I’d say the Paradigm system alone was proof that they were very much willing to bear negative criticism. They changed the entire battle system to something quite different from any other Final Fantasy game, and fans continue to tear Square-Enix apart for it.

If XIII were a response to all the negative criticism of XII (which goes far beyond being “not a real FF”), then you’d expect it would have been more of a return to form instead of a different direction with different kinds of innovation.

What are those marks exactly? I’d probably say that the FFXIII series is the most innovative in the entire series (until FFXV comes out). Each game is completely different from each other, whether it’s combat, story direction, gameplay. If a team is changing up each game that drastically and taking many risks, I…

I think there have been so many FF games that it’s honestly hard to pin point what makes an FF game. Is it the turn based? The drama? The love story? The steampunk? The castles? The motorbikes? The swords?The magic? The guns? Maybe it’s all of them.

Yeah. I’m interested to see how all this will turn out. I have a lot of respect for how Tabata thinks, especially how he’s open and frank, and am keen to see if that translates into a solid finished title.

The game does look good, but when it comes to playing something like Chrono Trigger............ I’ll just play Chrono Trigger. The game has an irreplaceable charm that just can’t be done with better graphics or different characters and scenarios.