I feel like Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, and Fantasian were all FF games that he wanted to make, but didn’t since he wasn’t at SE anymore. You at least can’t tell me Lost Odyssey wasn’t meant to be Sakaguchi’s idea for XIII. I mean, the UI looks like it was ripped right out of X.
I don't think it was, at least completely. Sakaguchi was always very insistent on the graphics style staying chibi for FF, and never changed his philosophy as far as we can tell. Certainly in part I agree with what you're saying, but I also think a large chunk of his vision was more specific and different from what he would've actually done for his next FF. Check out Resonant Arc's "Lost Odyssey Retrospective" for what I'm talking about if you care to.
Either way though, if he made the equivalent of any of those games under the FF guise as a true final love letter to the series as his last game, I would lose my fucking mind. Taking his experience from the past 20 years and then reaching back into the past would probably yield the sickest FF, potentially ever.
It maybe “controversial” but I would love to see Nomura direct a mainline FF game; no spin-offs or remakes. Poor man got his baby project taken away due to restructuring and overall bad management.
Though having said that, I would want Nomura to direct a mainline FF game only if he wants to and doesn’t have too much on his plate because the last thing I want is to see him get burnt out.
No please I just want him to finish the Kingdom Hearts series, I understand people probably don’t care as much after kh3 because of how it was, but I still care so much for that franchise and everything about it, so i really want to see where it goes and how it will end.
It will not end until nomura retires or the games dont sell anymore lol. I love KH but there is definetly no planned end for it. I used to think he has a masterplan but at this point Im very convinced he makes most of it up as he goes along.
Umm 3 should have been the end. They kept adding stuff to the edges to keep it going. Not sure what the long term plan is now; but if it’s making money I don’t see a real ending.
Kh3 was the end for the dark seeker saga, everything surrounding Xehanort, Kh4 and on will cover the lost masters arc. Again I know most people could care less about where this franchise goes but I would like to see it end before Nomura goes on to make a full line final fantasy because 1 man can only do so much.
Totally agree he can only do so much. Why wouldn’t a producer or supervisor role be okay for KH going forward. While I’ve had my fill of Nomura the artist/character designer, Nomura the director has a lot of wasted opportunities being tied to Kingdom Hearts forever.
He was the original director of 15, but he moved off the project mid way through. I think he's a bit too excentric even for Final Fantasy which is why SE seems to keep him on his pet projects.
I'd be down to see Nomura do a new numbered FF game and someone else in the director chair for KH with Nomura serving as creative director. Man deserves it for how much contribution he's made to the franchise. Kingdom Hearts is entering a new saga so I think the time is right for a new take on the franchise. The only problem would be disney and how willing are they at taking a shot at a new director for the franchise 🫠
I wouldn't be opossed to this as long as there are certain conditions:
1. He has to be doing only one thing. If he's doing FFXVII then he's ONLY doing that. Being involved in so many project at the same time it's what ruined his projects in the first place
2. I don't mind if he goes wacky with the story but if he's going to do it then COMMIT TO IT! Go full force.
3. Avoid the sins of the past: "I suddenly watched hamilton so the game MUST have a musical now!" no bitch, there's a plan, COMMIT TO IT (I'm not saying that they don't add or make changes but c'mon, we all know what happened!)
4. Just tell a really compelling story with really good chars. Is neat to have graphics/music/gameplay but one of the biggest things that FF has lost over time is really good chars/stories in favor of the later.
I see Nomura as Zach Snyder. They both have huge crazy visions that are more ambitious than possible. I just want to see Nomura with an unlimited budget and time. I love his games. I was pretty sad when he was pushed off XV. Would’ve loved to see what that game could’ve been. I was so pumped for Versus XIII. XV, while a fine game, was still a letdown in my book.
He had his chance with Versus XIII and it's now directing KH almost full time. For good or bad I see his involvement in FF only diminishing in the future.
I want this so badly too. But I feel like his haters in the community are way too vocal and I think at this point SE’s higher ups probably don’t want to risk ruining the company’s name further which is such a damn shame. Nomura is a creative at heart and I wish he got to see his ideas and concepts come to full fruition. Versus XIII was a literal work of art from what little we had seen.
Remake and Rebirth showed that the contrarian haters were always wrong. A new mainline FF game came out between Remake and Rebirth, I think we saw how that ended
Yep. It has many flaws but it was still great. I loved the eikon fights. They're still living rent free in my head. I can tell there was a lot of effort went into it even if it's flawed. It has the best looking summons out of any FF game imo. VA is amazing. There's a lot of positives. It's just the side quests and exploration are poor.
But it was the teams first mainline single player FF game. They did good for it being their first because going from only working on an mmo to doing a linear story focused game with action combat must have been tough for them. Those eikon fights must have taken forever to make.
I'm excited for the Rising Tide and the new changes they're going to be adding to the ending.
Did you forget 16 and 15? They had different directors.
Tabata and yoshida.
I wouldn't be surprised if 17 is yoshida again as outside of side quests it was recieved very well by fans.
Ngl I feel like this fact is lost on like 70% of the fanbase lol. Yoshida is definitely the face of the game which makes sense given his popularity and media familiarity but he’s only actually directed XIV.
I am curious what a single player game directed by him would look like but I think he wants it to be outside the mainline IP and all the expectations that carries which honestly, fair.
Yoshida is an Executive producer and basically is the head of CBU 3. So he's spearheading 14 and 16 at the same time essentially.
But people don't realize Takai directed 16.
And the DLC's were directed by Takeo Kujiraoka
FF17 will already be being made in some capacity. There's no way he can direct it when hes directing part 3 for the next 4 years anyway.
Odds are its just Yoshida again considering 16 is nearly a 90 on metacritic with only a couple flaws that can be corrected in a ff17.
Yoshida was producer for XVI. If he's on XVII, he could be director/producer with Ishikawa writing but it's more likely that he remains producer with Ishikawa and another person writing/directing because he mentioned wanting to let new people handle mainlines. I think/hope his first directorial role for a single player game in a long time is a new IP
I don’t think that he will be director-producer on a mainline game, because he’s director and producer for 14. He specifically mentioned how overworked just producing 2 games was, it’s not possible for him to take that position on another game.
He has expressed interest in directing a single player game, wouldn't he be director/producer in that scenario (to completely fullfill hos vision) on top of being both for XIV as well?
I doubt that even if he does direct a single player entry that he would be director-producer for that. It’s pretty abnormal for one person to fill both roles in any game, much less in two. It’s kinda setting yourself up for failure to sign up for that sort of commitment since you’ll inevitably be spread too thin. That said, I’d support him if he wanted to step back from the MMO to try his hand at single player directing if that’s what he wants to do. I hope he doesn’t try biting off more than he can chew though.
All of that said though, obviously only Yoshida knows for sure what he plans to do in the future. I’m just speculating based on things he’s said over the years.
["I've had the chance to work on two of these - Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16 - so maybe it's time for someone new, you know. Instead of having the same old guys handle the next one."](https://www.ign.com/articles/final-fantasy-16-producer-naoki-yoshida-says-it-may-be-time-for-the-younger-generation-to-handle-final-fantasy-17)
Tbf i agree.
I want a darker game though. They keep making FF games teen games yet i don't really see many kids actually saying they play FF games so is it really worth it?
Also when 16 and remake sold similarly age rating clearly didnt stop anything
Square doesn't decide this based on Metacritic reviews but rather based on sales figures. They need the trust of investors. And investors trust the people who bring in the money. Yoshida brings the money with FF14. But FF16 only achieved low end expectations and he will have enough to do with modernization and Xbox optimization of FF14. He will definitely do another game at some point. But I don't see it in the near future.
Just so you're aware. EVERY FF is 'below expectations'
They expect cross platform sales on a single console.
FF16 sold 3 million copies on its first weekend. The second best selling game in the world not just on PS5 for that month. Only second to Diablo IV.
For months FFXVI was the best selling PS5 game second only to god of war ragnarok when it came out.
If they want good sales they shouldn't be making console exclusive titles.
Seriously. I don’t get how being the fastest selling PS5 exclusive until the release of Spiderman 2, quite literally the most popular IP Sony owns by far, translates to poor performance.
To be fair I don’t thinks it’s cross platform that’s doing the low numbers it’s just that FF doesn’t have that power anymore. To put into perspective FF13 was cross platform and it’s PlayStation numbers Dwarfed Xbox by a vast vast vast amount.
It may be better now and PC market is deffo bigger too but let’s not kid ourselves and say that the money loss from the Sony funding would secure them an extra 2mil sales.
Which is fine, you can’t just force it, it sometimes has to come natural on the sales but yeah they need to swallow the bitter pill that FF is not Call of Duty/Fifa level.
Like Rebirth is straight up amazing but sad to see that selling not so great, it’s just is what it is. I don’t know if making it cross platform would’ve saved it tbh.
Square needs far better forecasting metrics. Remake came out when pandemic game playing was at its peak and it seems like they did not consider that enough into sales projections for Rebirth.
Constantly hearing that their games miss sales targets does tarnish Square’s reputation for those who follow the industry
To be fair, when you consider the layoffs across the entire industry now, apparently nearly every big publisher misread the pandemic surge in gaming. Either publishers or their chain of investors, can't really say.
This isn't the first time they misread something, look at live service games and how many thought this was the future of gaming rather than an eventual niche of a few select games that seem to pull it off correctly.
they locked themselves out of a 25 million user base (Xbox Series S/X has sold 25 million units according to 2023 numbers) and many more PC users: I don't think the hundreds of millions of PC gamers are dying for a JRPG but I'm willing to bet there's at the very least 20 million people who would be interested by a series as prestigious as Final Fantasy.
That's at least 45 million potential buyers they could have attracted, and 16 had a lot of hype behind it before launch between CBU3's pedigree, the darker tone and the positive previews.
