Thanks. 

Still waiting for a massive deal to get it, as I know it'll happen sooner or later.

Sign yourself up to DekuDeals and make sure you choose your country/region to get deals locally in your area.

You can wishlist it and will notify you when the game goes on sale.

https://www.dekudeals.com/items/final-fantasy-xvi-complete-edition

The game's lowest price for Playstation is $52 and $45 for Steam.

If the game comes out on Xbox and Switch 2 - likely the price wont fall below that at least for another two years (unless you go physical which you can also track in dekudeals).

https://www.dekudeals.com/items/final-fantasy-xvi?format=all

Shame. While it doesnt reach the heights the best entries of the series do, its still a solid and very enjoyable game.

Definitely physical.

Could get it for around $35 yesterday, I'm sure I'll get it for cheaper soon enough, lol.

FF11 and 12 weren't less than 10. Who gets to decide what's fully well rounded? The FF fanbase is too whiney and rarely agree on anything. RE fans are just a lot more flexible and forgiving.

Square Enix also fixed their FF14 problem before it got out of hand, and as a result made their most successful game to date and followed up with 4 great expansions, two of them scored 90+, which Resident Evil could never achieve again with a brand new game ever since RE4 from 2005. It hardly matters that it had two development cycles when the end product was a great foundation and people loved it. It is a redemption story.

Capcom consistently released 90+ quality RE games until RE4, and not a single one since. Remakes are nice and do add up, but part of what made RE2 and 4 remakes excellent is existing work modernized. RE7 and 8 aren't quite on the same level. RE3R is just not good, it's more disliked than any mainline FF since FF2.

Even not counting spinoffs, after RE4 (2005) and until RE7 (2017), Capcom released RE5, RE6, Revelations 1 and 2 (both are canon games and arguably mainline), the 4 of them disappointed and helped giving Capcom the moniker "Crapcom" (okay maybe not Rev1 since expectations weren't that high to begin with, being a 3DS game). And while RE7 was certainly very good, neither it nor RE8 were groundbreaking. Their 86/84 scores are fairly representative of the consensus.

Recent Capcom is indeed lightyears ahead of SquareEnix, but that's mainly because SE is (even historically) too reliant on FF as opposed to Capcom having multiple great titles, high genre variety, and more consistent quality as of late. Sales wise however, RE is a general growth whereas Final Fantasy fluctuated too much over smaller mistakes imo. As usual though, the two series are from different genres, had their unique circumstances and therefore we can't make a perfect comparison, so I'm not going to dwell on it more. I'll agree that if SE gets their shit together and start doing things right more consistently and efficiently, FF should start growing again, but it's not going to be comparable to RE's growth, let alone Monster Hunter's. They're gonna have to work much harder for a smaller return.

I actually played this one, it was one of the games me and my girlfriend got with our PS5, along with Diablo IV and Hogwarts Legacy.

I quite enjoyed it for what it was, but I can see how its DMC-lite gameplay and minimal RPG elements could turn off series fans.

I don't think going back to turn based would widen their appeal in this day and age, but clearly they need to do something different. In the near term, Switch 2/Xbox ports could help them recoup their losses a bit.

Persona 5 games went over 10m copies sold back in 2023, around September.
(yes, ~2,5m of that was probably Strikers, a fighting spin off....)

However a year lateron? I think its safe to assume, that Persona 5 (with its re-release) went over 10m.
You can make a Turn based game sell well.
Hell Pokemon is turn based, right? that thing sells like crazy.

Terrible sales obviously. Here's a bunch of my opinions as someone who has yet to play the game but certainly wants to at some point:

• I don't have a current-gen console (yet?), and I'm very reluctant to pay very much for digital games. Most of the digital games I buy I pay less than 10 euros for.
• Judging by the trailers, the game has much of the Final Fantasy magic I don't recall XV having in either the trailers or the game.
• It's an action RPG, and it sounds like the RPG elements aren't very heavy. This is not what I want from a Final Fantasy game, so you'd better pull it off really well - and it doesn't sound like they really succeeded. It's probably easier to pull off a good turn-based battle system or something comparable, and as a bonus a proper party full of interesting characters fits much better in the game. So much more opportunities for good writing!
• Did I mention the party thing yet? The vibe really changes when you focus on just one character, and I think you can stand out much better with a proper party when most games are focused on just one character.
• I don't really like the medieval vibe. It's really strong. I would generally like Final Fantasy games to have a notable amount of tech stuff as well, and I don't recall seeing much of that in the trailers for XVI. For comparison, I love the setting of X, my favourite Final Fantasy game by far (I've missed out on many so far, mind you).

