Not for me, I was already on my 5th FF game and well into my 20's when 9 came out and that one is by far my favorite.

It matured the 3Dish visual style to a point it's still perfectly playable today (while 7 just looks awful and klunky now) and I enjoyed the gameplay and story above all others.

Every time I try to play 8, I abandon it after a few hours. The story and characters just don't do it for me at all. And not that they just don't do it for me, most of them annoyed the shit out of me. Only game worse in that regard is X.