I like the early stuff a lot better than the later FF games. Sakaguichi was the better designer. His characters were more interesting.

FF10 was the first I played, and I thought it was cool and original -- until I played other RPGs. The very next game had the exact same Auron type character (Geddoe), with the same eye injury, and almost the same backstory. I've never seen another Cecil or Rosa, they were unique. Frankly, Zidane was all kinds of unique, and well, maybe the uniqueness of Quina is a step further on. His plots weren't the same every time either. Golbez and the Four Fiends in FF4 isn't the same as Zeromus or Exodeath. Kefka wasn't ripped off of anything.

And Sakaguichi made you care about all of his characters. Leo's death was a tragedy. Aeris seemed more like a videogame redshirt -- she was there to be sugary sweet and then (SPOILER)get stabbed . She had very little control over the plot -- you could have easily given anyone the Holy Materia, heck have somebody *find* the Holy Rock. Red was another thrown in character. Cait Sith at least had a plot-purpose -- his disposable robot body could get crushed by the temple.
Now considering the vast differences in technology (Sakaguichi had 32 bits at most, Nomura had 3D and FMV) I'd say Sakaguichi did more with less.