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[Rising_Hei]

Great game in some areas while being deeply flawed in most. This is the first Final Fantasy I couldn't finish.

 

[cman]

It's not a mainline enough FF game for me and I am a hardcore FF fan. It's the first mainline FF game I skipped. Good thing FF7 Rebirth did good after the PC version release.

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth had a fantastic Steam launch. Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

bsky.app

 

[Dynasty8]

The sad thing is that Square Enix will probably blame the M rating for the low sales, not realizing the mature tone was one of the best things about the game and that the best selling RPGs are all rated M.

This game is not an RPG. It's a straight up easy, very forgiving, hand holding action game with the most boring fetch quests that lacks any real exploration or depth. It's the biggest middle finger to Final Fantasy fans.

 

[Myths]

Just going to disagree about the fighting system ... since 12 (included) they decided to progressively get away from the turn-based formula that got all their success and since then they have been progressively shittier ... so the pattern is clear for me... dont know what happened but FFX sold about 20 million copies I think .. its not like the game was not a success but they kept fucking with the formula and moving far and far away what made FF great... and never looked back.. even this shitty FF7 remake, that some fans giz all over, god knows why, is their way of saying "naaa our new way is better" .. so honestly? Fuck them.

For me, I’m looking for something between Jobs on the fly + ADB (FFXII). So the option to pause the entire gameplay if you want while also having some type of class/job restriction. If they can combine a Paradigm Shift system with ADB, I’m cool. Like a three-party Lightning Returns with pausing. This means they’re going to have to figure out how to balance command-menu d-pad interfacing with real-time movement. That said, there needs to be depth and not just mindless hacking away whether it’s ATB/Turn-Based/Real-Time. Stagger sucks, it’s stale and draws crap out longer than it needs to be in XVI.

I wouldn’t even give a crap if it were a simple Class Evolve system in real-time where the base class is how you start battles and have to “generate enough Crystal energy or something to evolve it battle” type system. Warrior -> Knight -> Gladiator each unlocking stronger. Whatever. They need to look carefully consider jobs again.

And they need to stop using that New Rodin Pro font. Doesn’t even match the aesthetic, all over the place with the typefaces.

 

[Ozzie666]

The sad thing is that Square Enix will probably blame the M rating for the low sales, not realizing the mature tone was one of the best things about the game and that the best selling RPGs are all rated M.

This game is not an RPG. It's a straight up easy, very forgiving, hand holding action game with the most boring fetch quests that lacks any real exploration or depth. It's the biggest middle finger to Final Fantasy fans.

Should have been a spin off from the main line series unfortunately. Too many FF staples missing from the game. But alot of people defended the game saying the series had to adapat to current gaming landscape. I strong disagree. Of course I rather a 2D effort like FF6 with this mature story and some take on turn based combat. But that's just me.

FF7 remake and rebirth shit all over this.

 

[Oberstein]

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
Well, at least it's good news for SE.

 

[ArtHands]

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
Well, at least it's good news for SE.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster launches first on PC, followed by consoles.
Final Fantasy XVI launches first on PS5, followed by PC.

Just saying.

 

[Three]

So they basically made no PC sales. GOOD. That’s what you get when you make a shit port. Eat it.

What was shit about it? Wasn’t it a relatively competent port? I don't remember hearing anything bad about it.

 

[bbeach123]

I still haven't played this game because my friend told me the weapons only have stats . Even the Ultima weapon just has a stats upgrade .

Wtf ? Even FF15 isnt this shitty .

 

[DenchDeckard]

I mean, we should differentiate "not meeting expectations" from "sales bomb". 3,5M is quite a lot, and FFXVI doesn't look like the kind of game with a budget of 150-200M. I think Square has unrealistic expectations, that's all.

If this is a financial failure, they urgently need to get their shit together

You only have to have endured ff xvi to see it had an insane budget.

 

[Furball]

Mid game .

Not a good action game , not a good RPG , not a good movie game ... everything about it is so mediorce and forgetable , nothing about it standout . it has no identity , it doesnt know what it try to be .

 

[Kokoloko85]

Pretty dumb
No further news doesnt mean it didnt sell more afterwards..

So many games dont get sales update

 

[Ridaxan]

I've enjoyed my time with the game. I haven't finished it yet and I waited for the PC release. And at the time that it released on pc a lot of the excitement around it had already died down. I only bought it on sale a couple of months ago and even so I'm not enamored with it to the point where I "have" to finish it.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Turned based games are pretty damn fun and exciting.

Generic 30fps action games (what would that be, God of War 1 and FFXVI?) are kind of a drag to get through.

 

[Loboxxx]

So we can say that the sales problem has not been because it is a Playstation exclusive, but because the game has failed to reach its audience?

Part of the problem is that a game needs to sell more than 3.5 million to be profitable.

