I really haven't been excited in the Final Fantasy series since after 10 came out. Regardless of whether I thought anything afterwards was good, nothing really had me interested. This new direction they're going with their games, sure it's interesting, but it's not exciting at all.
Lightning - female lead with creator instructions to make a "female version of Cloud." No. How about: Stop rehashing and make something new and exciting? The earlier games were cool because they had fresh elements a lot. Sure, there was always the "save the world from the ultimate evil" theme, but how you got there was always different in subtle ways that made a difference. How about a strong male lead role again? Nobody cares about Tidus. Nobody cares about Vaan. FF11 doesn't exist. Few care about Zidane. How about something new like, I don't know, less emphasis on the character having a past that's not a big deal but they're so emo they make it seem so? Instead focus the drama on what's actually happening in the game?
Hence the reason nobody cares about FF13 and everyone's more interested in the hope of another FF7 announcement. They did things right back then, and from what little we know, I think a lot of people feel that XIII is just going to be another pile of same ol same ol (I could be and hope I am wrong). People had signature weapons and appearances that spoke before they did. Hell give Lightning a big ass chainsaw sword and I guarantee she'd be instantly more popular because at least she'd have that "at a glance personality."
Oh well. I'm looking forward to Versus XIII more anyhow. I think a different team is working on it as well. Hopefully it'll turn out good.
