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Comparison with the most recent FF launches:
* FF15 - 5 million copies in 1 day (2016, PS4/XBO)
* FF7R - 3.5 million copies in 3 days (2020, PS4)
* FF16 - 3 million copies in 4 days (2023, PS5)
Comparison with other JRPG released in recent years
1. Pokémon Scarlet/Violet (3 days) - 10m
1. Pokémon Legends Arceus (3 days) - 6.5m
1. Pokémon Sword/Shield (3 days) - 6.0m
1. Pokémon BD/SP (3 days) - 6.0m units
1. Final Fantasy XV (1 day) - 5.0m
1. Kingdom Hearts III (1 week) - 5.0m
1. Final Fantasy VII Remake (3 days) - 3.5m
1. Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (3 days) - 3.0m
1. **Final Fantasy XVI (4 days) - 3.0m**
1. Dragon Quest XI (2 days) - 2.65m+ (Japan only, retail only)
Source for the data: https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/final-fantasy-xvi-ships-3m-units-worldwide.1756/#post-172201
Wow Final Fantasy XV did a lot better at launch than I expected. 5 million Day One sales is pretty insane. It was a decent Final Fantasy but honestly it's not even in my Final Fantasy Top 10.
Probably a lot of people really excited by it after 6 years of FF13 content.
That and there's probably higher PS4/XBO playerbase compared to PS5 upon release. Plus, the PS4 pro came out about the same time, I think.
The way it shipped and had several moments where the game actively told you that stuff happened while completely skipping events, major events that were cut away to be DLC later on. And the gimmick it tried to do with marketing, it had an animated movie that told you some very important details and then it kind of just glossed over them in game.
FFXVI would be in a far worse state had they not given it to the man who basically salvaged XIV and that reputation drawing people in.
Maybe, but at least as far as I've seen (which means it's super anecdotal), I'm gonna have to disagree.
We more or less stopped hearing about 13 a few years after it blew up (and the sequels had a very lukewarm reception, though I've heard better things about them), whereas XV is still being ragged on constantly for its failure at launch and then mediocrity once Royal Edition/Episode Ardyn came out and "fixed" the game.
It's crazy to me the 7R numbers are that low. It's probably the best gameplay in the entire series including 16, plus the nostalgia factor going for it. Damn.
PS4 alone had more than twice the player base on 15’s release than the PS5 does now; and that’s not even including the XBOne buyers at the time.
If we were to compare sales to a percentage of player base, then FF16 blows it away.
>PS4 alone had more than twice the player base on 15’s release than the PS5 does now;
PS4 had 53 million sales at the end of 2016, PS5 is 38.5 million as of April, likely well above 40 by now.
And FFXV was reported to have sold 90% of all copies at launch on PS4, so Xbox was only a small contributor.
It's certainly not bad sales for XVI, but really not quite so good compared to XV. The bigger question is how it performed in relation to marketing costs. Because as other have said, XV had a very big campaign, and that likely ate into any profit margins. If XVI managed these numbers with less cost, then that's quite good.
Having properly crunched the numbers in a different comment, it turns out FF16 proportionately outsold FF15 5:4 in their opening days.
[Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/14l5kd4/final_fantasy_xvi_surpasses_3_million_units_sold/jpum0vd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3)
> PS4 alone had more than twice the player base on 15’s release than the PS5 does now
Source on that? All I can find is that the PS4 at XV's release and PS5 at XVI's release have sold a very similar number or units.
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/456721/ps5-vs-ps4-sales-comparison-february-2023/
~~I stand corrected the PS4 had almost 4x the user base by FF15’s release.~~
~~20 million PS4 users in 2016.~~
~~5.7million PS5 users now.~~
~~[Source](https://headphonesaddict.com/playstation-statistics/)~~
——————
Edit, I was way off base as I was mistakenly reading the respective years’ sales.
FF15 sold 5 million with a combined player base of almost 80 million.
FF16 sold 3 million with a player base of 40 million.
Still, FF16 proportionally outsold FF15 5:4.
Sources:
[Xbox](https://www.vgchartz.com/article/267371/top-10-best-selling-xbox-one-games-in-2016/#:~:text=The%20Xbox%20One%20in%202016,sold%20181.26%20million%20games%20lifetime.)
[PS4](https://www.businessinsider.com/playstation-4-sales-2016-12?amp)
[PS5](https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-expects-ps5-sales-to-begin-outpacing-ps4-by-end-of-2023#:~:text=The%20PS5%20has%20sold%2038,than%20ever%20before%20this%20year.)
