[quote name='panzerfaust']The battle system is very bold but I think the general philosophy of the game is very dated.
People who hate FFXIII, as another example, they find it terrible up until the point where you can run around a field and kill random monsters for loot. Everything else is awful but the moment the game returns to its traditional roots, only then is the experience considered comforting. I know older FF fans who were legitimately upset the game turned out to be more reaction based instead of whacking monster for 999,999 dmg and calling it a day. Very few spots to go and grind for the vast majority of the game being another complaint (couldn't fill out the Crystarium too much anyways).
Moving away from identifiable main villains, no world maps, not being able to walk around a town and 'X' everyone in the street -- aspects like these I think are going to become less prevalent in new age JRPGs, and I don't think oldschool gamers are ever going to approve. Oh, and especially if it's called, "Final Fantasy," because there's a feeling that the name owes you something from your past with each release.[/QUOTE]
As someone who personally didn't like the overall design of FFXIII, I think my problem wasn't necessarily that they took out things like the world maps and towns, but that they didn't add anything to really make up for that in an effective way. Things like a world map and towns give you a sense of scope and the feeling of being part of a living world, whereas in FFXIII, I didn't feel like I knew what was really going on in the world. Additionally, there was nothing in place to break up the tedium of linear corridors where you could do nothing but battle. With traditional RPGs, the world map and sidequests also give the player the opportunity to explore. So I think that if these "new-age" RPGs could find a way to provide some variety, some old-school RPG players might be a little more accepting of it. I'm personally fine with this idea of streamlined RPGs. I just don't think that streamlining should be about taking away features. It should be about simplifying them.