Aside from the MMO FF14, every recent new entry seems to be selling less and less, and beyond things like exclusivity having some negative impact, there’s a general sense that Final Fantasy is only appealing to nostalgic fans as constant reinventions like FF16’s much different tone and gameplay alienate old fans who feel recent entries have been to much of a departure while being unable to attract new fans from the masses. The inconsistent identity of Final Fantasy has been a topic of discussion and I think one worth exploring.

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Maybe they shouldve add blood splatter when slashing monster ? 😊

Correct me if im wrong as i do not know the numbers but i also feel it could be due to not many own a ps5. I feel ps4 sales at the time of its release have been higher than the ps5 when looking at same timeframe. I havent played ff7 rebirth yet bc i dont have a ps5

They have to ask are we targeting our core audience or a mainstream audience. They aren’t in a position to target both atm.

Personally im not even done with playing 15 to full completion and i just bought ff7 remake ill get around to 16 and rebirth in a month or two dont worry square we like ff still

Well going to xbox is the stupidest choice they have made. Final fantasy bombed on xboxs best console the 360 you think it will be successful or profitable on the worst selling console that holds bavk all multiplats and explodes dev costs. Thats literal insane talk.

Dummies should’ve put it on Xbox and nintendo

Final fantasy is likr Russian Roulette. I stopped playing after FFX due to the change in gaming style

Not turn based, not Final Fantasy, not interested.

Tbh i think the fact that they keep marketing them with the next number in line i have many friends who say they are discouraged from getting into the series bc they assume they need to play past final fantasies to get into it

Remake 8 and 9, 9 with same style just better, and I’ll be throwing money to get it. I don’t really care about the rest. 10 is quite good though. 6 would be nice to see fully redone in current graphics.

Also 8 and 9 in one big game. Not in separate bullshit parts.

Exclusives suck. Im not buying some random console to play like 2-3 games that are still gonna release on pc in a year or two.

One thing that I don’t see mentioned enough is recent Final Fantasy games being PlayStation console/timed exclusives also limits potential new fans from getting into the series.

They need to launch the games simultaneously on every platform. A year late makes most of the hype gone. This happens to many japanese MMO games

Does anything meet their expectations? Are SE capable of having realistic expectations? Is this real news? The answer is one and the same, and it may not shock you.

This sucks bc rebirth is an amazing game

FF16 was my favorite game of 2023, so that’s disappointing to hear.
I think they dropped the ball on FF7 by spreading it into 3 games lol.

Haha they have turned away from turn based rpg what do they expect, its very disappointing 😞

Yea…exclusives hurt game profits..Ff16 is an awesome game.

Bring back turn-based for the love of your god please 🙏🏾

I didnt buy any of the FF7 remake titles so far because i wait until its completed.
Even if it takes another decade

The reason people prefer buying pc than console because pc you can do both their daily things and gaming together in the same one device and you can just change some parts anytime for spec upgrade. Nowadays most people in the world own a pc so exclusivity should be gone because it can make the hype for the game goes down after waiting 1+ year for it release. They need to compete with game that doesn’t have exclusivity after the release. If they really care about the game sale then they really need to change it

I don’t want action heavy Final Fantasy, I want turn based Final Fantasy, and good stories.

These games take way too long to make, they overwork their devs, they spend way too much on them and they got locked into an exclusively deal that leaves out more than half of the entire gaming market. Like, yeah, it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out why these games haven’t sold well. Square needs to look at what Nintendo is doing, what Capcom is doing, or look at what the Yakuza devs are doing and do that: don’t reinvent the wheel any time you release something new. It’s ok to reuse assets in a smart way to deliver on a new game experience that fans will still love and buy, and it won’t negatively affect your devs. Make cheaper games, in a shorter amount of time, but with proper management, pay and morale for your devs, and they will give you good stuff. This isn’t even a problem exclusive to Square: this is a mega industry wide problem, where they focus so much on short term profits over long term maintenance. They’re going to crash and burn if they keep this up.

The greatest final fantasy games have already been made (6 and 7) so I’ll be at peace if the franchise dies

I blame sweet baby inc 1000000%. They destroy everything they touch.

Sometimes, what Square does with Final Fantasy is too much. I purchased Final Fantasy 7 for PS4. I don’t understand what Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is. A do over? A Continuation? If it were a sequel and called Final Fantasy 7-2, I might have purchased it. But, I don’t care enough to research it. Just like Kingdom Hearts, Square floods the market with too much side stories.

Isnt this also because people don’t have access to the games in the first place? So why would they buy it?

I mean to the US just because most of the people already have PS5’s doesn’t mean the rest of the world does?
Sure PC ports are available but can the majority of the world play them? are these games accessible on PC? are they optimized for lower end specs?
even if they can play games gamers are more selective about spending that 60$USD+ on games in the first place.

If anything its those in the Middle to Upper Middle class that can afford paying for the hardware/software to play this game and isn’t that what is limiting sales in this economy?
One part of the solution is accessibility really.

I’ve been wanting to pay the new ff but I could never justify buying the ps5 for a single game. Added to the fact that the ps5s were so hard to get in the recent years due to scraping. Even tho that may not be the issue anymore, it’s why I didn’t really look into getting a ps5 for so long because of that narrative of scrappers. Once it finally released on pc I’m excited but I’ll be saving up for the actual game now. Not to say the base price is high, I just have separate financial issues to worry about. I think the final fantasy genre still brings a lot of excitement to people but they should have released it as a pc game along with ps5

Still waiting on FF7 Rebirth for PC….

maybe if they didnt alienate pc players for the first 1-2.5 years of release. they’d have better sale. I’m a PC player and am a bit salty about the wait for 7r integrate and even more so for rebirth. pc gaming is not a small industry and in fact, most studies who that PC players tend to spend the most money in gaming. i don’t think exclusivity with sony did them any favors beyond production support from sony.

Am i the only one who thought remake and rebirth were the same? Maybe they should have picked a better name

for me old FF turn-based and story what me interested. more relaxing, enjoying than action based.

The Final Fantasy 7 remake needed to be TWO games only, expecting the hype to last over 3-4 releases seemed odd from the start.

Easy fix, just stop limiting your game’s releases to an overpriced console with very few reasons to buy over a PC. The game’s quality isn’t the problem, it’s the console that’s the problem.

Damn, it’s a shame because Rebirth in particular is def my GotY. It sucks that they might have to scale games like that back due to lack of interest.

I want to hear the reasoning from Square about how they thought a timed exclusive that wasn’t steam was gonna have good numbers.

People are hurting for money right now and games are more expensive than ever to make.

I see this hating talking exclusives and censorship but nothing about the gameplay.

It sucks what’s happening. All I know is, if they let me design the next game, it would be the goat

I didn’t want FF to go into the action category. But it did. So i didn’t buy it. That simple.

So….their own expectations with investors have not been met, but it has been selling well…..but not what they think it should be? No this sounds like a THEM problem I guess? Lol😂

My guess: Exclusives and one of their big titles is a chopped up remake of an old game and, even though it’s a great game, is still only being released in parts and has confusing requirements for dlc

Platform exclusiveness…. And two games in one year… oh well. But objectively the games did sell well.

I’m really not surprised given they were both PS5 exclusives. Console exclusivity doesn’t work like it did in the 90s and 2000s. I for one really wanted to play FF16 at launch but did not want to buy a PS5 just for it. But now that it is on PC, a whole year later, the hype had died down, the port is not well optimized from what I hear, and there are other titles I wish to buy this fall. So, it sucks to suck, Square, but maybe stop with the timed exclusivity.

Dear Square Enix, make Final Fantasy 16’s graphics down to the quality of Final Fantasy 14. My steam deck cant handle 16

I played both and liked them both. But to be real its hard being a gamer in 2024 when the day of the release there is video content of the entire game playthrough online. For ff15 i had to block all videos that popped up trying to spoil the content

Sucks is i love both of those games. They hold a special place in my heart.

Probably one of the best vids youve put out Yong. Spot the fuck on, this.

Kweh😢

What they expect from 2006 to now the final fantasy games they released are ff15( versus 13), ff16, and remake/rebirth. Almost 20 years with a traditional turned based mainline FF. They effectively alienated their original fans and 2 new games in 20 years that were not well received upon announcement isn’t gonna get new fans. They need to pick a plan and stick with it. If it’s nostalgia go back to turned based, if it younger generation actually just make an action game not these bad 50/50 jrpg/action games.

Disagree with premise that regurgitating a game format for FF would have been awesome. Agree that the remakes were for millennials reminiscing over their childhood games. And also agree that limiting it to playstation was dumb.

But if you really followed FF in the 90s you knew they often dramatically changed the game format several times. BUT they made another release every year or two. Now it’s like half a decade or more and no one even remembers the IP. The original style of JRPG still works with youth. My kid plays a FF clone on Roblox with EGA graphics that looks like it belongs on an original NES. And he loved it. They can make FF great again but not by remaking the classic hits for middle aged dudes that sparingly play video games on their PC. FF was time consuming and older folks don’t have that kind of time.