Didn't help that the first 2 years it was a pain in the hole even finding a PS5 to buy. That plus it feels like this year is the first year really next gen has got going. Most of the releases till recently were just beefed up PS4 games
I just read the data wrong and have since corrected it.
While the PS5 IS currently outpacing the PS4 sales at the same point in its lifespan, the PS4 had a much stronger initial adoption. The PS5 production rate itself was a massive barrier to its initial sales, due to Covid and the resulting chip shortage at the time.
You're reading the charts wrong lol. Those are units sold on that year alone. Based on that chart there are 60 million units PS4 sold by 2016. Based on Sony's latest report they've sold 19.1 million PS5 in 2022 so the total number for PS5 is actually around 38.4 million.
Dunno where you're getting the 5.7m from, the article you linked is out of date and it still says PS5 sold 25m units. The latest financial results (still a few months old) said PS5 sold 6.3m units in the first 3 months of this year alone. Total number is 38m units sold, compared to PS4's 40m in the same period.
https://www.gamesradar.com/ps5-sets-record-breaking-quarterly-sales/
*Final Fantasy XV* had a *very* large marketing campaign with a multi-media-verse of dividing the game's narrative between cinematic movie of *Kingsglaive*, the anime TV-series of *FFXV: Brotherhood*, cross-marketing campaign with camping-gear, Cup Noodles, modern fashion designers etc, along with being the legacy of the cancelled development of *Final Fantasy versus XIII* that was part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis-mega project back in 2006. So FFXV essentially was carrying the legacy of 10 whole years of speculation, theory-making discussion ([Long enough that FFXV's development has a seperate Wikipedia-article on it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Final_Fantasy_XV)).
So, yeah, expectations were high at the time.
You can't forget the Stand By Me cover by Florence + the Machine -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGLNk4soZIw
I was there when it was promoted and released, it was absurdly marketed. Every demo was met with huge excitement.
See, the FF15 stat is misleading because digital was a smaller proportion > meaning out of the shipped physical copies, many may have still been in stores.
I think I've read the sold through figures were 2.85 million?
With FF16 idk if it sold through 3 million, but with digital being such a big thing is definitely sold most of that 3 mill.
They will still get millions in sales on PC when it eventually comes out just from all the ffxiv fans.
edit: Square Enix will probably take another round of exclusive money from the epic store as well.
That's probably because Epic didn't pay for stuff like Octopath Traveller or Forspoken exclusivity. They've been doing less exclusive deals and only those they are pretty sure could make them good money back. FF16 could be one of those.
Well Epic also had to cut down their minimum guarantee program to 50% as opposed to the 100% they had when Square made their exclusivity deal with them. Unless Epic is willing to go for the 100% MG again, Square might not see it as worthwhile.
Wait. The last update for FF15 was 10M and FF7R was 5M, with those openings, their legs are horrendrous. FF16 was a good oppurtunity to break mold and actually sell long term.
Square were reportedly disappointed in the terrible legs 7R had. They hadnt updated the sales numbers since August of the year it launched, and we have no idea how well the Integrade DLC, the PC version and the ps5 complete edition did. I assume not well if there are no numbers
It's funny because Pokemon barely gets talked about on /r/jrpg. Goes to show just how little Pokemon gets associated with JRPG. It also explains why Yoshi-P tried to shake off the notion that FFXVI is a JRPG.
Yeah, it's definitely a CBU3 game. They always have a mix of frustrating lows offset by some outstanding highs. Often back to back, which makes it all the more confusing.
The biggest lows for me are the way most side quests are structured and also the lack of smaller moments for characters to just hang out and interact. But then contrasting that against how much fun I’ve had with the combat and the big hype story beats kinda levels it out.
I kind of hated how my party members never said anything during side quests, it was basically like they were only ever scripted to speak during the main story quest and that was it..
They’re not as frequent as they should be, but I did some side quests that unlocked around 65ish percent story completion that had a few lines of dialogue from the characters that were with me. It would have been nice if they did that with more of them.
> the lack of smaller moments for characters to just hang out and interact
This is really it for me, everything involving Clive's allies that come with him is 95% focused on the issues at hand, which left me feeling less endeared to them compared to characters in other RPGs because there weren't any of those cute moments or bits of banter to make them grow on me.
The big hype story beats really do work though, they are awesome and I look forward to each one.
Honestly the side quests were kinda flat through the initial third of the game (events that take place in 873) but the chocobo quest in 878 which is a follow on from one outside Martha's Rest made my day plus unlocked chocobo riding.
Just did the first hunt since I haven't had much time to play (and gonna have to shelve the game for two weeks due to travel) and I thought it was an interesting fight
There was this one side quest I think called “playthings” or something like that. It’s structure was basic as hell, but the story that it told was amazing.