I don't know how many of the design choices were based on what Square Enix believes would be good, or perhaps even just sustainable, for the series, but it certainly seems like they need to do better if changing the proven formula (since a decade or so ago, I guess) is what they want. I don't think the old battle system is necessarily good in the long run either, but at the same time, I think Square Enix needs to take steps towards it somehow and make it work. Just for the record, I didn't grow up with ATB and find it a bit dull today (I loved X's twist on it though, because it's similar but different), but I do generally appreciate tactical games, as few of them as might actually fit in my 'schedule'. Anyway, with the current direction Final Fantasy is just going to be another action RPG series with a Final Fantasy setting, akin to what might fit spin-offs.

What was missing from FF16? I cannot quite put my finger on it. Since it's debut trailer even, I thought something is off. And I think I have identified some possible answers. But I am thinking this through while writing, so please bear with me. Spoilers!!!

1) Facial animation. There seems to be a lack of it. I don't get it though, because square did this way better in previous entries. Is it because most cut scenes are in engine instead of cg-movies where they would work more specifically on stuff like that? Is this just what Business Unit 3 can do (and facial animation just happens not to be their strong suit)? (I suppose a lot of the following points could be speculated to exist because of BU3.)

2) Animation in general, but outside of gameplay. Again, I don't get it. Or I think I don't. When Yuna in FFX walked out into the water to perform her first ritual thing, I believed every step. Yet, when Benedicta walked up to somebody in the demo, she looked like a stiff puppet.

3) Dialogue. There are often these weird Kingdom Hearts -esque pauses. Many conversations don't flow right. As if they recorded their lines sparately. And they often don't fit what we see on screen. Like when there is a bunch of people protesting and yelling and being angry. But what we hear are lines from 2 people. One saying aaa, the other saying please. -What? You could not more realistically portray the audio of a scene like that?

4) The music. Soken is a genius and his music is really very good. But how it is used, I am not such a fan of. There are often weird cuts where everything automatically stops, resulting in weird silences. And while undeniably awesome, it sometimes seems not to perfectly fit what is going on on screen. As if certain scenes are not in sync, as if the resolution of a theme or a change in key should have come 3, 4 seconds later or earlier.

5) The writing. It really is not bad. I like them using this different register to make them almost shakesperean. But when they drop that style for certain scenes, it is all the more jarring. And apart from style of speech, the game is sometimes too verbous and still cannot get the point across. I find myself sometimes befuddled by some scenes, not knowing for what that even was and later on finding out what they tried to say but did not.

6) The action. There are some relly cool battles in here. Yet, I find myself somewhat disengaged. I see what is happening on screen and intellectually it registers as awesome stuff. But my heart is not fully in it. It feels more like a recount of what happened than it actually happening. I guess that one does not make much sense.

7) Personality. They should try giving characters some. That is an overstatement. But there is truth to it. I cannot use any words to discribe Jill. Perhaps quiet. Perhaps hounerable. She just is. And how is Clive exactly? Determant? Hounerable as well? He has no flaws. He is not much fun as a protagonist. The actors do what they can, but you cannot act away a missing personaltiy. Teenage Clive talked about some character trait of himself and about his struggle in the past, but that is over. And he is a different person for most of the game. But what sort of person, we may never know. I also have the feeling that what characters do is more of a focus than who they are. Cid is cool though. Not exactly my style, my type, but he has personality. Therefore, I found myself most engaged with the going-ons when Cid has a presence.

8) Atmosphere. This might be the big one. Perhaps that is the key thing bugging me. And it is difficult to determine how and where atmosphere is created. There is a certain flatness to the game though. A certain lack of inspiration when it comes to visual style. The clothes of characters are stylish, don't get me wrong. But everybody is just standing there, like just now placed into the scene with a courser. The camera is also very matter of fact. There is no cool presentation, just "this is what it is". No tension, no drama, no mood, just: these are the characters and this is the room they are standing in. I guess I also mean cinematography. I like FF16 way, way better than FF15, but 15 had style in spades. There was a distinct visual identity to that game. 16 does not look specific, unique. Just bland. Perhaps that is just me and I have seen this medieval euro style one too many times. But FF9 looks so, so good to me. That game has style for two. But both, 9 and 16, are roughly similar in key visual inspiration in setting, being medieval europe. So what gives?

9) Story: felt generic with Clive being the chosen one. Loose story threats hanging around, no explanation for why things were shaking out the way they did - why Ultima for example decides to show up as a brown hooded mysterious figure and then years later the little brother too. And how were they never able to find each other? And there is a lot of time wasted in the game (even in the main quest) for things that feel trivial. There is way too little time spent with some of the bad guys and the big bad is just a generic anime villain evil doer. I felt so detached from the characters and their story, that I hardly cared about anything. I distinctly remember the game ending and me thinking: it might as well.