I love that this thread pops up every couple of years and the current game which is being released marks the end of "when Square had it". With FFVII-FFXII people felt that the series had lost it's mojo and it wasn't the same and had discussions about it.

Basically, what's happened is that you've come to associate the Final Fantasy series with whatever game or two you first played and hooked you to the series. Because they can't churn out the same games over and over again (although some argue that they do), they have to try new directions and ideas with games. Since these new directions and ideas are not in alignment with what your expectations are of the series, it seems that they have lost their way.

Don't worry, there will be people who will pick up the series with FFXIII-FFXV and love it and then create a thread like this stating that the series is going downhill or lost their way with FFXVI.