I love medieval fantasy games & even a good hack and slash game. But Final Fantasy 16 just looks like a weird mix between some very generic looking locations combined with a total overload of particle effects to the point of being detrimental to gameplay clarity & image quality. In many of the preview gameplay clips, the combat looks like a total mess.
No, I’m not “impressed”, nor do I go “wow looks insane get in my veins!!!” when I see a trillion flashing lights & pyrotechnics splattered across the entire screen whilst the payer character just mindlessly hacks and slashes away at some hapless AI.
Show us some world building, characters, how the upgrade system & rpg elements really work nicely in the setting.
This could be the fault of the marketing people who think the flashy stuff sells but for what it’s worth I didn’t enjoy the combat in 7 Remake either.
They going to have Diablo IV ads level to push more sale at this rate. Timed exclusive is only good for the buyer and short term money, but long term, you’ll have to gamble and hope people remember it. The only hope now is people is done with Diablo IV and heck even Street Fighter 6 by the time the game releases.
Kind of laughed at the title to be honest. I don’t know why Square is to focus on “Final Fantasy for first timer.” It’s the same with XV, now even more so with this one.
They are operating like a (badly managed) first party publisher and not like a third party one. Look at Capcom, how they operate in their role and climb from success to even more success.
I’m wondering if SE financials have even improved that much since they got rid of their western studios for a penny who ‘dragged them down’ for years. Yeah, sure buddy.
And its not even FF, look at how they handled Octopath Traveler 1 and 2. Their choices of platforms makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Square is dumb for taking Sony’s money because they’re leaving a lot of money and growth on the table. Releasing the game 6-12 months later on PC isn’t a smart move because an important part about video games sales is the FOMO factor. There is no FOMO if you release a game to a platform at a later date because the game will become “eh I’ll wait for it to go on sale before I buy it” which could end up never happening because a more current game will occupy time.
Also, I know many like to dunk on xbox one sales for FFXV, but many sleep on the fact that it still sold over a million copies on XB1. We also have to look at XB1 install base might’ve been 3:1 to Sony at that point in the gen, which makes it impressive that it did that well on XB1. However, now they’re going to lose momentum they were building on Xbox for Sony moneyhats.
I said this months ago and have been saying it a lot but FF16 will flop. Will it still make some money and have decent numbers?? Eventually But when you look at games like Elden Ring and Hogwarts and the success of FF14 on PC…the decision to not have a PC release day 1 will kill that game.
Im sorry this isnt cod or gta or even a from game. Its a 70 dollar single player only FF game coming out on one platform only. Absolute madness. What was SE thinking.
But it would be great if they are on good terms again, because I’d like to see DQ continue coming to Xbox, but maybe there’s a chance for the Mana games too. If Xbox is interested in getting those.
Not sure if there’s a lot more by them we’ve missed?
I still hope they will become on good terms again, especially with this new CEO now. There is no reason for there to be bad blood, I mean sure it sucks we miss out on FF but it’s all business in the end.
The difference between the Resetera thread and the Installbase thread on this shows why the latter site was formed lol
The era thread has this weird insistence that video games only sell well on PS (without actually being able to explain why pre-orders would be lower lol), people saying “Switch can’t run it and JRPGs don’t sell on Xbox (acting like Final Fantasy is like, Atelier series levels of niche or something) so this is their only option” (conveniently leaving out PC)
Installbase thread calls it out as it is: The exclusivity deal, PS5 software sales in Japan being abysmal and the West not picking up Japan’s extremely low pre-order slack, etc.
I should add, the game looks fine, but it’s just a big budget DMC/Bayonetta looking game, which isn’t actually a huge genre. I honestly remember FFXV having much more hype behind it leading up to release (and FF7R but that’s pretty obvious why).
PS5 only, software on PS dead is Japan, £$70 and a FF that looks absolutely nothing like FF
Sometimes the latter will pay off such as the GoW reboot but maybe westernised/GoT/DMC isn’t what people want out of FF
Regardless, it’s shouldn’t be hard to see the possible reasons why it could be doing worse, I knew as soon as I saw that news it was going to be a massive thread on Reset
I know the article mentions that they’re taking the exclusivity into account, but I wonder if that’s merely in terms of “we would have sold X copies on Xbox/PC” or if it actually takes the broader effects of exclusivity into account.
I mean, this thread is a microcosm of the cumulative chilling effect built up by inconsistent releases and what are essentially slights (no communication, full-price on late ports). Obviously we aren’t representative of the entire gaming demographic, but our discontent with S-E’s approaches lately surely aren’t unique. I imagine PC players have their own grievances as well (higher prices and shoddy ports? I can’t speak for them but that’s the impression I got).
Even putting aside whatever changes were made to the formula since those are subjective, is the marquee “only on PS5” and marketing worth the hit in public perception? Is it worth potentially alienating who knows how many platform-specific players? Those negative feelings build up over time, and however fickle “gamers” are, nobody holds a grudge like them.
For my part, I haven’t enjoyed a mainline Final Fantasy since 4 PlayStations ago so it’s no skin off my nose. It’s hard to resist indulging in the schadenfreude.
Edit: I haven’t paid much attention to FFXVI at all, but what I have heard about and what isn’t subjective is their shitty attitude towards diversity. I’m much less conflicted about pointing and laughing when I remember that.
I’m sure Final Fantasy XVI will do good numbers even if it’s only on PS5. Not great, but obviously the lack of the PC version at launch will be noticed. The main problem will be Square Enix itself, which always has too high expectations of its games.
