Hmmm...I can give you a few reasons, although my perspective is admittedly skewed. I haven't played a FF game front-to-back since VIII (I rented XIII, though). I watched a playthrough of XIII-2 online to see if it was worth checking out. Here are my guesses as to what's wrong:
1) Back in the 90's, when you picked up a Final Fantasy, you could be reasonably certain that the game you bought was the only story set in that universe/timeframe/etc. Beginning with VII, the popularity of the series demanded spinoffs, sequels and tie-ins that diluted the power and drive of the main story.
2) There's a...drive to the narrative that seems to be missing from most of the recent installments. Maybe it was Sakaguchi's departure, but when you played most of the older games, you had this driving storyline with lots of twists that felt organic to the plot, yet encouraged you to keep striving for the goal. That sense of thrust and purpose seems to be scaled back in most of the modern installments - XIII is a slogfest that only opens near the end of the game, and XIII-2 has you puttering around various eras until the plot forcibly kicks you back in during the last two missions.
3) This "sucks to be you" attitude from Square, both in the content of their games and their current DLC scheme. I can't be the only one who noticed the "secret" ending of Caius mocking Serah/the player by saying that what they've done means nothing - that's your reward for hundred-percent completion? Not to mention that the story is resolved in the Lightning DLC - got attached to Serah? Whoops, she really did die! It smacks of heavy-handedness and a callous disregarded for story progression when the company does everything in its power to make the player as irate as possible.
4) Square, much like Bioware and several other RPG developers these days, seems to have a knack for taking gameplay elements that work and either unnecessarily messing with them or removing them entirely.
5) The plots in the recent games just seem to be more of the same old "end of the world" routines. Plucky hero/heroine has to escape imminent destruction, teams up with squadmates that are borderline too quirky for their own good, the requisite third-act plot twist and a giant nonsensical boss battle before 20 minutes of droning cutscenes that barely resolve anything. I miss the Final Fantasy VI-type ending, where you were working to save the world after it had been destroyed, and every character got closure and hope without it being too maudlin (as evidenced by XIII-2's ridiculous pop song finale).
That's all I've got.
1) Back in the 90's, when you picked up a Final Fantasy, you could be reasonably certain that the game you bought was the only story set in that universe/timeframe/etc. Beginning with VII, the popularity of the series demanded spinoffs, sequels and tie-ins that diluted the power and drive of the main story.
2) There's a...drive to the narrative that seems to be missing from most of the recent installments. Maybe it was Sakaguchi's departure, but when you played most of the older games, you had this driving storyline with lots of twists that felt organic to the plot, yet encouraged you to keep striving for the goal. That sense of thrust and purpose seems to be scaled back in most of the modern installments - XIII is a slogfest that only opens near the end of the game, and XIII-2 has you puttering around various eras until the plot forcibly kicks you back in during the last two missions.
3) This "sucks to be you" attitude from Square, both in the content of their games and their current DLC scheme. I can't be the only one who noticed the "secret" ending of Caius mocking Serah/the player by saying that what they've done means nothing - that's your reward for hundred-percent completion? Not to mention that the story is resolved in the Lightning DLC - got attached to Serah? Whoops, she really did die! It smacks of heavy-handedness and a callous disregarded for story progression when the company does everything in its power to make the player as irate as possible.
4) Square, much like Bioware and several other RPG developers these days, seems to have a knack for taking gameplay elements that work and either unnecessarily messing with them or removing them entirely.
5) The plots in the recent games just seem to be more of the same old "end of the world" routines. Plucky hero/heroine has to escape imminent destruction, teams up with squadmates that are borderline too quirky for their own good, the requisite third-act plot twist and a giant nonsensical boss battle before 20 minutes of droning cutscenes that barely resolve anything. I miss the Final Fantasy VI-type ending, where you were working to save the world after it had been destroyed, and every character got closure and hope without it being too maudlin (as evidenced by XIII-2's ridiculous pop song finale).
That's all I've got.
