My two cents or whatever.
I still think Square-Enix is a great company. I have nothing against the changes they do. If it weren't for innovative companies like S-E, the industry would stagnate.
S-E is doing their best to making something better, better than their previous games. Clearly, they can't come up with something better every single time, but it definitely won't happen if they stick to the same, old recipie.
Now for some words about the increased focus on graphics, and how some people (the die hard fans) seem to not care about that. They pushed the NES to it's limits, they pushed the SNES to it's limits, they pushed the PS1 to it's limits, same goes for the PS2. All video game companies try to make their games as good looking as possible, why shouldn't S-E? The first impression (read: graphics) of a game is very important, especially for those who aren't die-hard fans.
S-E can't only make games that appeal to the fans, they need to make games that appeal to as big an audience as possible. Money is a very big and important part of the video game industry. That applies to S-E too.
Think I'm going to quote something a friend of mine once said, it covers my opinion pretty good too.
They are meant to be very unique from the last, and each of them suits different tastes to provide to each individual gamer. Which is why none are the same, and the difficultly levels are varied. So as much as you enjoy searching for crystals, or chasing Sephiroth, or fighting Sin... Don’t expect to find the next FF anything like the previous. This I respect. Of course there will be Final Fantasies that some gamers don't like...
But guess what? They've already had a Final Fantasy that suited them perfectly, so lets give another gamer a chance to find theirs. And I hate it when those people are so greedy and self-centred that they can't see that this is what Square is trying to achieve... So since they can't have a Final Fantasy like the one they enjoy, they all of a sudden think that Square has met their "downfall". Get over it. Seriously
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