This is, first and foremost, in Yoshi-P's own words, "a numbered Final Fantasy". That makes it a game whose primary goal is to tell a story, and there are Final Fantasy fans both new and old who want to play it for that story. So do I begrudge a developer, whose lifelong dream has been to tell a story in one of Square's flagship RPGs, for taking steps to make sure more people can enjoy that story, even people who don't want to take what they might perceive as a gamble by subjecting themselves to unpredictable social experiences? Not at all.