The reason why FFXIII and Versus take so long is because they had to build their Crystal Tools engine from ground up. It´s not a revamped tweaked version of their ps2 engine. Sony went a complete different direction with the ps3.
FFXII took so long due to the producer Matsuno being 'ill' (true or not, I think his relation with Square was deterring, that´s why he left).







