Quote Originally Posted by Behold the Void
I actually prefer the backgrounds on FFVII-FFIX, though the cinematic sequences in FFX are by far the best. In FFVII-FFIX the background graphics are near or at cinematic quality pretty much all the time, whereas FFX is a significant step down.
The backgrounds in FFX and FFX-2 cannot be prerendered as they were in previous instalments as they are animated. Big D gave examples of this (waving grass, lapping waves, etc). If you look closely at the previous games you will notice animated objects such as chests are made of polygons like the characters, and not like the backgrounds. Although prerendering does provide excellent detail, it seems the producers have chosen to favour animated backgrounds. This hasn't happen only to the Final Fantasy series. Resident Evil 1-3 had prerendered backgrounds, but these were dropped in Resident Evil: Code Veronica X in favour of the ability to create flickering light effects, etc to add to the atmosphere. I also think it has a lot to do with the graphical capabilities of the machine eg FF VII-IX and Resident Evil 1-3 were on PS1 whereas FFX and FFX-2 were on the PS2. Perhaps now the programmers have more power to play around with they decided to experiment with interactive backgrounds.

Anyway, I think they're all great, prerendered or otherwise.