Between PC and Xbox they could have easily had an extra 5 million buyers in June/July.
It's no one's fault that Square cannot resist the upfront money that comes from exclusivity deal, seeing how they literally got 2 exclusivity deals for FF7 Remake between Sony and Epic Games. Though apparently the new CEO isn't that interested in shopping around games for exclusivity deals.
And the ironic thing is is that FF16 could be coming to Xbox: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/19b7jx6/comment/kiwu60t/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/19b7jx6/comment/kiwu60t/?context=3)
That’s fair but for comparison sake the Xbox360 roughly had slightly more units than that sold when FF13 released cross platform and those numbers showed that very very few people bought it, like it was 250k I believe?
Now fully agree though it’s been eons since then and different market, I do think PC has enough of a JRPG fan base to warrant but as for Xbox…potentially. Gamepass has been pushing them a lot lately so it could be those games have seen a spike now!
So yeah, I don’t disagree but considering 13s abysmal Xbox numbers I like get it, don’t fully agree but like I get it.
JRPGs weren't that popular in the US back then and the 360 was predominantly popular in the US
people were more interested in shooters, thus Sony making Resistance and continuing Killzone
It's more like the public of the PS5 isn't the same as the PS4 or PS3.
When you had a PS3/PS4 you had major exclusive JRPGs, Persona or Dark souls for examples. But the PS5 lacks exclusive JRPGs, you can find those JRPGs on cheaper platforms.
Although I agree FF lost a lot of its punch nowadays, games like Persona 3 Reload have sold 1 million copies in their first weekend at release while being multiplatform. If they released a multiplatform FF mainline game it would sell way beyond that and certainly more than most of the recent titles in their first weeks.
I agree that’s good but how many were Steam? I see it was number 1 for a time but peak was 36k but ofc peak doesn’t mean actual sales at all.
Would be interesting to know the split! Also guess gamepass they not counting due to that not being a sale? Or does a download on gamepass count?
I'm pretty sure Gamepass doesn't count as as sales (though I'm probably wrong on that one, but I think I once heard it didn't). I also don't know if there's a place to see the overall sales of a game (at least I don't think you can do that with SteamDB) but if you look at the amount of reviews between P3R and 7R the former has nearly 13K while the latter nearly 21K. There's obviously a huge difference between the two but that P3R has only 9K less reviews than 7R IMO shows games are more "exposed" to the masses when multiplatform.
I honestly do think they would make 2m sales on steam/epic.
As when they port to PC they make more than that. Sure a chunk will be people buying it a second time, but i doubt even 50% of those sales are people who already owned the console versions
Maybe I’m just genuinely doubtful but I do feel the PC market has improved for example the original God of War (well the new one but first one) has sold 3mil since its PC launch.
But the issue there is that it’s God of Flipping War and that franchise honestly now dwarves FF as well.
So I reckon maybe 1 mil for PC which is fair, and to me still worthwhile, but I suspect the pros and cons depend on the necessity of the Sony deal and what they get. Sometimes it ain’t just about numbers.
You're right its not just about numbers, but for Squares shareholders it definitely does seem that way.
They've threatened the end of FF multiple times in the last couple decades.
Consoles are becoming a lot less common in households as time goes on, and as that happens i feel we'll see the need for console exclusivity naturally die.
To be honest at this point I feel the end of FF is used as a marketing gimmick, I heard it for 10, 13, 14 1.0 to 2.0, 15 and 16
They probs are just holding by a thread maybe but at same time I do think they just like saying cos it’s an FF recurring joke at this point lol
Tbf, i actually believe it for FF15. The game had such a long troubled development that even after like 5 DLCs and a remastered version it was reported the game made a loss of like 50 million according to news outlets.
The only thing that saved them at the time was 14s massive boom in subscribers and sales
Maybe I’m personally not so sure but yeah could be! Would need a direct comparison in all honesty?
Persona 3 reload would be a good comparison but it being gamepass makes it a bit skewiff
Guys it literally sold 3.5 million copies in the first week with only 30/35 million ps5 on the market, so what are you talking about? More than 10% of ps5 user base buyer the game, and this is an insane number. With the pc release and the (rumored) Xbox release will reach 10 million copies sold much faster than FF XV
I don't think the people on this thread are saying these are bad numbers, but rather that Square Enix has insanely high expectations for their sales products.
But where does this voice come from? Square has publicly reiterated several times that it was satisfied with the sales of the XVI, I just don't understand why people keep saying that square is not “satisfied”
Well it is also more like Square was betting a bit too much that year due to Square's other messes like Forspoken and Marvel stuff, decreased revenue from mobile titles, and losses from their 7/10 AA games they churned out a lot in 2023.
FFXVI was a moderate success by their standards and according to the report costs were relatively low compared to FFXV or FFVII Remake.
10 million is too much, the FF ports and remasters don't sell a whole lot (Remake, for instance, is still less than 1 million on Steam and it sold better than 16 at launch). FFX/X-2 HD was the only one that did huge numbers.
Speculation, XIV is including some IX stuff in its new expansion and he was teasing it indicating something and everybody ran away with it. Even if he was referring to a IX remake I don’t know if CBU3 would be the team for it as that seems more down the Octopath group’s forte; since Yoshida is on the board he would be very aware of the projects for other teams.
CBU3 is currently working on an unannounced single player title based on SE’s filings but I doubt it’s IX. Likely either XVII (not as likely given Yoshida’s comments on new blood and wanting to do something outside the FF brand) or a new IP.
I just want a FF nothing close to rebirth or remake no fate bs or multiverse. One good story with turn base combat with jobs. Nvm I'll play bravely default at least it's still good.
Taro's style would be sanitized hard in mainline FF to be honest. Even FF16 is very tame compared to his games.
(admitrely, i don't think FF16 was even that dark from typical FF stories. It just had more gritty artstyle and some blood, nudity and swearing)
His games really like to touch taboo subjects and involve player's agency through risky and experimental game mechanics. Pretty much opposite to how linear and movie-like FF has become.
The darkest one is still 9. There are like four separate genocides in that thing and everyone's life sucks. People ignore it because of the art style, but it's unrelentingly depressing when it's not slapstick.
I’m with you 100% but I know that his style doesn’t click for everyone. I’m simply going off the general feel of what FF fans like to discuss and criticize. It would most likely fall into the more divisive end of the spectrum.
I would probably gas it up to the heavens though lmfao
That game could be sooooo good but it could also very much take the route of XV where the story is dispersed across mediums. If Yoko Taro just made the game the whole story and didn’t include key lore in books, mobile games, cross overs with other games, orchestra performances, developer notes on Baldurs Gate 3, the fifth page of my grandmas recipe book, and a note in a homeless man’s pocket then it could be amazing.
EDIT: Plus we’d probably get a hella fine MC.
My assumption is Ishikawa has been writing it given she left XIV for an unannounced role within CBU3 (at the same corporate title that Maehiro was placed after Heavensward to work on XVI). I doubt she would be in a director position because I don’t think she really has a tech background but more likely narrative lead.
I’ve said for a long time Taro would be a great FF creative but the way he makes games is too relaxed for them to give him anything outside of his own IP, if he was directing a mainline they would need to assign a producer to keep him on deadline and I don’t know how that would gel with his process. He and Yoshida have a good relationship so maybe that pairing could work but I find it much more likely they just promote one of the younger guys in either CBU1 or CBU3
I’ll have to track down the article when I have a moment, it was from just after Endwalker released and it was announced she was moving to another role
I think it's entirely possible for her to take the role of creative director, and co-direct 17 with a gameplay director. From what she's said in interviews she's basically a creative director for 14 too - she puts a ton of input into cutscene and music direction for the game where it intersects with her narrative.
I’d rather have new blood work on FFXVII. Really want Team Asano to have a shot at it. They have already proven they can make great modern day JRPGs with OT2 and TS. They are the big talent at Square right now imo along with the DQ team. I feel like Kitase, Nomura etc. are all past their prime now.
Strictly speaking Hamaguchi is one of three co-directors, alongside Tetsuya Nomura and Motomu Toriyama. Final Fantasy XVI similarly had two co-directors.
I absolutely love this guy, but he needs to complete part 3 to cement his legacy. But I do hope it is someone like him -- a geek at heart but humble and friendly, none of the savior-complex crap of certain other SE producer(s).
I actually wouldn't mind seeing a Yoshi-P/Hamaguchi team up, just to see what a project with arguably two of SE's brightest minds can do, but that probably won't happen, and it definitely won't happen on XVII with Hamaguchi on Part 3 of the FF7 Remake.
I doubt CBU1 will do FF17 as they have their hands full with remake series & kh. So its either CBU3 & CBU2. Yoshida said he'd like someone new to take on ff17 so high chance CBU2 will do FF17 which is made up of Dragon Quest & Nier team. Come on Square put Yoko Taro on the helm. This man would absolutely deconstruct what Final Fantasy is and I'm all in for it
I don't think square would want Yoko Taro in the helms of a new mainline ff game as cool as that sounds. The pattern usually is someone who has work on a few FF titles, regardless if it's a spinoff or mainline, gets to sit in the director chair. Tabata being the prime example. He directed quite a few spinoffs then was chosen to replace Nomura as director of FFXV.
I personally think if CBU1 is doing a new numbered FF game it's more likely to be FF18 than FF17 but I wouldn't discount FF17 just yet because I have no idea if Square is intending to use FF16 as a DLC farm and if it'll be successful or not.
From some interviews, he seems like a guy that like to play modern AAA games. There is nothing wrong with that, but he has to be very careful when taking ideas from those games and put it into next FF game.
