I am starting to believe that Final Fantasy fans hate FF. There is always a heart broken FF fan with every release. Final Fantasy XII and XIII have broken the most hearts.

Final Fantasy XII was a Western influenced and quite frankly, most of you whined about the removal of turn based battles. If you would (and some of you realize this, I know) use your powers of observation the games are STILL employing the ATB system but are modified for style and presentation.

To get back to my point, Final Fantasy XII was very Western influence and was a SUCCESSFUL game in execution. The fans didn't like it.

Final Fantasy is not going down hill. Final Fantasy does not need to out source development to a Western developer. If anything they should outsource the development to ANOTHER JAPANESE DEVELOPER. Squeenix is moving more towards publishing anyway.

Also, I don't believe FFXIII means the series is going downhill. JRPGs have not been received well on a whole (with the exception of Demon's Souls, which plays like a WRPG). I think FFXIII design decisions came from time constraints and the pressure of having the most beautiful game on the market. I am sure the next FF will come out sooner and be more "complete" of a game. HOWEVER, some FF fans will still hate it. FF fans are insatiable and any series that has a the legacy of FF will have a hard time satisfying the entire fanbase. It doesn't matter what the next FF is like. Every FF has haters. Let's just hope it doesn't have as many haters as XIII (a game that did some things brilliantly, but broken hearted fanboys don't care).