dtgreene: Actually, I would say Final Fantasy 7 was pretty bad when it was released; they took FF6, removed many of the game's positive elements (FF7 never truly opens up, for example), and made the negative elements worse. Also, why did they reduce the party size?
FF6, in turn, was worse than its predecessor. Final Fantasy 5 is easily the best game in the series, having many interesting gameplay possibilities while remaining reasonably balanced. FF6 and FF7 have fewer options available to the player *and* it seems the developers stopped caring about game balance entirely (whose idea was it to include a spell like "Knights of the Round" in the game?).
I liked 7 better than 6, actually. While the characters were still somewhat interchangeable (which limit breaks and dialog do I want this time?), but there wasn't the absolute glut of random party members.
At least 6 wasn't as bad as Chrono Cross in that regard. I stopped playing THAT one when I found a scarecrow in a basement and it joined my party.
As for Knights of the Round: To get it, you either beat the strongest (and optional) boss in the game, or you spent hours grinding out Chocobos and then circling the world. I kind of expect something powerful or interesting for that level of work.