I am sorry, I love VII and X, but the greatest Final Fantasy of all time, is VI.
It has the most indepth story of the entire series, if it was in 3d, it\'d get more credit I\'m sure. I love that game.
Above that, I find the characters to be highly interesting. None of them had really annoying aspects to them, unlike later games.
Wakka, need I say more... Cait Sith? That weird frog-eating thing from IX... I even forget its stupid name, I remember... Quina Quen... what the hell?
Give me Terra, Locke, Shadow, Cyan and the others any time.
Oh, and to get back on topic, I find action games in dire need of a choose your own adventure style, but RPGs should be strongly, very strongly, story-oriented.
Two of my favourite RPGs are Suikoden, and Suikoden 2, I love them.
Games like Fallout and Knights of the Old Republic are acceptable, you choose your path, but follow the same storyline.
I loved the ability in Jedi Academy to really choose Light or Dark, not like the way it was in Jedi Knight.
To cap it off, RPGs, need freedom of choice, but also need a storyline. The freedom should be in how you react to the story.