I second that the voices of FF10 detract greatly from the experience. Terrible. But they had to compete with modern games and just wanted to impress people with a multimedia experience.

I liked FF7 but it didn't strike me as being the be-all-end-all PlayStation RPG that most (casual) gamers tout it as. I just took it with a grain of salt and enjoyed it.

I would say I have to agree with fans who say that FF6 succeeded at delivering the most masterful execution of a more 'serious' storyline. All without voice actors, to boot. I can't take it as seriously today as I did when I was young and thought it was high-literature, but it's the only 'serious' FF that didn't strike me as being 'whiney'. I believe if they had added the cheesy voice actors to it, that it would have certainly killed the experience for sure.

I have no interest in playing any of the post-FF10 entries unless it's a remake or re-release of the older ones.