Is Final Fantasy too ambitious for its own good ?

[VXIII]

Augen said:
From a technical perspective the whole JRPG genre has struggled with how ambitious it was.

Huge worlds with massive 50+ hour quests blew me away on SNES and PS1, but as we got to PS3 era the technical demands saw many corners cut. Towns you walk into were often replaced by menus. Traversing the world was replaced with selecting locations on a map. Also, due tot he scope most in the genre lag behind the graphical show pieces of last generation. Square's other big IP Dragon Quest last main entry IX (I don't count MMOs) came out last gen on the DS. Final Fantasy alone demands to be the show piece technically of the genre meaning development cycles grow, delays happen, and we get sequels using existing assets.

I think many JRPGs just said, "Look, we're AA now as the market cannot support a JRPG with the ambition of the genre and the visuals of an Uncharted...unless you're Final Fantasy."

Unfortunately, That is exactly how I feel too, RPGs took the back seat last generation. Still some "AA" franchises like tales managed to keep a decent fan base. I think Final Fantasy is the only ambitious JRPG left, hopefully the upcoming game will sell good enough to justify that.