Read it earlier, and was not at all surprised at how fractured the team was, and what a nightmare it was to develop the game. It was very clear before the game released that 4 years into development, the game was being rushed. That has to be a worst case scenario for any developer.

When you look at events like (SPOILER)Sazh & Vanille spending that time in that large city, with the chocobo mini-game, it was so random and never came back up again; it's obvious they probably had towns and such with non-battle events to do; it's obvious they just ran out of time and could only make levels with no purpose other than to populate it with enemies.

Do I wish it was a better game, a better FF? Of course, but I've been entertained on a linear succession of cutscenes with nothing to do but battle for 40 hours and still going strong, I can't wait to see how it all ends.