I've only played a handful of Final Fantasy games and none of the ones from the glory days of the franchise (SNES/PS1), so I'm saying that as a universal statement rather than from a perspective familiar with Final Fantasy. FFX was probably the first numbered Final Fantasy game I beat (played a good chunk of the original NES FF1 and beat FFTA before it) and I never really got around to going through the backlog of final fantasy games that came before it and I've just followed the series ever since in terms of general relevancy rather than loyalty to the franchise, so literally from my experience I'm inclined to say it's not a particularly good starting point.
i'd say honestly the series is weird and varied and x is indicative of a certain time and place in the genre so it depends on what you like out of jrpgs
This is a good appraisal. From what I can gather, FF has had a solid focus on a cinematic presentation ever since FF6, and that's more or less the only explicit commonality every FF game has had since then. With FFX in particular, I feel like they led with cinematic presentation due to the expanded horizons the technology of the PS2 provided, and as a result they came up with a good mood and a solid sense of immersion but not really all that cohesive of a plot nor a well-paced game. I'd also say that's a recurring problem with every non-MMO numbered FF game ever since to varying degrees (12 is probably the least plagued, while 13 and 15 are hit harder by that shortcoming than FFX was).