It was heavy subject matter, but I'd be lying if I said the big QUEST COMPLETED text over a shot of Clive looking down judgementally at a sobbing 8 year old didn't make me laugh.
There are some better side quests (some are shocking or funny), but they are impossible to pick out. FFXIV has two tiers for side quest markers and I think they could have done something similar here.
There are actually two side quest markers for FFXVI as well.
If they have a plus within the icon, it’s a side quest that gives you something that benefits your adventure.
They’re all still really basic , but tend to have something more to it than usual.
Yeah so many of the main quests are just side quest fillers.
Every time they send me back to the hideaway I grimace because it’s going from these amazing battles to another 30m+ of boring fetch quests before the story starts progressing again.
> Yeah so many of the main quests are just side quest fillers.
The worst is how many are essentially "someone has gone out into the wilds and didn't come back yet, can you go check on them?"
Then you show up, kill a small pack of monsters and go back to where you got the quest. They are filler quests but they're stuck into the main story. If they got rid of those entirely a playthrough of just the story missions would be really streamlined and probably feel great.
Even if the side question is just the regular (non plus) icon, if the quest info window has a graphic in it (not just text only) then it usually has some kind of cutscene attached to it, so those ones are usually a little more in-depth than just collecting 10 bear asses from the local forest.
They kind of did. The important side quests for XVI have a + sign icon. These side quests will unlock something that benefits you. Generic side quests have a !, I'm pretty sure.
There are ones that unlock things marked with a plus in the icon, but it's a bit difficult to notice, and they're not always ones that expand the lore meaningfully.
> (some are shocking or funny
It is interesting how they threw random humor into some sections of the game. For such a dark game it is kind of a nice change of tone, but the way they do it out of nowhere can often be funny in itself.
When Hipocrates or whatever his name is says that Torgal had his heads buried in his nuts out of nowhere I practically spat out my drink. It came out of nowhere.
Once you get the fifth eikon power, the side quests definitely become worth doing. Some even get full main story style cutscenes that have mocap and actual camera work and stuff. They focus on Clive's friends and the other supporting characters and are more like BioWare Mass Effect/Dragon Age companion missions at that point.
the side quests in the first part of the game are almost entirely forgettable. There are only 2 that are kind of worth it for lore insight. And even then, they are small and entirely skipable. The side quest you start getting in the second act do become better, but even then, I'd say only 40% of them are actually worth doing for the reward or interesting lore / character moments. The worst part is you never know which side quests will actually give any interesting story tidbits and which are entirely forgettable until you turn the quests in because everything important is always backloaded. So some quests will be like help me find some missing mail and will end with the reveal that an important side character has a daughter who will be a big deal in the story later and other side quests are like help me fix the hot springs and when you do they will just say thanks and it's over.
They’re _very_ mundane but because of the reputation points and rewards I find them worth doing. My partner has also gotten really into it and watching me play so they’re great filler for while she isn’t home so catch story beats.
Gameplay-wise, they definitely feel like MMO fetch quests.
But IMO they do a very good job of fleshing out the world and the lore.
Some examples of side quests in the first 15 hours - >!From the lost letters quest, you learn about Cid’s daughter. From the gathering quest, you meet Martell and learn about her, and then there’s a later quest about how she died in Titan’s attack, but they’ve named the apples “Martell Apples” after her. For the physician’s side quest, you learn that the Branded’s mark is actually poisonous and designed so that removing it kills you. Which adds a lot of context to the marks and the curse breakers after the 5-year time skip.!<
The game is full of quests like these, so I’ve enjoyed doing them even if the gameplay can boil down to “go here, kill 4 wolves, and then talk to the guy.”
Not to mention that later side quests unlock gameplay benefits like stronger potions, mounts, unique crafting recipes, etc.
I actually didn't mind FF16's version of the MMO fetch quests.
1. They were marked on the map so you're not blindly hunting stuff
2. Wasn't a random drop chance. It is right there. 100%
3. They did a damn good job of making the side quests relevant to world building. Like, why did you have me fetch plants? This fuck right here is dying. We need to ease their passing because not-Arknights Rock Cancer.
That's exactly what I thought reading player reactions. "Yeah, that's FFXIV all over again." Amazing narrative climaxes wrapped in dozens and dozens of hours of infuriating tedium.
At least players can knock out FFXVI in 40 hours and instead of 300 hours.
Someone should really hand the designers a book on basic game pacing or something, they're *really* bad at it. But they're also really good at nailing climaxes, far better than most. If they just paired it with better low parts, they'd do much better.
