It's funny how civil people become when they take the time to put things down in print/magazine format.
XIII "most certainly isn't a bad starting point for a new era [and is] an interesting, unique and exciting step in the series' history." "It's still a great game" due to the "beautiful graphics, fast-paced battle system, and fantastic music [that] make it more than worthwhile and worthy of the Final Fantasy name." That's a rather interesting take. It's not even labeled as "opinion."
XIV is flawed, but don't judge Tanaka too harshly as he's still a luminary of game design, and a "Massively Multiplayer Maestro." Toriyama was not only instrumental in FFX, but important parts of FFVII, as well as directing another 4 FF games, and writing what are apparently fantastic, human characters; Caius and Noel. The datalog in FFXIII isn't even a bad thing, it's actually a logical extension of FFXII's primer, and a necessary addition to the game since the mythology started getting significantly more complicated post FFIX (at worst, it's potentially "esoteric"). Even Crystal Bearers and Spirits Within are somewhat flawed, but ultimately underrated gems.
Contrary to popular belief, not every skilled/competent employee left SQEX before the merger or fled with Sakaguchi. According to this magazine, some genuinely talented people still actually work there ... in reality. I'm sure some people on this board will find that very educational. SQEX and the FF franchise apparently shouldn't die in a fire made of Toriyama's belongings; no, we all want the Final Fantasy franchise "to last forever."
Interesting. Did I step into a dimensional portal or something and wind up in an alternate reality? Because I've been treated like a leper and an outcast on these boards for saying most of this for months.
I doubt anyone remembers, but I argued in a thread a while back about how I felt like the most damaging thing to the FF franchise was the fall of print media, the rise of the tabloid gaming blog and the rise of commenters, which played very little role in shaping public opinion of FFI through FFXII. After reading this e-magazine, I'm basically 100% sure my hypothesis has some real merit.