Preface: This is not a review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and I am a complete games industry sideliner with no journalistic aspirations whatsoever. 

We all grew up with Final Fantasy.  We have our favorite game and favorite characters and hold that first experience with the series close to our hearts.  Each game is so idiosyncratic in execution and personal in experience that often you're going to compare other Final Fantasies to the first one you fell in love with, and often, the later installments are not going to be able to compare.  We all know about the legion of fans who love Final Fantasy VII, but as someone who keeps up with FF fandom in the Tumblr space and forums, I can assure you there are many diehards who feel the same way about critical darlings IV, VI, and X.  Even the most controversial installments like VIII, XII, and the recent XIII have their fans.  Final Fantasy fandom is, through and through, a personal experience where we each own our own pair of rose-colored nostalgia glasses.  Personally, I love X and XIII, and will defend those games to the end of time, as is my right as a fan and paying customer.

But something is very wrong when professional games journalists who are paid for mature, objective criticism can't divorce the fan from the professional.

In a recent article on Gamasutra, featured under the "News" section with a banner touting it as an "Exclusive,"  editor Christian Nutt penned what was, to someone who reguarly checks Gamasutra because I expect something more mature than sites like IGN, a pretty disappointing piece.  In it, Mr. Nutt juxtaposes the divisive development direction of Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 to the badly-received Star Wars prequels. 

I have no problem with Mr. Nutt's opinions, and the comparison is actually quite apt.  He expresses the views of many burned out Final Fantasy fans.  What I have a problem with is his method of making his points in the article by blatantly misquoting director Motomu Toriyama.

In the article, several quotes by Mr. Toriyama are used to demonstrate that the current development direction of the series lacks vision.  Again, I have no issue with Mr. Nutt's opinions, but his method of de-contextualizing Mr. Toriyama's statements was just disappointing and, dare I say as a reader, unprofessional.

Mr. Toriyama is quoted as saying that he wanted XIII's main character Lightning to be a female version of Cloud from Final Fantasy VII.  He is also quoted as saying that the minigames and time-traveling concept that drives the gameplay in Final Fantasy XIII-2 were direct responses to the bevy of criticisms leveled at its predecessor.  These quotes, some of which are purported to be from an interview Mr. Nutt conducted with Mr. Toriyama, are meant to demonstrate the lack of vision and creativity in the series currently, that the current direction is more about pandering and reactionary game-making than inspiration.

The only problem is I'm pretty sure Mr. Nutt never actually asked Mr. Toriyama the following, somewhat pertinent question: "What is the vision behind Final Fantasy XIII-2?"  Perhaps if Mr. Nutt asked that question, he would have gotten an answer.  In fact, the article doesn't tell us what the questions posed to Mr. Toriyama even were. 

I don't have an issue with the points the article was trying to make, only the unprofessional way Mr. Nutt goes about making them.  This is pretty blatant misuse of a primary source in my opinion, removing any semblance of context in order to prove a point. 

1up editor Jeremy Parish posted a much fairer counterpoint to Nutt's article here.  Notice how not once does the article pass off quotes taken out of context as empirical evidence. 

Finally, I really don't want to go here, but I wonder what the response would be if Mr. Nutt wrote a simliar article misquoting Cliff Bleszinski, the lead designer of the Gears of War series, or Casey Hudson, the Executive Producer of the Mass Effect series.  I really don't want to think that Mr. Nutt was emboldened to do this because Mr. Toriyama is obviously Japanese and probably will never even see this article, but I can't help but ponder the ramifications of a similiar article criticising one of the Western gaming world's giants.  Would this article have gotten more attention if it was Todd Howard or John Carmack Mr. Nutt was misquoting ?  And most importantly, is there any question that this "News" article was written by someone who lacks the objectivity to critique the modern Final Fantasy series effectively?

Please read the linked articles and let me know what you think.