Tidus is supposed to be young and immature, like all guys are at that age :] And Zurak, i couldn't agree more about FFX, it features such a fantastic story it's worth playing over and over. Still i have enjoyed most FF's equally but i must say that FFVII and FFX are my two favourites.
It's funny that you say that RinoaMC, because VIII is the only version I've not played or rather missed out on, for some reason. I'll try to get a copy soon. And yes, you should really finish FFX before taking on FFX-2, since they are really connected.
About the always changing release date, according to several major sites and Square themselves it has always been differing but now they pretty much all say Nov. 4. And for us europeans it's Sept. 24-29. Let's wait and see.