Here is how I see it....
Final Fantasy is a gaming franchise that won't die and we know it won't go anywhere anytime soon. What I find most disconcerting is the sudden drop in enthusiasm over the mainstream games, and even some of the spin offs that have come out. After some thinking I believe I found what has been keeping most people away.
Since the first Final Fantasy hooked legions of fans everywhere the franchise has popped. Game after game came out and over the course of twenty years we have seen twelve, and now thirteen games come into existence each unique in their own way. It's because of the length and the myriad of different characters that it is so appealing. You have a different world to contend with (mostly), and a different way to summon, use magic, weapons, etc. However as of late while I have been browsing the web I notice something that I had not noticed two years ago; annoyed gamers. These people for reasons unknown to me at the time appeared to be very much against playing mainstream Final Fantasy games. They claimed it was mostly due to the excessive amount of hype surrounding it. Now I will admit the hype surrounding the series is very very large. It has been proclaimed as probably the best Fantasy genre type of game out there (which isn't entirely true). Delving deeper I noticed that the hype really wasn't an issue until Square Enix started to milk Final Fantasy VII for all it was worth, seriously.
Final Fantasy VII was supposedly a break through game when it came out back in 1997. The graphics were a hefty departure from how things looked previously, and to many the story was much more engrossing than others too. Now to each their own and all of that but, I believe VII has actually been the game to drive people away. With Dirge of Cerberus, Advent Children, Before Crisis (nifty little cellphone game), Crisis Core, that OAV I can never remember the name of, and the literal landslide of praise, fics, art, pairings, and PR it gets there is no wonder that many people are turned off by this. I usually do not receive well to the adage, "if it is popular I will not like it" but, in this case I can see the points of many when they say that this series was ruined for them by the over kill in popularity. And yes a lot of people did comment in their LJs, Deviantarts, at my college, that it was all because of everywhere they turned FFVII was shoved in their face.
This is really a shame to me really since the other games are now overshadowed, and because of this sudden influx of VII propaganda by Square Enix newer fans cannot enjoy it fully.