It is proving surprisingly hard to make my thoughts on this coherent. Hope this makes sense.

I played virtually all the FF game from ages 14-17 and all in mixed up order; I don't think there is a huge amount of nostalgia going on there.

When I look back on the series I usually think of FF10 as the last game in the series. I had fun playing FF10, I thought the combat system was great, but the story and characters blew for me. So I consider it a worthy entry to the series, but not a great one. When I think of FF1-FF9 I think of them all as superb games, with one exception. This is coupled with the exceedingly long FF10-FF12 delay (made even longer by the fact that FF12 was the first game I ever had to wait to be released) and the change of direction at square between FF10 and FF12, and the fact I didn't like FF12 or FF13.

Viewed in the context of FF1-FF10 I saw FF10 as a blip in quality, but viewed in the context of FF1-FF13 I see it more as the 'beginning of the end'.

An alternative way to see it is as ending after FF7 with the exception of one really good game being produced in between (FF9). But that is way too damn depressing.

In summary, I see FF9 as the last great FF title, but I usually regard FF10 as when the series ended for me.