I really found it quite similar to persona's 3/4 and it had autobattle as well... though it was bassically everyone attack
I didn't use auto battle in FFXIII, just like I don't use auto-aim in FPS. The battles imo were  more frantic in XIII with some aspects better in each. And yes I know Persona isn't technically SMT

I've beaten Digital Devil Saga, and Nocturne,and didn't find anything spectacular about the battlesystems. Though tbh, call me not hardcore or whatever I don't care, I didn't enjoy those games all that much. I enjoyed Shadow Hearts 2's (not by atlus) and Persona's much more.

All are of those are better than xenosaga 2's battle system which is probably the most boring battle system I've ever played

This X 1000

imo i think that deep down he would like to come back, its his series after all!!, although i'm not saying i know that for a fact. Wada has accepted that FF13 has been met with some very negative reaction, he might think about trying to bring back Sakaguchi, so the series can recapture some of the past success when Sakaguchi was still with SE. yes maybe they could integrate Mistwalker into SE like level 5?? i dont know.

well i have no idea about Mistwalker, i assumed that was Sakaguchi's company and that he has 3 games developed under that company, although i dont really know much else about them. my main point was that i dont think the series can continue with the current developers and recapture the auidence they once had, imo FF13 and the FF7 compliation have shown us SE production team 1 are surviving on a game that came out 13 years ago, and FF13 comes no where near what FF7 achieved. and its time for a new direction to the series imo.

I'd disagree on seven... because honestly, I'd rate it as the second or worst final fantasy since 5.... not that that's a bad thing for me. On sales success... yes, but FFX set a pretty high bar as well. As well as FFXI being nothing  like the previous and making more money than even FF7, by a whole lot.

Though TBH I'm not in the same band wagon as you as FFX was my favorite final fantasy and videogame... and that was probably the game he had had the least input in, because he was directing/writing the movie his movie. Though if he had a lot of input in it... that's not known, I will gladly change my stance.

IMO the movie FF:SW was the last great thing he did. And since fans and critics backlashed he hasn't been near as creative. He's done good things since then like L.O. IMO for example.

Now I loved 13... so I'm not obvoiusly in the same bandwagon as you. However. i do think they need to get another non Toriyama. after Versus. Like IX, and XII. Now I love them, but when you let artists get too carried away (and some people thought this with 13) it can turn to crap.

I think Sakaguchi or Matsuno would be a fine choice. Especially Sakaguchi because it is his series. Or hell maybe I'd bend and I'm sure you would if it was Kitase writing and directing, as he wrote and directed the much loved six.

FFXIII was a new direction that you and many did not like, but it was not the same as FFXII, so you can't say it's been going the same direction, (unless your arguing about quality, but you always can argue that. You could argue that FF6 was a collosal step backward from FF5 as well) FFXII was also not similar to 11 which was not similar to 10. The same was said about 12, as many did not like that direction, including myself though I enjoyed the game. And they went a different direction for better or for worse

I think Mistwalker is similar to Yuji Horii's Armor Project, where they coordinate development but don't necessarily handle all the grunt work.  They have worked with several developers: Artoon on Blue Dragon and Away: Shuffle Dungeon; Racjin on A.S.H.; feelplus / Microsoft Game Studios on Lost Odyssey; Brownie Brown and tri-Crescendo on the DS Blue Dragon games.

Their cancelled 360 game Cry On was to have been co-developed by cavia, who are no more.

The only companies listed on the offical website for The Last Story are Mistwalker and Nintendo, but that's also the way it is with the A.S.H. website.  Nintendo has a history for not necessarily being obvious with the developers of their published games, such as how Super Princess Peach was developed pretty much entirely by TOSE but you'd never know from appearances.

@GooseGaws

You are correct. Mistwalker plans out all of their titles but contracts another developer to do the coding. Similar to how an architect designs a building but hires a construction company to build his design.

I think that he was involved with the scenario although i'm not sure to what capacity he was involved with the final product. i didnt mind FF10, it was a good game imo, just really didnt like the characters, and the world of Spira couldve been a bit better imo, but for its time, i acknowlege it was a great game.

Personally i havent liked the direction Kitase, Nojima and Nomura have been going in for a while. i didnt like FF13 because of the focus on melodrama and imo the characters werent designed as realistically as FF12. i'm not reffering to their anotomical design, but the words they would use (hold on babay your hero's on the way) and the decision to focus on that in every (bloody) cutscene, lol. although the mythology behind the worlds of Pulse and Cocoon seems good if it can be fleshed out in the next games.

i'm not sure about Kitase, no offense if you like him, but i dont think he understands gamers. i mean he said that FF13 was inspired after Call of Duty, (i dont even understand how that would work). and he seemed to think that Leonia Lewis would be an amazing experience for the game. He also recently said that Crystal Tools may have been a mistake. 5 years to late to say that imo. imo the only person i would like to see in charge of the next one is Matsuno, i think his focus on storytelling and realisim is much better. although i still think FF13 had some very good elements, just way too much cutscenes focusing on melodrama. anyway, i dont think Matsuno will be asked to do the next one, but i think if theres a chance i would love to see what he could come up with.

I pretty much swore off the FF series after XIII. If Matsuno directs XV, I may reconsider. On one condition, they let him do the game as he pleases. I don't want a repeat of FFXII in which he got so pissed off with outside intereference he walked.  FFXII is the game version of the movie A.I. Kubrick had a great movie planned. He dies and Spielberg takes over and ruins it. I really would liked to see the FFXII that Matsuno envisioned.

We shouldnt get our hopes up, i too think that Matsuno's FF12 would have injected new life into the series, but lets face it, where is FF going. we're 5 years late into the gen, FF13 hasnt been well recieved, and theres no FF15 in the pipeline. I think Versus might be a good game, but what is there to look foward to: Noctis (Squall) and Stella (Rinoa) in your face over theatrical romance with a bad supporting cast. Matsuno and possibley Hiroyuki Ito (not so much him) are the developers i have faith in, but its not like there even close to doing FF15. SE needs to get their s*** together and get him back imo.