I think the combination of doing playthroughs of FF games in the FF anniversary thread and all of the circumstances and conversations surrounding the FF13 games (including Type-0) effectively killed my interest in the series (or at least new games in the series) at this point in time.
I honestly think I've forgotten what exactly I liked about the series first and foremost. Perhaps it was customization and micromanagement, after all. Those are the FF games I generally like anyway (3, 5, 10-2, IZJS). Thinking about the reasons why I played a lot of RPGs when I was a kid, I always liked levelling people up and getting more skills for them. I liked getting new weapons and equippin' them to my heart's content. I liked accumulating points--whether it's ability points or XP. I used to go into the status screen and do the math for when I'd level up or get a new skill (ie: after x many battles against this enemy formation or this enemy formation, I'll level up or get this new ability!).
So I guess I didn't really play them for the story at all. Story was a plus, but that wasn't the reason now that I go back and think about it.
This was my biggest gripe with the game. Ha ha. I like higher difficulty in games, though. It's my bread and butter at times (heck, my first two games were Battletoads and Mega Man 2, so...). Getting a high challenge and trying to work your way through it. Taking multiple attempts to. And then finally getting it done? It's incredibly satisfying. Games being easy turns into a snoozefest for me. That's why I don't like grinding now. Grinds take the fun out of everything for me.
Different strokes, I guess.