^ Yes. The 'directions' are so erratic that it's hard to pinpoint an actual direction at all. XII and XIII are so vastly different. Not to mention they are punctuated by MMOs. Since X, there really hasn't been a 'direction'. Hell, even X was a huge shift from IX, while IX itself was a huge shift from VIII. I'd say the last time the series felt like it was following a direction was in the VI-VII-VIII days when it seemed like the series was slowly evolving each piece from the previous game (combat, graphics, setting, characters, etc). I'm in the vast minority here, but IX let me down a bit - I liked how Square was slowly modernizing the settings.