Sorry why did PlayStation ruin the Final Fantasy franchise? I preferred the franchise on Nintendo consoles. Heck Square makes Crystal Chronicles with Nintendo on Game Cube and it becomes one of my all time favorite games. Personally I think Square is best at making FT games.in conjunction with first party developers. When Sony worked closely with Sony the games were pretty good when Square worked directly with Nintendo the games are bloody amazing. It is when Square goes it alone that they don't do as well. Squares main games should be exclusive. Plus if they are exclusive Square can better utilize the hardware of each individual platform.

I have no doubt Square could make a great FF game with Microsoft if they worked together and Square built the game around the 360 hardware from the ground up.

Westernized? lol you sound like your joking.

I too think that releasing the game on Xbox360 damaged the game. If this game was PS3 exclusive, they could have taken advance of the blue ray completely. Instead a lot have been left out in the game to fit the multi discs on the Xbox360. But FF XIII was still a good game not a must buy game but a good one. Unfortunately it doesn't have what most FF has showed, replay value. Honestly after finish this game I didn't really feel like restarting (And I have restarted everysingle FF I played, except for XII and XIII, even replayed X-2).

Popularity is the biggest reason why an franchise could decline in quality.

No. Two subpar mainline games did (XIII and XIII-2). Actually without MS paying for that pretty huge advertising bill for XIII it would have probably sold way worse in the west.

Unfortunately the problem is character/monster/enviroment design, game engine, voice casting (basically everything that takes developers time)etc was all done previously in FF13 so of course there was no need for a long developement (ala FFX-2) In a development team you have sub-teams who are experts in their particular field ie; pre-rendering, code design etc so costs/time was cut having recycled FF13 components.By the way many other posts have squashed the "production for what 6 years or something rediculous" as it was previously aimed as a PS2 title.

Basically FF13 took up as many discs as it did to cater for the FMV and even when it was spread over multiple discs the rendered scenes were still sub-par compared to the ps3. Trust me I (still) have the limited edtion for the 360 and jumped ship because of the case.

I'm just answering the OP question

Did the Xbox 360 indirectly damage the Final Fantasy brand?

Yes as we don't have the great pre rendered cut scenes that have been a huge part of FF for the past decade and a half. AND maybe more yeses (lol) as maybe (my opinion only) levels were recycled within FF13-2 because of the reduced disc space and stuff like the original Gran Pulse were reduced considerably from FF13 (disc size...maybe) can't remember if Gran pulse was on a different disc to all other levels???

This is a baseless and opinionated argument that no one can prove as fact.

If you feel like blaming Xbox then thats fine, its your opinion and we can respect that viewpoint. But one could argue conversely that Square could have westernized the series regardless of it being multiplatform to appeal to the huge PS3 install base in the west which is much bigger than the Japanese install base. Or you could argue that Square just screwed up and need to get their **** back together.

Whatever you prefer I guess.

I'm blaming the iPhone indirectly for the decline of the FF brand, porting 1,2, 3 and Tactics but not 13? F* you SE!!

If Squenix didn't westernize FF for x360, we'd have quality games. 

No Xbox 360 had zero impact on FF series. If anything it opened up the series to a possible what (x amount) Millions of people....SquareEnix killed the FF brand about 10 years ago....They really need to move on.

I remember playing Final Fantasy 1 for the NES about 20 years ago....and it's mostly gone all down hill from there...So Square...please let FF finaly die off....