The Final Fantasy series has a lot of hype, and it can be a tad overrated. Perfect example would be Final Fantasy VII. That game isn't as godly as people say. I've played it, and I don't consider it to be the greatest game of all eternity. People I know try to compare everything to FFVII, which is dumb. FFVII isn't great. The story was weak and the characters were just bleh.

FFVIII was good IMO. I liked the story, I liked the GFs, and I enjoyed the characters (and Squall reminds me of me for some reason.) People always keep downgrading this game because "It wasn't like FFVII". Well no shit, it's supposed to be different. How are you supposed to keep a series alive without trying new things.

FFIX was alright, I didn't exactly find anything really out of the ordinary about it. Though I found Zidane funny, because he's a wanna-be playa . The characters weren't exactly my favorites though, and the "Trance" thing wasn't that great.

FFX was a nice change. I liked the battle system, the voice acting, the music...I just liked this game. I will not hail this game as great, mainly because of the ending, and the story.

I noticed that I've just been talking about the "new age FFs" but that's because I've barely touched the old school ones.
Yes, the Final Fantasy of today can be overrated, but that's mainly because of the large fan-base it has. The other games that you mentioned to kick ass, but some don't get the attention that they deserve (such as Chrono Cross).

and btw, my favorite FF is FFTactics

__________________