"Where has the magic gone?"

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

Something else you have to take a look at is ourselves.
Like you already said - we've grown up. It's way harder to give a grown-up person the same kind of magical feeling you could give to a child or teenager. The reason we still feel it in the titles we've played as kids is because our memories give it a magical feeling. It's not something controlable.
So I'm not sure who really is to blame for the loss of "magic" in Final Fantasy, but I think they are doing a really great job with FFXIV in recapturing it.

I think we all know that even being in an older body, we never really grow up. Look into yourself and you still see that child. It's what drives humanity forward. Curiosity and adventure, don't tell me we loose that when we grow up, it's simply not true. We might not be as easily impressed or manipulated, but we still do have the need for all the same things we wanted back when we where a kid or teenager.

We need that new toy, it just changed from a toy car to a real car.