Xenogears is great but I always will discount it for the incomplete second half. It bugged me that I didn't get to play through some of those events....
I do like when boss battles have something new to them. FFVII after the first battle felt like you just spam your best attacks to win. In FFVIIR, you...
Yes, some of the seeds were planted weeks before. There were some public in fighting among staff in a few threads and probably some grumbling in chat...