 

[kur07]

Not surprised, that game had some of the most boring combat I've ever seen is a game.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I find this hard to believe. Only 500k copies in two years.... nah... something doesn't add up.

 

[Minsc]

I find this hard to believe. Only 500k copies in two years.... nah... something doesn't add up.

Whether it's true or not, most of the people who choose to believe it will argue that the initial 3M was shipped, and they overshipped. So it went from 2-2.5M sold at launch, to 3.5M in 2 years. So more like 2M + 1.5M 2 years later, not 3M + .5M.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Whether it's true or not, most of the people who choose to believe it will argue that the initial 3M was shipped, and they overshipped. So it went from 2-2.5M sold at launch, to 3.5M in 2 years. So more like 2M + 1.5M 2 years later, not 3M + .5M.

Even if true, that's still an insane drop off in sales for the subsequent 2 years, especially considering the volumes moved in the first few weeks; whether 3 or 2 mln.

I can't think of a game in the past whose sales were so disproportionately front loaded.

 

[howitis3]

This was final fantasy in name only

 

[meech]

Gamepass release when?

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Whether it's true or not, most of the people who choose to believe it will argue that the initial 3M was shipped, and they overshipped. So it went from 2-2.5M sold at launch, to 3.5M in 2 years. So more like 2M + 1.5M 2 years later, not 3M + .5M.

Given the physical/digital split these days, it's unlikely they even sold 500k physical in total.

That level of front-loadedness really isn't that unusual too for an SP only game.

 

[fart town usa]

I literally fell asleep 4-5 times while playing, I finally dropped it around the 70% mark. (Disclaimer: I was trying to cut back on caffeine at the time so that sure didn’t help).

Funniest part for me was one scene where one guy (I think the pretty looking gay guy) was speaking in front of a group and provoking hushed whispers of disbelief in the audience. But you could hear that it was just a couple guys making murmuring noises and not actually saying things. It sounded so fucking dumb it made me laugh out loud, hope I can find it.

This right here encapsulates everything that makes the game such a dud.

Like WTF is this? So many people want to dump on all kinds of games and act like they look no better than PS3 titles. Look at these visuals, and the cinematography. "Welcome... to the Veil"

It's a run down brick building full of 4/10 slags. Am I supposed to be impressed or something? Lol. It's just so dumb.

 

[jwaxeman]

I feel like younger gamers, who you really need as your base, tend to gravitate toward massive multiplayer live service. the core FF audience is probably older and more limited. It’s not a bad game, it’s a pretty fun game. I just don’t think many 20-year-old gamers are here for it, and that’s a problem because there are like 7 entire games that those people play, and they’re all really similar.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Outsold handily by the freakin Pixel Remaster. Yikes! Square needs to figure that shit out

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Outsold handily by the freakin Pixel Remaster. Yikes! Square needs to figure that shit out

Presumably most of the Pixel Remaster sales were on Switch.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Presumably most of the Pixel Remaster sales were on Switch.

I really don’t think that’s it. Lack of multiplatform you could argue affects every game. Such as Zelda not also being on PC or something. But it misses the mark in terms of there clearly being something with the game not being appealing to the vast majority of FF fans. FF games have never had trouble before finding an audience on PlayStation, of all things. The problem is clearly with the game, not some perceived lack of availability.

Also how it would even run on Switch (it wouldn’t). It would be Switch 2.

 

[Spyxos]

I wasn't the biggest fan of this part, but these sales figures don't exactly seem credible.

 

[Fbh]

You could just see the opinions declining. First page was excitement and each subsequent page was a little more negative than the one before as people got further into it.

IIRC Fbh was one of the latecomers and you could just see his optimism fading away lol

Lol yeah I was on vacation traveling when it came out so even though I bought it day 1 it wasn't until a few weeks later that I could start playing it.
It was kinda sad because I liked the demo, and to be honest for the first 6-7 hours I was really enjoying it and wondering why the fuck everyone was complaining so much about it. But as you keep playing the flaws become more and more obvious:

- You star to realize the world is boring and static and there's basically nothing to do or find in it (outside of crafting materials which you don't need). Eventually you realize there's little reason to not just run straight towards the mission waypoint.
- You start to realize there's no interesting loot or builds, just a linear progression of increasingly stronger weapons that all play exactly the same and just do more damage.
- You start to realize there's no interesting builds. There's a few unique abilities but for the most part it's all just a bunch of different looking attacks that ultimately do the same (stagger or damage), you just pick the ones you like because even things like elemental types are irrelevant. Firebombs take damage from fire magic lol
- You realize the sidequests are extremely basic, uninspired and boring. They mostly consist of fetch quests or going to places you've already been to kill the same enemies you've already killed a bunch o times. Almost none of them have an interesting narrative hook either.
- You realize all the "dungeons" are basically just running through hallways from one battle to the next,
- You start to realize it wasn't just the opening tutorial hours that were insanely easy, but the entire game will be like this.
- Eventually you realize the cool cities from the trailers are basically just windows dressing and you'll never go to them (outside of a few linear story missios). The game world is limited to small towns and outposts with nothing to do in them and just a few NPCs walking around. We are even still doing the Ps3 era thing where "the whole town" come together to fight some enemy and it's like 6 npcs lol.
- Eventually even the story, which was what mostly kept me engaged, starts to go to shit after you meet back up with Joshua

