So keeping the same formula would get boring ... I guess Mario didnt get the memo :P

Its kinda hard to blame SE for wanting to add new mechanics to their franchise, I mean these games are meant to be played for dozens of hours, and if they dont give players something new to do or different ways to do things they might not buy the next version.

eh but I thought the new mario is more boring for that exact reason. Especially sunshine. Galaxy was an improvement. But my guess for me personally is galaxy 2 is going = sunshine.
Plus Mario has the benefit of using the same universe and characters, and story over and over and over again., Final Fantasy doesn't have that advantage other than a few side references. Plus anyways mario mechanics changed as well throughout the games slightly. The best one IMO was when they threw out most of the mechanics and made mario 64, and mario RPG

Numbers aside, I do think that story telling is the biggest part of what makes FF...well FF. It has been increasingly large part of the series since FFIV and tbh I think what killed XIII for me was the lack of character development and actual story. There was a good premise, but it didn't use the characters to its advantage. The gameplay in XIII is fine, but I do hate the tunnel vision maps in the game. You can make a game linear, but keep the dungeons open. XII and XIII were polar opposites of each other, one had heavy emphasis on large explorable maps (most of which had pointless areas) the other suffered from lack of openess.

There are many things wrong with the last two installments of FF and its namely because they are experimenting too much with things that don't need to be experimented with. I love the combat in XIII, but one should never sacrifice story...that's what engages the player.

I was taking that video quite seriously like that guy had a point until he started crying about FFVIII's magic system. Actually crying.

That aside, yes it's lost it's way, new markets have made SquEnix change it's biggest title into something that isn't familiar with earlier version of itself, they tried to make it new and fresh fitting with updated graphics and engines but it hasn't worked, maybe they should go back a step, more rendered scenes and random battles with a good magic/battle mechanic to compliment a good story. Like 4-9 had.

Even though FFVII's  a little overhyped, it's an excellent game.  The reason so many spinoffs have come from it is because people actually cared about the characters.  None of the characters in FF8-12 really get me excited.  FF6 had full grown adults as characters.  Even with all the characters playable in FF6, each had a character arc that made you want to know how their problems would be resolved. 

All these little emo spikey haired characters are becoming so cliche now. It's almost disgusting. It's like the guys making the game are stuck in 1997 when it comes to character designs.

ummm... 8,9,10,10-2,12,13 all had character archs for each charactor. Whether you liked them, or not... is up to you, but to say they didn't exist is incorrect. Some were paced badly.

By your logic, Final Fantasy X had a spinoff because people cared about their characters. Which I think they do because I do. But FFX is my favorite game by far. So I'm biased, but so is everyone here so it's okay. FFIV and FXII had a spinoff as well.

That said I love all Final Fantasy. Even the damn movie directed by sakaguchi. I have favorites. And love every single one 4-13. 1-3, is too old and basic for me, but I appreciate them for what they were.

Love all the games in the series. Of course, i have my favs but all are great and some of the most polished and high production value games of their times.

Concerning recent sales...i dunno, maybe gamers are more into FPS games and music sims these days (see recent Top 50 Guiness).

Nothing went wrong.
Fans just became spoiled on greatness and set standards so high and wanted no change (even though that keeps things from becoming stale) and started whining like 16 year old rich girls hating their parents for getting the wrong coloured car.

Why is Final Fantasy considered the biggest RPG franchise....Pokemon is the biggest RPG franchise....

Also the problem with Final Fantasy is that it has to continue to stay high above everything, which means that it has to continue to innovate. Sometimes it pays off (final fantasy 13's battle system), sometimes it doesn't (final fantasy 13's setting).