I don't believe I have ever or will ever see again Final Fantasy compared to the NFL in an intelligent fashion.

And that's just the rub, isn't it? Tradition is why we come back, but each time they reinvent the wheel they get further and further away from what we're used to. The complexities of the old time fans fight with the changing times. There are things in RPG tradition that are truly archaic, but not all of those things are bad, are they?

I kinda' agree that the LB system is a bit on the easy side. It's just in context of FFXII... Well, you wanted to talk about tradition, so let's go there. Can you honestly tell me what everyone in FFXII does just by looking at them-I can't. None of them are wearing actual armor of any kind, so not a one of them is a warrior. None of them have pointy wizard hats or glowing yellow eyes, so that's out too. I sorta' must've missed the white robes and red triangles on anyone... I sure as hell don't see anyone in armor stylized to look draconic.

I believe in innovation strongly because I've seen a lack of real innovation kill off my favorite genre, and there's not going to be anyone who would argue that about 2D sidescrollers (c'mon, I LOVE Mega Man, and even I'm starting to think that we need to sit down and have an Old Yeller moment). And I mentioned earlier that some innovations are flat out bad (Junction System, anyone?). Just to do a thing out of tradition blindly is foolish-that'd be like people in Salem getting together to stone witches because it's 'tradition'.

But tradition should celebrated since it makes up rich part of who we are and where we've been. And in regards to tradition, my feelings on FFXII are mixed at the best. The Lucavi are a 'new tradition' in a sense, having been spawned by FFT, and they are the best demonic fell beings I have ever seen represented in a fantasy game outside of pen and paper games. And by the best, I mean it's not even close. In FFXII, they've made them Espers-and given the world of Ivalice (also a new tradition since FFT), I could see the people of that world calling them that. Ivalice itself is a good tradition, and has undergone significant change when Tactics Advance came out. From the changes that were done there, we have the most gorgeous world in the entire RPG genre, and it came out of a game that most people abandoned because it was 'different'.

But there are traditions that really don't have a place in Final Fantasy anymore. The series classic trademark monsters have places in FFXII-and every time a Bomb or Marlboro shows up, it's forced. Course, then there's the Demon Wall-something that hasn't been done since FFV. And that was done so well that I can't imagine that part of the game without it-it was an intractable experience to have it come back. And for god sakes, WHERE'S MY BLACK MAGE!? No steepled hats, glowing eyes, mysterious strangers in cloaks..

I complain at your complaining because I can tell some people have some nasty decisions to make. It sounds like many of them left Square during the making off FXII because they could not in good conscience back the decisions that were being made.

It's been coming for a while, if you look back at the grumbling every time a new game was released. FFXI avoided it by being different in as many ways as possible, so most people don't exactly count it.

I'm not surprised that we, and especially I, have taken this too far in here a few times. If anything, my circle of friends were thinking that FFXII was going to bring it back and do it right, but FFXII has moved in a very different direction from that. I imagine some of my friends and those like my friends are probably feeling abandoned by 'their' game.

*Pokes the horse with a stick*