If only you knew...
Ignoring the psuedo religious/Military uniforms that are based off real world outfits except obviously Gloria's and DMC 2 cause it sucks...its still basically street close in the core cast. I actually have Vergil's outfit (though in a different color), and Nero's is street close with the exception of his otherworldly vest of belts he wears. In fact looking at DMC4, I feel the designs seem somewhat inspired by Nomura designs which is really sad cause the DMC4 artist has done better work...(BoF anyone?)
There is a much greater emphasis on visual aesthetics for the battles, in fact the director has actually made a point to mention how long they worked on the visuals for the combat system in several interviews.Oh, I was just looking at it from the point of it turn-based with use of magic and summoning.
Not really if you think about it. RPGs as a whole are not doing as stellar as they did, say 10 years ago when they went mainstream. But I guarantee FFXIII will do phenomenal numbers. Basically the casual crowd doesn't have the patience or care to play through... say Yggdrasil Union or Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor but they may jump into a Final Fantasy cause its become a name brand.Those two sentences sound contradicting to me.The appeal of rpgs have dwindled but I feel FF has taken a place as a core title much like MGS, Gran Turismo, Madden, and Mario. Its become the causal crowd's "choice" for the RPG.
Its popular and it has a good rep so they may jump in without actually knowing anything about it. Its like how sports games do decently but Madden breaks sales records. There are several good and unknown sandbox games out there (like Steambot Chronicles or Crackdown) but only GTA really ever breaks serious numbers. The genre does okay but it seems like only one series ever does exceptionally well.
RPGs don't really seem to get much coverage like they use to unless it has Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts in the title or if its part of Morrowind or made by Bioware.