Fimbulvetr said:
....You serious?
Saw is a single continuing story.
Final Fantasy is a bunch of different stories with different focuses and different gameplay mechanics. They only have the same name as a tribute to the game that saved their company(and brand recognition).
Unless you can tell me how X, XI, XII and XIII are the same. Please, I want to know.
All recent FF games with the exception of FFXI (MMO) and XII (Matsuno > SE) fall into the traditional trappings of the JRPG genre though.
They have unique stories and characters, but they're turn based linear stories with some exploration often in the form of dungeons with non-essential rewards. The combat systems do change but they generally revolve around the limit break/overdrive mechanic, summons, and the same spells doing basically the same functions. They also in recent iterations have clung very closely to anime styled characters and game worlds, with CG cutscenes as the primary delivery method of major events within the game's storyline.
Matsuno attempted to break them out of this template with FFXII's drastically different combat system, some legitimate challenge, more open world exploration at your disposal, and a failed push for a male lead. Unfortunately he was shot down on some of those ideas and for reasons still undisclosed quit the project part way through, which is incredibly evident as the game quickly descends into the generic FF style after the first (very refreshing) 20 hours.
This underscores the entire reason people make such generalized "JRPGs are dieing" comments. While there are compelling JRPGs like Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles being released those will continue to be viewed as "not really a JRPG" as long as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. stick to their tried and true formulas.
For my money I like Dragon Quest's formulas. It has an old school charm I still enjoy sinking tons of hours into every few years. But Final Fantasy has never been that kind of series. It was always the herald of change for the JRPG genre. From in the introduction of the job system in FF3 and further expansion in FF5, the increased role of storyline in FF4 that culminated in the excellent storyline of FF6, to the massive CG wave they ushered in with FF7. Hell, while FF:Tactics was a very similar game to Tactics Ogre it was the release of the former that lead to a massive wave of copy cat SRPGs. In the peak of the JRPG craze Final Fantasy was the one progressively raising the bar. At this point Square as a whole is running on fumes thanks to a horrible generation changeover strategy, and so expectations for 13 (or any other upcoming iteration) to pick up the torch are pretty low.
If that wasn't the case we wouldn't be seeing as many articles like this. But we also would've seen FF13 about a year ago, 14 would be knocking on the door as a new MMO, and 15 would have been teased at the last big trade shows with the first big reveal planned for this year's shows. But it is what it is. Square Enix, primarily the Square side of that equation, dropped the ball this generation and as a result many people are underselling the subgenre as a whole.