You guys fail to see my argument. Just because another JRPG franchise also manages to get great reviews does not mean that the words "Final Fantasy" don't bring in good reviews. It just means that Persona 3 & 4 are also really good games. But there are just as many amazing JRPG's taht come nowhere close to that in ratings. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say any Final Fantasy game is over-rated. FFXII, as well as X-2 (just to name the two most hated ones), are both amazing games IMO. If anything, FFXII deserves to be rated higher as it is easily the greatest RPG from last generation.

What I'm trying to say that almost EVERY other JRPG is underrated. If Lost Odyssey was a Final Fantasy game, there is a good chance it would be AAA on metacritic right now. It's as simple as that. Critics would not bitch about every small issue they have with the game.

People; I live and breathe Final Fantasy, why would I ever put the series down?

Yes. I certainly trust the opinion of the average biased uneducated lying anonymous "core" gamer a lot more than I trust the average pro reviewer. The fact that they are "random anonymous people writing with little moderation" doesn't make what they write untrue. Pro reviewers on the other hand, are often jaded non-gamers who are forced to play a game they don't like when they'd rather be doing something else. And they often have a financial/career interest in awarding big budget games much higher scores than they deserve. GameFAQs is by far the lesser evil.

Matsuno leaving had nothing to do with Vaan being included in FFXII.  Including Vaan was because they were afraid Japanese gamers would be turned off by "old" main characters which is the same reason why Raiden was the main character of MGS2 instead of Solid Snake.  As you can guess, Vagant Story's disappointing sales were a big factor in that decision.

Was your first sentence a joke? It kind of discredits your point completely. Just look at some of the user reviews on any site, and you'll find that many of them just aren't good. You obviously have no idea why pro reviewers have their jobs. They wouldn't make a living reviewing games if they were non-gamers, and they often times sign up to take certain games. It's not like they're constantly forced to review games against their will. And the temptation of giving high budget games big scores is still a far lesser evil than the bias of an anonymous person on the internet. I distinctly remember a review for Final Fantasy 12 on Gamefaqs which gave the a 3/10, and was taken down later when it was revealed that there was something false in the review, and the reviewer in question hadn't actually played the game.

   What you are saying is complete bs. And here is the proof: http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/dirgeofcerberusfinalfantasy7?q=final%20fantasy%20vii

   On-topic: The game is nearly finished, but still not announced? I predict another shitty DS game that will launch with no marketing and flop hard. Just like the last 3 games from Sakaguchi did.

Well, you can never rule out DS......

I hope it's Lost Odyssey 2!!!!!!!!!!

Lost Odyssey is a masterpiece.

A TRUE JRPG, just like the PS1 and PS2 era.
Sakaguchi is the best (creator of Final Fantasy).

Lost Odyssey is my 2nd best game this gen, just after Mass Effect.

Yes it was a joke. I don't believe that description fits the average GameFAQs reviewer, but you obviously do. I think the average GameFAQs reviewer is an informed hardcore gamer that understands and respect the genre in question, and wants to provide others with an honest opinion. I think the trolls and idiots are a minority. Trolls usually don't care enough to write long detailed reviews. If you compare GameFAQs average scores with Metacritic scores, then you'll notice an interesting pattern: Games surrounded by a lot of hype consistently get higher scores on Metacritic. Games with little to no hype get higher scores on GameFAQs. I personally find that I agree far more often with GameFAQs than Metacritic.

Anyway this debate isn't going anywhere. You're saying that pro reviewers represent some kind of objective way of measuring game quality. I say that's BS, and I'd rather take may chances with GameFAQ's. I don't think we'll agree.

Yep Mistwalker is not owned by Microsoft so they can develop for any publisher they please on any console. Just like Epic Games. They just can't release Blue Dragon or Lost Odyssey games on a competitor's console (MS allowed Viva Pinata on the DS too so I take it MS doesn't see DS as competition) since Microsoft owns the copyright to those games. But they are free to release anything else on anything they want.

I'm hoping that they're announcing Blue Dragon 2 or Lost Odyssey 2 (Lost Odyssey doesn't seem suited for a sequel though unless they want to do things the Final Fantasy way. Creating a whole new story for each game). But it could just be that they're going to make a Wii game since apparently they have Wii dev kits.

Their second Blue Dragon DS game is going to be an action rpg with online co-op apparently. Sounds like it would be worth checking out. Their first DS Blue Dragon was a RTS/RPG so I skipped that. Maybe RTS can be implement well on the DS but I just don't see how the stylus can replace a mouse for RTS gameplay.