Final Fantasy XIII-2

See, part of the reason I loved Final Fantasy of almost every kind was the fact that each had their own sense of identity. I didn't have to worry about which one I picked up first, or which order I played them in. Each had their own separate account of worlds, characters, lore, music, environments, stories, etc.

Sure there were plenty of cute allusions which only gave the games their own charm: moogles, chocobos, mini-games, biggs/wedge, etc. But for them to deliberately break tradition this rather successful chain to literally milk dry a (semi) successful stand-alone FF to the point where it doesn't even make sense anymore is rather disheartening.

In the beginning I was rather excited to learn of Advent Children, because like many, I absolutely relished FF7, so to see a sequel so to speak in movie form was enough to leave me ecstatic. However, the movie was mediocre, but delivered only shy of my expectations.
However, that wasn't enough. They had to continue milking the franchise by making Dirge of Cerberus, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, etc. etc.

None of which really tickled my fancy since it simply came down to the fact that Square-Enix was trying too hard. It was almost heart breaking to see what was once the most enjoyable and highly acclaimed stand alone FFs become victim to half-assed knockoff syndrome. I no longer became interested because it became blatantly apparent that SE no longer strived for excellence in constant fresh and consistent creativity which I followed religiously, but rather looks at sales records and wonders what else they can do with the same setup.

I hope I don't sound like some sort of "veteran" or "elitest" SE follower, but considering I've been a die-hard fan since Chrono Trigger, I believe I have every right to at least make reasonable observations to the trend, and in some ways the descent in quality when it comes to their new games. They have simply become nothing more than fast paced, high octane, balls to wall, hot chicks with gunblades eye candy with no worthwhile substance therein.

Several hours into XIII was more than enough to know I wouldn't like it. However, I am still going to continue since it's an interesting turn to see this "holocaust" scenario rather than your typical whimsical villian, save the world and get the girl formula which worked so well in the past.

Anyways, sorry for ranting. For the tl;dr folks: I'm nostalgic.