IronStar: X? I don't remember it as that linear and push one button game. If nothing, I found blitzball quite challenging.
DCT: I wasn't talking about how linear when referencing X though it's is more linear then previous FF and I played the entire series save for the two MMO installments, but the final boss was a giant pushover, guess I should of been more clearer. But if I am to be honest challenging is the last word that comes to mind when it comes to FFX it's not 13 level easy but man I barely broke a sweat playing that one, of course I had gotten back into CRPGs by this point and having finally played stuff like BG2, Gothic 1+2 and others it's hard to find most post 6/7 Final Fantasy games all that difficult. Don't get me wrong I love both Console and PC rpgs(or if you prefer JRPG and Western) it's just I find Final Fantasy lacking past 6 and 7, even IX which I adored was a cake walk for me it just was a more interesting ride then 8 and 10 are.
I really Hate the Hard is Good, Easy is bad arguments.
It's true that a game being hard doesn't mean it's bad but it doesn't make Hard games are always good and nor does it make Easy games are bad. There's a place for all difficulty levels in games.
I do Agree that later Final Fantasy games have problems, FFX and FF XIII are Terribly limited and offer little choice even on levels of JRPGs. FFX is on the edge of what's acceptable since there was some choice in tactics, even if it's buried under one of the worse examples of Form over Function in gaming, The sphere Grid and the US got a dumbed down version that removed even more choices. FF13 did away with that, you had the classes that you couldn't chose until the end and then if you wanted say, a Guardian Lightning to have an evasion tank, you had to grind for hours to make it as useful as a Medic at level one. It's not that the games are easy, it's just that they don't offer much for the player to do, most the optional stuff in FFX is Busywork and while there is some freedom in building characters, you have to painfully. The good Final Fantasy games still were somewhat linear but had a ton of tactical choices to make, want Cyan the knight to Learn Ultima, sure you can, not the best idea in the world but no one's stopping you. FF 7 had a ton of great choices as well wince the materia system was really deep and not very restrictive, though I like FF6's more.
Good JRPGs are out there, they engage in storyline and gameplay both, The new FFs don't engage either of these or just one, that's why they're bad JRPGs, not because they're easy.