I blame Sqeenix.
They've forgotten how to make good games.
I agree with happy that it was shortly after ff7, but will myself say it was specifically 8.
I love viii, but it is distinctly the same style that they're stuck in now.
I remeber even thinking when I got viii how much i disliked it. Took me a while to learn to like it, and then all the ones after were just too awful to even get used to over time.
Although, I really liked 12, and actually quite like 13, but it's missing a lot of things that is great about the franchise. Also the stories have been sucking in the recent games.