Quote Originally Posted by Cain Highwind View Post

I could give one very clear-cut reason why FF Sucks and is NOT the same series a lot of us grew up with: The Big Three are gone. Sakaguchi, Uematsu, and Amano (yeah Amano contributes some art here and there, but he's no longer designing characters). I mean Sakaguchi said the series was in proper hands with Matsuno, and the bigwigs at S-E drove him out.

While I think VIII and IX were "okay" I really think X was the first time they really thought a blend of Boy meets Girl+Quest to Stop the Badguy really clicked with the new generation of Square and that's what they've kept with it. No Sakaguchi, the original creator of these series, to say they're wrong.

Sad, really. The same thing happened with Cartoon Network, with Ted Turner gone, Execs moved in to create the channel THEY wanted, a flimsy Nickelodeon ripoff that was no longer about Cartoons 24/7.
What's interesting is Sakuguchi called FF IX his favourite Final Fantasy and it is the closest to his ideal view of what a Final Fantasy should be.

And at least we have Adult Swim.