Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post

I don't think the business perspective should get in the way of it. FFVII is square's best selling game, and it utilized ATB in a way that flowed perfectly, making the battles feel almost like an action game with the perfect flow of battle and the use of a constantly moving camera, to create a really intense experience. To this day I still enjoy nearly every battle in the game and either IGN or Edge cited it as the game's strongest aspect. FFX also used them really good for the boss fights, with your characters seeing it on the map and then the screen slightly changing to the battle screen. They were supposed to have developed that more for even the enemies - I hope they could do that for a future game. I'd much rather have battles that play like a modern day chrono trigger than a large "exploration" experience that can be extremely boring at times.
But that's the point - Square-Enix is a business. They're not there to cater to the fans, but to make money. nothing more, nothing less.