Despite licensing fees to more than one platform and engineering for more than one platform and PC, I agree.

I brought up those points as to why some see exclusives and console exclusives as more practical than multiplats.

I don't see the engineering/development argument. An Xbox Series X is pretty similar to a PS5. We're not in Xbox/PS2 territory or Xbox 360/PS3 territory anymore. Shoot, even Switch is easier to develop for third parties than most Nintendo systems in history (if not all of them) because the platform architecture among the Big Three (even if Switch is on a mobile chipset) and even compared to PC are becoming more standard and easier to engineer. 

FFXVII really should be on Xbox in addition to PlayStation, and I hope the FF7 Remake eventually goes multiplat 4-7 years from now. 

How?  It took me 60 hours to platinum the original with a guide and using all the 3x speed, turning off random encounters except when needed, and even using the cheat mode!

Part 3 has to be released on PC and PS5 on the same day, they need the money.

He said most, not all. FF trophies, whether via launch or added later by SquEnix are just grinds or have to be done via glitches. Many are not fun (I looked at FF13s and just thought, well these are stupid :P).

I did the same recently, 40 hours or so play time and this includes getting a gold chocobo. Only trophies left are getting a date with Barret, the 99999999 gil thing, Aeris limit. Master Summon Materia and beating Ruby and Emerald (which I have no desire to do as I did those years ago). This was without any boosters from the game.

Square Enix don't seem able to catch a break these days, it feels like most of their big games in the last few years have underperformed.
Between soaring production costs and people having less disposable income for relative luxuries like gaming, it's getting harder and harder for AAA games to succeed; as the pond shrinks the remaining big fish are forced together to fight over what remains, and Square just don't seem able to compete effectively.

Square also ignores platforms not Sony.  FF16 still isn't on PC.  And the thing is I won't pay full price for FF16 when it hits PC.  Given the age of the game I won't pay more than $30.  Square is making some poor decisions.  Square could also cut out all the stupid mini games side quest filler BS to get games out faster and cheaper.  Square is making poor decisions.

I am going to make a perhaps a not so hot take anymore.

FF is struggling because JRPGs are thriving. The sheer amount of quality JRPGs in the past few years has been astounding, and FF has to compete against them all. Atlus JRPGs have seen quite a bit of growth. Sega has joined the mix with Like a Dragon. SE competing with itself with DQXI, Octopath, and Star Ocean the Divine Force doing great. Soulslike JRPGs surpassing FF. Even small JRPGs being greenlit and pumped out every year.

All of these JRPGs have an effect on the overall budget for most JRPG buyers, and more people are passing on FF.

Honestly hard to know where they are sometimes. They seem to be putting effort into making old titles again (new Mana and Saga games arriving soon, a Valykrie Profile a few years back), then FF 16 and 7Rs being made etc yet seem to invest a lot in some games that failed hard. Marvel's Avengers, Forspoken, Babylon's Fall, I'm glad their trying as you surely cannot sustain yourself on old IPs forever but maybe invest correctly? Don't through everything at things like Forspoken.

Then their western side is a shadow of itself. They sold of most of their assets for a small amount. Embracer instantly licenced JUST Tomb Raider to Amazon for twice what they paid for the lot, was SquEnix seemed okay to sit on it instead of looking for this kinda deal?

You aren't wrong. When it was announced that Japan sales were only like 250k vs FF7R's 700k there were a few people saying about why it failed then. Many mentioned what had released recently and a few of them were JRPGs which for all intents and purposes sold far more than expected. P3 Remake sold over a million in a week and while this is lower than Rebirth, it's massive for the series as a whole.

JRPGs used to just be FF, then others would exist but never reach their heights. Now it seems more FF is doing well but not as well and everything else good if not better than they have ever done.

So I can completely understand the thinking.

The Soulslike thing is something I never really thought about. Back in the day, FF was the peak of RPGs, with time and technology advancing, the king now is whatever FromSoftware produce. SquEnix in the 90s and 2000s only competed with themselves really but now?

It's been touched upon in this thread but honestly I think the fact that it's billed as a remake but

was a horrible move and turned a lot of players off. I was thinking about buying it since I liked FF7 a decent amount back in the day but when I heard that it instantly turned me off, and I've heard from many friends and acquaintances (anecdotal, but still relevant) who didn't play the original that they weren't going to stick around for the followups because of this.

I think splitting it into 3 games was a horrible idea from the start (but I also remember that saying this got you jumped by Square-Enix fans at the time), but letting Nomura go full Kingdom Hearts on it was an even worse idea. Square-Enix are just not making good decisions as a company, and it should come as no surprise given they spent like 4-5 years talking about how amazing NFTs were.

Dragon Quest, Octopath, and Star Ocean all sell worse than Final Fantasy, though. The same goes for Persona and Like a Dragon (except for P5, yes, but even that would just about match the worst-selling FF games).

Besides, it's not like similar games if not these same franchises didn't exist back in the PS1 and PS2 days.

You are free to count Souls games, or Monster Hunter, or Zelda, for that matter, as JRPGs, but I doubt there's much overlap between Sekiro and Persona and Kingdom Hearts userbases, for instance.