Yeah, without the proper materia allies will mostly just dodge and do chip damage.

That is true. There should be maybe a reboot and then just Final Fantasy: (subtitle), in line with what works very well across the industry.

Makes me wonder if they'll eventually rename FF14 as just Final Fantasy Online, too.

It also on a subconscious level makes you think about how old this franchise is, and you feel that fatigue just buying it.  I don't want to buy the "16th" entry of a franchise.  It just feels weird.

Amy would have likely done better in this case, since she's got a proven track record before (in recent years she just doesn't seem to be given the time of day before she has to move onto another project, which is unfortunate). 

I already said this in brackets about playing past Japanese games before Forespoken.

There have always been communication issues, like with anime sub and then to dub (and that sector has it's own issues atm with people warping words around to suit their own agendas, so yes that is a thing, and I wouldn't doubt it becoming a thing in gaming either, since Sweet Baby Inc exists as well as other companies that surround it, we are living in GamerGate 2.0 btw). 

Like I said, their marketing was artificially forced and cringe-worthy, hence why it got memed on for most of it's time, then by release people further memed on the game till it faded into obscurity. The writing itself for those that actually played the game, was not that great (as evidenced by the further meme'ing). I did say now is not the right time for SE to release a brand new IP as well. 

Well right now like I said is not the best time, especially with people growing to resent the release states of AAA games, the MT's, and just not respecting the gamer's time/effort. I would give it at least another 4-5 years before attempting something new, and by then the dust should have settled enough to try something new again, that isn't going to be a stupidly expensive game, that isn't going to fit some shitty checklist, and one that isn't going to be yet another MT/Live service game.

I'm not saying "forever" btw, so I'm not sure where you are getting this idea from. I just said "not at this moment", if you just want to disagree with what I've said and not read what I was saying before, to cherry pick, just tell me here and now please. I'd appreciate honesty up front. I've grown tired of seeing that on these forums for years now (there's a reason why I stopped posting in article pages on this site for that reason). 

This is... not how this game works 

My point isn't disagreement, nor nitpicking. I did not mean to seem like I was criticising and was trying to form discussion.Sorry if that did not come across.

It's more "if not then when"? You've said wait 4-5 years, that's a long time to rely on known IPs and hope they do well when the gaming space is constantly changing. They could miss out on the next big thing because they didn't try.

Alas, maybe that's the issue we are having in gaming in general. The safe works and the risks fail. SE are trying but failing meanwhile Activision isn't even trying but still succeeding.

That's fine. I just sometimes get the impression from some one here over the years, when it comes to certain topics, which is why I decided to withdraw from some entirely.

The reason why I say 4-5 years, is because the internet tends not to forget, but gamers in general tend to forget over a span of time (remember how people got mad at lootboxes, but now don't seem to mind Battlepasses?, that didn't take long, despite neither of them being good for us compared to the way we originally unlocked free content within games). Also the current world economy isn't exactly in great shape, too many consolidations, IP's being cancelled left and right, all of which is causing the bigger fish to be even less receptive to taking more risks. 

SE could do a new IP by all means, just don't do it on FF/Forspoken's budget level, or risk another flop/clowned on game. I'm just looking at this from a worldview point, like our economy, and general gamer perception, rather than a business exec looking to make a fortnite money printer. 

You won't miss out on the next big thing if you do not know how to craft it in the first place. Epic didn't know much on BR being a thing until a board member from Tencent's side advised Epic to change their game into a BR styled one, and well, some weeks to a month later they managed to change it based on their suggestion and rode the waves since then (much like how Sony was aware of MS's pitfalls from the previous gen and rode those waves up until now). 

If you want that lightning in a bottle to work, you have to also know what's missing in the market. Like look at Palworld for example, a real time survival crafting game where you can catch monsters and have them craft/fight for you, that's something that's been missing for a time, and it seemed to pay off. SE just needs to craft something that isn't full on trend chasing, like another live service, another BR, etc. 

The problem with larger companies and taking risks, is that they tend to move too slow when taking said risk, that they end up mucking things up, and they then end up spending upwards of a year to make that botched risk worth something (avengers for example), and by the time that is over, they are then reluctant to take the same kind of risk again. Basically, big corpos tend to operate on "line must go up, no failure allowed" mentality, so having a risk blow up in their face goes against that ideal. 

I think if Sony sees that Final Fantasy is no longer that console seller they may no longer look for exclusivity deals anymore. If FF7 Rebirth showed no signs of shifting hardware and sales are less than FF16, then FF17 could be a multiplat game. Sony will just take that money and put it towards another game that will actually sell a lot of hardware.

Most likely yes. 

I mean maybe they would keep it around for nostalgia/legacy sake, but these aren't cheap games either. At some point Sqaure-Enix is going to ask to be reimbursed for any potential lost sales if they want to keep doing exclusives, that could cost Sony a couple of hundred mill, probably not worth it for them either

FF7R and FF16 in particular not doing much for PS5 hardware sales in Japan is probably the last straw. 

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.  

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.

We don't have numbers but it looks like it performed maybe slightly worse then XVI (+6% in the UK, - 30% in Japan, probably up a tad in US similar to the UK)

As someone said a soft reboot would be good. Maybe a naming convention by theme instead of number. Zero spin offs to avoid watering down the brand. Slightly smaller scope entries (30hour story, essentially VII Remake length more story) with the same scale of visual/audio production as we're used to. Unified production platform so developers are not starting from scratch. VII, XVI & Forspoken are built in completely different engines. A game like VII for example could of benefitted from Forspoken terrain navigation system. Back to exploring turn based/tactical combat a way to diversify. 


PC/Xbox/Playstation day one. Switch 2 ports a year or so later