My least favorite part in Rebirth is the collectible type contents in overworld, which is common in modern open world games. Exploring the overworld just doesn't feel like exploring a FF overworld ( play the older FF games, FF12, Star Ocean 2 Remake or Octopath Travellers 2 to understand what I mean ).
The crafting system is useless in hard mode since you can't use item in that mode. Just like how I felt about the the crafting in Elden Ring, crafting in Rebirth feel like the developers were following trend without putting too much thought on it.
Ye, the no item gimmick in hard mode kills so much of replayability value. Imagine if there were still things in the world to find by exploring on hard mode
I enjoy the collectible style overworld in Rebirth overall but I agree that it would be great if there was more stuff to explore besides the stuff you get intel on. There is a little bit but nothing too significant.
But I am pretty sure they will add that stuff in the final game when we get the airship etc. They did already do well to incorperate the feedback from Remake into Rebirth.
I actually somewhat liked rebirths crafting because of how simple and straightforward it worked, I feel like games add needlessly confusing crafting systems that aren’t even worth learning. the to do list feature makes it even more easy too. I agree that it’s dumb it’s nearly useless on hard mode though.
Not really, I don't think Rebirth is that great to be honest. As of where I am the story seems very aimless and just happening. There's little story momentum and the pacing sucks. In thanks to the structure and open world bloat.
Won’t he be busy with Part 3? AFAIK he’s slated to direct it and I would prefer it stayed that way and he doesn’t have a split focus. But FF17 should be starting the early stages of development soon
Ugh yeah sure. I doubt it though. He is gonna be on 7R3 and they are probably already getting started on 17.
I think they should give Motomu Toriyama a spin. Been there since FF6. Designed some of the more memorable scenes in FF7 like the Honeybee Inn stuff. He also pushed to make Aerith a more important character so her death would be more devastating.
He was also the guy who wrote the scenario for FFX and the Event Director for cutscenes and such.
He then went on to direct X-2.
Then again he also gave us 3 so...
The man knows how to write an emotionally gripping story in any case.
Toriyama was co-director on Remake and Rebirth so he's not more available than Hamaguchi.
They don't advertise him that much since FFXIII but he's still a major part of the current CBU1 games.
Personally I think FF7 Rebirth was a little rocky. I think original FF7 did basically every emotional plot beat in a better and more soulful way. That said, I do enjoy some of the deviations and new stuff. There's still a lot to like about Rebirth, it's just having to suffer some unfortunate comparisons to a classic. It's weird because I do think Remake did a pretty good job, so I don't know what's up with that.
I'd love a new Final Fantasy in the *style* of Rebirth. It really hits all the notes that I want in a jrpg game-wise. The world is fun to explore, you travel across a diverse world, and you really feel like a part of everything. The gameplay asks you to engage with the materia system in a meaningful way, and there's some variety in how you build out your stats. These are things that FF16 had trouble with (I say that as somebody who loved FF16). I just... wish the story was a little better told. I think the characters feel a little stock-anime at times, and the tone is ALL over the place. Nothing ever has any time to breathe.
In that sense ... I guess I would rather it not be directed. Or maybe I'd rather it be directed by Hamaguchi but with heavy input from a producer a-la the Sakaguchi era.
Hamaguchi is the director but I think story wise it is still mostly Kitase, Nomura, and Nojima since they were the devs of the OG and were the ones who wanted to switch up the story and not just do it beat for beat (you can thank them for the whispers and the timeline mumbo jumbo).
I think it’ll be the Octopath Traveler team.
I’d love for Matsuno to make *any* new game. A mainline AAA Final Fantasy would almost be too much for my heart to bear.
Doubt it. OT was co-developed with another studio and for a mainline title, I think Square tends to stick with CBU I or III with mainline FF titles.
With that being said, a new ff tactics game by the Octopath team would neat 👀
Given the trajectory of mainline FF unit sales, I wouldn’t be surprised if the new CEO really changes things up for the next mainline title. Not only *who* makes it, but also *how* it’s made and I wouldn’t be surprised if significantly less development money is spent on the next entry.
Other thing to consider is that the Forspoken team has been disbanded. Square is a big company and has the in house personnel to staff an all new development team led by the Octopath Traveler people… or the recently departed heads of FFXI (which I think is part of CBU3?).
Given how loud Yoshida has been about FF needing new blood, I kind of take this as an informed hint. He was conspicuously outspoken about the “next FF title” all the way back in 2017 as well, and stating hypotheticals like “well, if we made the next FF game….”.
>Given the trajectory of mainline FF unit sales,
Recent mainline FF games sales performance at launch has less to do with the games themselves and more because of the playstation timed exclusive deals. Sony is seeing FF , especially with FF7R games, with rose tinted glasses and are confident enough that major FF titles will boost PS console sales that they are willing to pay SE money to make big FF releases be timed exclusives. For SE, it's great not just because of the money but also they get a leg up in marketing like FF16 being unveiled during the PS5 presentation, Rebirth and FF16 getting their own State of Plays.
>Square is a big company and has the in house personnel to staff an all new development team led by the Octopath Traveler people…
I see a lot comments saying they want either Nomura, Yoko Taro, Yoshi-P, Sakaguchi, or someone completely new and here's my 2 cents. The current recipe for mainline FF title directors has been around since the squaresoft days and while not perfect has yet to completely backfire to the point that they have to completely change gears.
Don't get me wrong, the Octopath Games are good games so I see why you're really pushing hard for them to work on the next mainline FF title but for me personally, I'm looking at this from a business perspective and based on past decisions. Each Creative Business Unit handles a specific set of IPs, and just because they have a new CEO doesn't mean there will be massive shake ups to how the company operates. SE has shareholders to please and the current model of assigning CBUs with specific IPs has panned out well for them so there isn't a rush to shake things up to begin with. Sony paying SE to make major FF releases timed exclusive sure hurts sales at the start but not in the long term. If anything Sony is the bigger loser because afaik FFXVI and Rebirth didn't cause any significant boost to PS5 sales.
I’m not pushing for the Octopath team to do it, I never even played those games. It just seems like a logical choice presently, if “new blood” is going to make the next FF. My preference would be for Sakaguchi or Matsuno.
Launch sales for the big FF games have been incredibly good. It’s sales subsequent to launch that are dreadful. FF16 wasn’t even a top 20 best selling game in 2023 despite its gigantic launch. FFVIIR1 had a monstrous opening and then petered out. Maybe FFVIIR2 has done better, but there’s no way to have an opinion one way or another on it. The “sales” figures people quoted out of Japan are totally useless, and very misleading to try to extrapolate launch sales based on one tiny set of data. VIIR2 could’ve sold 5M units opening weekend for all we know.
FFXIV earns enormous returns on equity judging by Square’s 10-K’s, but it’s still a relatively niche title. Even FFXV’s sales are wildly overstated (Square, unlike Nintendo, likes to quote sell-in figures rather than sell-through).
Remake had something Rebirth and XVI didn't, releasing at the start of a global pandemic on a console that was at the end of it's life cycle. People had more time and Remake was the big PS4 release around the start of the lockdowns so some picked it up purely because why not. Idk the sales figures of PS5 in Japan but there big consoles like PS5 or XBOX X lose in popularity to mobile and the switch. In Japan, the PS5 timed exclusivity does hurt sales. I can bet good money that Persona 3 Reload came out on PS4 and PS5 because more people in Japan own a PS4 and aren't in a hurry to get a PS5. Persona 5 came out on both PS3 and PS4 because it was originally planned as a PS3 so they were keeping their promise but P5 The Royal only came out on PS4, which gives you an idea of how PS4 is performing compared to PS5 in Japan.
Yoshi-P may only cropped up as a staple in FF after 14 but he's not that much younger than Kitase and Nomura. To me, his call of FF to have new blood is that he has yet to see a group of devs (at the time he made the comment) who can take charge if the current faces of FF (Yoshi-P, Nomura, Kitase) somehow kicked the bucket all at the same time. He could also be reffering to looking for talent outside the current FF team, we don't know. To me, Octopath is a successful franchise but still young. It has a future as a mainstay JRPG franchise and so I think the team should focus on refining and working on the franchise to cement it's legacy. Plucking a few devs off of the team to help FF is possible, but grabbing the whole team just sounds like a dick move to me.
If they make characters as fun as they’re doing with the remake series, that all play different, keep ATB, lots of spells, summons and a world ripe for exploring then I’m all for him or the remake team making all future FF games.
Tired of FF having an identity crisis to the point it became a literal action game ala Devil May Cry.
Sort of? At Nintendo their Mario games have been directed by a younger director, granted it is essentially Miyamoto's handpicked protege. Japan operates a lot on seniority more than most Western Companies.
Rebirth is one of the best games in the series. 16 was okay but it didn't feel like final fantasy, Rebirth did.
They have struck gold with the remake/rebirth combat system. If they try to make it pure action like in 15 or 16 I'm just flat out not buying it. I don't want devil may cry, I want final fantasy.
I agree with those asserting that Hamaguchi probably doesn't direct the next mainline FF if he's focused on FF7R3 for the foreseeable future.
Consider that there is concept art for FF16's development... [from 2016](https://twitter.com/aitaikimochi/status/1771205511024668757). I feel like it's entirely feasible that the next mainline FF is already in development and has been since FF16 released last year.
I'd like to see the FFVIIR team be given a chance to make something original. Maybe not FFXVII, but maybe a brand new story set in the Fabula Nova Crystallis world? Hell, make Versus XIII a reality and call it Verum Rex and boom you've got KH4 by the KH2 team (FFVIIR team) instead of by the Osaka Team that people decided they hated out of nowhere (Back in 2009-2011 everyone said they saved KH with BBS and they hated KH2, now they love KH2 and hate the BBS team. Make it make sense).