Sony is allergic to money. FF needs to free itself from the playstation tbh

Let’s be clear. These games are still making a profit. They simply aren’t making as MUCH of a profit as these greedy corporations want. There’s a difference.

They weren’t available on the PC. Game over.

I’d have bought 7 Rebirth…but it was PS5 only…..and once it comes to PC I will….but these freaking exclusivity deals….

FF 16 and 17?? They might aswell be another 2k same game every year jesus these companies are just so retarded

Who would think that turning a jrpg series into a generic action game could harm the sales.

Also exclusivity to new gen console that no one cares about.

Turn 1 game into 3 games to sell on name alone, and the said game is again timed exclusive while the first already is on other platforms.

But yes the main reason seems to me the fact that Squenix keeps changing Final Fantasy into whatever they think will sell, stripping the franchise off its identity and alienating its fans.

I couldn’t care less about recent FF titles, I ain’t interested in FF16 at all, I prefer come back to the classic games in the franchise, it is fun and it is Final Fantasy.

I can’t understand why people are still claiming for a FF9 remake after 7’s debacle. What purpose there is in a “remake” if it doesn’t bring the original game back?

FF7 remake will isn’t FFVII, no matter what anyone says about it, as much as strangers in the paradise isn’t FF1, but why the remake is called FF7? Just because money.

Capcom set the bar for what remakes could be and should be.

RE1 remake is almost beat for beat the og game, with new content and updated graphics, the gameplay is 1 to 1.

Re2, 3 and 4 updated the gameplay (still a third person shooter mind you) and scenarios but kept the core values of the og games and the consistency in between games.

I don’t see any of this with FF games and the remake is the main offender, it took a turn based combat JRPG, into a action oriented combat that can’t be full explored because the game was cut in 3 parts, making its a very bland and limited experience.
Also the “new content” is mostly garbage and attempts to justify the game being cut into 3 parts.

Well fuck Squenix, I don’t know why I still bother…

I own a PS5 And series X. I mainly play on series X, having a PlayStation for the good, first party exclusives like God of War and Spider-Man. I likely would have gotten this on Xbox if they would have released it, But didnt care ebough about to get it on PlayStation.

I gave up on that series for multiple reasons. Confusing storytelling, almost no customization with your characters look, and some of the styles that the characters ended up with were just not for me (looking at XII, XIII, and XV) world settings and art directions didn’t help at times. And everything going exclusive to the Play$ation was just a cherry in top. But hey, I am a huge fan of XI and XIV. Both of which address problems I have with the other titles.

Does square enix not realize that jrpgs dont sale like western rpgs and popular action games like uncharted and gow lol

If they make a good FF, I will buy it… They need to go all the way back to their roots – look to the SNES for inspiration (and stay away from DEI and SBI).

They used to set trends. Now they’re just following them. If you don’t meet the consumers’ expectations, don’t expect to meet your sales goals. FF has been terribly inconsistant since the PS4 era. I haven’t gotten to 16 yet; I’m taking a cleanser with Theatrythm. I’m preparing myself for a game that doesn’t sound interesting.

After Rebirth, I realize that the battle system is probably the best in the modern series so far. The problem is, this trilogy should have been a duology. Filling your game with minigames to pad it out is a fail. I’m okay with the story, but I also realize that it’s incredibly derivitive for half the fanbase.

If they had made this FF7R one game that stuck to the OG, they wouldn’t be having this problem. It didn’t need to be this sprawling epic.

GabeN: “You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.”

Look at the Trails Games, they focus almost only on Their Core Audience and from as a far as I know they are doing fine, and well, been so for years, not that they dont care for the other audiences but they know who was thete first snd they cater to them first, nowadays it sounda selfish but its simply looking out for those who looked out for you, well that’s how I see it.

1997 i was 4 but again i have played way more than 10 FF titles🤭

I’m waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Final HD Remix++. You’ll get all three games, expansions, plus exclusive content all for the price of one game. Square Enix is not going to trick me

First year exclusives and the fact that you dont sell a complete product on day one is what hurts them.

A 13 REMASTER(I don’t ever want another remake after 7) would give y’all a profit buff

I am not suprised. Gamers and fans arent going to buy something that doesnt look intresting or good enough. Ff16 looked generic as hell , and the models looked ugly like ps3. Ff7 rebirth looked just like part 1 whoch is not good .rebirth should have only ben on ps5 and on unreal engine 5 . the fans saw it was the same game

That’s because they abandoned their core gameplay. If they bring back turn-based party combat from FFX they would be rolling in money. It’s as simple as that.

Do be 100% honest, the main issue was none of those that you pointed out about the franchise changing so much. The main issue here was that they were expecting PlayStation public to massively by this game because of the exclusivity, however they fail to do so not opening for Xbox and PC was a huge mistake in a big loss.

3:21 I have to disagree on that. final fantasy has a very consistent visual and lore identity. and gameplay-wise, it’s consistent that it wants to reinvent itself on every numbered series since 10. so i think that final fantasy titles being inconsistent is wrong.

though, i do agree on that it’s not appealing to superfans that is not 80’s or 90’s kids who lived through the squaresoft era.

I just want Final Fantasy to become a JRPG again. Final Fantasy 16 could have been a nice character action spin-off game, but as a mainline title, I don’t see why it’s even called Final Fantasy in the first place.

Final Fantasy was a successful game franchise while it was PS exclusive and while it was constantly changing and evolving its identity… For me things started going downhill with the release of FFXV. I think the franchise is dying a slow death. Luckily there are some good games out there being released: Baldur’s Gate, Elden Ring, Zelda. I just moved on…

FFX was peak final fantasy

Final Fantasy series pretty much died after how SE did for FF13 1~3.

People wanted a FF 7 remake not a reimagining. And stop taking out the classic JRPG mechanics from the Final Fantasy series too….and stop censoring old games today…like Dragon Quest 3 Remake and FF 7 Remake got censored four years after release like come on Square Enix!

They should have just released for pc aswell

In the 2000s, we got FF9, 10, 12, and 13. In 2010s we only got FF15. How is this series supposed to pick up new fans like that?

Regional pricing. REGIONAL PRICING. Wanna sell copies worldwide and not just do US and Europe? REGIONAL PRICING. Ffs.

Rebirth doesn’t exist on PC until it lands on steam.

I mean… it’s Final Fantasy. You already know how it’s going to be. And if you really still want to see the details, there’s no shortage of let’s-plays.

How are people not taking into account the FF16 only came out on PS5 originally? Same with FF7 and FF7 Rebirth. Square enix is always disapointed by sales no matter what. Did it lose money? That’s a better question

I would’ve bought the game already if they just released it on Xbox. So dumb, Final Fantasy has such a wider player base than just Playstation.

In the dark times we had no choices for games unless you liked garbage platformers so that’s why ff sold anything.

You know what? Im convinced square enix is just filled with a bunch of loons that have no realistic goals and expectations. Ff16 sold decently well. Cant really speak for ff7 but ff7 has been a fan favorite for years so I assume its sales were also good.

Always hated ff trash since the first game. Glad to see it die off

Given the current Triple A landscape, at least they had profits 😅.

Low bar, I know

Sorry Yong, kinda disagree with your example about Assassin’s Creed

Assassin’s Creed has changed a lot as well, it’s no longer the same game it was when AC2 was released, Some of us old fans don’t play it anymore because of it. They lost their identity by the time Origins got released. The only reason Valhalla got the biggest revenue is because of the microtransaction, that game is bloated and got very repetitive really quickly. The current AC is only a shadow of its former self and i’m not even talking about AC Shadows controversies yet

The games are great. Its the consumers that are in the wrong for not buying the games

A lot of people haven’t upgraded to ps5 yet. That’s why remake and 15 sold more

Xbox release? 👉👈🥺

they really need to lower prices and stop over selling how beloved their series is when they most often keep trying to beat a dead idea with a living horse

Final Fantasy 7 Remake was a good game. It just wasn’t Final Fantasy 7 to me, so I really had no desire to pick up Rebirth.

Final Fantasy (not a) Remake isnt true to the original and it is episodic to cover their asses fornthebtroubled development it had since PS3. Final Fantasy 16 is just another generic action game in a sea of action games.

Subsequent Final Fantasies since 7 have always been totally different. I think these kind of rpg’s, like fighting games and racing games, have had their heyday.
Also, the numbers in the title should be replaced by subtitles. If Elden Ring had been called Dark Souls 4 it wouldn’t have sold as much maybe. People don’t like to jump in in the middle of a series.

I think it’s a bit reductionist to blame it all on console exclusivity. Plenty of newer IPs that are Sony exclusive sold fine.

FF16 went it to action direction that wasn’t appealing to some old school fans and FF7 Rebirth is a direct sequel that a number of Remake purchasers didn’t finish.

