No, what you fail to realise is that the ENTIRE SERIES is in decline, and that, UNLIKE MARIO, the difference between 2D FF and 3D FF is.. just that, the GRAPHIC ENGINE.

It seems like, for some reason, you can't make a difference between 2D gameplay, and 2D graphics, 2D and 3D FFs PLAY THE SAME, THE DIFFERENCE IS IN THE GRAPHIC ENGINE.

Please, do explain to me how changing the graphic engine, ALONE, will help the series recover in the west, where the series got big in the first place BECAUSE OF IT'S SUPERIOR GRAPHICS.

Oh and - How old are you?

But 3D FFs costs muuuuuch more and needs more time to develop. If a 2D FF can sell 2mil and an expensive 3D FF can sell 5mil, Square Enix will probably have more profit with the 2D game depending of the price because they can make 3 2D games instead of 1 3D game.

I don't see your point..

And who promises that going back into 2D won't result in a backlash from fans?

Or that going 2D won't bring the series into a faster decline?

I was giving you some kind of logic. You are giving me assumptions, not arguments.

Flop no, on a decline in Japan...sure looks like it.

Dude, I understand your point, but what i'm trying to say here that going back into 2D will not stop the decline, but only, at best, slow it down, and even that's only after alienating almost everyone in the west fanbase, these titles may still make SE more money, but the series will still go into decline, if the only thing that you change between the games is the graphic engine.

In my opinion, in order to stop the decline, new FF games need to have better plots, as many pepole have left the series simply because they don't like the story anymore, and, the most important change - the battle system, the series is in a decline because they keep changing the system that made the fans love the series in the first place, pepole don't want whatever 13 has, pepole don't want the MMO gameplay of 12, and pepole don't want MMOs like 11/14, pepole want ATB/CTB gameplay, with a little something different, like 10 and 7.

Yeah, back then the SNES FFs would be pretty high-cost too. But fwap is talking about now i believe, how much would a 2D FF cost to make now compared to a 3D one.

Speaking on a 2D Final Fantasy:

It'd be real cool if Square Enix went the Mega Man 9 route and did make a downloadable Final Fantasy for WW/XBLA/PSN

Square needs to innovate. I think that vsXIII may be a step in the right direction, but the fact is, the gaming world has moved on while Final Fantasy is still muddled in the past it seems.

But I'll still probably buy XIII

Well, that depends on what do you mean by "2D graphics", do you mean something like blazblue? Disgaea? SNES FF? NES FF?

Damn, Looks like NSMB is THE game of the generation in Japan. These numbers are incredible. How many weeks is that now with 500k+ 4? My goodness. People who were saying FF had 2m in the bag..I'm not so sure, But it will be PS3's best selling game in Japan but that's one hell of a drop. I wonder where NSMB will end up, its already breezed past Brawl and Kart and those were sales monsters. I think it will go on to outsell Wii Sports and fit as well.

Looking forward to HW #'s.