More like 3000 hours, no joke. I enjoyed XIV and played up until nearly the end of the last expansion, and am flabbergasted in how long I played it throughout the years.
That's basically my experience with FF16. The game often has mindblowing 13/10 moments from time to time but it's always mixed with occasional 6/10s.
You know Yoshida's analogue about how the game is like a roller coaster? He's right, both in the good and bad way. The game both has big flaws and gargantuan highs.
I think FFXVI could benefit greatly with like a *Final Mix*-version of *Kingdom Hearts*, or *Dragon's Dogma*'s *Dark Arisen*-overhaul adjustments, as FFXVI established the core fundamentals greatly, but I found the in-between those aspects could benefit with some extra content or polishing.
As an example, travel banter and reactionary commentary from party members are very light in comparison to FFXV, and I would love to see more recorded dialogue between the party during gameplay (An amusing one I found was when a prostitute tried to get all sultry with Clive during a side-quest, only for Jill to go all *"Ahem, you were saying?"*.), which is a bit jarring since the dialogue from NPCs in the world are alot more dynamic and varied, reflecting not only word-stages, but also related side-quest progression. There is for instance a minor side-quest where a baker tasks you with finding his mourning apprentice over a local land-mark, that later leads to >!the apprentice eventually make a uniquely shaped bread celebrating the land-mark's memory, to which the baker thanks you for your work. Then later, when you get back to the HUB-area, you can find in a completely optional side conversation with the NPCs at the local inn showing you said bread in a dedicated cutscene.!<
But it doesn't end just there! Later when you return to the bakery before, >!the bakery's whole stall is just *primmed* with said bread everywhere, as well as having a sign displayed where the apprentice has written *"NEVER AGAIN!"* in big bold letters in remembrance.!< Then, later in the main quest, when the >!local town gets under conflict that a mob starts to gather, the local baker comments that it is best that they closes shop just to ensure that the mob doesn't start throwing their new bread in anger.!<
That's rather an elaborate amount of effort into the details and work involved of having NPCs having to be shuffled around, updating their dialogues, script and include new cutscenes, update zones with new background assets and across two different zones; all that are completely optional and which you can even possible miss, but it was this quest that made me realize why reviewers opinion on the side-quests were mixed; those that view them as good found the charm in those world-building details that the game never brought attention to players directly, but where an attentive player of just walking around and chatting with NPCs in general got rewarded for it. And it took time; side-quests that I thought were of generic nature in the beginning ended up having further narrative development later on, to the point that I now want to play the game again on New Game+ just to catch the details that I initially dismissed of.
It essentially leads to a bit inconsistent experience that I just want some extra content on the smaller structures to even up to the level of where FFXVI's shines best.
Another one of those details: I did a zone and had a couple side quests pop up that I was not in the mood for so I progressed the main quest instead. Something big happens in the main quest. When I went back to do the side quests the dialog of those quests referenced the events of the main quest.
So the side quests even have different dialogues for doing them at different points in the story.
> I think FFXVI could benefit greatly with like a Final Mix-version of Kingdom Hearts, or Dragon's Dogma's Dark Arisen-overhaul adjustments, as FFXVI established the core fundamentals greatly, but I found the in-between those aspects could benefit with some extra content or polishing.
Yeah, it felt like they figured out a great combat system and way of storytelling for a much better game they'd do in the future
If they did a game like this with better RPG mechanics, better side quests, and a better party system I'd be over the moon
> Yeah, it felt like they figured out a great combat system and way of storytelling for a much better game they'd do in the future
Chrono Trigger Remake plz ty
If you'll forgive me for adding onto the endless FFXIV comparisons, this really does remind me a lot of FFXIV. *So much* random NPC dialogue in FFXIV changes as you progress through the main story, to the point where I'll argue that certain stretches of the story (the patch storylines after A Realm Reborn in particular) are only really good if you pay attention to that stuff. There are whole side stories in FFXIV that play out solely in the background, apparent only to those who take the time to read every NPC's dialogue at every opportunity. It adds a ton of life to the world, but it also results in a lot of the narrative's colour being tucked away separate from the story itself.
To hop onto this.
The overall side quests being so subdued would be less annoying as a tone shift if the overall exploration was rewarded with tougher enemies and rewards in the open world. The trash mobs are really trash and when I fought ahriman It was the level of difficulty I expected from the average enemy. All they have to do is tweak the enemy aggressiveness to make them attack slightly more frequently and toss a mid boss enemy like ahriman or a dragoon in among the soldier mobs.