The FF brand doesn’t carry the same weight anymore which is a shame bc Rebirth is still my personal GotY.

I would have bought ff7 remake rebirth and ff16 if it was on Xbox.

PS5 Exclusive killed it. nobody wants a PS5. Over expensive device with minimal game options.

Why you guys think square now hates Playstation so much they didnt want to be on Astrobot

It has nothing to do with exclusivity. Their AAA titles are poorly optimized and they launch with a ton of issues. Look at FF XVI on PC, did it sell? Also, they should have launched the complete package for $40 or $50 instead of trying to nickel and dime the PC crowd.

Maybe if games weren’t 100$ it would have sold more . These developers don’t realize people can’t afford rent, food , and expensive games . I would have bought both brand new if the price was 60$ like back in the day .

FFXV was a huge departure from the series identity, FFVII was a huge departure from the series identity in 1997, FFXVI is a real Final Fantasy game in its purest form, save from the combat system.
The disappointing Rebirth sales also just completely destroys the theory that XVI’s sales are due to some “departure from the FF identity”.

They should make better games

Yong, you might wanna check out the Pokemon Unite lootbox fiasco that caused it to be unplayable in Belgium and The Netherlands

I played Remake as a fan of the series, mostly 7,8,10. Honestly I was disappointed. Its just shallow. Kinda no way to fuck up. Combat is fun enough but not good enough to make me want to keep playing it for long periods. The world look nice but is basically hallways. Altogether disappointing and glad I got it on sale because no way it was worth $100.

I dnt understand why devs like sq enix dont make the game the way people want anymore. Huge shoutout to crisis core remake va director for casting that abomination which was the new voice of zack fair. I will.never forgive you for what you did to mah boi

I’m planning to get 16 when its available for PC but i feel like passing on Rebirth because i found Remake disappointing.
If the original FF7 didn’t exists it would be a 8/10 game but the constant feeling of feeding me member berries was too off putting.
To make an example. In FF7, Sephiroth was a masterpiece of a mystery villain. You heard the name once as an old dead war hero and gave it no more thought until you climbed to the top of the Shinra building to find the president dead and Palmer terrified in a corner saying that the dead hero was back with a vengeance… but you still didn’t know a thing about that character until Cloud tells the story of how his hometown was destroyed Even then you dont get a sense of how powerful Sephiroth is until you get to see the impaled Midgar Zolom, an enemy that one shots you at that point in the game. Remake assumes you played the original and know the story and characters and just throws Sephiroth in your face from the start, ruining his entire plotline and the mystery of his character for anyone who never played the original.
And that is just one of the major sins they committed when it comes to the story structure regardless if you played the original or not.

And now even if FF7 part 3 is multiplatform, it requires you to play 2 other whole big RPGs, so it’ll still be at a big disadvantage

Rebirth is a console exclusive that’s a part 2/3 to a game that was console exclusive and not everyone finished. Game design was good but big issue with accessibility to hardware and story.

16 was a console exclusive barebones action game that was 50% too long and barely had any RPG stuff in it. They didn’t commit hard to action or RPG.

While there’s truth to “final fantasy” not being a main brand like it used to, that’s because they haven’t made a solid RPG that is available on every platform, that doesn’t rely on story from a previous game. They can experiment with game mechanics as long as there’s a solid RPG foundation. If they want to go action like DMC then they need to go all in on the action

Square enix makes bland games. Boring dev.

So I grew up with only Nintendo consoles starting with the N64 so never played a FF game. (I did play some of the FFCC games if you want to count those.) So now, when people talk about FF games. I just hear “Final Fantasy #” and have no idea which game they’re talking about. I have played a couple on steam since I got my PC as an adult but I can’t even remember which number FF they were.

Anyway, what I’m trying to get at, as a gamer who has never previously gotten into FF even though I enjoy JRPGs, is that I wonder if the numbering systems for FF games bites them in the ass a bit. Like take Zelda games as a comparison. Each Zelda game has a unique name (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Windwaker, Breath of the Wild) so that even if people have never played any of them, the different games stand out from eachother at least from their titles alone. So if they ever hear about a Zelda game from friends, they can attribute that to a specific game and be like “oh yeah, I’ve heard of that.” Meanwhile, for FF games, If I hear how awesome FF 7 is, then later I hear how awesome FF 9 is. And then even later hear about how awesome FF 7 is again. They may all be the same game or all be different games in my memory as it’s just FF # to me. So none of the FF titles stand out to me.

I’m hoping for a positive reception for FF9 remake since it will only alienate people judging a book by its cover.

FInal Fantasy 16 is not out there, its an FF game. Like how do people come up with this crap? By that logic, if a FF game is not turn based JRPG then it isnt an FF game. By that logic FF7 is not an FF game because its not high fantasy genre.

The story is like older FF games. Sure there is no party and its an Action RPG, but the story is still FF. You cant be okay with some changes and not okay with other changes, it doesnt work like that. By allowing FF to evolve you must allow it to continue to evolve. You opened a door that cannot be closed.

Furthermore, ppl are complaining about the ff7 remake trilogy slightly deviating from the original game…..well, it’s a remake, not a remaster. Who wants updated graphics and ATB turn base combat? I might as well play the original again. Ppl are slaves to nostalgia.

Let’s be honest. Ppl are stuck in the past. They want turm base combat, but they need to realize that its an outdated system.

hey Yong there is a bunch of other game news out there. why aren’t you covering it?

bring us back to FF11

And the economy is shit

i have never played a final fantasy game

I LOVE ff7 remake and rebirth. It’s exactly what I want from a single player RPG and more. Some of their best work IMO.

shoudnt they add the money they get from being ps exclusive to their sales? I mean come on its a console exclusive and you have sales expectations like it’s a multi platform. I for one did not buy remake till it got to steam and same with rebirth and 16 still waiting for it.

Add Persona to that list. Each mainline game improves on the gameplay, but you know what type of game you are going to get when you purchase a mainline Persona game.

They should thank sweet baby inc😊

Are you Korean

I just finished ff16. And I cried so hard. This series is still a juggernaut in story telling. Very few games stand to have such an emotional impact like final fantasy. Such an awesome fucking game, experience it people. Hopefully the pc sales of ff16 raise it up

Its a shame Final Fantasy isnt doing so well. I love Final Fantasy. I have always loved having each new FF game chabge a bit and have new gameplay elements in it. But I guess I would since I started with FFXIII which was changed in each part of it from FFXIII to XIII-2 and then Lightning Returns.

they should have doubled down with Nomura but instead they looked at Devil may Cry and said “ooo i wanna do that!”

It’s not a final fantasy problem, it’s a entertainment problem. Just specifically video games, gone are the days of ff1-13, chrono trigger, ff tactics, xenogears, parasite eve, kingdom hearts, also although not squaresoft-enix games, lufia suikoden wild arms etc. Was ff15 ff16 ff7 remake good? Yes they were but they werent amazing like how ff6 7 8 9 10 were. Those I couldn’t wait to play when I got home from school until bed time. Ff7 remake I put down and went out to touch grass. There just wasn’t that feeling. Games these days just don’t have that feeling anymore. I’ve broken out the nes to play Zelda recently. Ff7 rebirth? I’m interested but I didn’t get it and I more than likely won’t. I’m older now with responsibilities but I put in triple digit hours in bg3. Some games today still have that magic. Most games today don’t have it anymore

Recipe for success, for SquareEnix staff: Stop trying to make them more realistic than life. Make final fantasy 17 a 2D rpg, but make it on par or even better than Chrono Trigger. Interconnected simple but engaging story that spans the games world(s). Dont call it some BS spinoff, call it Final Fantasy 17. Keep it lower cost than the recent juggernauts. And either make it live action fighting or traditional rpg turn based. Dont go in between and try and do something unrelatable. Good luck.

You make a lot of good points but I think you’re still missing the mark. FF is having an “identity crisis” right now because SE is quite aware that the hype train for FF has long long long past left, and they’re trying to get it to come back. Especially since SE destroyed a lot of their rep by making very questionable business decisions over the past decade (and I’m not taking about console exclusivity).

They pretty much milked the same formula for 10+ games and need something new. FF7 Remake series (Battle system wise) is probably the best way they can go forward right now but still, SE’s situation is complicated and won’t be solved with one game.

If they wanted to make a new game in their beautiful HD-2D engine I would be all for that. As long as it’s turn-based.

I couldnt tell you why the games arent selling well, but ill tell you as a huge FF fan, i didnt buy FF16 because of the dated tired old medieval setting, and the main character had karen hair. I really dont understand what they were going for with that game.

if Final Fantasy 16 and rebirth weren’t released so close to each other, it may not have been so bad.

Square enix has mastered the art of every Asian parent always be disappointed.

Great, hopefully rebirth can go on sale for a decent price now.

FF16 is ok if it’s a new IP. FF7 Remake is just an incomplete game because SE just wants to milk it as long as possible.