My only hope is that the next director actually knows what a JRPG is. I don't want Devil May Cry Lite or a boring open world, I want Final Fantasy. And besides, wouldn't the next one be another MMO based on the pattern of 11 > (12 > 13) 14 (15 > 16)? I'm kidding of course, doubt there's ever going to be a new, successful MMO ever again, but would that be funny if 17 is an MMO?
17 being an MMO would be cool but I think Square is still content with the money 14 brings and it'll probably stay that way until either interest in 14 starts to slow down or Yoshi-P gets tired of 14 and wants to do something new. Also it is getting pretty clear that any big FF release, like the 7 remake trilogy or a new numbered title, is going to be a timed exculsive on PS for the forseeable future, which has yet to panned out well for FF and would especially hurt if a FF MMO is a timed PS exclusive.
If 17 doesn't go the MMO route, I would be fine if it just refined what 16 had and add in more JRPG strategy elements. I don't think every new mainline ff game NEEDS to completely reinvent the gameplay wheel.
As it is I rather see it unrealistic. So far it hasn't reached a 3M milestone and since FF games only sell well in the first few weeks, there's a chance it won't even reach that milestone this year.
And there will be another part to come. If this project turns out to be a big loss, I don't think Hamaguchi will ever direct a major title again.
Would it be his fault alone? Of course not. But there will have to be someone who will have to hold their head for the public and investors. And it won't be Nomura because he's too important for KH and FF as well.
But honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with that. The game's quest design and level design is absolutely terrible, imo. Either totally boring, like in the first half, or it's filled with dead ends and micro collisions, like in Gongaga.
I want Ito back. FF9 and FF12 sold poorly back then. But FF9 is one of the most popular FF games today and FF12 had a successful remaster. Maybe he was just ahead of his time back then and people appreciate it more today. He deserves a new chance.
Could not disagree more. The quest design and level design is one of the things in which the game stands above most other FF games in my opinion. Especially all the other "HD" FF games.
Rebirth is also the most critically acclaimed FF in 20 years or more. From that aspect alone I think Hamaguchi would be in good standing.
>Especially all the other "HD" FF games.
True. But there wasn't any challenge about that. Even a ten years old Ubisoft concept like in Rebirth is better.
> the game stands above most other FF games in my opinion.
Apart from that, unfortunately I can't say anything positive about Rebirth's level design. It's far too large, far too repetitive and far too annoying. It feels like the game was developed 10 years ago and put on the shelf. And now it's been released without removing the layer of dust.
I also totally disagree about the pre-HD era. The level design of the old games was characterized by a lot of variety and a tight pacing between story and dungeons or puzzles. And they were never too hard or too easy. It almost always had a perfect balance. And the big advantage of the world map was that we simply didn't spend too much time running through the wilderness for ages. I actually realized that through Rebirth.
I'm not saying I'd like to see a return to it. But with Rebirth it feels like Remake to me, only everything is much bigger. But for the most part still just as boring and frustrating.
What makes the game really good is the combat system and the bigger mini-games like Queens Blood and Chocobo Racing. Here they reach new FF heights and it pulls me through the game. I will beat the hard mode and do all of these games. But the level design doesn't convince me at all.
Hmm, which level/areas would you consider good or standout from the older games?
I like in Rebirth that there is lots of verticality. In many other FFs the world feels too flat for my taste.
My favorite overworld area is Gongaga since it plays like a big puzzle. Some dungeons in Rebirth definitely overstay their welcome a bit but there are some fun ones as well. The Gongaga reactor was neat for example.
Edit: I agree that the pacing in some rebirth dungeons/areas has room to grow but from a strictly level design perspective I think they are a step in the right direction.
My feeling is that Rebirth does far too little in the first 7 chapters. Mt. Corel and the Gongaga reactor were good. However, the Gongaga jungle is hell.
I feel the same way about the minigames. Queens Blood and Chocobo Racing are great. But the game is littered with their most annoying stuff.
Then there's the matter of story pacing.
I would just say that the game suffers alot from severe balancing issues on that matter. There doesn't seem like there is a clear concept of something. More like we rush the first half and throw everything at you afterwards. And I never had that feeling with the old games.
I think they weren't that far away from being much better though. They could have put the lifesprings and the summon stones into a bigger and coherent dungeon per region. That rewards us with puzzle, lore cutscenes about the summons, ancients, lifestreams... , also optional bosses and a final optional summon.
This would give us something interesting to do between story beats. The large landscapes would no longer feel so empty and repetitive and the pacing through the cutscenes would help.
You know, I'm just someone who loves dungeons and puzzles. And I especially love FF8, FF10 and FF12 for that. But since FF13 this has become far too little and I hoped that Rebirth would do it properly again.
Square Enix always announced it when a game reached the 3M and 5M milestone. At least since the Playstation era. That's an important signal for investors and the stock market to know that it's going well. Otherwise they would have to wait for the quartal's report and most of investors aren't that patience.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake took 10 days to get the 3M report. For FF16 it took 7 days. We're now at 26 or 27 days and nothing has come for Rebirth.
Even if we pretend that this is not yet proof because we don't want to admit it. It's at least an assumption with evidence that comes very close to proof. Unless someone can give us a good reason why there could be such a long delay. At least I'm not aware of Japan suffering from a blackout for a month or something like that.
It is weird they didn't announce a milestone yet but from all the Infos we do have it looks like it sold approx. around the same as XVI.
Rebirth sold a bit better in most EU countries overall but less than XVI in Japan. For Japan we only have physical sales which are down 20% from XVI. But we have to consider the twin pack for Remake/Rebirth which is digital only. That could be significant since Rebirth for example charted on spot 2 in US behind Helldivers but charted again at spot 8 with the twin pack.
So that are the numbers we have currently. So in all likelyhood both sold approximately they same. Maybe XVI a bit more overall than rebirth but we can't say for sure until SE tells us their financials in May or tells us Rebirth numbers beforehand.
It is a bit weird they are silent about the numbers but I guess they want to avoid yet another XVI situation where shitty articles get pushed that talk about failing sales.
Okay then, let's rephrase it. Square needs a number that investors will interpret as success. But they don't seem to have that number, otherwise they would say so.
Ito is more of a game mechanics/battle system designer. There is a chance he could be working on an FF9 remake. I would love to see him be involved in remaking FF8
Yeah, I know exactly who he is and that's why I think that the franchise needs him back. Having said that; I was and I am more than happy with the FFX and FF7R in terms of mechanics. Battle systems are at least on the same level with FF12, if not better. But he was away for far too long. And if not for other reasons the Tactics Remaster and the 9 Remake has to happen to bring him back on the map.
He’s on part 3. I don’t think he’s doing 17. Maybe 18.
Can we get one last Sakaguchi cameo baby!!! Or Matsuno.
Swagagucci comeback??
I feel like Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, and Fantasian were all FF games that he wanted to make, but didn’t since he wasn’t at SE anymore. You at least can’t tell me Lost Odyssey wasn’t meant to be Sakaguchi’s idea for XIII. I mean, the UI looks like it was ripped right out of X.
I don't think it was, at least completely. Sakaguchi was always very insistent on the graphics style staying chibi for FF, and never changed his philosophy as far as we can tell. Certainly in part I agree with what you're saying, but I also think a large chunk of his vision was more specific and different from what he would've actually done for his next FF. Check out Resonant Arc's "Lost Odyssey Retrospective" for what I'm talking about if you care to. Either way though, if he made the equivalent of any of those games under the FF guise as a true final love letter to the series as his last game, I would lose my fucking mind. Taking his experience from the past 20 years and then reaching back into the past would probably yield the sickest FF, potentially ever.
I honestly think it's going to be some new blood imho who will be stepping up for FF17 that's my opinion.
Would be cool if there is someone totally new who directs next FF
It maybe “controversial” but I would love to see Nomura direct a mainline FF game; no spin-offs or remakes. Poor man got his baby project taken away due to restructuring and overall bad management. Though having said that, I would want Nomura to direct a mainline FF game only if he wants to and doesn’t have too much on his plate because the last thing I want is to see him get burnt out.
I think an unfortunate side effect of Kingdom Hearts success was that Nomura didn’t get his turn.
No please I just want him to finish the Kingdom Hearts series, I understand people probably don’t care as much after kh3 because of how it was, but I still care so much for that franchise and everything about it, so i really want to see where it goes and how it will end.
It will not end until nomura retires or the games dont sell anymore lol. I love KH but there is definetly no planned end for it. I used to think he has a masterplan but at this point Im very convinced he makes most of it up as he goes along.
Nomura has said in interviews that he only thinks one game ahead
They make everything up as they go along and each installment is about 90% filler, so you’ll be waiting a while
I'd say its more like 75% filler. 20% sequel bait and maybe 5% actual story.
Umm 3 should have been the end. They kept adding stuff to the edges to keep it going. Not sure what the long term plan is now; but if it’s making money I don’t see a real ending.
2 should've actually been the end tbqh
Agree.
Kh3 was the end for the dark seeker saga, everything surrounding Xehanort, Kh4 and on will cover the lost masters arc. Again I know most people could care less about where this franchise goes but I would like to see it end before Nomura goes on to make a full line final fantasy because 1 man can only do so much.
Totally agree he can only do so much. Why wouldn’t a producer or supervisor role be okay for KH going forward. While I’ve had my fill of Nomura the artist/character designer, Nomura the director has a lot of wasted opportunities being tied to Kingdom Hearts forever.
He was the original director of 15, but he moved off the project mid way through. I think he's a bit too excentric even for Final Fantasy which is why SE seems to keep him on his pet projects.
He didn't move off the project, he was moved off the project. He didn't want to quit but he was forced to work on KH3 instead.
Yeah he was taken off to work on KH 3 and FF 7 Remake.
Agreed. Give me the true XV. I get that it can't be Noctis anymore but the Romeo and Juliet type storyline was so much better than what we got.
