In Reply To #3
No. There are 20+ final fantasy games without counting remakes. You seem to be forgetting all spin-off stories and the likes.
Personally, I love Final Fantasy III (NES), only released in Japan, I have the remake they did for the Nintendo DS, and it rocks. I've taken my time to enjoy the game, I'm in the final stages now. I also like FF IV (SNES), once again, only released in Japan. I eagerly await the US release of the game, hoping they won't remove the Japanese voice acting.
And that's pretty much it, other FF games i've played I don't like that much. Worthy of mention though are FF7 (PSX), FF7 Crisis Core (PSP) and FF12 Ring of Fates.
EDIT: Upon further reading, I realised I just made an ass out of myself, the article only wants I-XII as reference. No side stories. I'll leave this up for laughs.