Yes I agree even though every story involves love (because that is the main thing of it) the story is never just shot blank a fighting or love story it is very complicated and has many twists.
I also am very happy FFXII is close, I reserved it the first day it was reservable lol.
I beat it once but I have beaten FFIX many times. I think that FFVII is the most challenging in the sense of the extra bad bosses I was never able to defeat.