I was recently talking about Lost Odyssey with TADS and it reminded me that one of my first impression about that wonderful game was that it was the game Final Fantasy XIII should have been. That it somehow felt closer to what I associate with Final Fantasy than FFXIII. This got me thinking (yes I do think from time to time), since the Final Fantasy series doesn't have a continuing storyline or even returning characters what is it that makes a Final Fantasy game, well, Final Fantasy?

Is it the name Cid? Chocobos? Airships? Summons like Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut? The turn-based fighting? The world on the brink of destruction storylines? Three-tiered elemental spells? Mini-games? End-game sidequests? Nobuo Uematsu's music? Barging into people's home and stealing the treasure they've hidden in drawers, chests and pots?

I personally can't put my finger on it. So that's why I'm asking you guys (and gals): What makes Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy?

Is it the name Cid? No. No names.
Chocobos? Partly.
Airships? Partly.
Summons like Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut? Not for me.
The turn-based fighting? Yes, yes, yes yes yes. Why can't they understand this.
The world on the brink of destruction storylines? I liked them, it would be nice if Square goes back to that kind of story in FF15.
Three-tiered elemental spells? Kinda.
Mini-games? Not really.
End-game sidequests? Yeah, sidequests, lots of them. FF6 was made of sidequests, and finishing each one of them was very well worth it.
Nobuo Uematsu's music? Yes.
Barging into people's home and stealing the treasure they've hidden in drawers, chests and pots? Always.

1) I think the fantasy setting is one of the big draws for me with Final Fantasy; I want to be drawn into the world of the game, which is something that FF6, 9 and 12 did.

2) The ATB battle system is another good thing. I do think that the battle systems for the Final Fantasy games have always been a big part, and it's one of the few things that has always been consistent with the series. I don't think they need to add anything gimmicky like the Draw system to it.

3) I think the summons need to stay, too, but they need to make them useful again.

The art style is a huge part of it. The extremely polished cut scenes. The music. And the turn based fighting with max 3 active characters at a time. FF12 and FF13 are still turn based even though they don't wait for you to input a command.

A fantasy story, some form of menu-based battle system and leveling system. That's about it.

i dont think it can be boiled down into parts like this. its either got the feel or it doesnt.

First of all let me start off by saying Final Fantasy is the best video game series of all time. I will also add that I absolutely loved Lost Odyssey. The game was epic in so many ways, and it definitely reminded me of Final Fantasy as well. But even still, it was not on the same caliber of the games of the main series. FFXIII is one of the best games I've ever played and for sure the best RPG of this gen.

Is it the name Cid? Check
Chocobos? Check
Airships? Check
Summons like Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut? Check
The turn-based fighting? Yes & No. Every Final Fantasy game seems to feature some new changed elements in the battle system. The newer ones have begun to completely re-think the way battles are done and I`m loving every new change.
The world on the brink of destruction storylines? Check. Usually seems to start as something smaller but ends up being huge story line has worked so well.
Three-tiered elemental spells? Check
Mini-games? Check
End-game sidequests? Check.
Nobuo Uematsu's music? Yes & No. He is amazing and his work on Final Fantasy and Lost Odyssey is a testament to this. However, with FFXIII we see an epic soundtrack that he had no part of. So I guess the answer is no but I`d love to see him again.
Barging into people's home and stealing the treasure they've hidden in drawers, chests and pots? NOT even a little.

Why a maximum of three active characters? Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI did well with 5 and 4 characters respectively.

FFXIII's soundtrack was really hit and miss for me. I know I've enjoyed some of the tracks but none stood out like Dancing Mad, One-Winged Angel, Vamo' alla Flamenco, To Zanarkand and many more Uematsu tracks did in previous games. Also, there were tracks that I absolutely hated like that jazzy-lounge music that plays when you're running around with Vanille and Sazh.

This.  And by the way, what happened to good ole' turn based JRPGs?