I've yet to play The Last Story. But the criticism I've read does echo yours: not bad by any means, but certainly disappointing. Although, I did listen to the soundtrack and enjoyed it. It doesn't live up to Uematsu's work from the 90s, but his work is still very much enjoyable.

I think what Dr Unne was getting at (or at least what I thought) was that, if forced to go "back to basics" (i.e. 16 bit), these men could still produce some stunning work. I think Zeboyd Games has demonstrated that it's still possible to produce quality 8 bit and 16 bit games. It'd be interesting to see Square Enix try something similar, rather than strangely designed cell phone ports/remakes.