You should also check out FFX-2 it is awesome.

This. The gameplay in Final Fantasy games were nerver the big attraction to the series, so to think they shpould change now is a little unrealistic. Besides, almost the whole second disc of Xenogears was a big cutscene with boss battles thrown in and it is the greatest RPG ever created to me.

Perspectives are changing on this issue. A lot of people who grew up with jrpgs are pretty sick of the genre now precisely because of the narrative focus. Here's the deal. When I first really got into Final Fantasy (VII and VIII to be exact), it was a very novel experience for me. And I was a young teen. I loved that stuff. MGS on the PS1 was also a very fresh experience for me for the same reasons. And I saw the narrative, cutscenes, cinematics, etc. as a reward for a job well done. But fast forward a decade and well, the same stories seem cheesy and at my age, I don't have the patience to trudge through crappy gameplay to uncover more story, especially story that isn't good. If I wanted to watch the cutscenes so badly, theres youtube now. SO4 cutscenes on youtube are great to watch for the lulz (preferably when drunk).

And I discovered visual novels after jrpgs. Visual novels pretty much "ruined" the jrpg narrative for me. Because you get better quality story without all the boring chores to do (boring encounter after boring encounter in long ass dungeons). Not to mention that there are lots of movies, television shows, anime series, manga series and yes, novels that are more fun to go through than playing through a jrpg with an uninspired cookie cutter j-pop emo soap opera narrative or cookie cutter kawaii desu ne narrative or a deadly combination of both (SO4). And guess what? No boring encounters in long dungeons to trudge through when you watch a movie, tv show, anime series, etc. And the big kicker now is that many non-rpg games these days are focusing on story, cutscenes and cinematics these days. In effect, taking away the novelty that jrpgs had.

Jrpgs aren't novel anymore and things now in 2010 aren't like what they were in the 90s and early 2000s. They need to up their game if they want to be relevant. It's time for the genre to evolve or keep catering to the shrinking jrpg base. Gamers demand more now. If we want the gameplay, we have games that give us the great gameplay we want. If we want story, there are games out there you can play that have great stories but without the annoying gameplay.

Personally I think the jrpg situation is much better on handhelds than on consoles though. I don't mind playing jrpgs on handhelds. I'm not entirely sure why but maybe it's for similar reasons than this guy brought up. http://www.destructoid.com/new-rule-every-jrpg-shall-be-portable-125833.phtml It's odd how I get insanely bored playing say SO4 or ToV but yet even something like Pokemon still seems like fun. That's not to say I don't like console jrpgs period but I find that I tend to not like most of them now.

Perspectives are changing on this issue. A lot of people who grew up with jrpgs are pretty sick of the genre now precisely because of the narrative focus. Here's the deal. When I first really got into Final Fantasy (VII and VIII to be exact), it was a very novel experience for me. And I was a young teen. I loved that stuff. MGS on the PS1 was also a very fresh experience for me for the same reasons. And I saw the narrative, cutscenes, cinematics, etc. as a reward for a job well done. But fast forward a decade and well, the same stories seem cheesy and at my age, I don't have the patience to trudge through crappy gameplay to uncover more story, especially story that isn't good. If I wanted to watch the cutscenes so badly, theres youtube now. SO4 cutscenes on youtube are great to watch for the lulz (preferably when drunk).

And I discovered visual novels after jrpgs. Visual novels pretty much "ruined" the jrpg narrative for me. Because you get better quality story without all the boring chores to do (boring encounter after boring encounter in long ass dungeons). Not to mention that there are lots of movies, television shows, anime series, manga series and yes, novels that are more fun to go through than playing through a jrpg with an uninspired cookie cutter j-pop emo soap opera narrative or cookie cutter kawaii desu ne narrative or a deadly combination of both (SO4). And guess what? No boring encounters in long dungeons to trudge through when you watch a movie, tv show, anime series, etc. And the big kicker now is that many non-rpg games these days are focusing on story, cutscenes and cinematics these days. In effect, taking away the novelty that jrpgs had.

Jrpgs aren't novel anymore and things now in 2010 aren't like what they were in the 90s and early 2000s. They need to up their game if they want to be relevant. It's time for the genre to evolve or keep catering to the shrinking jrpg base. Gamers demand more now. If we want the gameplay, we have games that give us the great gameplay we want. If we want story, there are games out there you can play that have great stories but without the annoying gameplay.

Personally I think the jrpg situation is much better on handhelds than on consoles though. I don't mind playing jrpgs on handhelds. I'm not entirely sure why but maybe it's for similar reasons than this guy brought up. http://www.destructoid.com/new-rule-every-jrpg-shall-be-portable-125833.phtml It's odd how I get insanely bored playing say SO4 or ToV but yet even something like Pokemon still seems like fun. That's not to say I don't like console jrpgs period but I find that I tend to not like most of them now.