The medieval setting of FF's 1-5 has always been peppered (and increasingly so) with futuristic elements. In FF1, you had the Mirage Tower and the Floating Castle, technological monstrosities from a lost age of futuristic technology, not to mention the Airship. FF2 was more medieval, but still featured Airships. FF3 likewise. FF4 is where the futuristic elements really started happening, what with all the blinky lights in the Tower stages, and the Sleep Pods in the Lunar Whale. FF5 introduced us to the lost civilization of Lonka and all it's technological wizardry, and FF6 went full-on steampunk.

It's not just been since 7, is what I'm saying. FF has always been more futuristic than say, Dragon Warrior or The Legend of Zelda.