I imagine this was the process of the creation of Phoenix mode:Producer: Ok, so we appealed to the crowd that was scared of the permadeath mechanic with Casual mode. What next?Joe: Dude... what if we like... made a mode for the people... who are scared of thinking?Producer: ...Someone give this guy a promotion.*ovened*
I'd give Joe a promotion. This guy obviously knows what the world's heading to.
You shouldn't give someone a promotion for predicting the future when that future is no different from the present.
Aqua sounds quite cool, and I'm happy to see that they've improved on Awakening's lack of chapter diversity (and improved Avatar customization, but we're all happy about that). I'm instinctively upset about the durability change, but resenting change is just how I roll. It might turn out to be perfectly acceptable, especially if the variety of weapon effects that the Serenes article mentioned is nice and thought-provoking.
One of these days I'll curb my own comma abuse. One of these days...