[Alastor]

HIalchemist: it's all a matter of taste. I personally couldn't stand the first five FF games (FF6 actually appealed to me). Also, just because a game introduces certain features does not mean it automatically becomes good out of that respect. It's mainly about the execution of the feature.

As for music, I think the music faltered in the later games because most likely, poor old Uematsu was perhaps growing tired of doing music for the same type of game.

I'm replaying FFXII now. Forgot how much fun it was fighting, but everything else about it is so tedious, I won't be surprised if I start playing Wild ARMs Alter Code: F instead.