The mystery of Square Enix's secret 360 lineup

If Chrono Break was ever resurrected and brought to the 360, Im pretty sure the 360 would sell a 100 million units on day one of its release

You can have Crystal Chronicles, well let that one slide.

"We'll" let that one slide? Oh, fanboy.

I think of Crisis Core as a sorta-kinda spiritual successor to Seiken Densetsu, actually. Sure, it's just one guy, and yeah, the setting is completely different, but the way they focus on play mechanics over story just strikes me more as Secret of Final Fantasy than Final Fantasy VII-2.

As much as I enjoyed FFX's storyline, you're right. I've always maintained that the last truly great FF was the sixth installment. Since then, Final Fantasy has gradually degraded into a 40-hour computer animated movie, with some minimal gameplay during the intermissions. It's tragic in a way. That's why I'm hoping for more original offerings for Squenix's 'Box lineup instead, or at least some of the better series. A good, new Mana game would be refreshing, as would a Chrono sequel. I'd be happy for either of those to arrive on ANY system, though, as long as the gameplay is good.

I think #8 is a bit harsh. FF7-9 all had plenty of "gameplay" with well-designed, *fun* mechanics. In fact, 9 barely had any cutscenes IIRC (much more in-engine stuff that sticks out in my mind, at least), and 8's cutscenes struck me as particularly engaging. 10 definitely had a bit of a hard-on for cutscenes, and I remember the gameplay as being somewhat lackluster. 12 had some interesting new mechanics, but I feel like I played through a lot of "filler" -- I bought it on day one, I'm ~50 hours in, and still haven't effing beat it yet. If I had to pick an all-time fav, it'd probably still be 6, but 8 comes close for story, and 7 and 9 could probably both tie for fun gameplay.

Holy crap, I'm such a nerd =-o

@9. James

First of all, thanks for not flaming me despite my being somewhat harsh, as you said. :) When I said that the FF series has gradually become essentially an extremely long interactive movie, I meant just that - the transition has been a gradual one. That is not to say that FF7 - FF9 were bad games; on the contrary, I enjoyed FF7 even if I think it's sometimes given more praise than it really deserves. With each installment, though, comes a bigger reliance on long, drawn out CGI sequences. FF9 bucked this trend somewhat, and is actually among my favorite jRPGs of all time. The biggest culprit of the cutscene-fest Final Fantasies so far is FF10. The story itself is great, but there seemed to be more of it than actual gameplay. I found myself spending more of my time playing Blitzball (which was fun as hell!) than playing the actual game. FF12 did a number of things right, and I enjoyed the MMO-like vibe that the battle system lent to the game. Still, it just didn't have the memorable characters from some of the earlier FF's. Based on what I've seen of FF13, I think it's going to be more of the same, albeit with improved HD graphics. I'm more interested in the action RPG Versus XIII at this point.

The last one to come out was Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2. The next installment is actually going to the DS, and looks great. I wouldn't count on it coming to the 360, since it's unfortunately not doing so well in Japan. Let's hope for some decent new or revived IPs instead.