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haxxiy on 17 March 2024
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Chrkeller said:

I can only speak for myself, but in the 90s square was my favorite developer and now I grab FF via sale or not at all. I still never played 15. A few reasons FF isn't remotely my favorite anymore:

1) too much fluff in mini games, silly side quests and what not.  
2) battle systems keep being more action than strategy.
3) their stories have become rather nonsensical. Easiest example is the whisps in Remake.... cloud can see ghost and fights them to change destiny....  feels like it was written for a 13 year old.  

Well, 16 is as humorless and straightforward as they go and it didn't work for Square either. As for strategy, I don't feel like that was ever the case. You can mash your way with basic attacks and cure spells through most Final Fantasy games unless you're severely underleved.

Three is a good point and it's one of the reasons the franchise misses Sakaguchi dearly. That man knew how to be subtle and rein things in. Nomura, Nojima, and Kitase? Definitely not.

Otter said:

I do think think people underestimate the impact of titles & labelling of the games.

A lot of people simply aren't interested in messing with a franchise so deep into it's sequels. Especially a narrative driven one where the average Joe assumes they're connected. A lot of us grew up with FF in its prime but gen Z grew up with XIII saga, a whole bunch of bad spin offs and XV.

Then as far as the remakes go, naming them Remake & then Rebirth does zero favours to the marketing. Just call it part 2, part 3 lol. I actually think VII Rebirth success is less of a issue, I think it was probably one of the cheaper entries in recent memory (less than 4 years development, just above 3 if we count from Intergrade DLC). It's more what it means about appetite for the franchise as a whole.

Final Fantasy nowadays is a boomer franchise. It had the oldest average player age of all franchises polled in a Nikkei inquiry - in their 40s, and that was years ago. It's not renewing its user base in any meaningful way.

No young new player is going to hop in a medieval humorless RPG with 16 in the name, or the middle game of a trilogy, itself the remake of a 30-year-old game, that requires playing a lot of the Compilation to fully understand what is going on. If SE are even a bit market conscious they would reboot the series (no more numbered entries) with a more jovial design (Genshin Impact or Zenless Zone Zero-like) and make it PC/Switch 2/PS5 multiplat from day one.

Oh, and stick with the ATB from the 7 Remake games in the future since that is the most acclaimed of their gameplay loops. FF games have changed too much in the past - if a person liked 10, 12, 13, 15, or 16, there are no other games in the franchise like those for them to play.