Jacked Masi Oka is right on this one.

it is because they moved away from the formula that made FF series good like TURN BASED or changing the story of 7

For me, it’s the pivot towards pure action rpg during a time when there are tons of those games. 16 didn’t even try to be a ff game with any of the mechanics. They easily could have had a party system at the very least. It feels like the rings of power version of FF; quality is there, but no substance.

Dam I really love the FF series I played almost all of them but the combat in these FF7 remakes is unsuferable for me. Either bring back decent action combat like kingdom hearts 2 or learn from atlus and make decent turn based like persona 5. Until then don’t count on my money.

There is a wide range of factors that have hurt sales for the flagship Final Fantasy games. Yes, being on PS5 only for a year+ doesn’t help. In the past this worked because the install base was huge. But other reports have shown that PS5 hardware sales are lower than expected. Not only that, somewhere around 50% of PS4 owners have converted to getting a PS5. There are also multiple factors behind this, which is a whole other topic. But for this, the console just hasn’t out performed the PS4.

Square-Enix has also been a mixed bag when it comes to quality. In 2022 they released games such as Harvestella, Valyrie Elysium, Diofield Chronicle, and the list goes on. They mention cannibalism on sales, this would do it. So that puts even more pressure on the main FF games to do well. They have to perform even better than expected I would say. This is a big reason behind their restructuring behind the scenes. They should be focusing on fewer games with higher quality. Plus, as already mentioned, going away from exclusivity.

Current gen Final fantasy lacks popular streamers playing them. Where can u find big name streamers? Yes, pc gaming. Being locked to ps platform kills their exposure.

How about they just focus on remaking FF6, FF8 & FF9 since those are all well loved!

Im a superfan, bought a PS5 jyst to play exclusives even though I have a RTX 4080 gaming PC but I didn’t even bother finishing Rebirth because it’s just a standard open world Ubisoft formula. I just felt like I was being guided from one point of interest to another with no real sense of exploration or wonder.

The combat is…. fine but for me after playing so many great soulslike games, it just wasn’t doing it for me. Its not engaging enough to really hold my interest or deep enough to really let me feel like I have room to express my skill.

The RPG system felt half baked and left almost no room for build variance.

Due to Rebirth trying to do so many different things but doing them all only fairly well, it doesn’t surprise me at all that sales targets underperformed.

I also wonder if Meta Scores are somehow controlled by companies because it honestly felt like a 7/10 game and I cant see how it was rated so highly

I wonder what the sales numbers for 16 are currently with the game finally making it to PC

Headline: FF7 rebirth sells 1 billion copies!
Square Enix: it did not meet our expectations.

Developers need to quit moving on from game to game. You took a decade just about to make this. Build on it! Make new stories. Use the fighting system again. Add mechanics. Make 3 games at least on the back of this massive game instead of moving on. Some call it stand alone DLC. But take it seriously with the intention of making more money with less effort. Not creatively. But having to start fresh every single time is why games barely profit. Takes way too much time to create all the ideas for new battle system, new world, new story. Etc. Just make season 2. New character, new party. Same world. Same fighting system. Add RPG mechanics and skills and maybe a few other things. Then new enemies. All the old. New bosses. New summons and old. Meanwhile your main team moves on to make 17. Even though 16 and 15 sucked, they have their fans. Final Fantasy no longer stands out. It’s trying to be just another Devil May Cry which is niche. Just another action game instead of being generation breaking turn based RPGs which are kinda rare. Most of them are low budget safe anime like games. Final Fantasy, the old games, stand out to this day.

Well maybe they should lower their expectations, don’t censor stuff, and don’t make everything exclusive.

i was under the assumption that Sony´s exclusivity bonuses where enough money for SquareEnix LOL.

FF7 has ruined its story

@YongYea I wouldn’t remove FF16 from the mainline because of how different the gameplay and foundation is. That is the root of final fantasy it’s innovation and being able to express yourself and story in a unique way that’s how all the other games were when turned based was very popular and that’s how it should be now.

I’m not sure what their expectations could have been for a console exclusive. This seems like a predictable outcome

If Square put out a classic-style Final Fantasy game, I would have no problem going and buying a PS5 just for that. But, when they put out action games with the Final Fantasy brand slapped on the box, I lose all interest.

As a huge FF7 fan, I played Remake on PS4 to give it a fair shot. But, after truly experiencing the direction they took the gameplay and seeing what they were doing with the story, I lost all interest in the remake trilogy. As for FF16, I have no interest whatsoever. I simply don’t want to play an action-oriented, hack-and-slash Final Fantasy game. I’ve never wanted that from the FF franchise and I never will.

Final fantasy is not supposed to be a AAA blockbuster game its a niche anime game for weebs like me who love the worlds. Its not mainstream stop trying to make it mainstream

If they hike up prices of FF games to $300 a pop, profits will inflate artificially because we nostalgic, super-fans, will still buy. Boom. Problem solved.

final fatigue 18 soon

I don’t get this….the PS5 is selling…..and frankly one of the only reasons to get it is for the FF games.
Other than that….Spider-Man 2….and Astro-bot….
I love my PS5 but it’s so light on exclusives o_o

FF13 Versus never released and was their best path forward, but they turned it into the boring and uninspired FF15 and the horrid King’s Glave movie, which was nothing like the Versus trailer in content and style. Ff7 remake scenes are too cringy. FF16 world and lore are tired and boring. Why the haven’t remade Xenogears in HD2D style like octopath traveler (an ultra generic story) is baffling.

I’ll bet a large part of it is inflation. Games are a luxury and most people are having a hard enough buying food right now.

I’ve skipped 15 and 16 I don’t really like the battle system and in 15’s case the charters. I will give Rebirth a shot once it’s on PC. I don’t really even boot up the PS5 anymore.

The release of FF16 and FF7 Rebirth wasn’t the issue dummies. Did they literally forget how we use to get a new Final Fantasy every year or something? Also I really believe you screwing PS4 owners out of Rebirth when you made Remake for them helped contribute to lower then expected sales. I mean I would be pissed I couldn’t play the entire trilogy on one console and now I would have to go to another console to play the 2nd and maybe part 3 unless a new Sony system comes out before it’s release who knows. You only need to down size the graphics for PS4 owners if the graphics power gets higher. Plus you shouldn’t even be raising higher sales expectations to begin with. You did it to yourselves while giving your hardcore fans like me the finger with disgusting games like FF16. I accepted Rebirth but I haven’t forgiven you yet.

FF7 will get game of the year. It’s amazing Watch

For me it comes down to this: 1) walled of in Sony’s garden, which I dont play in anymore. 2) modern FF games arent anything like the FF games I grew up with and love. 3) they dont even come out very often.

I just watched a lets play of FF16. Its horrible! Terrible story, and barley any gameplay there. Not even close to the quality of previous releases (FF12 and below), nor is it near the quality of other currently titles like the Witcher or Cyberpunk. No excuse for a company with their pedigree to release what they’re releasing.

I’m a PC Gamer, and I had no idea these came out. There are so many good games that are across all the platforms. If you want to make some noise, you’re going to need to cut through the crowd. Exclusivity is not the way to do that. I honestly prefer the old school Final Fantasy play style.

But the game sold well, not god of war numbers but well. SE just have a unrealistic expectation and more than that need to optimize the costs of making this games its happening also in the movie business. A 300 million cost to make ff xvi is insane there must be somewhere over there to optimize

Is it really surprising? The cost of living is sky high, yet their games are expensive and don’t go on very big sales. They are exclusive to playstation early on, and their PC ports are not always great. Games have gone up in price (at least in my region), and there are so many more games out there with the increase in indie devs and indie dev visibility – which are often more innovative and fun at a cheaper price. Companies need to get used to competition for limit disposable income being tighter than it used to be, and thus they need to step up their game.

I think one thing is that, ironically, that franchise known for always reinventing itself has finally changed too much. I can only imagine what they could do with a whimsical tale using a revised version of FFX’s combat system.

I refused to buy a Ps5 just for Rebirth, even tho not buying Rebirth on launch was hell for me. I’d rather wait for it to come on PC. I hope the 3rd part won’t be console exclusive and have it PC ready day 1.

another butchery by Square Enix

Holy snikes you lost weight!

Final Fantasy had a strong identity from 6-10 and then they started doing other stuff and we really have no idea what to expect when a new game is announced now.

This company no respect and let PC gamer wait for very long time, so why should I respect you? Will get the crack version lol.

The real FF fan base has grown up gotten older and have less time to devote to the games but we’re loyal and would keep buying them if they were true to form. If we wanted to mash buttons we’d play devil may cry not fk’n final fantasy

I used to play FF all games until XII but now they are not the games I used to enjoy. They are FF only in the name for me.

Nothing new, it has been Shit ever since FF 13 trilogy.

