As an aside, I always thought that this was one of the challenges FF faced as it became more popular and as its developers became older. It transitioned from being a young, upstart series that was the underdog (versus Dragon Quest) to a hugely successful behemoth made by older people, past all that.
I think this is most visible in FF13, where the storylines that work are Lightning coming to terms with being a big sister figure to Hope, and Sazh and his search for his son. I feel like these end up working better than the rest in large part because the people writing and directing the game are fathers and authority figures themselves now, whereas the more typical hero's journey stuff with Snow and the like falls flat, because they're sort of over that?
FF15 for all its faults sort of remedies this by primarily being about friendship, responsibility and the balance between the two, all of which are things adults juggle and care about daily.
Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that FF is sort of like a punk rock band that is the same and yet must change as its creators age from young upstarts to elder statesmen, and its popularity shifts from an upstart kicking back against the status quo to being the status quo.
