Almasy said:
The release date is dissapointing, although not surprising. Rumors on GAF about a major retooling of the game seem to be only that rumors, the new FFXII pictures on Famitsu show the exact same game we have all seen before.
Speculating, the team making this must be a ton of unproductive people that have no concept of the word efficiency. Nice way to insult the fans, making us wait far too long for a new, proper Final Fantasy, 5 years exactly.
Hopefully the game fails to meet their sales expectations. That will hopefully teach them about the importance of management skills and how teasing for far too long can harm a product.
Those are some harsh words, but unfortunately I agree. To be honest, I think Square's work in general has been a disappointment this generation. Square have been relying more on hype, flash, and brand loyalty than ever before.
For contrast, just look at Square's PS1 games. FF VII-IX, Xenogears (possibly the best console RPG ever), Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Saga Frontier (although some hated it), Einhander, Tobal 1 & 2, Legend of Mana (this one again is debatable), etc. With the exceptions of Saga Frontier 2 and Ergheiz, Square had the golden touch. They cranked out an insane number of excellent, original games. Geeks like myself were the first in line to buy every new Squaresoft game the day it came out, because you could count on it being one of the best games you'd play that year.
IMO, the only games Square will be remembered for this generation are FFX and Kingdom Hearts (possibly FF XII and KH2), and even those games are just "pretty good". Now they have 4 FFVII sequels, FF X-2 (quite possibly the worst game I've ever played), and a handfull of others that were so mediocre I can hardly remember them.
Something obviously happened to Square. My guess is they had to focus on less risky projects after they lost 100 million on the FF movie. Regardless, I wish Square could return to their former glory. I used to count the days until their next game would come out, now I just groan and keep my fingers crossed that it won't be that bad.