Sure sure 14 is doing all the carrying

ff 15 was a mess but I liked it, still a mess

7 remake biggest sin they change the story so people said “Fuck it” or splitting it into 3 part wasn’t a good idea like at all.

Another thing is that Atlus has Overtaken turn base JRPG

Rebirth sales disappoint
Ugh ya, your market is the 40-45 y/o guys that have played every game from the start…we have bad ass PCs now. Hell the players of FF7 are adults now too.
f**k your childish consoles.

Square has unrealistic expectations. A game can sell milliions and it will still “underperform” Its stupid.

It took me way too long to get a ps5. Now that I got a kid, I got to save more money to even get rebirth.

This remind me to the Dawn of war series.
I love Dawn of war 1, kind of the predesesor od the company of heroes series, I love them.
Dawn of war 2 was way to different to the first to my liking
And we don’t talk about dawn of War 3.

Getting old that because its Playstation exclusive that’s one of reason slumping sales. A stab at the Playstation brand seem to be the easy jab. All the other points made in the video are valid. I think they should get all FF games on Xbox and see if it would be the savior of FF. Maybe if Microsoft handed Square / Enix a big check to get in on gamepass that might help. (Start the Hype Train) But I don’t think that will solve the problem of the disconnect with FF. Black Myth Wukong sold 20 mil. Gamers are different now gaming is different now. May I remind everyone Black Myth didn’t launch on Xbox. For me I thought it was okay but I’m not a fan of the boss up front extremely hard game that you have to die over and over again to progress. I prefer the natural progression system of old. Games are different, gamers are different.

I was one that preordered FF15 and what complete dissapointment it was. Coming from the classic FF rpg turn based to the action pack didnt sticked well with me, and the story and lenght of the game were so poor it left a distate for future FF. I havent even bought FF16 fearing it will be a similar experience (although many reviews and comments still says is a better game).

Well, let’s see. The games being released exclusively on PS5 for a year or two, which has sold roughly half as many units as the PS4 overall, which is somewhere around one half of the average number of PCs sold in a year. By the time the FF games come to PC, they’re received with a resounding “meh” because the excitement for their release has long since worn off. SE took a huge hit to their reputation a couple of years ago by trying to actually become ShinRa with the whole NFT thing. When you prove you don’t care about your customers or what they want, they stop caring about your product. It’s simple.

Exclusivity is the first problem. The next is the naming convention strangely enough. Every single casual gamer I know say the same thing when I mention a new FF drop: “Do I have to play all the other games first?” and even calming their worries on that front they still feel it’s overwhelming to jump into a game series at the 16th or 7th of a title.

Different generation. Different audience

i miss when ff games were jrpgs

Gatekeep harder otherwise we look like the new dragon age.

I think ff13 and 15 did it for them.

I think ff16 tried to go back to it’s roots with the new gameplay style.

The question is which company is doing well, the answer is none, simply put, it’s the whole industry suffering.

If they’re changing the story it’s not a remake it’s a reboot. I’m glad I didn’t buy it and I’ll stick with my ps1 version.

Ff16 was awful. Yes it looked great and the 10 minutes of combat was good but the whole game was cut scenes. Should have just made a show.

It is a shame because both FF16 and FF7 Rebirth are pretty damn good.

Can I be honest? I was 13 when FFVII came out – it was my first RPG, filled that bill VERY fell and I will always remember that – I liked the game but my God, I see NO reason to put it on a freaking pedestal these days. (Core story and music being the highlights.) If you want me to talk about PS1 RPG’s I’m NOT gonna talk about FFVII or FFVIII (I might talk about IX A little) but I’ll talk about Wild Arms 1+2, Breath of Fire III, SaGa Frontier (or all things!) etc. I feel nostalgic about those games, not FF as much these days.

I’m over exclusives

Isn’t it funny that “it failed to reach our expectations” is what lead to them getting rid of Tomb Raider which led to me getting what I wanted with the I-III remaster and my friend getting his Soul Reaver 1+2 remaster? I mean it clearly wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows because the people running Embracer bit off more than they could chew but then that’s the game industry as a whole.

The Bro FF15 killed the series for me, it was everything I never wanted in the FF series.

Never played a final fantasy, bought 16 and 100% it. Story and gameplay was amazing

Haven’t really cared about FF since X if I’m bring honest. I still like SE RPGs but it’s the smaller projects that draw me in these days.

Still waiting to buy ff7 on steam. I refuse to buy another console for anything

I don’t enjoy the departure from the classic turn based style. I know I’m probably in the minority on that. But, that’s why I don’t buy

It’s weird for me. The only nostalgia I have is that we owned FF7; I could barely get to Nibelheim when I was a kid. But something about FF16 got me really interested. Story and gameplay were both big hooks for me. While they were both good, I realized that the game I wanted from 16 is what I got from Rebirth.

When Yong starts talking about out how well Valhalla did… I got a flash forward to a future Yong episode where he talks about how Shadows sales figures haven’t “met expectations” ala FF16

Port final fantasy tactics on Nintendo switch and xbox and just wait for the money storm…

Scores mean nothing now.

I am all for remastering a project if it brings the original vision of the writers and the team behind creating it even further into fruition. However it needs to be a completed product. I have no excuse for the standalone title other than simply FF fatigue. I will say that dividing the game into more than one part is already going to hurt your sales. You could have told me that in a vacuum and we would all understand that. What would you rather buy? 1 finished product or 2 half finished products in which one relies on the other in order to be completed? From the ground up it was just a bad idea. It hurts replay value, fewer players are slogging through 2 story heavy titles full of cutscenes and extended battles after finishing the first time, and a lot of people decided not to buy it at all since they would only have half a game unless they bought the other title. As a PC gamer I got the short end of the stick from the very beginning. My hype was gone long before they dreamed of releasing either version on Steam. I was still playing the original FF7 on there. PC has such an overwhelming market of titles that if you don’t get interest quickly most of us are just fine grabbing it when it is on sale. And trust me they always go on sale. There is only one company that has managed to break my patience when it comes to waiting on the sale. Paradox. Curse you Paradox. Stellaris. Hearts of Iron 4. Crusader Kings 3. The endless tide of DLC still pours forth from the horizon and we stand exhausted but unbeaten.

Ita really a shame this is happening, they are literally the best rpg makers since ff3 remake and final fantasy 13. I would hate for this company to sink but they really need to stop with the making final fantasy games taking so long. I would actually like it if they made a final fantasy 3 ps5 remake that’s my only wish but I do hope they start to actually make better game stories other than remaking stuff.

Well FF16 was garbage so thats first and then timed exclusives with games being 70 and most people being broke and cant afford gaming is probably why.

It probably comes down bloated bugets. The budget for these games is bigger than the fanbase.

Let’s face it, the titles put new buyers off. Who wants to jump in on a series that’s up to Final Fantasy XVVIII Rebirthed Reborn Intergraded

Well it’s 7, they should’ve remade the better Final Fantasy.

FF7re have too much padding. That’s the problem. The game is literally a to-do list.

In trouble? Square Enix didn’t start to create quick-and-dirty copy-pasta games since yesterday. They were doing it for quite a while… a decade… maybe longer. They’ve become as corrupt as EA is. Maybe not as much.

Was interested in the FF7 remake when it first released. Then I saw a bunch of stuff about it on YouTube and no longer felt the want to play it when it finally came out on PC. Don’t care about the next part because I never played the first part and have zero hype.

Also, games are getting so expensive here in Japan. Can’t afford to buy everything.

I’m sorry but FF16 was boring and everything was obvious and clichéd and FF7 remake should have been one big, 400gb game with 100 hours long main story instead of gimmick trash like mini games or animal petting, but SE got greedy and thought they could ask for $70 3x times.

Bring all games to xbox and geforce now, problem solved.

They sell millions of copies, the problem is that Square are a bunch of morons and always have sales numbers that are way too high and they are always disappointed. The games cost too much to make these days and these companies are too greedy.

Bought ff16 on steam to support Square but yea many games either wait for gamepass or extreme discount. Diehard Square fanboy but don’t have extra deep pockets to buy their gazillions games per year. (Square must realise timed exclusivity will cannibalise sales potential…) gonna buy FFX/X2 today – steam sales

2 things for me:
– Exclusivity sucks and deletes any kind of hype
– Finally releasing the FF7 remake only to do it episodic on multiple 70€ games – no thank you I’ll replay the original

They should make a FMA Brotherhood co op game

Oh nooo, who could’ve ever guessed that repeating a devisive story and making it Less sensible than it was before would mean less sales.

Budget was just too high to lock it to a platform. It used to be a proper system seller but it isn’t so much any more, so it needs to be everywhere.

Focus on quality over quantity + stop the exclusivity deals is exactly the right thing to do. While it’s true that there’s not really a consistent identity in the FF franchise + the combat revisions are hit and miss, depending on the title, the quality of recent FF games was really good.

This FINAL series of FINAL games FINALLY lost steam, huh? Jokes aside, how long are they gonna milk this franchise, I wonder.

