To not sound unfair with those who like it, I might pirate it to criticize it better.
FF12 was the last good shit they made. The only bad thing that prevented it from being great were the story and characters. Everything else was superb -- combat, music, exploration, worldbuilding, graphics, content.
Square-Enix is clearly pandering to western values in order to sell more. They're just following trends now, not setting them as they used to.
You can clearly tell the tone is off by miles with this one. Final Fantasy was never about edginess, sex, politics, swearing and all that western bullshit.
Because you know, SquareSOFT wanted to make the best games possible, Square-Enix just wants to make money.
1. This is not an evolution
2. Persona is teenage anime bullshit. Actually, also is this game. "AAAAAAAAAARGH, I. WILL. KILL. YOUUUUUUUUUU."
3. Final Fantasy has always had mature themes. Also, anyone that stays away from something because it's not socially perceived as "mature" has clear maturity issues to begin with.
4. Play Lost Odyssey, the last great "Final Fantasy".
So FF4-10 had no edginess, sexual themes, political themes and swearing? (don't think I've seen much swearing in any of the FF16 trailers...) Personally, I think you need to replay these games.
If Square cared purely about the money than the art with FF16, why didn't they release it as a cross-gen game, rather than ignore PS4's 120mil install base? Why didn't they rush it to launch last year or this year, as all the dev comments suggest the game is pretty much complete? Why focus so much on release a large scale game and not release something of smaller scale? Why develop expensive gameplay systems over simplistic rock, paper scissors combat?
My answer to these questions is that a lot of Square's AAA output (not all but a lot) is in the hands of artists and veterans in the company and the likes of Yoshida, Nomura, Kitase and others are afforded a level of confidence many big publishers like EA don't give their studios. Square on the Japanese side is still an artist driven company, hence why Nomura gets away with such ridiculous ideas sometimes, for better or worse.
As for what FF is about, to me it's generally been about the tale of the hero, good vs evil, human struggle, the spiritual realm, mystery, basically classical themes and stories from real world history around human nature that are still powerful and relavent in the modern world. Maybe you'll disagree, but you'll find these themes in practically every single mainline Final Fantasy game since FF1 and FF16 is no exception. They know their fans appreciate an interesting narrative with memorable characters and that's what the series is and why it's popular.
Something has triggered you, but I can't figure out what it is as you keep jumping around with your grievances. If it was to guess, it's basically that you really hate they've adopted action combat.
