Despite being Japanese games, Final Fantasy has always used a lot of Western imagery. There is of course stereotypical Star Wars comparisons but mostly you see it in the fantasy elements which all seem pretty European.
Then FFX came along and suddenly everything became a lot more Eastern. The mythology, designs, even some of the character types and storytelling techniques, it was all quite a bit different from what I was used to in Final Fantasy.
Did anyone else notice this? I just wonder why they altered the formula so much.