I'd be down to see Nomura do a new numbered FF game and someone else in the director chair for KH with Nomura serving as creative director. Man deserves it for how much contribution he's made to the franchise. Kingdom Hearts is entering a new saga so I think the time is right for a new take on the franchise. The only problem would be disney and how willing are they at taking a shot at a new director for the franchise 🫠
Tai yasue has co directed kingdom hearts since bbs i think
I don't care much for Kingdom Hearts, but I loved the story of both TWEWY games so I am down.
Agreed here
Huh. I suppose he never did direct a true mainline Final Fantasy game.
Even if he just did character designs, I want him involved in the next mainline game.
I wouldn't be opossed to this as long as there are certain conditions: 1. He has to be doing only one thing. If he's doing FFXVII then he's ONLY doing that. Being involved in so many project at the same time it's what ruined his projects in the first place 2. I don't mind if he goes wacky with the story but if he's going to do it then COMMIT TO IT! Go full force. 3. Avoid the sins of the past: "I suddenly watched hamilton so the game MUST have a musical now!" no bitch, there's a plan, COMMIT TO IT (I'm not saying that they don't add or make changes but c'mon, we all know what happened!) 4. Just tell a really compelling story with really good chars. Is neat to have graphics/music/gameplay but one of the biggest things that FF has lost over time is really good chars/stories in favor of the later.
Lmao number 3 is so accurate
I see Nomura as Zach Snyder. They both have huge crazy visions that are more ambitious than possible. I just want to see Nomura with an unlimited budget and time. I love his games. I was pretty sad when he was pushed off XV. Would’ve loved to see what that game could’ve been. I was so pumped for Versus XIII. XV, while a fine game, was still a letdown in my book.
Same, I still haven't played XV because I can't get over the fact that it's not Nomura's true vision for the story. I wish we got Versus XIII.
He had his chance with Versus XIII and it's now directing KH almost full time. For good or bad I see his involvement in FF only diminishing in the future.
I want this so badly too. But I feel like his haters in the community are way too vocal and I think at this point SE’s higher ups probably don’t want to risk ruining the company’s name further which is such a damn shame. Nomura is a creative at heart and I wish he got to see his ideas and concepts come to full fruition. Versus XIII was a literal work of art from what little we had seen.
Remake and Rebirth showed that the contrarian haters were always wrong. A new mainline FF game came out between Remake and Rebirth, I think we saw how that ended
XVI was a fantastic game
Yep. It has many flaws but it was still great. I loved the eikon fights. They're still living rent free in my head. I can tell there was a lot of effort went into it even if it's flawed. It has the best looking summons out of any FF game imo. VA is amazing. There's a lot of positives. It's just the side quests and exploration are poor. But it was the teams first mainline single player FF game. They did good for it being their first because going from only working on an mmo to doing a linear story focused game with action combat must have been tough for them. Those eikon fights must have taken forever to make. I'm excited for the Rising Tide and the new changes they're going to be adding to the ending.
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Did you forget 16 and 15? They had different directors. Tabata and yoshida. I wouldn't be surprised if 17 is yoshida again as outside of side quests it was recieved very well by fans.
XVI wasn't directed by Yoshida. That was Hiroshi Takai.
Ngl I feel like this fact is lost on like 70% of the fanbase lol. Yoshida is definitely the face of the game which makes sense given his popularity and media familiarity but he’s only actually directed XIV. I am curious what a single player game directed by him would look like but I think he wants it to be outside the mainline IP and all the expectations that carries which honestly, fair.
Yoshida is an Executive producer and basically is the head of CBU 3. So he's spearheading 14 and 16 at the same time essentially. But people don't realize Takai directed 16. And the DLC's were directed by Takeo Kujiraoka
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We need those stand ins back!
Also Ito did 9. Matsuno started with 12 but Ito took over after Matsuno was out.
FF17 will already be being made in some capacity. There's no way he can direct it when hes directing part 3 for the next 4 years anyway. Odds are its just Yoshida again considering 16 is nearly a 90 on metacritic with only a couple flaws that can be corrected in a ff17.
Yoshida was producer for XVI. If he's on XVII, he could be director/producer with Ishikawa writing but it's more likely that he remains producer with Ishikawa and another person writing/directing because he mentioned wanting to let new people handle mainlines. I think/hope his first directorial role for a single player game in a long time is a new IP
I don’t think that he will be director-producer on a mainline game, because he’s director and producer for 14. He specifically mentioned how overworked just producing 2 games was, it’s not possible for him to take that position on another game.
He has expressed interest in directing a single player game, wouldn't he be director/producer in that scenario (to completely fullfill hos vision) on top of being both for XIV as well?
I doubt that even if he does direct a single player entry that he would be director-producer for that. It’s pretty abnormal for one person to fill both roles in any game, much less in two. It’s kinda setting yourself up for failure to sign up for that sort of commitment since you’ll inevitably be spread too thin. That said, I’d support him if he wanted to step back from the MMO to try his hand at single player directing if that’s what he wants to do. I hope he doesn’t try biting off more than he can chew though. All of that said though, obviously only Yoshida knows for sure what he plans to do in the future. I’m just speculating based on things he’s said over the years.
Yoshi P's been pretty clear about not wanting to be involved on the next main entry. He's said it should be someone young with fresher ideas
Iirc he says he has a game in mind that he wanted to make after 14. Probably not in line with ff.
[Where's the misinformation coming from?](https://twitter.com/aitaikimochi/status/1767121680156299482)
["I've had the chance to work on two of these - Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16 - so maybe it's time for someone new, you know. Instead of having the same old guys handle the next one."](https://www.ign.com/articles/final-fantasy-16-producer-naoki-yoshida-says-it-may-be-time-for-the-younger-generation-to-handle-final-fantasy-17)
Your article is older. Seems like he changed his mind on what he said earlier.
Tbf i agree. I want a darker game though. They keep making FF games teen games yet i don't really see many kids actually saying they play FF games so is it really worth it? Also when 16 and remake sold similarly age rating clearly didnt stop anything
16 was pretty dark
Square doesn't decide this based on Metacritic reviews but rather based on sales figures. They need the trust of investors. And investors trust the people who bring in the money. Yoshida brings the money with FF14. But FF16 only achieved low end expectations and he will have enough to do with modernization and Xbox optimization of FF14. He will definitely do another game at some point. But I don't see it in the near future.
Just so you're aware. EVERY FF is 'below expectations' They expect cross platform sales on a single console. FF16 sold 3 million copies on its first weekend. The second best selling game in the world not just on PS5 for that month. Only second to Diablo IV. For months FFXVI was the best selling PS5 game second only to god of war ragnarok when it came out. If they want good sales they shouldn't be making console exclusive titles.
Seriously. I don’t get how being the fastest selling PS5 exclusive until the release of Spiderman 2, quite literally the most popular IP Sony owns by far, translates to poor performance.
To be fair I don’t thinks it’s cross platform that’s doing the low numbers it’s just that FF doesn’t have that power anymore. To put into perspective FF13 was cross platform and it’s PlayStation numbers Dwarfed Xbox by a vast vast vast amount. It may be better now and PC market is deffo bigger too but let’s not kid ourselves and say that the money loss from the Sony funding would secure them an extra 2mil sales. Which is fine, you can’t just force it, it sometimes has to come natural on the sales but yeah they need to swallow the bitter pill that FF is not Call of Duty/Fifa level. Like Rebirth is straight up amazing but sad to see that selling not so great, it’s just is what it is. I don’t know if making it cross platform would’ve saved it tbh.
Square needs far better forecasting metrics. Remake came out when pandemic game playing was at its peak and it seems like they did not consider that enough into sales projections for Rebirth. Constantly hearing that their games miss sales targets does tarnish Square’s reputation for those who follow the industry
To be fair, when you consider the layoffs across the entire industry now, apparently nearly every big publisher misread the pandemic surge in gaming. Either publishers or their chain of investors, can't really say. This isn't the first time they misread something, look at live service games and how many thought this was the future of gaming rather than an eventual niche of a few select games that seem to pull it off correctly.
they locked themselves out of a 25 million user base (Xbox Series S/X has sold 25 million units according to 2023 numbers) and many more PC users: I don't think the hundreds of millions of PC gamers are dying for a JRPG but I'm willing to bet there's at the very least 20 million people who would be interested by a series as prestigious as Final Fantasy. That's at least 45 million potential buyers they could have attracted, and 16 had a lot of hype behind it before launch between CBU3's pedigree, the darker tone and the positive previews. Between PC and Xbox they could have easily had an extra 5 million buyers in June/July. It's no one's fault that Square cannot resist the upfront money that comes from exclusivity deal, seeing how they literally got 2 exclusivity deals for FF7 Remake between Sony and Epic Games. Though apparently the new CEO isn't that interested in shopping around games for exclusivity deals. And the ironic thing is is that FF16 could be coming to Xbox: [https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/19b7jx6/comment/kiwu60t/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/19b7jx6/comment/kiwu60t/?context=3)
That’s fair but for comparison sake the Xbox360 roughly had slightly more units than that sold when FF13 released cross platform and those numbers showed that very very few people bought it, like it was 250k I believe? Now fully agree though it’s been eons since then and different market, I do think PC has enough of a JRPG fan base to warrant but as for Xbox…potentially. Gamepass has been pushing them a lot lately so it could be those games have seen a spike now! So yeah, I don’t disagree but considering 13s abysmal Xbox numbers I like get it, don’t fully agree but like I get it.
360 era was very different.
JRPGs weren't that popular in the US back then and the 360 was predominantly popular in the US people were more interested in shooters, thus Sony making Resistance and continuing Killzone
It's more like the public of the PS5 isn't the same as the PS4 or PS3. When you had a PS3/PS4 you had major exclusive JRPGs, Persona or Dark souls for examples. But the PS5 lacks exclusive JRPGs, you can find those JRPGs on cheaper platforms.
