Okay to the OP; first things first Final Fantasy XIII does not have 6 hours of cutscenes, the longest cutscenes in the game were in Chapter 7 and 8 and they did not add up to more than a half hour (Per chapter). And if the game did have 6 hours of cutscenes... wow could have fooled me. Secondly Matsuno had to leave Final Fantasy XII's development because he got sick not because he chose or he was ousted. Final Fantasy XIII almost had it right, they just didn't balance the game out and had these 40 minute runs for less than 5 minutes of cutscenes and then on top of that they made you run another 40 minutes to see the rest of that 5 minute cutscene if they just merged the character rants with the flashbacks the cutscenes in the game would have been more meaningful and you'd probably complain less (I know I would have). Though from what it sounds like with your complaints it seems like you don't like anime. Everything in Final Fantasy XIII conforms to some shonen type, all the characters. Watch Naruto or Bleach and you'll see similarities between characterizations for the characters in Final Fantasy XIII and said anime. Final Fantasy XII did things differently and didn't rely on the shonen character types which is probably why you liked the cutscenes better.
