It's certainly disappointing to hear about the lack of female characters. Very disappointing. When was the last time FF had an all-male cast? Back to the NES days, when you couldn't really tell gender in the sprites anyway.

I'm trying to look at this game as just another game and not hype it up with the 'numbered FF' label but it's just hard. As a main FF I don't like the direction it's going in but then again most of this stuff sounds cool for a typical game. The action gameplay, real world-like setting, and lack of female party members are par for the course in a typical AAA title but are big departures from the stuff you've come to expect from the main FF franchise.