FF XII Re-make, New RPG Announced By Square/Enix

Yesterday was Square/Enix's annual media party, and there were a couple of interesting announcements. Game|Life's Chris Kohler was there, and reports on the most interesting announcement: a Final Fantasy XII re-envisioning entitled International: Zodiac Job System. The title will feature the same story, a further-refined combat system, and a series of 12 separate license boards. Each board corresponds to a traditional FF 'job', like Monk or Red Mage; at the moment there is no plan to release it in the states. Other announcements include word that Star Ocean will get the remake treatment, with the first two games coming to the PSP sometime in the future. They are also working on a next-gen Star Ocean 4; no details about that. Crystal Chronicles for the DS drops in August in Japan, no US release date was given. Finally, screenshots and videos of The Last Remnant capped off the event; we talked about the game earlier this week when it was announced.

An honest question:

[Anarchysoft]

What is the special appeal of Final Fantasy? I've played half a dozen of them (and watched the two CGI movies,) none of them to completion (although I've watched friends beat them) and I just don't understand what people love about them. I recognize the games have many great qualities, like beautiful graphics, addictive gameplay and so on, but I don't understand what makes them so unique to many folk. Is it a prior love of anime? Deep familarity with the story? I'd like to know.

Remakes...

[Psmylie]

The combat system was, in my opinion, the best part of FFXII. I have to wonder how they're planning on refining it. Still, even if they release it stateside, I don't really see buying it unless they enhance/expand the story. FFXII was "good enough" for me as-is.

I never got to play Star Ocean, though I've heard it's pretty good. Maybe a remake would be a good time to pick it up.