Square Enix slapping "Final Fantasy" on everything, no matter the genre, has devalued the IP. It would be one thing to evolve the series but they've changed it so much, that no one knows what to expect. Instead of potentionally having multiple IPs with the various styles they've placed under the Final Fantasy name. They've have one thoroughly damaged IP. And the exclusivity accelerated the decline. Exclusivity can work, but when you don't know what type of "Final Fantasy" you're buying it's not helpful. At least it was exclusive to a popular platform in the West. In Japan, that's the not the case, so you have whole generation of Japanese gamers that grew up with the mainline Final Fantasy games not being on their platform of choice.
While I'm not fan of what MS has done with the Xbox brand on the whole, one of the good things they did was how they handled the Forza series. SE could have done something similar for Final Fantasy. They didn't just slap Forza Motorport onto their more arcade style titles. They have created the Forza Horizon branding. So even a laymen would know what type of Forza game they'd be buying and whether it was something they'd be interested in. Forza Motorport is for simulation racing game fans. Forza Horizon is for fans that prefer arcade style racers. Square Enix should have done something similar with Final Fantasy if they were so set on placing so many genre's under the banner. They did so with Dissidia. Why not do the same for other genres with a Final Fantasy theme?
