: There's a reason why FFIV is still
: my favorite in the series after 22 years. It had a great narrative for its
: time (and still is great today), great music & art, etc., but it
: really excelled in the mechanics. The combat was menu-based and extremely
: streamlined. Each PC in your party had a distinct class, often with unique
: abilities, and your party's composition is always changing due to story
: events (Cecil is the only constant), thus forcing you to keep changing
: your tactics. This was very common in JRPGs of the 16-bit era. Sure,
: titles like Chrono Trigger and Lunar had their own unique quirks, but
: overall 16-bit JRPGs hit a sweet spot in terms of gameplay. 8-bit JRPGs,
: being much more primitive (smaller worlds, etc.), often required hours of
: grinding simply because without it, the game would be over too quickly.
: Not so in the 16-bit era, where there game worlds were sufficiently big
: that you get plenty of XP while you're simply going from Point A to Point
: B.

Trying… hard… not to laugh. JRPG… good mechanics… same thought… AHAHAHAH.

: But the mechanics started going astray in the 32-/64-bit era. FFVII still
: played very much like older FF games, but the materia system changed
: things a lot. There were no truly distinct character classes, and, while
: some PCs were better suited for magic than combat or vice versa, everyone
: was effectively a fighter-mage.

And Final Fantasy 8 was a masterpiece because not only did it eliminate grinding, but the game was actually easier if you DIDN'T level up. As such you could just refine the spells you need, abuse the junction system, and enjoy the story and not let typical JRPG mechanics bog you down.

: Finally, FFXIII had the paradigm
: system, which is the biggest departure from traditional FF mechanics in
: the series. Once you get the hang of it and get a good rhythm going, it's
: okay (not great or even good, just okay), but it definitely doesn't feel
: like FF.

Which, in my opinion is a good thing because battles were never FF's (or any JRPG's) strong suit.

: The FF series (and JRPGs in general) needs to go back to basics.

This should be good.

: Awesome
: graphics are fine and all, but its nothing without good core gameplay.
: Bring back specific character classes with minimal overlap in abilities,
: traditional leveling (i.e., no materia/sphere grid/crystarium) and
: inventory, and a world map. Have the party's composition always be
: changing due to story events, thus forcing players to keep changing their
: tactics. Keep players on their toes, make them think, challenge them. And
: above all, have a simple, streamlined, menu-based, ATB-based combat
: system. In other words, the only paradigm shift I want to see is a shift
: back to 16-bit era gameplay. If Square-Enix could do that FF would be
: great again.

So you're saying take most of what's bad about the JRPG genre, and go back to when such things were WORSE?! Combat systems in old JRPGs sucked big time. Virtually no, or simple strategy throughout, and if you couldn't beat it, then you level up.

: Likewise, I hope Halo goes back to basics. 343I tried too hard to reinvent
: the wheel in Halo 4 instead of focusing on refining and polishing the
: wheel.

I don't know. Halo 2 changed it up significantly and that paid off. Why not try to make it even better by changing more stuff?

: Halo did not need to borrow things from COD (e.g., perks, custom
: loadouts, rank-based unlocks).

You're right, but not for the right reason. It didn't need to borrow these because these things are terrible.

: It did not need to add ordnance drops, or
: replace de-scoping with flinch, or add quick-time events to the Campaign,
: or make fundamental changes to core gametypes. Like my roommate always
: says, "Why can't they just leave shit alone?" Why, indeed.
: Perhaps instead of trying to change all these things, perhaps they should
: have focused on taking what was present in Reach (and other previous Halo
: games) and refining it. "Innovation" is overrated.

It is overrated, but what you're describing are refinements rather than innovation… It seems you are simply unhappy with the refinements that they made and don;t think they made the game better.