I Xxpect L5 RPGs to be ALOT Hotter..good move

intriguing to say the least. The comment about him doing smaller projects seems appropriate since after FFXII I doubt he'd want to be part of another bloated mess like that. Hopefully he'd finish the Ogre Battle Saga with his boys at Square since that was project that requires him.

hmm not interested in what hes doing right now but hopefully he gets elevated to bigger projects.

So finally, Level-5 RPGs will have good stories.

To be fair, no one is indeed sure how much damage was caused by him leaving, because I actually loved the idea of the game being centered around Basch (given we don't exactly know how that would have turned out either). The setting was perfect, and the design was pretty good. 

Even I'll admit that 12's setting was interesting, but its characters were one-note boors, the narrative was slipshod, messy, dull, and the battle system was obviously designed to give the finger to the player at every turn. It was the most boring and poorly made entry in the series since 8, only surpassed by XIII's banal problems. Had Matsuno stayed and done his original story it would have been great (seriously, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FFT, and Vagrant Story were great even if Ogre Battle was light on narrative) but it was shot off at the kneecaps by half of the team throwing a tantrum over direction (note, it was the NON-Tactics side that did that) and executives being anal-retentive about everything, such as believing their demographic couldn't relate to a man in his thirties (odd, considering how some of the biggest cultural figures in Japan are of the same age, like Goku for example).

Yes.

Yes.

YES.

Best current-working game writer on that side of the Pacific. Somebody get me this man's next project, stat.

Also somebody get him the rights to Ogre Battle, or God spread His mercy on you all.

I actually liked WKC's story but I hated the english dubs really, the japanese sounded at the very least decent. Dark Cloud also had pretty good story and very good gameplay and the georama was win. Furthermore the Layton series is very solid so I do not know what is the problem people have with Level-5 since their games are generally good. I would like to see him create a story with a setting similar to Vagrant Story with some refined gameplay and story.

Great news. He's more than capable of filling Level-5's weakest aspect - writing.