We're never going to have a sequel-proper to what we call here 'The Golden Age of Final Fantasy' which was pretty much the PS1 generation. I think that the best we could possibly ask for now is that Final Fantasy becomes a great action genre. The best thing Square-Enix should, but won't do, is take the pressure off themselves by ending the franchise. A call for the end of Final Fantasy.

They need to take the pressure off of themselves caused by the legacy AAA title, spending so much money on a game that is merely adequate or average. It's met with lukewarm criticism from fans and then they have to spend time making spin-offs with crayoned in gameplay add ons. There's more towns in this one! Are they interesting and relevant? Er, no... Oh, well what's the point? Well dudes said they wanted more towns like t'old games...Y U NO APPY?! I can't help but feel that they just try to tack on every gameplay element that is in trend right now without it being the original intention of the game design.

"Wuts relevant these days peeps?" "Well open-world games are doing really well now, boss!" "What is our game like?" "A renaissance of wonderfully designed corridors, sir!" "Oh...well can we stick a giant empty field in the middle of it somewhere? That should satisfy people's exploration curiosity right?" "Y-yeah..err, I guess!" "Awesome! We're gonna make so much money from fans still living in the past. Like Sega! So des ne?" "Hai Hai!"

Diagnosis: Final Fantasy is like an old 70s hard rock band. They were fantastic in the past, and they're still touring today. But nobody is really interested in their new old man material, even if the recording and mixing equipment is better. Everyone just wants to hear the old songs. They've lost the edginess, and the singer probably has a few vocal nodules by now.

Treatment: Split up the band. Create a new band. Put some, but not too much money, in a game that is lovingly crafted that doesn't need 6 months to create one single cut scene.