At first, I found this thread to be somewhat depressing. I worried that Wolf would make me concerned that all future games put out by Square would be god awful and they'd no longer make me happy.

However, I've since decided that Wolf and I seem to have almost completely opposing opinions. X, VII, and X-2 are still my favorites in the series, and I've actually played a fair amount of all the main line titles (minus XI) at this point. With the exception of V, I find the early Final Fantasies, frankly, to be somewhat boring. So, if Square has moved away from that, then I'm glad.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that the older FFs are bad titles by any means. They are just, in my opinion, rather dry, arduous, and sometimes, unfortunately, lacking heart. Now, I feel that someone will pop in and say "heart = sappy and stupid melodrama is you're saying that the early FFs lack heart," which may be true. But still, it's how I feel.

Anyway, as for my other opinions about present-day Squeenix, I enjoyed XII, though still not as much as X, VII, X-2, or even VIII (from what I played). I haven't played a lot of the Ivalice Alliance yet, so I can't pass judgment there. However, I do agree with Wolf that the Compilation is mostly terrible. Dirge of Cerberus is the only FF-related game that Square has made that I did not enjoy at all. As for Crisis Core, I had a fair amount of fun playing it, though I agree with Wolf that the introduction of certain characters (like Genesis) is unnecessary and stupid. But then, FF VII sells, and in today's economy, I can understand why Squeenix is so shamelessly milking this franchise. It doesn't really bother me that much.

Overall, I still have faith in Square. I still have fun with their games, though I will admit that sometimes they rely far too much on cutscenes. But hey, I shouldn't complain about that, as I'm sure that I'm the type of gamer that they're catering to when they make games like that.

I've since come to this conclusion:
If Wolf likes a Square product -- I might like it.
If Wolf dislikes/abhors a Square product -- I might dislike it, or I might love the bejeezus out of it.