Yeah, there's been a whole lot more of that in the more recent games. Gonna level with you, VII marked the point where I started growing disenchanted (no pun intended) with how convoluted the plots in the franchise were becoming.
I grew up with the early ones, which read like a D&D campaign or a particularly lovely, if occasionally dark, fairy tale. I don't mind the steampunk aspects, a lot of them are fun, but I miss stories that you don't have to re-read five times to figure out what the crap is going on and who the crap is that and what the crap does s/he want anyway?
No particular fondness for XIII, is my point.