Having their games on PC and Nintendo will help a ton.

It’s not that I don’t want to play them. I’m less willing to drop coin on full price new releases these days unless they’re at the top of my list to play.

When they start to make a FF and not a Devil May Cry I’m gonna back purchase theyr games

They gotta stop making high end FF games. We the fans don’t care, as long it has a proper story-telling. Likeable characters. Mind-blowing twist. We’ll play it… we don’t care if it’s a 2D-3D turn-based.

I agree, and it pains me specially since FF7 Rebirth is the best game I have ever played

I bet it’s partly due to timed exclusive launches, as I wasn’t able to play on release so I just watched a video to see the story. Also, it’s just too expensive these days with the economy in the gutter thanks to brandon, so I don’t wanna buy a game I’ve already seen the story of just for some gameplay unless I wait for half off sale or more.

I don’t think the franchise as a whole is in trouble. This just seems to be a slump.

Ff7 rebirth became much less linear and definitely moved into an ambitious open world game. But this meant less resources going into the important storytelling or creative immersion in the ff7 realm.
Ff7 remake’s Don scenes, Cloud’s dance scene was iconic for the game. Rebirth needed more of that

This comment section:
>buys PC, portable PC(Steam Deck), limited stationary PC(Xbox)
>PlayStation has exclusives they want to play
>’I won’t buy PS5 because there are games that I’d like to play!!1!11!!’

Bruh, your gpu costs as much as 2 second hand PS5’s.

like final fantasy as a franchise confuses any new fans. are they connected? are they similar? no they are soo drastically different. some are mmos… like its confusing. they arent steadily making new fans and giving the hardcore what they want. monster hunter was niche but it blew up with world. souls games was niche until elden ring. square just doesnt know what the hell they are doing. just go the capcom route. remake and modernize ur rpg’s but keep the scale to one game instead of chopping it up. here is what final fantasy fans want and any rpg fan… they want great stories with great characters in a fantastic setting/world full of details and depth. if u cant do that without adding a bunch of fluff or micro transactions, day one, pre order, bonus, exclusive, blah blah crap than u got nothing.

1 of my biggest issues with FF7 remake is the fact i now have to purchase each disc separately and wont buy it for this reason

look im sure there are plenty of ppl who love JRPG, but its not something that everyone is into. doesnt help that u only release games on PlayStation only for final fantasy. it means more players dont get to feel nostalgic for final fantasy and ur not making as much new fans who are interested in ur games. capcom is killing it. same with fromsoft and atlus… cuz they are giving fans of their games more of what they want. no one asked for walmart splatoon. final fantasy 7 remake is great but chopping up the game into multiple multi year games is stupid. cuz either ur in it for the long haul or ur just gonna not bother…add the fact it’s a PlayStation exclusive. its like if PlayStation remade legend of dragoon (which i want) but made it a decade long 4 different games series.

as a PC gamer i already finished watching the full playthrough before you even release FFXVI on PC. no more hype. decided to buy warhammer 40k, but still waiting when FF goes on sale for maybe half the price.

If i wanted an action game I’ll play Bayonetta, DMC, or Astral Chain. Final Fantasy lost me when Square abandoned the franchise’s roots and what originally appealed to me about the series.

FFXVI is already out? I completely forgot that it was even announced. 😅

I recently downloaded and played FF9 on PS5, which even though the graphics are old, I personally think the game outshines all FF since that even now. to which all I see is games which are so completely removed from FF 1 – 9 that they are more and more not what made 1-9 games so popular and enjoyable. From 10 onwards they started to shift away from that old school RPG style and really never needed to. Just my thought on FF games, not saying I’m correct or right.

I heard that the only reason the name exists is because the company wasn’t expecting to succeed so they decided to call what they thought would be their last game “final fantasy”

Why does nintendo get to get away with it tho? Also Cloud is one of the most iconic video game characters, should sell consoles easy for fans. The game is also amazing, probably game of the year

The thing is, these games did not sell poorly. Square just, as ever, has stupid expectations that will never be met. Just about every game they have released over at least the last decade has “fallen short of [their] financial expectations”. If their corporate suits decided to live in the real world for a little bit, we wouldn’t end up with headlines that make us worried for the future of their biggest franchises.

Now more than ever, replayability and an addictive gameplay loop are paramount. Spectacle centric action games like FFXIV and FFVII remake can be totally experienced by a stream of a playthrough. Couple that with the exclusivity window and I wonder how many PC sales they miss out on from people who watched others play on PS5. It’s a recipe for failure.

If I remember correctly. FF16 was one of the fastest selling games at launch for PS at the time. Selling over a few million in a few days. So thing with FF7. It sold at least a couple million launch week. This is just PS hate at the end of the day. Xbox and PC aren’t top priority. Especially Xbox. Get over it.

They can keep timed exclusives, but it shouldn’t be more than 3 months.

Also they need to speed up dev time by reusing as much as possible.

This game needs to be on steam already

Yeah, that’ll happen when you have unrealistic expectations.

Release it on PC day one. Make it turn based again. Get massive sales. Make sure the end isn’t rushed like FFXV. There’s no reason for me to buy XVI for full price after you refused to let me have it for a year and I refuse to reward you for doing so.

The gaming industry is the b**ch of the audience rn. Act accordingly. They wouldnt second guess themselves to exploit us. Remember!

release it on pc with the console. otherwise i just watch it streamed and skip it by the time it goes to pc

Square Enix lost a lot of the original audience of the game when they switched to action combat. None of their games are bad, they are simply different now and action combat is boring for a lot of the older players.

XVI is good. You all wouldn’t be happy if it went turn based either. You’d find something else to complain about while hoping for the “old days” to return.

The FF7 Remake should have been one game. SE’s plan to milk the fans NY splitting it into a trilogy is part of the problem. If you didn’t play the original on 97′ it may be confusing. As good as those games are to die hard fans,the barrie of entry to the story is prohibitive. Nothing worth with remakes perhaps a remaster would have been better received.

who knew limiting the series to one of the most expensive consoles currently out would have repercussions… LOL. Games are just too expensive to make to adhere to the old ways of exclusivity.

I mean tvf, tbf only the early games had a consistent timeline. For a long time now ff has been going the route of having each game have its own story set in its own world, with occasional crossovers, and sometimes subtle hints to things in other games. If that ff game does well, they end up doing a few more games in that storyline before they move on. This strat worked out fo a few of the timelines they did, the issue has been the past few ff before 16 have had piss poor storytelling, and lack of character interest.

its not exclusivity its THE FACT YOU ONLY FOCUS ON FINAFANTASY AND KEEPS TRYING TO MAKE 7 AGAIN FUCKING YOU HAVE OTHER Ips JESUS CHRIST

I don’t think people are interested in buying FFVII remake in parts, I know for sure I’m waiting for the complete collection that’ll inevitably release even if it takes over 5 years.

I love the og ff7and would have loved to play it… however only on ps5. Currently playing all the og ff series on my switch and linking it hdmi cable to the tv

Exclusivity definitely isn’t helping the series out, and I do prefer the idea of getting rid of the series exclusivity, but the series had no issues with exclusivity back when it was thriving. Multiple other issues have been plaguing the series for years now. We haven’t had a proper new turn-based entry since FF XIII, but FF XIII had its own issues with it being too sci-fi for its setting and being a hallway simulator for the entire portion prior to reaching Gran Pulse which is on the final disc. FF XV also had too modern of a setting. The series identity has been lost, and its gameplay has also been lost.

They need to bring back the job system

I think it is slumping because there are simply too many games. I really think it is just that simple. How can companies continue to expect expanding sales for a game when there are simply more games out there to compete for time? Even a fan of final fantasy could easily say, “I dont have time for that right now” and elect to wait

Well why should the headline be a surprise? Most people who want new final fantasy games are getting character action games instead of JRPGs. The people who play for the love of final fantasy haven’t bought one since X-2, maybe XIII-2 if you count that style as JRPG.

Should never have sold Eidos Montreal to Embracer…

Modern Final Fantasy just feels shallow. The games are hardly RPGs anymore. It’s really sad as I was a big fan of FF since PS1 days but after XV and XVI they lost my interest. At least Atlus still has some great JRPGs and series that didn’t change their genre completely into something unrecognizable.

Edit: spelling

Jrpg needs to reevaluate itself. There stories and charcters will resonate with tweens and teens but not with adults.

It’s almost like if you change the story and turned it in to an action RPG you might alienate the people who brought you to this point

It’s why I didn’t buy it, he’ll I wouldn’t even pirate it, I did however preorder that new Atlus RPG that plays like persona 5 does

Maybe if you don’t screw around you won’t find out

This is what they get for being exclusive to one system. I love final fantasy but it has sucked as a fan to feel like id have to switch systems just to play the remake. Not to mention its taking them WAY to long to finish it. Nobody likes parts that feel like separate games from eachother.

