Actually most of the hate ive seen was on other forums...it just sometimes seems like people jump on bandwagons more than saying how they truely feel on message forums about certain games.

As if its the cool thing to do to hate FFVIII or Star Ocean III, those 2 games just get thrashed and i just dont see why.

As for the change...i personally am a stickler of everything old school, and after playing FFVIII it just doesnt feel that different to the original final fantasy formula other than the junction system and all that.

But the story feels finalfantasy-ish and the music, the random battles, classic atb turn based combat etc...just makes for a good experience.