great characters with depth and great voice acting, not to mention the games incredible music. Basically it had everything for me.

I have never played a Final Fantasy game. I have a few that were given to me. I'm not sure if I will ever get the ambition to try one.