The thing is, I don't care about the characters' backstories, really, unless they're woven into the plot. FFIV and FFV weave the characters' stories into the plot, and you get a sense of their deeper motivations along with the big plotline events.
It's like this, with the main plot sequence, you want to know what happens next. So the whole world was ravaged by Kefka. I want to know what happens TO THE WORLD next, not what happens to Terra next. All of the back stories are unconnected, so you're not looking forward to the next part.
I agree about what ruined the Playstation FFs for me, the prerendered towns/dungeons/etc. Having 3D characters walk around on a 2D picture was completely unconvincing, and really destroyed any sense of immersion in the game. And the big selling point of the game, the reason they really wanted to use CDs, the FMV, was fuzzy and horribly compressed. FFVIII wasn't as bad in this regard, and the characters fit into the backgrounds somewhat better, but of course the gameplay was awful.
I think I would like FFIX, but the first 2 or so hours that I played at a friend's house didn't "hook" me, so I never made the purchase.