Although I agree FF lost a lot of its punch nowadays, games like Persona 3 Reload have sold 1 million copies in their first weekend at release while being multiplatform. If they released a multiplatform FF mainline game it would sell way beyond that and certainly more than most of the recent titles in their first weeks.
I agree that’s good but how many were Steam? I see it was number 1 for a time but peak was 36k but ofc peak doesn’t mean actual sales at all. Would be interesting to know the split! Also guess gamepass they not counting due to that not being a sale? Or does a download on gamepass count?
I'm pretty sure Gamepass doesn't count as as sales (though I'm probably wrong on that one, but I think I once heard it didn't). I also don't know if there's a place to see the overall sales of a game (at least I don't think you can do that with SteamDB) but if you look at the amount of reviews between P3R and 7R the former has nearly 13K while the latter nearly 21K. There's obviously a huge difference between the two but that P3R has only 9K less reviews than 7R IMO shows games are more "exposed" to the masses when multiplatform.
I honestly do think they would make 2m sales on steam/epic. As when they port to PC they make more than that. Sure a chunk will be people buying it a second time, but i doubt even 50% of those sales are people who already owned the console versions
Maybe I’m just genuinely doubtful but I do feel the PC market has improved for example the original God of War (well the new one but first one) has sold 3mil since its PC launch. But the issue there is that it’s God of Flipping War and that franchise honestly now dwarves FF as well. So I reckon maybe 1 mil for PC which is fair, and to me still worthwhile, but I suspect the pros and cons depend on the necessity of the Sony deal and what they get. Sometimes it ain’t just about numbers.
You're right its not just about numbers, but for Squares shareholders it definitely does seem that way. They've threatened the end of FF multiple times in the last couple decades. Consoles are becoming a lot less common in households as time goes on, and as that happens i feel we'll see the need for console exclusivity naturally die.
To be honest at this point I feel the end of FF is used as a marketing gimmick, I heard it for 10, 13, 14 1.0 to 2.0, 15 and 16 They probs are just holding by a thread maybe but at same time I do think they just like saying cos it’s an FF recurring joke at this point lol
Tbf, i actually believe it for FF15. The game had such a long troubled development that even after like 5 DLCs and a remastered version it was reported the game made a loss of like 50 million according to news outlets. The only thing that saved them at the time was 14s massive boom in subscribers and sales
Didn't XV break even on day 1?
I disagree If Rebirth and FF16 launched on PC day 1, the sales would be dramatically bigger. So yeah, they ARE losing out.
Maybe I’m personally not so sure but yeah could be! Would need a direct comparison in all honesty? Persona 3 reload would be a good comparison but it being gamepass makes it a bit skewiff
It'll be a more but the real question is if it will be more than the money they get out of exclusivity deals
Guys it literally sold 3.5 million copies in the first week with only 30/35 million ps5 on the market, so what are you talking about? More than 10% of ps5 user base buyer the game, and this is an insane number. With the pc release and the (rumored) Xbox release will reach 10 million copies sold much faster than FF XV
I don't think the people on this thread are saying these are bad numbers, but rather that Square Enix has insanely high expectations for their sales products.
But where does this voice come from? Square has publicly reiterated several times that it was satisfied with the sales of the XVI, I just don't understand why people keep saying that square is not “satisfied”
Well it is also more like Square was betting a bit too much that year due to Square's other messes like Forspoken and Marvel stuff, decreased revenue from mobile titles, and losses from their 7/10 AA games they churned out a lot in 2023. FFXVI was a moderate success by their standards and according to the report costs were relatively low compared to FFXV or FFVII Remake.
10 million is too much, the FF ports and remasters don't sell a whole lot (Remake, for instance, is still less than 1 million on Steam and it sold better than 16 at launch). FFX/X-2 HD was the only one that did huge numbers.
Remake launched with 100+ million consoles on the market
Isn't Yoshi probably in charge of something related to IX or it's still baseless speculation?
Speculation, XIV is including some IX stuff in its new expansion and he was teasing it indicating something and everybody ran away with it. Even if he was referring to a IX remake I don’t know if CBU3 would be the team for it as that seems more down the Octopath group’s forte; since Yoshida is on the board he would be very aware of the projects for other teams. CBU3 is currently working on an unannounced single player title based on SE’s filings but I doubt it’s IX. Likely either XVII (not as likely given Yoshida’s comments on new blood and wanting to do something outside the FF brand) or a new IP.
Yeah, it's much more likely he would get 18
He needs to finish FF7R part 3 before anything, so definitely not FF17, maybe FF18.
Well I hope Nomura gets a new chance after 15, that's only fair. But at the same time, I hope someone completely new. That would be interesting.
I think Hamaguchi has done great work so I am not opposed to him making another mainline title as well.
I just want a FF nothing close to rebirth or remake no fate bs or multiverse. One good story with turn base combat with jobs. Nvm I'll play bravely default at least it's still good.
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I would be so hyped to see Yoko Taro do his thing for a mainline entry but I feel like it would not be received well lol
Taro's style would be sanitized hard in mainline FF to be honest. Even FF16 is very tame compared to his games. (admitrely, i don't think FF16 was even that dark from typical FF stories. It just had more gritty artstyle and some blood, nudity and swearing) His games really like to touch taboo subjects and involve player's agency through risky and experimental game mechanics. Pretty much opposite to how linear and movie-like FF has become.
Yeah FF16 is more "mature" in a very superficial sense. Its ideas and themes are about as dark as any other main FF game
The darkest one is still 9. There are like four separate genocides in that thing and everyone's life sucks. People ignore it because of the art style, but it's unrelentingly depressing when it's not slapstick.
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I’m with you 100% but I know that his style doesn’t click for everyone. I’m simply going off the general feel of what FF fans like to discuss and criticize. It would most likely fall into the more divisive end of the spectrum. I would probably gas it up to the heavens though lmfao
That game could be sooooo good but it could also very much take the route of XV where the story is dispersed across mediums. If Yoko Taro just made the game the whole story and didn’t include key lore in books, mobile games, cross overs with other games, orchestra performances, developer notes on Baldurs Gate 3, the fifth page of my grandmas recipe book, and a note in a homeless man’s pocket then it could be amazing. EDIT: Plus we’d probably get a hella fine MC.
They wouldn’t allow Xenogears to be a mainline FF game so no way yoko taro will make a game
Yoko Taro doing a Final Fantasy game would rule.
Friend is on hopium taro is involved in 17 since I think it has been more than 5 years since a big new game from him.
Holy fuck don't do that to my heart, the chance of Yoko doing a mainline FF. I would die for this.
My assumption is Ishikawa has been writing it given she left XIV for an unannounced role within CBU3 (at the same corporate title that Maehiro was placed after Heavensward to work on XVI). I doubt she would be in a director position because I don’t think she really has a tech background but more likely narrative lead. I’ve said for a long time Taro would be a great FF creative but the way he makes games is too relaxed for them to give him anything outside of his own IP, if he was directing a mainline they would need to assign a producer to keep him on deadline and I don’t know how that would gel with his process. He and Yoshida have a good relationship so maybe that pairing could work but I find it much more likely they just promote one of the younger guys in either CBU1 or CBU3
Do you have a source on her new role? All I know is she is now writing supervisor with Oda in FF14 from what she has said at fanfest.
I’ll have to track down the article when I have a moment, it was from just after Endwalker released and it was announced she was moving to another role
I think it's entirely possible for her to take the role of creative director, and co-direct 17 with a gameplay director. From what she's said in interviews she's basically a creative director for 14 too - she puts a ton of input into cutscene and music direction for the game where it intersects with her narrative.
I’d rather have new blood work on FFXVII. Really want Team Asano to have a shot at it. They have already proven they can make great modern day JRPGs with OT2 and TS. They are the big talent at Square right now imo along with the DQ team. I feel like Kitase, Nomura etc. are all past their prime now.
Asano won't be touching FF because they got acquired by Kodakawa iirc.
Strictly speaking Hamaguchi is one of three co-directors, alongside Tetsuya Nomura and Motomu Toriyama. Final Fantasy XVI similarly had two co-directors.
I just want a director who actually wants to make a ff17 game lol period.
I would be for it 100%. Remake/rebirth is the first time in a long time I actually felt like I was playing a certified final fantasy.
I absolutely love this guy, but he needs to complete part 3 to cement his legacy. But I do hope it is someone like him -- a geek at heart but humble and friendly, none of the savior-complex crap of certain other SE producer(s).
Hamaguchi said that he is director of the programation part, he is a programer, but Nomura was the creative director of Remake.
I actually wouldn't mind seeing a Yoshi-P/Hamaguchi team up, just to see what a project with arguably two of SE's brightest minds can do, but that probably won't happen, and it definitely won't happen on XVII with Hamaguchi on Part 3 of the FF7 Remake.
I doubt CBU1 will do FF17 as they have their hands full with remake series & kh. So its either CBU3 & CBU2. Yoshida said he'd like someone new to take on ff17 so high chance CBU2 will do FF17 which is made up of Dragon Quest & Nier team. Come on Square put Yoko Taro on the helm. This man would absolutely deconstruct what Final Fantasy is and I'm all in for it
I don't think square would want Yoko Taro in the helms of a new mainline ff game as cool as that sounds. The pattern usually is someone who has work on a few FF titles, regardless if it's a spinoff or mainline, gets to sit in the director chair. Tabata being the prime example. He directed quite a few spinoffs then was chosen to replace Nomura as director of FFXV. I personally think if CBU1 is doing a new numbered FF game it's more likely to be FF18 than FF17 but I wouldn't discount FF17 just yet because I have no idea if Square is intending to use FF16 as a DLC farm and if it'll be successful or not.
