Soriku, you overkilled me with laughter with your Shiva bike and Bahamut airplane comments. X3

Also, I much prefer a Final Fantasy to be... Well Fantasy.

IX is just pure genius!

This is an excellent question.

I've been always thinking about the role of technology in medieval (fantasy in your words) RPG settings. Personally, seeing machines in a medieval world is a big turn off for me.

I disapprove technology in medieval settings because it makes it harder for me to maintain a suspension of disbelief. For example, when a hunter with a gun shoots me, my character receives, say, 25 damages. Then I feel "Why didn't it kill me? 'cause the bullet somehow couldn't penetrate my skin? I know it's a game, but it doesn't make sense." Another example; if a monster I'm fighting is a robot, I immediately think "there's no way my sword can actually cut through the metal body."

You see, it just makes it harder for me to make believe. When I was playing WoW, I tried to ignore the existence of guns and machines (Gnomeregan was a nightmare). When I saw machines, I always tried to tell myself "Realism doesn't always bring fun. Accept it cause it's just a game." But there's always something in me that said "this is bullshit."

Therefore, what bothers me is the inherent incompatibility between medieval reality and modern technology. But this also means that I have nothing against seeing technology in future/modern settings. I'd love to play a sci-fi high-tech RPG (such as the rumored World of Starcraft) because in futuristic settings devs can exploit technology without blatantly compromising too much of realism.

I'd probably like a mixture like they are doing, i love Magic and summoning shit to blow up cites just like the Alexandra and Bahumat fight in number nine.

Definitely prefer the Fantasy side of things...I'm not much into sci-fi shit.

I'd prefer Sci fi/techy setting over fantasy/ dragons.... but that doesn't mean the two can't be mixed. If anything I'd prefer an RPG that deals with time travel, so the player can experience much different settings throughout the game... oh wait, I'm talking about chrono trigger aren't I?

they should do a prehistoric FF for a change (like the past world of chrono trigger :p)