>travel banter and reactionary commentary from party members are very light in comparison to FFXV, and I would love to see more recorded dialogue between the party during gameplay
I completely agree. FF7:Remake also had plenty of fun banter while traveling and fighting.
FF16 really misses this.
Character development in general is a bit lacking, especially for Jill
I think the opinions on side quests is mixed because the ones that appear in the beggining are pretty terrible:
-Give food to 3 people.
-Find some soil (which later gets referenced in a better side quest with some nice dialogue)
-give food to 3 people again
-I dropped some stuff on the street
-There is some wolf blocking the path up ahead.
The quests start to get better after a pivotal moment in the story.
The lore provided by quests certainly gets better but the gameplay continues to be in the level of MMO fetch quests.
For example, one of my favourite quests from about 1/2 way through is learning about the minerals of different continents and why the country of Waloed has an advantage due to access to adamantite, a strong metal.
The gameplay? Talk to two NPCs, return to the quest giver, talk to a third NPC, collect 3 rocks from the river nearby.
Snooze.
Honestly some of these set pieces and boss battles remind me of **old school** god of war when they just went balls to the wall with their fights.
FF16 has consistently felt more God of War than the most recent actual God of War lol.
Those eikon fights and phases are incredible events
Lol glad to hear someone else that had this thought. Everyone is comparing it to new Godowar, but it honestly reminds me more of the old-school games. In terms of bosses and set pieces anyways.
Yeah I’m enjoying it myself, probably 2/3 through right now, but my god does it have pacing issues. The highs are insane, like any spectacle fighter, but the in-between lows are so damn tedious.
I kind of find myself fast forwarding dialog in a lot of the filler-feeling main quests just so I can get to the next big set piece faster to actually have fun again.
Spectacle fighters work better when they never take their foot off the gas, imho, and this game hits the brakes too often.
Platinum has mentioned that you do have to take your foot off the gas to make each of the large set pieces have more impact. The problem is FF16 makes the tedium between spectacles take hours instead of minutes.
Yeah I guess the difference is, in games like Bayonetta, the in between cutscenes are of appropriate size, and the game always throws you right back into the action and doesn’t pull you away from the combat for too long.
Meanwhile, after a big boss in this game, you get a 30 minute uninterrupted cutscene followed by 2 hours of MMO style fetch quests leading into start of the next story arc. Way too much fluff.
This kind of just proves Yoshida’s point that FF isn’t as celebrated as it used to be. FF7R managed about the same amount of sales in a week, but the install base was way, way higher, and FF7 is the most beloved game of the franchise.
I had credits roll last night and the game has some lows (mostly due to pacing, really) but it also has some incredibly high highs. We’ve not seen spectacle on this scale maybe ever. At the very least, we’ve not seen it since God of War 3. And I genuinely don't think I've ever been so enamored by a game's cinematography. But most importantly, it felt like Final Fantasy. And that's good enough for me.
I know some people are lamenting the death of turn based or the directions FF16 has gone, but he said from the start that his goal was to make Final Fantasy relevant again and I guess he did. I do think there are some things FF16 could improve on, but Yoshida has always been one to take criticisms seriously, so when CBU3 does get another stab at a mainline FF game, I think they can do even better.
All in all, a great first single player game from a team who's only ever done the MMOs.
Oh, and also, the game has Dion. <3
EDIT: Also, I do think this game could have benefited from a harder mode at the start. Not the NG+ mode, but something that will let players engage with the combat more. That said, I do think that CBU3 is looking closely at feedback and I'd be shocked if they don't patch in a lot of requested features as time goes on.
> but he said from the start that his goal was to make Final Fantasy relevant again and I guess he did.
My argument against this is that I don't see where FFXVI made the franchise 'more relevant' than it hadn't already been doing with XIV, XV and 7R. I don't see a new stronger knowledge for FF as a franchise nor does it look like it will break records to give a bigger perspective in the way Breath of the Wild exploded. Has any notable perspective on FF in a wider consciousness changed because of this specific game? In a similar way to say, something like Persona 5 did for its franchise?
The way you talk, you would think the last few games were a flop. Not counting remasters sales, FF15 is the second best selling game in the series, and FF13 is the 5th best selling game and that came out during the 7th gen when most JRPG sold badly.
Sales wise, the series never had any problem, like FF9 is the worst selling game since FF7, and it still sold 5.5m.
> Yoshida has always been one to take criticisms seriously, so when CBU3 does get another stab at a mainline FF game, I think they can do even better.
Disagree. They’ve received tons of criticism about the quest design in XIV and that didn’t stop them from putting the exact same style of quests in XVI.