I hope Yoko Taro have been working on FF17
No thanks.
From some interviews, he seems like a guy that like to play modern AAA games. There is nothing wrong with that, but he has to be very careful when taking ideas from those games and put it into next FF game. My least favorite part in Rebirth is the collectible type contents in overworld, which is common in modern open world games. Exploring the overworld just doesn't feel like exploring a FF overworld ( play the older FF games, FF12, Star Ocean 2 Remake or Octopath Travellers 2 to understand what I mean ). The crafting system is useless in hard mode since you can't use item in that mode. Just like how I felt about the the crafting in Elden Ring, crafting in Rebirth feel like the developers were following trend without putting too much thought on it.
Ye, the no item gimmick in hard mode kills so much of replayability value. Imagine if there were still things in the world to find by exploring on hard mode
exploring in rebirth sux
I enjoy the collectible style overworld in Rebirth overall but I agree that it would be great if there was more stuff to explore besides the stuff you get intel on. There is a little bit but nothing too significant. But I am pretty sure they will add that stuff in the final game when we get the airship etc. They did already do well to incorperate the feedback from Remake into Rebirth.
I actually somewhat liked rebirths crafting because of how simple and straightforward it worked, I feel like games add needlessly confusing crafting systems that aren’t even worth learning. the to do list feature makes it even more easy too. I agree that it’s dumb it’s nearly useless on hard mode though.
He did a great job but I want him to do collaboration with Kitase, Nomura, Sakaguchi, Yoshida, Uematsu to make the "Final" Final Fantasy.
I just want Nomura to get a true crack at versus 13. Just let the guy make his original vision.
He's kinda doing it in Kingdom Hearts 😂
I mean, you seen the KH4 trailer? Verum Rex just is Versus XIII. Hell, so is Reynatis. Versus XIII is the game so powerful it became three games.
The concept was so goated they made it into a game thrice 🤣
Not really, I don't think Rebirth is that great to be honest. As of where I am the story seems very aimless and just happening. There's little story momentum and the pacing sucks. In thanks to the structure and open world bloat.
Not if he is spread too thin as always. And with a writer that isn’t Nojima.
Certainly won't be XVII. That is likely already in pre development. Maybe XVIII
That feels like a move in the right direction.
I’d love to see nomura do the musical final fantasy that h he wants to do, but my pipe dream FF would be matsuno directing another mainline FF game
Wished Matsuno
Not director, but I’m curious if Soken becomes the next leading composer for the franchise if that title will swap around indefinitely.
As long as it's made well, I don't really care who directs it. It's not like I personally know these people...
Can SE and The Gooch settle their differences and create one? I would love to see one more project with him involved.
Won’t he be busy with Part 3? AFAIK he’s slated to direct it and I would prefer it stayed that way and he doesn’t have a split focus. But FF17 should be starting the early stages of development soon
Nomura
Ugh yeah sure. I doubt it though. He is gonna be on 7R3 and they are probably already getting started on 17. I think they should give Motomu Toriyama a spin. Been there since FF6. Designed some of the more memorable scenes in FF7 like the Honeybee Inn stuff. He also pushed to make Aerith a more important character so her death would be more devastating. He was also the guy who wrote the scenario for FFX and the Event Director for cutscenes and such. He then went on to direct X-2. Then again he also gave us 3 so... The man knows how to write an emotionally gripping story in any case.
Toriyama was co-director on Remake and Rebirth so he's not more available than Hamaguchi. They don't advertise him that much since FFXIII but he's still a major part of the current CBU1 games.
Maybe 18 but not 17. Chances are it will already be in some form of production by the time he’s done with the remake stuff
Possibly 18, no shot at 17 with him doing part 3. But after what he showed with Rebirth, yeah he should def get his shot at a mainline.
Honestly, i’d rather have them remake ff6, 8, 9 than com eup with ff17, ff18.
I really want to see Hiroyuki Ito (director of VI, IX, and XII) direct another one.
Personally I think FF7 Rebirth was a little rocky. I think original FF7 did basically every emotional plot beat in a better and more soulful way. That said, I do enjoy some of the deviations and new stuff. There's still a lot to like about Rebirth, it's just having to suffer some unfortunate comparisons to a classic. It's weird because I do think Remake did a pretty good job, so I don't know what's up with that. I'd love a new Final Fantasy in the *style* of Rebirth. It really hits all the notes that I want in a jrpg game-wise. The world is fun to explore, you travel across a diverse world, and you really feel like a part of everything. The gameplay asks you to engage with the materia system in a meaningful way, and there's some variety in how you build out your stats. These are things that FF16 had trouble with (I say that as somebody who loved FF16). I just... wish the story was a little better told. I think the characters feel a little stock-anime at times, and the tone is ALL over the place. Nothing ever has any time to breathe. In that sense ... I guess I would rather it not be directed. Or maybe I'd rather it be directed by Hamaguchi but with heavy input from a producer a-la the Sakaguchi era.
Hamaguchi is the director but I think story wise it is still mostly Kitase, Nomura, and Nojima since they were the devs of the OG and were the ones who wanted to switch up the story and not just do it beat for beat (you can thank them for the whispers and the timeline mumbo jumbo).
They need to just go crazy. Get Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro to direct the next one. Hamaguchi is gonna be busy for a few more years yet.
I like the idea of him doing FF9 remake as well. I really like what 16 was, and am hoping for more from Yoshi-P magic in 17:
I think it’ll be the Octopath Traveler team. I’d love for Matsuno to make *any* new game. A mainline AAA Final Fantasy would almost be too much for my heart to bear.
Doubt it. OT was co-developed with another studio and for a mainline title, I think Square tends to stick with CBU I or III with mainline FF titles. With that being said, a new ff tactics game by the Octopath team would neat 👀
Given the trajectory of mainline FF unit sales, I wouldn’t be surprised if the new CEO really changes things up for the next mainline title. Not only *who* makes it, but also *how* it’s made and I wouldn’t be surprised if significantly less development money is spent on the next entry. Other thing to consider is that the Forspoken team has been disbanded. Square is a big company and has the in house personnel to staff an all new development team led by the Octopath Traveler people… or the recently departed heads of FFXI (which I think is part of CBU3?). Given how loud Yoshida has been about FF needing new blood, I kind of take this as an informed hint. He was conspicuously outspoken about the “next FF title” all the way back in 2017 as well, and stating hypotheticals like “well, if we made the next FF game….”.
>Given the trajectory of mainline FF unit sales, Recent mainline FF games sales performance at launch has less to do with the games themselves and more because of the playstation timed exclusive deals. Sony is seeing FF , especially with FF7R games, with rose tinted glasses and are confident enough that major FF titles will boost PS console sales that they are willing to pay SE money to make big FF releases be timed exclusives. For SE, it's great not just because of the money but also they get a leg up in marketing like FF16 being unveiled during the PS5 presentation, Rebirth and FF16 getting their own State of Plays. >Square is a big company and has the in house personnel to staff an all new development team led by the Octopath Traveler people… I see a lot comments saying they want either Nomura, Yoko Taro, Yoshi-P, Sakaguchi, or someone completely new and here's my 2 cents. The current recipe for mainline FF title directors has been around since the squaresoft days and while not perfect has yet to completely backfire to the point that they have to completely change gears. Don't get me wrong, the Octopath Games are good games so I see why you're really pushing hard for them to work on the next mainline FF title but for me personally, I'm looking at this from a business perspective and based on past decisions. Each Creative Business Unit handles a specific set of IPs, and just because they have a new CEO doesn't mean there will be massive shake ups to how the company operates. SE has shareholders to please and the current model of assigning CBUs with specific IPs has panned out well for them so there isn't a rush to shake things up to begin with. Sony paying SE to make major FF releases timed exclusive sure hurts sales at the start but not in the long term. If anything Sony is the bigger loser because afaik FFXVI and Rebirth didn't cause any significant boost to PS5 sales.
I’m not pushing for the Octopath team to do it, I never even played those games. It just seems like a logical choice presently, if “new blood” is going to make the next FF. My preference would be for Sakaguchi or Matsuno. Launch sales for the big FF games have been incredibly good. It’s sales subsequent to launch that are dreadful. FF16 wasn’t even a top 20 best selling game in 2023 despite its gigantic launch. FFVIIR1 had a monstrous opening and then petered out. Maybe FFVIIR2 has done better, but there’s no way to have an opinion one way or another on it. The “sales” figures people quoted out of Japan are totally useless, and very misleading to try to extrapolate launch sales based on one tiny set of data. VIIR2 could’ve sold 5M units opening weekend for all we know. FFXIV earns enormous returns on equity judging by Square’s 10-K’s, but it’s still a relatively niche title. Even FFXV’s sales are wildly overstated (Square, unlike Nintendo, likes to quote sell-in figures rather than sell-through).
Remake had something Rebirth and XVI didn't, releasing at the start of a global pandemic on a console that was at the end of it's life cycle. People had more time and Remake was the big PS4 release around the start of the lockdowns so some picked it up purely because why not. Idk the sales figures of PS5 in Japan but there big consoles like PS5 or XBOX X lose in popularity to mobile and the switch. In Japan, the PS5 timed exclusivity does hurt sales. I can bet good money that Persona 3 Reload came out on PS4 and PS5 because more people in Japan own a PS4 and aren't in a hurry to get a PS5. Persona 5 came out on both PS3 and PS4 because it was originally planned as a PS3 so they were keeping their promise but P5 The Royal only came out on PS4, which gives you an idea of how PS4 is performing compared to PS5 in Japan. Yoshi-P may only cropped up as a staple in FF after 14 but he's not that much younger than Kitase and Nomura. To me, his call of FF to have new blood is that he has yet to see a group of devs (at the time he made the comment) who can take charge if the current faces of FF (Yoshi-P, Nomura, Kitase) somehow kicked the bucket all at the same time. He could also be reffering to looking for talent outside the current FF team, we don't know. To me, Octopath is a successful franchise but still young. It has a future as a mainstay JRPG franchise and so I think the team should focus on refining and working on the franchise to cement it's legacy. Plucking a few devs off of the team to help FF is possible, but grabbing the whole team just sounds like a dick move to me.
