Thread: Someone please explain Final Fantasy to me!

Ok, I picked up FFVII - Dirge of Cerberus for the Ps2 a while back, and played the whole 15 hours solid.
It was totally fucking incredible. Best game I've played full stop.

Now, I have no idea of the build up to this, or what happens after.
From the research I've done, this was purely a spinoff of the character Vincent Valentine.

Is it really all the story I'm going to get from this plot, and the rest is totally unrelated?
All the Lucrecia Crescent story, and the battles with good and evil against Azul the Cerulean?

I've watched the history of FF video, but it only really explains the games, not the story.
Is there something I can read that will take me from beginning to end of this whole adventure without playing all the 8bit games?

Are all the games 1-11 one continuous story? Or is each number a new tale totally?