SubiyaCryolite above is correct.

What made FF in the past isn't the gameplay (while always good and worked well each time) it was the indepth world, the characters and most importantly story. Each game the gameplay was essentially the same, they all had contained battles with control of all characters, a natural magic and leveling system, a world/towns to explore, people to talk to. So much of that vanished with FFXIII, no exporation, no towns as such, leveling was no more in depth than pressing a button, magic system was contained to pressing X then swapping and pressing X again, battles where you had limited control.

If they wanted to replicate Call of Duty, they succeeded in one aspect, it's genericness, it is now seeming the basis for all shooters.

They need to get back to a more traditional format, ATB turn based combat, an explorable world, small character interactions, make the characters likeable, a truely great story and no sequals, that world and that story should be contained. FFVII was ruined because of the extended universe, so was FFX. get 2 or 3 teams working on the games, make one every 2 years.

But maybe SquEnix have lost their edge. They've seemingly abandoned many RPG franchises for their pursuit of Final Fantasy glory, HD gaming isn't as profitable as handheld/phones so why should they bother?

I miss Final Fantasy.

I honestly don't see where the hype for XV is coming from. The game has been developed in the same time frame as all XIII's. Square clearly did not have a clue with the XIII saga, so why would XV be any better?

And really, from 1 to X there wasn't much difference at all in the way you used the battle system. It was all tweaking and adjusting and adding. It worked. Every single time. Some better than others but nowhere near the mess (exaggerating here) that is XIII and will be XV.

You want to bring something new to the table, start a new IP. Don't ruin a perfectly fine series because you want your ideas to have a big audience. The audience will find you if you're that good.

I take it, like a lot of musicians do, SE has only been trying to get the bigger sales instead of focusing on creating something with balls, and a lot of heart.

This.

I was so freaking upset when I found out Chrono Cross wasn't a 'real' sequel to Chrono Trigger :(

Gamespot should fix itself first, there's a lot of work

Meh. By now they should just roll with whatever floats their boat. Thos self proclaimed "FF fans" don't know what they want and will never be satisfied. FFXV will not "bring FF back on course". It will be the most detached game in the entire series with only the name connecting it to the franchise. But apparently that's what people want considering all the praise the game got so far.

Have your game have a battle system. And no, the paradigm shift and pressing auto-battle is NOT a battle system. It's a mess.

Well I'm not sure if the sales of Lightning Returns reflect the views in that article.

They need new blood.

Final Fantasy XIV was redeemed. There's hope for XV.

Just wait for Gamespot XV. I heard it will be awesome.