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Wait, what?! I guess flamboyant costumes have been the mainstay of Final Fantasy, but that could only look "cool" to fangirls.

game sounds really awesome, they fixed everything that was wrong with FF13

looking forward to it

shut your trap, i'm pleased by all this fabulous costumes.

Pink and purple on black? Ugh, gawdy! No wonder he's the enemy, no fashion sense!

Yeah side quests! The first one was lacking freedom!

now now ... no need to get rough ...

besides ... "Objects are made by men and used by men for many purposes." :D

reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwrf8loXceA

Looking forward to Ninokuni more, but will def. pick this up

Have to agre with Digi here, the characters of FF games uually look like mega-metrosexual doucebags but this guy...how to even describe him? It's like some sort of glam meets poodle rock in the 80s abomination. Well guess it does make you want to kill him. Preferably with fire.

Pic 4:Meanwhile @ the gay bar...... XP

As great as the game looks gameplay-wise, I can't help but think with every piece of art/cg/in-game shots they release that they're butchering the art of XIII.
XIII was a very imperfect game, it was too linear, some say the combat was too streamlined, the story was kinda convoluted, but there are two things the game did very right in my book : the music was fantastic, and the art direction was incredible. The game world took ages to build, and it showed. Nothing ever felt out of place, the color palettes were carefully chosen, and everything just felt right.
With XIII-2, I get the feeling that they're trying to throw in Kingdom-Heats-style characters in a universe that doesn't call for them. The last screen in this gallery is the most vibrant example : doesn't look like a sequel to XIII as much as a next-gen KH to me. (And I would love KH3 to look like that, by the way. It just doesn't fit the XIII universe imo)

I know i'm probably the biggest FF hater there is (and with reason, because lets face it, once they left Nintendo it's been a downhill for FF, FFVII was good but not "as" good), but with the latest trailer i'm starting to see what really SE is trying to accomplish and it isn't as bad as it actually sounds.

Streamlining gameplay, while giving it more depth overall. Yeah, it doesn't really sound like it makes any sense and it will remain flawed until they either get rid of that "auto attack" button, or all the other buttons alltogether (except for the one for paradigm shift and items).

Really, it's erither one, or the other. I only refrain myself from using auto battle entirely untill the mech boss in XIII, all the other buttons are useless and take too much screen space. Or they could make battles a little slower (1.5-2 times slower) and i could forget about auto attack. Both ways of playing cannot coexist.

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Now about the screens. I can only say i'm happy the XIII saga is over, because i never liked it's art style.

Oh come on, the FF games have always been full of bullshit. 3/6 was no better than bloody 8. Fuck kefka right up the ass, most boring, flat villain ever in a game. The only good thing about any FF game ever, aside from 12 and tactics which are actually good games, is the music. Stories is consequently bullshit and filled to the brim with references of actual philosphers and religion but with no real connection (makes it seem deeeeep and makes 13 year olds feel smart for preteding to get it even when they don't), combat is always the same boring attac, attack, attack, heal crap and the characters always look like metrosexual wanktards and usually have personalities as original and exciting as toilet paper sheats, one which is probably the ammount of paper you'd need for a bio on the entire cast of a FF game.

The irony ofc being that the one game that has some semblance of a decent story, interesting mechanics and more fulfilling gameplay than dungeon romping followed by tedious exposition is the one everybody hates.

My thoughts exactly, but most of the reasons you listed are true only since FF4 and more obvious since FF7. That is why i like the previous games better and to be honest even if the story seems like crap now, it was fresh 20 years ago, now it only feels reused.

I have to agree though, the only component that has remained good all along is the music and i must give credit for to the whole game development team for that, because the OST always seems to complement the game. But then again i liked 8-bit-ff and Blue Dragon's Uematsu better...

They were fresh in FF 1, 2 and 3 possibly because of the general lack of story driven games on consoles like the NES. But i mean, even on the NES the games had contrived BS stories with everything form time loops to extradimensional demons :P