[quote name='Wolfpup']The Final Fantasy guy. Hironobu Sakaguchi. I can't remember his name without looking it up
Final Fantasy 12 just isn't an FF game. It's not bad, but I'd rather play any of the real FF games, and I wish they would stop using that name-like that's going to happen.
And I can't agree with anything you said about FF 10. I thought it had a massively better story (12's is the worst since FF5), massively better battle system and strategy. Much more interesting world, graphics, etc.[/QUOTE]
Ah, I see what you were saying now.
FFXII is as much a Final Fantasy as anything that's come before it. In fact, I'd argue that it's more-so than several installments in the series. Just because your characters don't stand in a line, waiting to step forward and attack, doesn't mean it's not "real."
I'll give you the story, even though I don't necessarily agree, but come on--FFX? Better battle system and "strategy"? The only strategy that came into play in FFX's battles was continuously swapping characters in and out based on their attack abilities, effectively making most battles twice as long (and three times as boring) as they needed to be.
FFX's world was as interesting as that of a rail-shooter, and it looked like a decorated Easter egg. I've never seen such reliance on dull, bleeding pastels in all my life.
Final Fantasy needed a new direction, desperately, and I think what we got was just about as good as anyone could have hoped. It's probably safe to say that the random, turn-based battles that we'd all grown accustomed to are as good as dead, and FFXII was the game to really drive this home. In my opinion, this is what FFX should have been. After FFVIII, I think the series took two major steps backwards--FFIX was intentional (and excellent in that sense), but there isn't really an excuse for FFX.
This game seems to really have a divided camp--too many people were expecting another FFX, and weren't willing to accept something so different. For those of us who didn't think FFX was all that great to begin with, this was a relatively unexpected treat.