The fact you have to choose between 30fps or PS3 era IQ doesn't help either, nor the fact that during the last third of the game the entire world becomes even darker and greyer

 

[Mephisto40]

$60 x 3,500,000 = $210,000,000 - $59,000,000 production costs = $151,000,000 profit = FAILURE

 

[Raven117]

It wasn't a bad game by any stretch. It did, however, fail to deliver on the great opening few hours though. It started off like a mature(ish) game of thrones style...devolving back into the usual Final Fantasy tropes.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

This right here encapsulates everything that makes the game such a dud.

Like WTF is this? So many people want to dump on all kinds of games and act like they look no better than PS3 titles. Look at these visuals, and the cinematography. "Welcome... to the Veil"

It's a run down brick building full of 4/10 slags. Am I supposed to be impressed or something? Lol. It's just so dumb.

Hahahaha god that scene is awful. So cheap and soulless.

Compare that to other FF games, how much care they put into their presentation when introducing new characters and locations.

The way the camera moves around reminds me of toddler YouTube channels like CocoMelon where it’s designed to hypnotize your kids and put them to sleep.

 

[Bernardougf]

I feel like younger gamers, who you really need as your base, tend to gravitate toward massive multiplayer live service. the core FF audience is probably older and more limited. It’s not a bad game, it’s a pretty fun game. I just don’t think many 20-year-old gamers are here for it, and that’s a problem because there are like 7 entire games that those people play, and they’re all really similar.

Nah.. Im right here.... just give me Final Fantasy ... classic hero simple story in a fantasy setting with good turn based combat, stop with the open world bloated shit, stop with full action and definitely stop with fake shit action/turn based... launching anygame they feel like and stamping Final Fantasy on it can only go so far.

Small Studios with much less budget are launching great classic turn based rpgs and making success... Square Enix is lost in its own pride and stupidity

 

[asdasdasdbb]

I really don’t think that’s it.

I was specifically talking about the Pixel Remaster itself and not any comparison to FF16. I kind of get the impression it even sold poorly on every other platform and yet did 5 million in total.

It is true that FF16 would not really be doable on Switch 1.

 

[CosmicComet]

I don't get it honestly.

My fave FF of all time.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

I can't stand the way games are made now. It comes out in this video so clearly.

None of these voice actors was in the same room or responding to each other -- so every line is delivered without context. Awkward silence hangs in the air between their statements as the character models reshuffle their positions or the camera pans for the next bit.

The voices, writing, rigging, animation, environments, etc were all clearly created by different people in a production line, and then assembled. It feels infinitely soulless when you start seeing this everywhere.

If the built-in price of AAAA-level games is that they have to be developed this way by different teams and specialties and voice actors all used like separate tools with no cohesion, then we're better off dropping that level of development for most games and making smaller games, where the scope is small enough for a few visionary developers at the core to drive everything, in a cohesive way that actually holds together.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

It wasn't a very good game to be completely honest. Starts off extremely engaging and has a lot of promise and then falls off a cliff after a couple of hours. There are a couple of really amazing moments but it's surrounded by hours of boring content.

 

[squallheart]

Bought on launch on ps5 still haven't finished. I did enjoy it but the framerate really takes me out. Not sure what square us thinking ff13 was meh, 15 oh what could if been but what a horrible launch .

 

[saintjules]

 

[saintjules]

Bought on launch on ps5 still haven't finished. I did enjoy it but the framerate really takes me out. Not sure what square us thinking ff13 was meh, 15 oh what could if been but what a horrible launch .

Felt the same way and I haven't finished it either.

 

[rofif]

not suprising. the game looked generic . the real ff16 which was the igni plhilopshy demo that looked like a good idea was turned into flop forspoken. square wanted 2 hits instead of 1 and now they got 2 flops .lmao should have ben less greedy and left ff116 as igni philosphy. hopefuly next time around they have a better idea for a ff

Generic? It is anything but. I fail to find other have like this honestly.
Maybe the setting is a bit to got? But generic?

 

[Boneless]

Great game in some areas while being deeply flawed in most. This is the first Final Fantasy I couldn't finish.

Perfectly worded. I put in 20 hours and decided to stop playing.