What bothers me most about the interview is simply that it confirms the suspicions I've had about Wada being a strict bottom line business man with no real understanding of what creativity can do for a company. Creativity to him sounds like it = success/money as opposed to something that can be used as a stepping stone for future titles to make quality titles down the road.

I feel what really made the SNES/PS1 generation standout for Square was that they created multiple experimental titles that they used to build features into their flagship titles, nowadays they basically hide this experimentation behind the FF moniker cause they need the games to sell and in order to hold up to the bull "cinematic experience" that so many people foolishly decided is the definition of FF, they spend more time making the game look pretty and have awe inspiring cutscenes than pay attention to the core gameplay designs. DoC is a poor man's Devil May Cry with cutscenes that undermine the gameplay and a ridiculous fanboy plot but we can at least all agree its a pretty game.

While I appreciate SE trying new things, I still feel there is a major disparity in the quality of the titles they produce. I still feel that franchising the FF Titles was probably a major mistake as I feel its made SE come across as lazy as they are using the reputation of their flagship series to pull them through instead of consistently creating quality games which is the true reputation of the series they trounce upon. Why is FF a beloved series? Its not because its just a cinematic experience or because of innovation, they were all that and made with utmost quality. This third feature is what I feel is lacking in a good chunk of SE's games nowadays.

XIII, beyond its graphics and new combat system is mostly using the X model which to me was a gameplay model that should never be used cause it lacks creativity and is terribly limiting and was only justified cause it was an early PS2 game and Square's second title for the system. Having a next gen retrace back to an inferior model (despite being in development hell for close to a decade) to me is hardly progress and kinda tells me that the current FF teams priorities are not where they should be.