I really liked the sense of scale that finally hit the series in 9. The dragon seems huge when you battle it. That's a huge improvement over the flapping sprites of 6 and 7. The Chasm of the Dead is also an area that is just striking. I felt like it was a pretty unique design. Also, when you die and visit the gods, it really pounded home a sense of enormity.Still, despite some of the big improvements with the graphic upgrade, the game felt amateurish. It was so unpolished that I felt bad for the developers. I KNOW they weren't happy with pushing it out so quickly.
With that in mind, I rank the MMs in order. 6,7,8,9. Seven offers a better game, but 6 feels more imersive to me.