Their obvious retort to that would be that your experiencing Nostalgia towards a title you loved as a child, which is porbably a little bit true - but I think it undeniable that as the series aged it got harder and harder for it to impress me, the last one I loved was FFVIII (and I'm loving the tactics remakes) but hey that's just me.

Ultra-Violence isn't something most people grow out of. Some of the top selling movies today are still gore-filled movies. Final Fantasy is mainly targeted towards tweens, teens and a young adults. It's like people who stop watching cartoons and move on to real life. Gratuitous fanservice usually keeps fans....it doesn't lose them. Final Fantasy much like JRPG's are targeted to a certain age group, because most of the characters aren't adults. They are mainly teenagers.

I always thought the underlying theme of FFIV's plot to be that of redemption. Still simple, well-paced and excuted, but there was a bit more drive behind the plot other than saving Rosa and then the world. (I realise you were just shortly summing up the plots, but FFIV often gets a tad oversimplified in that department)

I'm pretty much the same way now. While I still enjoyed Final Fantasy VII through XII, I don't feel the same magic replaying them. Although I still love the series (I thought XII was great) it's not the end-all be-all I once thought it to be.

Touche! I'm quite embarrased that I managed to forget that.

It's both them and the fact that the JRPG market is slowly dying.

It's both them and the fact that the JRPG market is slowly dying, because the old fans who supported FF are growing up and growing tired of JRPG's in the west.

I don't feel there was a decline in the FF games. Anyway, my opinions differ from most.

FF1 I liked, it was fun, short, and interesting; they ruined it with the remakes though.

FF2 (4) I didn't like the first time; it felt gimmicky, slow and heavily flawed, plus there were better RPGs at the time, Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest.

FF3 (6) I liked a lot,

FF7 was fairly boring, and painfully slow for the most part. Had some nice graphics for the time, but after FF8 I couldn't even look at the game.

FF8 was a great experience and holds up today.

FF9 was a fun little game, but had a lot of slow parts, felt like a ripoff of FF7's formula.

FF10 I didn't like very much, it had nice cutscenes, but the game felt very shallow.

FF11... I wonder why Square skipped this one?

FF12, I liked, a very great world, but some of the areas were too widely spaced made for slower play. Still, I felt this game destroyed FF10 on all levels. I would have loved to see this game had Matsuno had his way with it.

FF13 looks like it has excellent art direction. It looks like it could potentially be the best FF game to date. I won't be able to play it though because I don't have one of the systems; PS3 is too pricey to warrant a purchase (I can buy a 120cm 60Hz 1080p TV for that price). I don't want an Xbox 360 because of the VERY poor hardware record, something like 95% of them break down.

Which is why i say it was pretty complicated.  I mean... ever playable character in that game had something they needed to redeem in that game.

SPOILERS:

Cecil - The obvious

Kain - See end of game.

Ryda - Powerlessness at the destruction of her villiage, irresponsibility of striking out in anger rather then listening that they were used.

Edward - Death of his wife.

Tellah - Death of his daughter

Polom and Porom -  Spying on Cecil.... Porom's immaturity.

Cid - Built vast weapons of war that were used for bad deeds.

Rosa - Enabled Cecil by being overprotective out of love and wanting their life to be ideal rather then doing the right thing even if it might cause waves.

Edge - Let his parents die.... weakness... flirting with women.  Batmanesque tye thing.

Fusoya - Lets Zeromus get out of control.

Goblez - Well that's too much spoilers... but... you know.

Yang - The guilt and sin of being the only survivior of a deadly battle in which all of his men are brutally killed.  Strong... but not strong enough to save those he cares about.

Final Fantasy 11 exists.  It's an MMORPG.

Square never skipped XI, it was a shitty MMO.