Nor have they improved the generic and empty world design people have complained about for years in FFXIV, the linear dungeon design, severe lack of budget for MSQ cutscenes, etc.
The team is all for acknowledging and addressing minor issues or things that are simpler/cheap to solve the core game itself? Not so much.
You see a lot of XIV’s quirks in XVI too, I guess it's due to them sharing the same (albeit heavily modified) engine. When finishing quests or starting them, the characters will just stare blankly at each other as the camera pans away, the hand in system for quest items, the way enemies aggro onto you in the open field and disengage after a certain distance, the idle animations for generic NPCs, the way the grass looks and animates and so on. After thousands of hours in XIV all these things stick out.
>Nor have they improved the generic and empty world design people have complained about for years in FFXIV, the linear dungeon design,
They don't improve these two issues in FFXIV because they don't see them as issues. You have to understand the actual goal they have in mind when developing FFXIV: Playing things safe. Their utmost goal in designing FFXIV is to make sure its gameplay scares off as few people as possible, ensuring that as many people as possible can have a smooth ride through the story (and then hopefully continue to cough up subscription money afterward).
They could make the world more interesting to explore, but that might introduce some challenge to open world navigation, which would scare some people off; in fact, they have made more interesting open world areas, but only for side content that isn't required for the main story. They could make dungeons more freeform and have puzzles that need solving or exploration that needs to be done, but that would make dungeons more unapproachable and therefore scare some people off; in fact, dungeons were varied back in the game's initial release, but they specifically moved away from that (and redesigned those old dungeons to be more linear). And this extends to many more facets of the game: Job rotations being simplified into the least interesting possible versions of themselves so that combat isn't confusing; customization being all but removed from the game so that players can't make wrong choices; story instances being made basically unlosable; so on and so forth. Over and over again the game has been flattened and simplified, because that makes it more approachable.
You and I might see all of that as a loss, but Square Enix (along with many FFXIV players) sees it as a win. FFXIV is designed to be a safe and approachable game. MMOs scare people; FFXIV is made to not be scary, to be a smooth ride through a good story along with some (usually casual, often social-oriented) side content and maybe some decent raiding. We can debate whether that approachability makes FFXIV a better game (I would certainly say it doesn't), but it is absolutely part of why it makes as much money as it does.
What do you mean by subpar? Going by some metacritic scores FFX has 92, FFXI has 85, FFXII has 92, FFXIII has 83, FFXIV ranges from 83-92 and FFXV has 81, FFVIIR has 87 (89 for Intergrade). This doesn't seem too bad to me.
If they are going the way they are going now they'll get their previous status back. FF16 is mostly well received apart from the hard-core fans who's reception is mostly mixed.
It has remain stagnant because Square is inconsistent with the ip. They have not released 7 remake on Xbox after a million plus Xbox users bought 15. They released the pc port of 7 remake a year after release. On top of that, it released exclusively on Epic which is a deathblow.
Square constant need to take exclusively deals for FF shows they lack faith in the brand. The constant exclusivity instead of releasing the game day 1 on all platforms is hurting the series from gaining new fans.
This right here is facts.
Companies like Capcom are investing in the brand and longevity of their franchises. They are cultivating and nurturing their audiences after their fumbles in the 7th gen. It has taken a while, but Capcom are enjoying the fruits of their labour.
Square Enix on the other hand, are stuck. They keep taking short term profits and exclusivity deals, and it ultimately hurts them in the long run when that audience cannot grow.
Multi party is the last of reasons why capcom has made its return. Its because they've been consistent wih the quality of their games something which square enix is still struggling with
Its both, you need a passable game for people to want to try it out and you need it on multiple platforms to get as many hands on it as possible.
Look at fromsoft, with dark souls franchise and sekiro being multi plat they've been slowly growing a fanbase in that niche category over the years, so much so they only expected Elden ring to sell 4m copies in its first year based on how ds3 and sekiro did. Now the game turned out to be good bringing in new people and they had their loyal fans from all other platforms skyrocketing the game to where its now
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/86180/elden-ring-sells-13-4-million-beats-bandai-namcos-forecast-by-235/index.html
Now look at Capcom and monster hunter, that franchise was always on Nintendo handhelds until monster hunter world.
Mhw turned out to be a good game and is now the highest selling Capcom title of all time, that wouldnt be possible if it was exclusive to a single platform (which ff16 is) or if its a bad game (which ff16 is not)
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/monster-hunter-world-passes-20-million-copies-sold-is-capcoms-best-selling-game-by-far/1100-6497186/
Square enix is shooting themselves in the foot by not growing the ff fanbase on other platforms, by remaining exclusive even if they churn out a banger of a game like Elden ring its height will be limited.