Meh. They will adjust. I doubt the Final Fantasy series will ever disappear.

A lot of gamers nowadays just prefer instant gratification, so JRPG-lite games are not as attractive. Still, keep in mind that the FF games still sell millions of copies and that they would sell even more if they were not console exclusive.

Not even a little bit worried. It’s become ‘in’ to whine and complain about Square Enix, though.

I mean 16 or 17 games in series… People actually still play? I would probably get bored a lot sooner, just like AC. It’s kind of same game every year

If SQUARE ENIX wants Final Fantasy to return back to being the big juggernaut it once was, then stop trying to make the newer games like every other game out there, return it back to it’s roots.

Stop trying to make the game like Devil May Cry or some medieval Dragons Dogma type game like Final Fantasy 16 was.

Bring back turn based gameplay. Enough of this real time gameplay, the results have shown fans don’t really care for it.

Stop trying to make the game based on reality like one of the trailers said for Final Fantasy 15. Have the new games set in a beautiful fantasy world, create sexy looking busty type characters like Lulu that dresses weirdly yet cool with her many belts she had on that dress.

In other words, put the fantasy back into Final Fantasy! It’s really not that hard to figure out.

FF7 Rebirth was pretty good, but it was far too long and there was far too much filler content.

Well they refuse to kill the ps4 so lots of people still haven’t moved onto the ps5 yet meaning alot of playstation gamers can’t play it and it isn’t available on any other platform so of course it didn’t sell well when they are actively sabotaging it

Even Yongyea curling into a ball and going 2mph into a mop bucket cant save this game.

Every business analyst ever: it’s going to sell a billion copies, based on absolutely nothing!

Later after launch: sales did not meet our ludicrous expectations. We’re now firing half our low paid workforce to make up the loss. We’re also giving our top execs bonuses for making bad decisions based on voodoo economics.

It’s more like the hype died down becasue squrare took way to long to port the game to pc. I just bought the game a day ago because I accidently saw it in a youtube short, otherwise I wouldn’t even know ff16 were out on pc.

Ffxvi was okay. I spent 100hrs on my first play through and everything other than the combat and the big set pieces was pretty boring.

They have to stop the exclusivity I bought a ps5 just for ff7 remake and rebirth

SquareEnix should remaster or remake smaller title like Einhander.

From the sounds of things, we might not see a SquareEnix after another 5 years or so. Unless they figure out how to reinvent themselves in order to find that appeal it once had 😢

They should focus on really high end pc games for 30 year old boomers

I don’t know a lot about FF VII remake, but from what I saw it was just a bunch of minigames with an RPG tied on to it.

I know that is hyperbole, but it just seems like they are putting their effort in the wrong places.

They need to focus on AA games like star ocean

Lack luster history, always going for the ultra intense Action RPG that is allready saturated. And FF7 remake came late, WAY too late. people have moved on.

There is also the thing of people having less and less money to spend on stuff they want. I want to buy the games but I have bills to pay dude. And medical stuff to deal with. Debt is a thing.

Waiting on the full game before I play the FF7 reboot

FF 16 on STEAM has Denuvo…

HELL NO !!!

Not to mention the issue with FF7 with having to pay a small fortune just to play a complete story, and the long wait for each part. They also gave away ff7r basically for free with that twin pack with rebirth which personally i think its a kick in the teeth to those who spent the money on it to play it.

Dragonborn act lll please it’s been years bro WE NEEED ITTT!!!

maybe the big bucks will come after ff7 is totally finished maybe people dont want to b burned by a weird ending (or atleast the og ff7 fans)

Man. Any chance we can get a positive story or something uplifting/exciting in gaming from this channel?

Another issue is that there’s just too many games out there nowadays, with many big budget games coming out around the same time. Most people dont have the funds or the time to play all these games. I know I couldn’t afford a $60 game when Final Fantasy XVI came out so I got a couple of smaller indie games that I could afford. I know I (and probably a lot of others) plan on still getting Final Fantasy XVI at some point but it’ll probably have to wait for a later time. Companies should probably plan for long lifetime sales instead of only focusing on day 1 sales.

Bring Final Fantasy back to turn based battles with a focus on party members!

If square Enix wanted a revitalization of the FF brand they would redo FF 4, 6, and 8 for modern platforms and keep the basic old school battle mechanics with immersive environments that we see from the newer games. I think the shift in combat that first really started with FF 12 and was really amplified with FF 15 was the start of it loosing its identity.

Already checked the story, no reason for me to buy it now a year latter.

Personally I have little interest in the Final Fantasy series now since I have no idea what it is, and neither does Square apparently.

My only experience with it was one of the older FF games ported to mobile phones a decade ago, FF7, and a bit of FF15. When I first heard about FF15 not being turn based it did kinda bum me out so it took some time for me to give it a try. I didn’t hate the game, I do think it is a good game, but it just wasn’t for me. And now I heard that 16 is more like the Devil May Cry games, a series I never played before and don’t know too much about besides it being fast and full of crazy combos. I want to give the Final Fantasy series another try but not knowing if Square Enix will once again change the formula to something else if I do get into it makes me very hesitant.

We live in the world where people have been conditioned for years where you don’t buy games you buy a subscription. Game pass. EA. Ubisoft.

If it’s not for “free“ on a service they already subscribed to they got no interest in it. That’s why I’ve always said day. One subscription based games are a bad idea. If they wanna put it on a subscription, do it like six months to a year later or something in the vault like it used to be. That way the game actually has a chance to make it its money back before then. Otherwise, what happened is they just quit trying so hard and they either cancel the series entirely, or we get stuck with Game Pass fodder where it’s not near the quality they should be.

As for rebirth, with a game like that episodic releases are stupid to begin with. And then on top of that you took the game that came out for one platform, the PS4. And then made the interegrade/DLC version only next GEN or PC. And then the second part two that same game is now on a new platform. Entirely new generation that not everybody has.

FF is one of my favorite franchises of all time but it pretty much ended for me after XIII. I bought both FF VII remakes but they’re honestly just ok. I haven’t even finished Rebirth. I’d rather play traditional RPGs like Sea of Stars but when I do want an ARPG I’ll play Souls games. To me, those are the new standard. (Stranger of Paradise is horrible)

No them two games was the greatest ive ever played

FF7 was a problem. Always has been. It alone exploded the popularity of the series and no other series has had the merchandise and spinoffs like #7 has

I agree:
Oh my god, name me another “iconic” duo like Square Enix & “did not met our expectations”.

SE leadership is ALWAYS angry that FF didnt meet THEIR!!! expectations….but they never define what they are -.-“””

Plus, FF 1 – 9 were tactical, then they experimented with another system and well…it went baaaad. FF12 is clunky, FF 13 is a mess, FF15??? What the hell is that? FF16 dont know, just seen others play it but it looks nice… but its different EVERY TIME xDDD

I love the old school system of FF 7 and 9… not against the “new system” of FF7 Rebirth and FF16… BUT!!! its different…and I loke the old ones….

This is the problem with most of Square Enix’s games. Everything have to be named Final Fantasy and every loss they incur they bank on the Final Fantasy brand to save them. FF13 trilogy were great games. It’s just that it’s named “Final Fantasy” that it was initially received badly/mixed. Same thing with FFXV and FFXVI. FF7 Remake and Rebirth are amazing games but it speaks more to people like me who was born in the 90s and know the Final Fantasy brand and will buy it because we know we will get our money’s worth. Sadly most of us are busy with our own lives and family that most don’t even play video games anymore so banking on that Final Fantasy nostalgia just aren’t there anymore because the market for that is slimming. It’s clear Square Enix believes action combat mixed with traditional JRPG stuff is the way to go so they just need to make a different IP with that gameplay style and return Final Fantasy to its roots Dragon Quest 11 style. I really thought they would come out with more action rpg IPs with the success of Nier Automata but idk why they didn’t. Final Fantasy is a series about breaking boundaries with every entry having something new or different but the complete jump off to action combat Devil May Cry style is just not appealing to older fans. OG FF7 has turn based with glorious materia setups. FF8 is turn based with Junction. FF9 back to its SNES roots, FFX with the character nodes and specific character roles and FF12 with its gambit system etc., However the action combat is too far of a difference from its roots. I don’t mind the Remake/Rebirth stuff being different because that’s the purpose of a Remake anyways to experience old story with gameplay that will entice new players to try it out but for the love of God for new mainline entries stick to turn based. It’s embarassing that Baldur’s Gate 3 can do it but Square Enix, who were the pioneers to this gameplay style doesn’t believe in it. It’s traditional jrpg for a reason, it works. This is also the same problem Capcom had with Resident Evil especially RE6 but then returned it to it’s survival horror roots in RE7 and it’s great again. Difference is, Capcom invests heavily on multiple titles like Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry etc., and do not focus only on Resident Evil while Square Enix puts everything on Final Fantasy and just change it to whatever they think is hot/marketable. Capcom also releases games on multiple platforms while Square sticks with Sony for some dumb reason. I’m a Playstation fan boy myself but even I know timed exclusives are killing my favorite series. If I were to give any advice for Square Enix, I’d say look at how Capcom does things and do the same as them. Make new IPs. Hell they even tried with the Soulsborne/Nioh formula since it’s making sales but what does Square Enix name it? Strangers of Paradise Final Fantasy like stop it bruh there’s only so much you can do with one IP. They also tried the Fortnite/PUBG battle royale style but they still called it Final Fantasy First Soldier like wtf man all these Final Fantasy games with different gameplays most people don’t even know what a Final Fantasy game is supposed to play or look like 😂

Who cares about sales, numbers. Play the game and enjoy it or don’t. Game journalists are annoying and this is the most misinformed gaming channel on YouTube

Wish they just remade ff7 and followed the original story line the play style is fine the story ehhhh I didn’t care for it

Having to consider buying a game a year or two after the hype came out and being charged full price despite it likely being a bad pc port and now a year or two old… I wonder why people aren’t buying these.

