I would like to say the series in decline but it's not really as simple as that from my perspective. At this point I've given up on any game directed or produced by Yoshinori Kitase or Motomu Toriyama being good. Kitase directed VII which though I like it, it is more about nostalgia as the game is very flawed in a lot of ways, and he directed VIII which I considered the worst entry in the series until I played XIII. Toriyama on the other hand was the event planner on those games and directed FFX-2, Revenant Wings and FFXIII (two of which were produced by Kitase). Seeing as I hate everything he's directed it's hard to have faith in anything he does at this point.

In fact, the only thing I can really legitimately credit Kitase with was co-directing VI, but that brings me to another point altogether. He co-directed that game with Hiroyuki Itō, the man who designed FFIV's battle system, the battle and job system in FFV, was the game design director on Tactics, and directed my two favourite entries since VI; FFIX and FFXII (co-directed anyway). In fact the only bad thing that I could say about him is he designed FFVIII's battle system. But seeing as VIII's system was a cool idea but just very unbalanced, I have to wonder if it's his fault or if others were in charge of the implementation, or perhaps even forced things on it that lead to the unbalance.

So on whether or not FF is in decline I can really only say that as long as Kitase and his pals are running the show then yes, the series is in decline and will most likely continue to be the utter crap that was XIII. But I'll be right there ready to pick up any title that has Hiroyuki Itō involved without hesitation.