First off I want to say I have played EVERY SINGLE FINAL FANTASY. Although I never did beat ExDeath without the Mix cheat...

I want to hear your opinions on the state of Final Fantasy today, any opinion welcome!

My opinion is that FF was at it's peak in the FF6/FF7 era, declined during FF8 (GODDAMN CRAZY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE!) rose again during FF9, and has been declining slowly until FF13. Where it dropped writhing to the ground and had a fit (Pulse music? MUZAK NOOO!).

To specify, while graphically Final Fantasy is headlining, it seems to be declining in the ways it always excelled: Storyline, Character Development and innovative gameplay. For example - FF13's "Innovative Paradigm System!" = a stunted and less flexible FF12 gambit system (which wasn't great either). FF13's powerful story! = FF12's storyline with less empires and more technology (Fal'Cie = Occurians {Undying})
FF13's character development! = Nothing. Sazh is the only one with a somewhat explained backstory.

Now if Squeenix continues along this line, I'm sure they'll tap into the modern trend of "GRAFIX!!1!one". Me? I just hope they remake FF9 in time. (Sakaguchi said that FF9 was the only one he wanted a sequel for, shame he went a founded his own company...)