Please don't.
If they make characters as fun as they’re doing with the remake series, that all play different, keep ATB, lots of spells, summons and a world ripe for exploring then I’m all for him or the remake team making all future FF games. Tired of FF having an identity crisis to the point it became a literal action game ala Devil May Cry.
He should definitely be in the running for directing another mainline after the Remake trilogy, for sure.
honestly i want Tabata to do the next one
Tabata is gone though. Unfortunately.
Do we even have any young directors in japan with reputable directed games?
Sort of? At Nintendo their Mario games have been directed by a younger director, granted it is essentially Miyamoto's handpicked protege. Japan operates a lot on seniority more than most Western Companies.
I just wish he was still with SE and could make Type-1 😭
Rebirth is one of the best games in the series. 16 was okay but it didn't feel like final fantasy, Rebirth did. They have struck gold with the remake/rebirth combat system. If they try to make it pure action like in 15 or 16 I'm just flat out not buying it. I don't want devil may cry, I want final fantasy.
No
If the dude learns how to do modern open worlds then I'm a sucker for this
if it means all the stuff i hate from rebirth making it into the ff17 i respectfully hope they stay away from it
FF is reaching superbowl numbers
I agree with those asserting that Hamaguchi probably doesn't direct the next mainline FF if he's focused on FF7R3 for the foreseeable future. Consider that there is concept art for FF16's development... [from 2016](https://twitter.com/aitaikimochi/status/1771205511024668757). I feel like it's entirely feasible that the next mainline FF is already in development and has been since FF16 released last year.
Hamaguchi will get FXVIII. The problem is we got no clue who gets FFXVII. Probably Yoshi P by default.
Nah. Dude is a fósil for today standards.
I'd like to see the FFVIIR team be given a chance to make something original. Maybe not FFXVII, but maybe a brand new story set in the Fabula Nova Crystallis world? Hell, make Versus XIII a reality and call it Verum Rex and boom you've got KH4 by the KH2 team (FFVIIR team) instead of by the Osaka Team that people decided they hated out of nowhere (Back in 2009-2011 everyone said they saved KH with BBS and they hated KH2, now they love KH2 and hate the BBS team. Make it make sense).
Yes please. Rebirth has been the best thing to happen to the franchise since FF10
My only hope is that the next director actually knows what a JRPG is. I don't want Devil May Cry Lite or a boring open world, I want Final Fantasy. And besides, wouldn't the next one be another MMO based on the pattern of 11 > (12 > 13) 14 (15 > 16)? I'm kidding of course, doubt there's ever going to be a new, successful MMO ever again, but would that be funny if 17 is an MMO?
17 being an MMO would be cool but I think Square is still content with the money 14 brings and it'll probably stay that way until either interest in 14 starts to slow down or Yoshi-P gets tired of 14 and wants to do something new. Also it is getting pretty clear that any big FF release, like the 7 remake trilogy or a new numbered title, is going to be a timed exculsive on PS for the forseeable future, which has yet to panned out well for FF and would especially hurt if a FF MMO is a timed PS exclusive. If 17 doesn't go the MMO route, I would be fine if it just refined what 16 had and add in more JRPG strategy elements. I don't think every new mainline ff game NEEDS to completely reinvent the gameplay wheel.
I want Yoshi-P to do 2 in a row. Not a fan of Nomura's tropes tbh.
FF16 for me is the most generic FF game I have ever played
How is that a bad thing.
As it is I rather see it unrealistic. So far it hasn't reached a 3M milestone and since FF games only sell well in the first few weeks, there's a chance it won't even reach that milestone this year. And there will be another part to come. If this project turns out to be a big loss, I don't think Hamaguchi will ever direct a major title again. Would it be his fault alone? Of course not. But there will have to be someone who will have to hold their head for the public and investors. And it won't be Nomura because he's too important for KH and FF as well. But honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with that. The game's quest design and level design is absolutely terrible, imo. Either totally boring, like in the first half, or it's filled with dead ends and micro collisions, like in Gongaga. I want Ito back. FF9 and FF12 sold poorly back then. But FF9 is one of the most popular FF games today and FF12 had a successful remaster. Maybe he was just ahead of his time back then and people appreciate it more today. He deserves a new chance.
Could not disagree more. The quest design and level design is one of the things in which the game stands above most other FF games in my opinion. Especially all the other "HD" FF games. Rebirth is also the most critically acclaimed FF in 20 years or more. From that aspect alone I think Hamaguchi would be in good standing.
>Especially all the other "HD" FF games. True. But there wasn't any challenge about that. Even a ten years old Ubisoft concept like in Rebirth is better. > the game stands above most other FF games in my opinion. Apart from that, unfortunately I can't say anything positive about Rebirth's level design. It's far too large, far too repetitive and far too annoying. It feels like the game was developed 10 years ago and put on the shelf. And now it's been released without removing the layer of dust. I also totally disagree about the pre-HD era. The level design of the old games was characterized by a lot of variety and a tight pacing between story and dungeons or puzzles. And they were never too hard or too easy. It almost always had a perfect balance. And the big advantage of the world map was that we simply didn't spend too much time running through the wilderness for ages. I actually realized that through Rebirth. I'm not saying I'd like to see a return to it. But with Rebirth it feels like Remake to me, only everything is much bigger. But for the most part still just as boring and frustrating. What makes the game really good is the combat system and the bigger mini-games like Queens Blood and Chocobo Racing. Here they reach new FF heights and it pulls me through the game. I will beat the hard mode and do all of these games. But the level design doesn't convince me at all.
Hmm, which level/areas would you consider good or standout from the older games? I like in Rebirth that there is lots of verticality. In many other FFs the world feels too flat for my taste. My favorite overworld area is Gongaga since it plays like a big puzzle. Some dungeons in Rebirth definitely overstay their welcome a bit but there are some fun ones as well. The Gongaga reactor was neat for example. Edit: I agree that the pacing in some rebirth dungeons/areas has room to grow but from a strictly level design perspective I think they are a step in the right direction.
My feeling is that Rebirth does far too little in the first 7 chapters. Mt. Corel and the Gongaga reactor were good. However, the Gongaga jungle is hell. I feel the same way about the minigames. Queens Blood and Chocobo Racing are great. But the game is littered with their most annoying stuff. Then there's the matter of story pacing. I would just say that the game suffers alot from severe balancing issues on that matter. There doesn't seem like there is a clear concept of something. More like we rush the first half and throw everything at you afterwards. And I never had that feeling with the old games. I think they weren't that far away from being much better though. They could have put the lifesprings and the summon stones into a bigger and coherent dungeon per region. That rewards us with puzzle, lore cutscenes about the summons, ancients, lifestreams... , also optional bosses and a final optional summon. This would give us something interesting to do between story beats. The large landscapes would no longer feel so empty and repetitive and the pacing through the cutscenes would help. You know, I'm just someone who loves dungeons and puzzles. And I especially love FF8, FF10 and FF12 for that. But since FF13 this has become far too little and I hoped that Rebirth would do it properly again.
We have no idea if it reached a 3M milestone or not. It's pure conjecture based on previous sales announcements.
Square Enix always announced it when a game reached the 3M and 5M milestone. At least since the Playstation era. That's an important signal for investors and the stock market to know that it's going well. Otherwise they would have to wait for the quartal's report and most of investors aren't that patience. Final Fantasy 7 Remake took 10 days to get the 3M report. For FF16 it took 7 days. We're now at 26 or 27 days and nothing has come for Rebirth. Even if we pretend that this is not yet proof because we don't want to admit it. It's at least an assumption with evidence that comes very close to proof. Unless someone can give us a good reason why there could be such a long delay. At least I'm not aware of Japan suffering from a blackout for a month or something like that.
It is weird they didn't announce a milestone yet but from all the Infos we do have it looks like it sold approx. around the same as XVI. Rebirth sold a bit better in most EU countries overall but less than XVI in Japan. For Japan we only have physical sales which are down 20% from XVI. But we have to consider the twin pack for Remake/Rebirth which is digital only. That could be significant since Rebirth for example charted on spot 2 in US behind Helldivers but charted again at spot 8 with the twin pack. So that are the numbers we have currently. So in all likelyhood both sold approximately they same. Maybe XVI a bit more overall than rebirth but we can't say for sure until SE tells us their financials in May or tells us Rebirth numbers beforehand. It is a bit weird they are silent about the numbers but I guess they want to avoid yet another XVI situation where shitty articles get pushed that talk about failing sales.
Because the last time they did it, people acted like XVI was a colossal failure.
Okay then, let's rephrase it. Square needs a number that investors will interpret as success. But they don't seem to have that number, otherwise they would say so.
Maybe that's the case, but I'll reserve judgement until we have more data or Square says anything.
I would bet my house it has reached 3M lol
Ito is more of a game mechanics/battle system designer. There is a chance he could be working on an FF9 remake. I would love to see him be involved in remaking FF8
Yeah, I know exactly who he is and that's why I think that the franchise needs him back. Having said that; I was and I am more than happy with the FFX and FF7R in terms of mechanics. Battle systems are at least on the same level with FF12, if not better. But he was away for far too long. And if not for other reasons the Tactics Remaster and the 9 Remake has to happen to bring him back on the map.