I'm watching a FF9 LP right now, and I easily rank it as the top FF out there. When I played it as a teen, I didn't relate to the story or the characters that much, and Zidane was pretty fogettable (but I see him in a different light now).
FF8 will always remain my favorite though. Rinoa was the main female lead, yes. But her main role? It wasn't to be a badass fighter like Tifa/Lightning, or to shoulder a huge responsibility like Garnet (she came to at one point though and she accepted her duty, growing up as a character). Her main role was to change Squall and make him open up to others. And to do that, the author thought she needed to be annoying. She contrasted his personality in a way.
Plus she got the coolest design and that's all that matters (love is blind etc)