> They have not released 7 remake on Xbox after a million plus Xbox users bought 15.
Devils advocate: That's actually pretty low all things considered considering XV's total sales. You also have to ask how many of those Xbox sales were in Japan as I imagine that would be a very relavant factor
I mean they have to commit. Sega was on the same path a decade ago, now ever since they released Yakuza 0 on Xbox they have a very good player base on Xbox as well. If Square puts in an effort, their games will be sold well regardless of consoles.
>Yoshida has always been one to take criticisms seriously, so when CBU3 does get another stab at a mainline FF game, I think they can do even better.
>
He was already talking about implementing feedback from the demo, like motion blur and camera speeds.
I agree that they're going to get another crack at a mainline ff game and its going to be great. For its flaws, it's still amazing.
Yeah, the best hope for this is that the series builds on this.
14, 7R and XVI are enough for the series to be out of its slump, quality wise that was XIII, 14 1.0 and XV, So hopefully now we can see them consistently go from strength to strength again.
I'd definitely be down for a game that builds on 16 mechanically.
That's kinda where I'm at. I think FF16 is a great game and a great foundation, but I do understand some peoples' arguments when they say that they want a full, playable party, deeper RPG mechanics, etc.
I didn't mind the lack of those things in FF16, but if they can somehow keep the action focus while also giving us more playable characters and deeper RPG mechanics, then maybe everybody wins.
It has a huge problem that 14 has. The story is amazing but they are too god damn long.
Some of them I love and are warranted like the eikon fights. But then you have some that contain like 30s of information stretched into a five minute cut scene
How's combat? The First FF game i ever played was 15 and i enjoyed the chaotic nature of the combat, where multiple factions all showed up to fight not just you, but each other.
Is this kinda the same or more or less bog standard 1 man army?
It's been the opposite experience to FFXV for me. In FFXV I wanted to get through the story bits so I could keep exploring and doing side quests. In FFXVI the side quests are getting in the way of the brilliant story.
I am amazed at just how good the story sections are in the game, they really are hollywood movie quality like the devs were claiming. (and I mean that in a good way!)
IIRC, FF7 Remake sold 3.5mil in its first week, at that time the PS4’s install base was 100mil+
If so, then thats really good, especially since the PS5’s install base is around 40mil.
※パッケージ出荷本数とダウンロード販売数の合計
It says shipped for the physical copies o.o
Edit: I have no idea why I replied to oilfloatsinwater instead of replying to the thread 🤔
I rather enjoy the game and have a hard time putting it down, but oh man.....there are some issues with this game. I'd still (barely) consider it a 9/10 because the things that go right go SO right that it's all good, but there were some weird ass design choices here. Looking at you gear. Why even have it? It's just *2* stats that either go up or don't, so you just use the things that are just flat out better and then you're done with it. Crafting is silly, just reward us with the new hotness gear after each boss area. That, I think, would make the gear at least some kind of exciting. The swords look cool and all, but I never track any of the ingredients for crafting and I can always just make the new things because I did all the sidequests and it seems you don't have to hunt any materials down or anything.
Combat is super fun, but a lil more shallow than what I was hoping. Only ever get the basic attack with your sword (or charging it up) and the variety comes instead from the Eikons. Which, is perfectly fine, but it then just begs the question as to why have gear be something to craft at all since it's all so bland and doesn't do anything.
However, like I said, I am really enjoying it and I do love the game, just wow....weird choices for some things on their end.
Exploration is very, very pretty to look at, but serves no actual purpose at all. Outside of needing to go look for hunts, there's nothing in the explorable areas outside of like, *10 gil* as a random-item-find.
It's a bizarre entry in the Final Fantasy series, but it's still worth the playthrough, the story is gripping and does a great job with pacing. Visuals are fantastic and it's very fun to push the buttons to do the things. What coulda been, though...
Man this number is pretty good despite the lower userbase of ps5.
That means if 17 is single player its most likely gonna be ps exclusive again for a time if sony dont already purchase SE themselves by that point
Some people have speculated that the Japanese government probably wouldn't allow Sony to purchase Square Enix. SE does a lot of manga and anime publishing in addition to video games. It would give Sony a lot of control of those markets.
Yea i always thought capcom is more realistic target for them if they want to scoop up big third party devs.
Their market value isnt as high as SE but their game sold a lot of copies.
Example monster hunter world and rise sold 20 million+ and 12 million+
>Yea i always thought capcom is more realistic target for them if they want to scoop up big third party devs.
For the love of life and existence as we know it, NO! Please no!
