Am I the only one that wishes they would return to games that don't play themselves??? Why would a director behind two of the greatest games in the series (6 & 9) decide to incorporate the bastard child instead?

This list is horrible! If this really is Square's priority list, I will cut all ties with them in regards to purchase of future games. It just goes to show how much they've lost the plot.

Sometimes it makes me wish that Square was as limited in the graphics development department as they were with the SNES (not saying the 16bit graphics are bad at all!), so they'd be forced to move resources more towards gameplay and storyline...

To be fair, if you read the FFXII Ultimania interview with him, he says that in the original version of the FFXII battle system it was not possible to put the party leader on Gambits. He only added the feature close to release as he felt it would make grinding and chaining less tedious.

You know Final Fantasy was my favorite game in the series, is 12 fashioned in a similar style? Is Hiroyukis influence obvious?

Ok, I could agree with that. In fact, the gambit system would be brilliant if it was only for controlling the party. I wouldn't even mind them still leaving it in as an option for the party leader; however, if I remember correctly in 12 there was no option for manual control (besides their limit breaks or w/e they were called in 12). So he went from no option for controlling the leader by gambits to no option for manual control???

Aside from that, I still can't understand the love for 12. The world was huge but it didn't matter because it seemed largely empty (aside from the cities) - there were hardly any treasures or discoveries to fill the large areas so exploring them felt pointless. The main character (Vaan) may as well have not existed. I don't recall the story at all honestly because I simply didn't connect with any of the charcters. Summons were a waste of time because they were weaker than your party (a similar issue to 13). I just don't see any areas that actually improved with 12 aside from perhaps its openness (which to me seems more of an illusion than truly being open).

So for me, this still seems like bad news, but perhaps there is hope at least for having control over the characters. This at least gives me some hope for future news.

Actually, you can turn off Gambits for the entire party in FFXII. Ito left the option in the game for you to still play the game manually.

12 in a strange way is my favourite FF. I think for every mistake it made, it made even greater innovations and steps foward. Their just needed to be more intimacy in the story, better active role in combat and sides quests which are more then just monster hunts.

I can't wait for FFXV

You could fish...

Another game I probably wont see until I'm a withering old man :(

I remember when we would get a final fantasy pretty much every year, I know development time has gone up but the wait for a next installment is unbarring, hell id rather they just kept making them with the ps1 graphics if it meant I was going to get another final fantasy quicker.

Yeah, but even with the gambits turned off didn't it essentially come down to selecting a command that was then automated over and over as the guage filled up while you controlled little more than your position in battle. The gambits simply added conditions to what was already an automated system.

I suppose in a manner manual control was still an option; however, it felt clunky always bringing up a menu mid battle to alternate commands. It seemed like a menu tacked onto a real time battle system (most real time battle systems allow mapping of actions to particular buttons or combos - that is what I mean by manual control). Furthermore, it seemed counter-productive to actually issue commands manually since there was no added incentive over simply letting the gambits handle it.

Furthermore, for all the control they took away and placed in the hands of the gambits, they should have had some of the gambits appear much earlier on. For example, I remember some of the conditions for your HP being under a certain amount (HP < 50% - or something like that) not appearing until over halfway through. Thus early on you were the only effective healer without being able to specify the commands to your party without the necessary gambit.