I don't really get mainline game 'purity' issues or whatever, but I also really enjoyed Tokyo Mirage Sessions so maybe I'm just easily open to things. "mainline" or "sidegame" they are just things that exist and what you call them doesnt really matter that much to me?
to be clear, its fine not to like what you've seen of a game, I'm specifically talking about a few people I've seen going on about main line games having a "higher standard" or whatever.
FF11 got a lot for being an unexpected mmo, FF12 got it for the gambit system, FF13 gestures wildly, FF 14 I don't think I was aware of at launch, but like, it feels like any time a long running series takes a chance it gets shit on and then like, time paves over it