It's really hard to pinpoint. But I think most Final Fantasy games have a kind of, I dunno, elegance? to them. They're always really clean, competent and polished, and the way they've always mixed japanese and western concepts is something I think is cool. I like the settings the most when they combine both fantasy and science-fiction elements. They've always had a distinguishable style to me, which is hard to describe.
They're not subversive or anything, but I've always thought they generally do really cool approaches to tropes and themes. And they're usually extremely ambitions, which doesn't always result in a good product, but it's also sort of interesting. It blows my mind that they made Dissidia, which on paper is just "a fun anniversary tie-in game" while also being a wholly unique take on fighting games, there's genuinely nothing that plays like it and I kind of admire that.
I get what you mean, but it's still very much a fantasy setting, just that it's inspired by a contemporary world. 7 and 8 did similar things way before.
Likely because it's a service game, so it's technically been on the market for 10+ years. It's also subscription based and has a cash shop, so it prints money.
I think it's cool but flawed. Someone once described the leveling system as "Elder Scrolls-like" which sort of shifted my perspective and made me more receptive to it.
Still dumb that you just beat your friends senseless to make them stronger though lol
Maybe I'm stuck in the past or something.
