For me, FFIX just felt like the last great entry. FFX always felt unfinished to me, and pretty damn formulaic, and lacking in charm. Course, what do you expect when two of the oldest members of the staff were both busy making preparations to leave the company. Most of all, I don't feel like FFX brought anything new to the table. Its game mechanics are mostly minor revisions of old mechanics and the advent of voice work had been in the genre for years before its release. When a games biggest contribution to the series is doing something Brave Fencer Musashi, a title released around FFVIIs time, I don't feel this is really a major contribution but rather just the series catching up to other games.

XI is a good game, but like some, I never felt like FF = Online worked for me, and while it has a wonderful world, it still feels like a spin-off project for me. Its like if TheaterRythm was announced as FFXV. While it may be a great game, I don't feel the genre fits with what FF is about.

FFXII is a great game and probably the last FF game to have a number in its title that I felt really held up for the series, but this game is far more aligned with Matsuno's other works. The game feels awkward when standing next to FFV or VII, but feels at home next to Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics A2, so even though it has a great pedigree, it doesn't quite feel like an "FF experience". Despite this, I felt like XII at least tried to push the series in a more groundbreaking direction and when modern RPGs still have issues holding up to stuff this game did, it makes me appreciate what it did bring. While XII is also flawed and unfinished, its still a far cry better than some other modern JRPGs I won't mention.

XIII is a combination of both my issues with FFX and XII. It not only doesn't feel like an FF cause its mainly a vision by one guy whose track record is mostly in the post-FFIX entries, but the game feels completely unfinished and barren. Just a couple of ideas that were never fleshed out, and ultimately done better in previous installments. I remember one fan made critique stating that XIII felt more like the evolutionary leap between FFX and XII, as opposed to feeling like a jump off from what XII did. Yet, I feel XIII's bigger issues stem from many of its ideas not being that good to begin with. Its a game that is hindered by so many lost opportunities, and one that feels very... corporate and soulless. Something that was mostly phoned in, the idea being created in a few meetings and then the concept shipped off to several departments that weren't at the meeting.

XIV is pretty much in the same boat as XI for me. It will always feel like a "spinoff" to me, course the game has its own fare share of issues as even XI fans used to find it unplayable.

IX on its own right is a throwback entry, but its charming and actually filled with some creative ideas that I feel everyone in the genre missed. It may lack some originality and god knows combat was more of a step back from its predecessors, but it had some great ideas it employed and even its "shout out" to older FFs feel much more refined and are given such a unique spin, that its really hard to treat these as faults. IX, just feels like a game that was developed with love. Every time you turn around in the game, you're given a new surprise. Everytime you think its going to just be a copy/paste of an old idea, it introduces a twist that makes the idea feel much fresher. Is it a perfect game? No, but I agree with the series creator when he said IX was the "ideal FF", the later FFs don't hold up as well because they don't strike the right balance that IX does. That's why I feel IX is the last great entry.