OrangeEnot

Honorifics work well in cases like this. Call the cat Connor-sama and the human Connor-kun.

I guess Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines would count. It's a turn-based JRPG for Vita, don't know if there was any other releases. Your job is to manage a cursed Japanese clan where everyone lives for around two years, yet for some reason is able to reproduce with the help of Japanese gods. The pantheon is quite large, each god has certain elemental affinities and other interesting inheritable features.

"Shit, forgot to buy thermal paste"

I've played Tactics only this year and was surprised how much XII resembles it in mechanics despite these games belonging to different RPG subgenres. It lead me to think that XII only happened because there was this proper foundation of Tactics, so I doubt there'd ever be another mainline game in Ivalice, but more Tactics games are possible, I think.

I wish I'll have enough time at some point to get to the Ivalice storyline in XIV.

Well, to each their own. Gotta note, though, that the vanilla and Zodiac Job System PS2 versions are more challenging than the Zodiac Age version.

This is quite a nice summary! Yeah, the stagger meter is an awesome addition, especially since you have to take into account how exactly you reach the stagger. Do it with three ravagers too fast, and it runs out before you amass enough damage, for example.

My only issue with this battle system is that oftentimes, if you screw up your tactics, the game punishes you with prolonged combat instead of a game over. No MP, nothing to run out of, but you have to be effective so that battles don't drag too long.

I don't like recent FF tendency of reducing the playable party to just one character. The whole beauty of JRPGs is that you can play around with your party, and XV and XVI don't have that, which is a shame. VII Remake, however, is great at combining action with the party management, I hope Square would choose this path for future FFs.

XVI looks like an Ivalice-setting game to me, but without the tactical approach of XII/Tactics. I enjoyed the story for what it was, but felt that the game tried too hard to be like one of the ~~cool kids~~ classic installations in the series. It didn't have a new idea, a spark behind it, only a concept that it has to have all notable FF elements like familiar summons, moogles, enemies, weapons, etc. But it's a good game overall, didn't go through development hell like XV and sold well.

I like to replay XIII, too. I think its visuals and music are the main reason. The sound of leveling up in Chrystarium is awfully pleasing :D

I enjoy the battle system as well, although can't quite explain why. Okay, I can think of one thing - the game requires the player to buff and debuff enemies for effective combat (Imperil status is especially interesting), and it's not time-consuming. Oh, and XIII has cool flashy summons, Shiva as a motorbike is spectacular.

XII is my favourite as well. Interesting how controversial gambit system ended up to be, some love it, some hate it. I personally love that it gives the freedom to do any type of weird stuff you'd like to do and maintain good pace in battles.

Those who dislike it, I imagine, don't enjoy combat where the player doesn't have to push buttons, but 1) you never have enough gambit slots for everything you'd like to do, so you have to adapt and choose magicks/items yourself at times; 2) many RPGs suffer from exactly the opposite problem - you encounter a familiar enemy, know of one efficient way to defeat it and have to choose the same options in battles against it time after time just because you know that it works; mindlessly pushing a few buttons isn't much different from not pushing any buttons at all in this case.

Admittedly, I'm too lazy and not that much online to help build a community. But thanks for spreading the word about this place anyway!

Thanks, but it's pretty dead at the moment.