Totally disagree with Daniel Ahmad on this one. The long term fans like myself who played the SNES and PS1 games when they were current don’t like the new product. Final Fantasy lost its identity when Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase either left or were no longer in creative leadership roles. Two people don’t make a game, but the series has completely changed with their absence.

In my experience old school fans want turn based combat and a strong story with a strong cast. Instead we’ve had cringe story, an unmemorable cast, and frankly bland action gameplay.
Final fantasy did turn based the best; other games do action combat far far better.

Finally they admit that battle style is one point that turn off the fans. Who care if the animation look good. I will not gonna support DMC on FF skin. If I want DMC , I can play the real one and It even better the the fake one

Make Part 3 Multi Platform and Rated M, youll get Millions of buyers.

If only there was another platform they could be selling them on…

Nothing ever meets their expectations/ standards. Nothing is good enough. Their is no reason why FF needs to be a PlayStation exclusive

Wait, our profits are declining because we’re not letting people play our game?…

Good….

Stop making the games exclusive to one console.

Put them everywhere day and date on all consoles and Steam.

Final Fantasy 7 remake was always going to be only mostly saleable to the fans. Square making 3 games from it was such a dumb risky move.

Releasing a game a year after an exclusivity is a bad move because nowadays it’s hard to avoid spoilers especially for a story based game.
Also you have actual players or people you know who played it and can tell you if it was actually good or bad and not just critics you can’t trust anymore.

In older ff games you had multiple activities with different gameplay, you had exploration finding entire zones you could miss, ff16 is linear and exploration is tedious because artificially expanded. (long corridors, multiple staircases, they make you run back and forth for no reason where you could have put more characters in a smaller area).
Custscenes are too long for their own good, they talk too much and they repeat themselves, sometimes you don’t even learn anything after a 10 min cutscene…
And those FedEx quests aren’t a thing you’d want anymore, sending a world savior escort a merchant of vegetables… Or escorting an historian to various places…

I don’t understand how multiple entries have come out as multiplatform releases, but thinking that selling newer entries on one platform meant more money.

I have been done with FF for sometime now.

As long as they finish FF7 part 3 the series can die as far as I’m concerned. This is coming from a lifelong fan.
The series started going down hill with 12(uber boring story), and every release after has been mid or worse(except 14).
13 was so cringe i never even finished it. 15 was baby mode easy and un finished. 16 was baby mode easy as well and the story fell off a cliff in the last 3rd.
They have no idea what FF is anymore.

14:21 if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, I still want part 3 of this new series but honestly it would have been nice to have a more faithful remake of the original.

It’s really crazy that we have reached the point where younger fans don’t know FF7, I basically have to say this, every SINGLE original Sqauresoft FF game is a masterpiece, if you haven’t messed around with the originals at least the ones from the original PlayStation then you haven’t experienced FF series, Heck it might be in their best interest to re-release those games on modern consoles so that they are more familiar with them.

I love FF but don’t like MMOs. I am probably not along….can I get a good game too?

A big Part of its exclusivity. Another part is X-XVI do not play like each other and FFVII Remake do not play like them.

They need to pick a gameplay style and build off them. The gameplay of VII Remake FEEL the BEST by far. If not that build off the foundations of XVI with a better rpg focus

Maybe they should lower their expectations.

The timed exclusivity in today’s gaming market is dumb, when just a little over half of the playstation owners had upgraded to a PS5.
Coupled with the playstation declining sales in some territories around the world, the rapidly changing player base and Square Enix ballooning their expectations in how a game should perform. The games long production process and splitting an initially single self contained gaming experience into 3 separate parts to milk gamers of their hard earned cash…
….😂 I mean what else could go wrong right ?

Wasn’t Rebirth a Playstation exclusive? Can you even play it on other consoles yet? If not what is Square expecting? There’s no reason for to remain an exclusive and it’s costing them millions, just release it on PC already

6:30 that’s crap, I’m one of those fans who played 10+ and I’m not buying any of the new titles because the saga has completely lost it’s identity

Translation: Square Enix chases so many money grabbing trends and they’re scapegoating Final Fantasy for their own failures

I stopped liking the final fantasy games when they changed to the new garbage combat. Still playing the good old classics tho.

15? Controversial and deemed incomplete (like MGSV and its missing ending)
Remake? Controversial, veering too far from the source material and feeling bloated at times due to its stretching a 5-6 hour segment into 40+ hours.
No shit the sequels to both of these controversial titles aren’t gonna do as well. I bought 15 and Remake. Didn’t buy the sequels because 16 just didn’t interest me enough and Remake left a bad taste in my mouth for Rebirth

I hate that as an Xbox player, I can play remake but not rebirth because exclusivity bullshit. Square basically just gave the finger to all Xbox players who liked part 1

Jast Roads

It’s very simple. Stop taking out the fricken rp in the damn rpg. It’s literally that simple. All my friends and I refused to play ff16 bc if I wanted action, I’d play the other 100s of actions games. So I know I’m not alone in this. My take at least.

Shame. Rebirth is my Game of the Year so far.

FF16 didn’t feel like an RPG. FF7 Rebirth felt like a Ubisoft game. Both were good but far from the 9’s and 9.5’s of the older games.

I feel like ff16 is like a spin-off final fantasy game

Maybe they should stop making Final Fantasy less and less RPG every entry.

It’s almost like people are tired of the garbage combat in these games…………

Square needs to understand that they cannot release the PC version 1 year later. It is a silly desition. I bought the PC versions for both FF7 and FFXVI and the hype is totally gone by the time I started to play them. I just feel stupid commenting the game with my friends and social media when most peaople already have played the game several times. That “smart” desition is killing the franchise. Also, they need to STOP pushing the action genre on the FF games. They need to understand that wat made the franchise special/unique was the turn based / strategic aspects of it. Dont get me wrong, I love the story of FFXVI, but I hated the action. No control over party members? Really? No Elemental damage/Weaknesses? No classes? They basically destroyed what made the franchise special. So even If I am sad because of that, I say good riddance. They caused this to themselves.

What’s funny about this is that there’s been plenty of feedback from the consumers about what they’d like and they’ve consistently failed to deliver. One example of this is Dragon Quest X. When they created the offline version a couple of years ago, it was the perfect time to release to an international market but instead, they kept it exclusive to Japan again.

i personally think that cutting one full game into three parts with few years apart is just a very bad idea

Lol and they keep taking resources from ff14 for ff16 and now ff14 players are getting bored and restless. Thanks Corporate, you really know just how to mess up getting lucky by simply being out of touch 😂

Why would I play FF16 on PC now when I’ve waited this long, and Metaphor Re:Fantazio is only a few weeks away? Squeenix is victim of their own choices and circumstance. I’m also one of those weirdos that actually wanted FF7 Remake, not FF7 Re-Make, if you catch my drift, so I probably won’t touch those.

I don’t mind. Don’t really like the direction the new final fantasy games are going. Used to be more fun.

16 was nothing like any previous entries that was a real turn off for me. It’s not meant to be an action game. Rebirth on the other hand went so far in the other direction that I lost interest bc it didn’t respect my time. There needs to be some middle ground

Ahh yes, release a game an exclusive for a console that is limited in its use aswell

I’m a Playstation gamer but release them on everything at once. If I hear about a game too early, I lose interest. I haven’t played FF7 Part 2 yet. I’m actually buying it this winter 😂 I have got 16 and enjoyed it, but not as good as people say. Still fun though!

Poor story. I said it. Write a good one and make sure it makes sense.

It was released only on ps5….

Square/Enix died after FFX. What was left of Final Fantasy fans fled to FF14 online since MMO’s where popular at a point. Other than that, nobody likes any of the characters/story and plot for single player releases like they used to because some femtard/boy band, low testosterone obsessed director has had the helm for too long… Dude probably sucks on DEI CEO’s toes…