Hmm let's see:
Pokemon-hunt and collect little creatures, help them "grow up" (evolve) and use them in combat as sort of a 1-2-3 punch of collect, raise, and refine.
Final Fantasy 13-weird loli shit, giant swords, spikey hair, and shitty writing.
Yup, makes perfect sense to go from 1 to the other.
I personally hate pokemon almost as much as any other JRPG but I can definitely see the appeal to it. There's something like an emotional investment in capturing and raising something. All the different types also means there's a lot of room open as far as how you play it.
This basically just boils down to comparing Nintendo to other game developers. Outside of Blizzard and Valve there's just no equivalent. People don't "graduate" from Nintendo games because they're better at making games than everyone else just like you don't "graduate" from Starcraft, Warcraft, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, or Team Fortress.
3rd Party Wall of Shame
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=30478.msg581036#msg581036
