Does anyone honestly still think they will be? Square-Enix as a company is a shadow of what Squaresoft used to be. Look at the recent 360 games: The Last Remnant, quoted by Wada as being 'a cornerstone of their worldwide strategy'. It was panned critically, the same as Infinite Undiscovery, another critical failure. Square-Enix as a brand has lost a lot of their prestige this generation.

And look at the previous Final Fantasy games: FFX, a step in the wrong direction, FFX-2 a terrible game, FF11 a grindfest MMO which failed in comparison to things like WOW, Everquest, Runescape, Lineage 2, AOC, etc, and then there's FF12. A game that plays itself with shallow characters, poor storytelling, unmemorable locations... Looking at the FF13 trailer it looks to have a lot more in common with FFX-2 than the PSOne and SNES classics.

Of course FF13 will sell shitloads and FFV13 will sell well, I'm not denying that. They'll probably be decent games, but the fact that Microsoft fans claimed PS3 was dead after the multiplatform announcement is laughable when you look at the awful games SE has come out with recently.

Since FFXII is the best game in the series so far and FFX was great as well I think you are wrong. I predict both XIII and Versus will be AAA, they look amazing so far and this battle system XIII uses sounds like a dream come true to me.

I have to say that i agree with some of what you say, not the comment about FFX though as i thought it was one of the best ones, but XII was a bit of a disappointment and their recent games in the new generation have been lackluster and bug-filled to say the least!

Here is hoping that FFXIII will surprise us all and be the game that it needs to be for SE to regain any type of status as the JRPG king.

Umm almost agree with your post except for X which I think was the last great Final Fantasy...Really SE has been fucking up this Gen and its really starting to hurt them given the fact that NONE of their games have made it over past a million yet. My guess is that they should probably go back to their roots and not try to appeal to Western Gamers but to their hardcore Japanese crowd.

Honestly I think thats what pulled most people into Final Fantasy in the first place. A little taste of an Eastern developed game.... Start making games for your fanbase on their platforms (Wii and PS3 where the fanbase is in Japan) and start gravitating towards a more Japanese feel in your games and you will find Success both Critically and Commercially

you're right 12 wasn't that good, 10 was on of the best and I'm sure 13 will be a hit and versus 13 will be the best ever or second best.( have to see if it will be better than ff7, which is currently 1)

SE brings out all the big guns in the main FF series games, so it wont bomb.

VIII was a step in the wrong direction, X just followed it.

And I believe both will get an review score of 90+ on metacritic, even if they suck.

Well, if FF XIII aren't going to be AAA games, then where do you expect the next epic AAA storytelling rpg to come from?

yes I agree, 8 and 10 were my least favorites. I actually enjoyed 12 ( i got into the bounty hunting )

also I agree with the point it will get AAA reviews regardless of quality.

They will be AAA.

Look at the MetaCritic on:
VII - 92
VIII - 90
IX - 94 (My personal favorite)
X - 92
XII - 92

So if XIII and Versus XIII don't get anything better than a 90, then there will be something seriously more wrong than that of what VIII was (which imho, was the worst of the 5 I pointed out.