No, only Remake until now. It was nice but I wasn't blown away by it. 

This.

90s-era Final Fantasy was the peak to me in terms of how much I liked it. It was the peak in terms of sales/popularity as well, at least once the series jumped to PlayStation. It was also the era of menu-based combat using some iteration of the ATB system introduced in FF4. I don't think that's a coincidence. I did not care for FF15 and never got around to finishing it, not just because of its uninspired open world but also because of the combat system. It was too frenetic, too busy, too melee-focused (magic turned into consumable items? WTF?), and you could only control Noctis. To be honest, the only action JRPGs I ever liked were the Souls games and FF7 Remake/Rebirth, the latter of which at least tried to integrate some elements of the old ATB/menu commands system to create some sort of hybrid system.

Make Final Fantasy Great Again

Square Enix better learn from XVI. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is THE blueprint. 7 Rebirth nailed it. Open world, towns you actually care about, multiple controllable characters, chocobos, bikes, you name it. Combat's smooth, exploration's rewarding, lore's juicy.

Honestly, they should just mass produce FF games using the Rebirth formula. No more hallway simulators. Give us big worlds, multiple transportation options, tons to do, and a party we can actually control.

Square Enix, you better be taking notes, and for you Naoki Yoshida, you dropped the ball, so stick with MMORPGs.

...Rebirth also didn't sell great lol.

But I agree, I'm playing it right now and it's much better than 16.

It didn't, but at least it has the excuse of being one part of a fragmented "remake". An all new FF with evolved Rebirth systems should sell much better if received well and released on all major platforms. I don't have hope in Final Fantasy pulling an Elden Ring or a Monster Hunter World or a Breath of the Wild, but it might be able to hit a new record for the series.

I don't think going back to pure turnbased/ATB is a good idea.

Oh yeah, both games did poorly for different reasons. I agree that being an action RPG is not what doomed 16; 15 and 7 Remake are ARPGs and they did fine.

People are just rejecting the idea of a hack 'n' slash with a FF skin. 16 RPG elements are very basic and tacked on, I feel like they should've gone all in and just made it all linear with a deeper combat system and more cool set pieces. What we ended up with is a game that is basic in everything it sets out to do, the combat, quests, level up, crafting and loot systems are all just shallow and super basic. That's what people don't like.

Rebirth didn't do great because the whole FF7 trilogy of remakes project is very messy. If I were to guess the third game is probably going to be the worst selling of the three.

Edit: I'd like to add that I disagree going back to ATB/turn based is a bad idea... At this point anything that is a true RPG would be a better direction for FF to follow lol.

The highs are some of the best the series has had since this PS1 days imo. The story telling, world building and performances are way better 15. I couldn't finish 15 because it was clearly a mess of a product. According to trophy data 16 also has a higher completion rate than 15. I don't think a perceived lack of quality has anything to do with the sales figures.

And incase it's not clear to everyone FVII Rebirth has bombed even harder than this 

Yeah and this just reinforces the idea that there is a historic precedent of bad decisions when looking at the 2 most recent games performances. If people don't love your output for a while, they stop investing. 

There's no harm in going multiplatform with a big publisher like SE & Final Fantasy. Exclusivity means most when you need help financing a game or want to establish an initial core audience on a popular platform. 

Playstation audiences are not going to play a cracked PC version of the a game that leaks a few week early so there is no real concern there. PC audiences will be way more invested if it's day and date versus 1 year later. Xbox audience is not significant but doesn't hurt (500k+), especially when new entries are loosing the core playstation audience, it's not impossible they somehow connect a bit more with Xbox's who are less turn base friendly. Add all platforms together and there is higher chance of vitality and word of mouth. 

Probably the biggest negative impact multiplatform has, is on the team, as they would much rather focus on 1 platform and get the game out sooner and with less stress. I think this is the reason why Japanese Devs have often been stubborn with ports (like Atlus ignoring Switch) and why SE went Playstation exclusivity with XVI. Less work for more or less a similar amount of anticipated money. Now their focus is on finding new players and securing a future for the franchise, they need as many potential users as possible.

Switch 2 has the biggest potential because it could add an extra 1m from Japan alone if the game resonates with it's audience. PC in the long run could be huge too.