I'll post my thoughts finally...

I really do love this series, I tell myself there are better things out there but honestly, FF has a certain charm that is sorely lacking in other RPG series. Granted they are good as well but it just seems like the FF games bring an extra little spark that make them seem like a real treat. As a whole, the FF series has always been a trendsetter and it always seems to be radically different from any other currently available RPG released around them.

Those who remember the NES days know that FFI was completely different to it's peers in the forms of DQI and II as well as Zelda. It's story had no central antagonist, instead having your party try to save the world from what seemed like a natural force of nature. It's ending was not your standard issued fairy tale ending but rather a thought provoking slap to the face that hinted to a pessimistic, indeed nihilistic view that perhaps working hard is a futile experience.

The other games still continue this tradition of being "something different" and that's what makes me like the series. It spawned the JRPG genre and yet I can' say it really belongs in that particular genre cause it's far more influential and creative.

The high point of the series for me is the 16-bit era, I'm one of those annoying old men who talks about "back in my day...". My reasoning is that these three games are not only where we get to see the very elements that many fans feel are the definitive FF experience first come together but also because I feel these three games hit the perfect balance of gameplay, story, and exploration.

IV brought back II's story centric view with predetermined characters and perfected it by giving us the first character driven story in a console RPG.

FFV perfected the ATB system introduced in IV and became the definitive battle system used until FFX (even X, XI and XII's system can still be thought of as variations of this original system.) another thing V did that it hardly gets credit for is it's strong dungeon and world design. Almost every dungeon in V is unique and challenging and the series begins to finally lose it's "dungeon crawler" feel, and instead the dungeons become more central to the story.

VI not only brought us arguably the greatest soundtrack in the series but VI was the first game to truly bring a cinematic feel to the series (and I'll give Bolivar the pleasure in knowing that I do feel it's Kitase's influence that brought this to the series ). VI brought story and characters back as the main focus and most (including myself) would argue that VI truly has one of the best stories and casts in the entire series. VI introduced a greater social commentary and it's story was less symbolic and two dimensional than previous installments, instead the game felt much more epic and personal. It's writing was more mature and it's characters were written to feel more like real people with real problems and conflicts. To me, VI is the first game to transcend the series from being a "game" to being an "experience". It's introduction of non-rpg elements like the Opera scene immersed the player into the world far greater than previous installments and this is where I feel Vi truly shined. It was the first FF to truly immerse the player into it's world.

Now of course I'm going to add one more game to this list. Personally the game had little personal impact on me unlike the previous ones I've mentioned but it cannot be denied that FFVII truly brought the RPG genre into the mainstream for better or for worse. I also feel that VII was the last FF to hit that perfect balance of story, gameplay and exploration. For that I'm grateful for and it's one of the reasons why I like the game.

For the low point... well FFX is my personal low point for the series. I truly feel the game failed both from a writing standpoint as well as a gaming standpoint. Even though I have major issues with the game I still feel it's better than a majority of other JRPG's I've played. I was just horribly disappointed and for the first time in the series, I was actually bored playing an FF. I usually play these games religiously but X was a bit of a chore to play through.

To be honest, hell I'll say the PS2 generation was kinda've a low point. X was just bad, the move to make XI online only really divided the fans, we got all the bad sequels and side stories to VII and X, and though I feel XII is the light at the end of the tunnel, it's like FFV in the fact that I felt some major things were put on the back burner (I don't think it was on purpose though) in order to overhaul everything that needed to be done to the aging series. I didn't like X, I'm indifferent to XI cause I haven't played it yet (curse you dial up and PlayOnline ) and XII was incredible but could have done so much more (and probably would have had Matsuno not "stepped down" as head of the project)

Then again this was a really transitional period, most of the older major players either quit or were fired and SE sorta've has a brain drain. Nomura seems more interested in expanding Kingdom Hearts, and Nojima and Kitase both seem like they are fawning over the "glory days" of the PS1 generation rather than working on new properties. Division 4 (Matsuno's team) had been trudging through making XII a reality. A game that if memory serves me correctly, started developement shortly after IX was released. In the course of this developement, their leader and mentor was removed.

Of course the real low point I feel is X-2 and the compilation of FFVII. Many of the people of this forum know I am truly opposed to the ideas of direct sequels and connections between the FF games. I never liked X so as one can tell I really disliked X-2, I didn't even feel it was a good sequel and instead the game basically destroyed the few good things I felt X did. The compilation of VII is doing the same thing to VII. The difference being that I like VII and now the spinoffs and sequels are starting to really hurt the original. They either rewrite parts of the story or fail to build on the original IP, rather they add.

This is where I feel most of them fail actually. They don't build on the original IP but rather add things to work for the sequels ideas. This has the unfortunate side effect of destroying the cohesiveness of the world. Spira in X is very different from Spira in X-2. X-2 almost feels like your playing a Twilight Zone variation of Spira. It looks the same but the feel and the rules of the world are completely different. It's felt even stronger in the Compilations. Advent Children is very different from FFVII, just like Dirge of Cerberus is very different from both these stories. Time will tell how Crisis Core will do. In fact, only Last Order really felt like an extension of VII even if it did rewrite the original plot (for the better I might add), but this is probably due to the story revolving around an important and well established part of VII's plot. The only thing the sequels and spin-offs have done for their respective games is tarnish their names.