FF has had plot problems from about the 7th installment onward if you ask me.

Story isn't everything, even in an RPG. There is a certain fun to just grinding monsters into powder (well, gil and exp). But the story really has seemed to get "more complicated for complication's sake," as others have already said.

...I mean, when you have a restrictive setting like European High Fantasy as your base, there is only so far it can be taken before it becomes something that doesn't fit into that kind of setting at all. And there have been a lot of European (-type?) High Fantasy stories that have either come into existence or resurged in popularity since 1987 (when Final Fantasy came out).

I don't know if it's the fact that the competition has gotten stiffer, or that FF itself just seems to be losing steam with time (as most things do), but the stories have sort of become nonstarters for me, at least.