Damn i was sort of looking forward to this game. The combat looked interesting.

Hmm, sorry to interrupt, but you may check this thread.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=144897&page=1#

Have fun!

I'm sorry, but this is according to what? Are you saying that in order to be ambitious you have to lean on complex, convulted visions to achieve that?

There certainly is nothing wrong with simplicity... sometimes less is more. It is your personal opinion that the simplicity of the game hurt it, and I know that a lot of people agree with you that XIII wasn't as good as it was expected to be but you have to keep in mind that not everyone will agree with you that the game's "simplicity" was its setback nor did it reflect the lack of ambition or vision on the developers' part, because it is clear that their vision and ambition revolved around telling a tale in a stripped-down format that left the player with nothing but the story and the gameplay without any bells or whistles.

With that said, I do personally find XIII to be deeply flawed even though I love it so much. I'm just trying to say that the so-called "simple" approach was not the game's problem but rather the fact that it could have benefitted from more development time (as crazy as that sounds). 

Trust me, I don't WANT to hate anything, but it's hard not to hate Final Fantasy XIII.  When I go down my list of things that a game needs to be good, it fails almost everywhere. While its graphics were beautiful and its soundtrack was good, it failed everywhere else.  The characters were shallow and uninteresting with a completely forgettable villain, the stoy looked like it had potential but ended up being boring and simple, not to mention if you wanted 90% of the story you needed to scour through the datalogs to understand the depth of it (which is shoddy storytelling.)  Normally, depth like that is unearthed through exploration and sidequests, but here the game is so restrictively linear that there is no ability to deviate from the path it set you on save one small part of the game (chapter 11 of 13).  

On top of all this, the gameplay is fundamentally flawed in many ways.  yeah, it 'works', but its very poorly implemented and the battle system frankly sucks, a faster paced version of FFXII's battle system that sacrifices all the depth and player control in lieu of action and speed.  another instance where Final Fantasy XIII prefers style over substance. 

How can you not hate that after 20 years of amazing games?  how can you not hate that when they keep doing more with the most hated game in the series but are doing apparently nothing to bring the games people REALLY want (Kingdom Hearts III,vsXIII, VII remake, etc).  it's perfectly okay to hate a game when you know THAT'S the game the company will be focusing on as opposed to other, good stuff.  if XIII was just a fluke and Square Enix went back to the quality FF games of yesteryear, I'd simply ignore it and move on, burying it in my past as I would any bad memory, but the fact that it seems to be the direction they're heading, I have every right to hate it, for it was the game that set my favorite series on a path I hate, and the prospect of never getting another final fantasy game I like is a rather daunting and depressing thought.  

so yes, I have every right to hate Final Fantasy XIII for ruining a franchise I love.  

If it wasn't for the purchase of Eidos, it would be a completely different story though. Eidos' properties are the main reason this company is still afloat.

Perhaps, I don't know about that. It doesn't change the fact that they're not going bankrupt any time soon though

And they have profited from all FF entries bar XIV anyway, plus DQ, KH, etc., so they're not losing money on their Japanese side either overall, far from it.

Not defending their games, but they're financially very healthy.

They are financially strong right now, however that doesn't mean they aren't losing their base. They've just been able to cover up the drop in support from the Japanese developed games with the properties they purchased with Eidos (Deus Ex, Hitman, Tomb Raider).

I use to be one of the biggest fans of Square-Enix. I saw them as the greatest company. That changed this generation and it doesn't appear to be getting better anytime soon. Looking at their reports I see the numbers drying up. Unfortunately for them, none of the properties will be able to completely make up for a void the Final Fantasy will make and that is where they are right now.

Dragon Quest seems to also be on the downturn. Looking at the excitement for DQX (being on the Wii and Wii U).

I wish I was running the company.

The thing I find so bizzare is they built up a massive world and in-depth lore to the game, yet completely failed to incorporate it into the storyline in any meaningful way (the datalog is a horrible cop-out). So much effort to create the world and yet so little effort in allowing the player to explore its intricacies. 

To be honest, from what I've read on the development, I don't think they took a gamble with the story at all. They simply ran out of time to do anything other than what they produced. A linear, character driven story with a fast paced battle system. If they had a more efficient development cycle I don't doubt they could have produced a far more intriguing story (or side stories) that truly explored some of the other facets of the lore. As it is, the characters personal stories drive the game to varying degrees success.

I think anyone who's played more than 3 Final Fantasy game will have gone into this with an open mind. Everyone knows that each iteration attempts to evolve the series from the last. I was personally very disappointed with this iteration which is why I hope Versus (or whatever form it takes) is a very different game from XIII.

It seems Kotaku was indeed talking out of there ass (as usual)

http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/24/square-enix-boss-confirms-final-fantasy-versus-xiii-still-in-production/

agreed