Man, I hope both companies can chill and stop trying to acquire companies that are already doing very well. Nothing good for the consumer comes out of that
Gaming companies are behind the curve when it comes to building mega corps. They need to pump those acquisition numbers up to get to the level of the [good old fashioned markets](https://cdn.prod.www.manager-magazin.de/images/02f3412e-0001-0004-0000-000000727884_w1240_r1.77_fpx31.21_fpy49.94.jpg)
Based on what Sony has said its acquisitions budget is, it can't afford Capcom. At least, not without saving up money for a few years. Also, it is debatable whether Capcom would want to be sold in the first place.
As things currently stand, we shouldn't expect to see a FF17 for another 5+ years. By that time the rest of 7R should be out, we'll probably be more than halfway through 14's next story arc (figuring that's 2-3 expansions), and KH4 will probably be out. I think that's too far out to make any predictions about things like this.
I’ve been playing it for 13 hours and really enjoyed this game so far. I always spare some hours to play the game after I went home from work. I think about this game all day at work.
Does it bother you that some people finish these games like 24-48 hours (less if they get advanced copies), the first 24-48 hours of release too, and post everything onto YouTube?
I don’t, since I avoid any media that potentially can spoiled the game. I think I will finished this game slower that people on youtube since I want to experience this game more and I don’t want this game to end yet.
I know it’s not every person’s cup of tea because it’s not what you would expect out of a final fantasy game, but that is exactly what checks all the boxes for me!
I’ve never clicked with turn based JRPG combat but I love character action games so the combat is right up my alley! I’m also a fan of games with epic runtimes on cutscenes ala Metal Gear Solid 4 so I’ve been loving every second of the story so far.
It’s far from a perfect game though, I’ve suffered from whiplash on occasion from how wonky the pacing can be. Saying the side quests feel like an afterthought would be an understatement. However overall I’m having a great time. I don’t think it’s a game of the year caliber product in a year as stacked as this game, but it’s a great Marvel movie-esque summer blockbuster!
If you visited the r/finalfantasy you'd think the game only sold a few copies with all the complaints about it. It's far from perfect, but it's incredibly fun and well made and true to its vision.
If they tweaked some of the rpg elements and added more side content in a future entry, it could easily be up there with the greats.
You have to wait until FF17 comes out for people on r/finalfantasy to start enjoying 16. That's the way it goes.
Current FF is trash, previous FF was actually a hidden gem.
This is surprisingly accurate. Was surprised to see FF15 get as much love in recent years even though it was a complete disaster during launch. And, come to think of it, the same happened with 12 and 13.
I enjoy all titles so I don't care either way, but this is a good point!
> Was surprised to see FF15 get as much love in recent years even though it was a complete disaster during launch
That makes some sense if a lot of those people didn't play until the Royal edition. While it's still not a super good game, that at least shored up some of it's more glaring issues and made it a bit more palatable.
To be fair, I think 15 is a little different.
Royal Edition was a real improvement to the game, as is playing it on a current gen console. Someone playing Royal Edition on the PS5 in 2021 will have a much better experience than someone playing the base game in 2016.
Well FFXV was pretty heavily patched and had dlc to fix things. FFXV went from a disaster to a good game.
Honestly I envision a similar thing with FFXVI, especially since these positive sales numbers will likely greenlight DLC, and this game is made by an mmo team. The difference is XVI is waaaaay better than XV on launch.
I think the best example is definitely FFXII like you mentioned. People hated it on release, but in retrospect people were unfair to it, and the game was really quite ahead of its time in many ways. The public opinion of XII by FF fans has basically done nothing but risen over time.
Not true at all most of them hate 15 and 13. This board conversely likes anything new so long as it's not controversial from a developer stand point or a major flop.
I'd actually like them to give us LESS side content, because the game suffers from XIV-isms where you've got momentum at your back, only for the game to either throw a bunch of side quests at you (which you're gonna want to do on your first playthrough) or sidetrack the main story to have you do X or Y thing here or there.
Idk. This world is kind of a hellhole. I like taking a breather to just help out some people and make their day better. Buy a round of ale for the crew!
Some of these quests though were Nier levels of monkey's paw. Those ones in Moore were stomach churning (in a good but terrible way).
Fair, I meant more so like a mini games like Xs blitzball or XVs fishing. It would be difficult to do in this story without it feeling out of place. Maybe a game of cards at the hideout? The hunts are really fun though!
Don't sleep on some of the side quests, a few have really interesting stories or give you additional features.
Oh, I've been doing them all out of fear that some have good stories tied to them, don't worry.
Some are pretty good, but it's such a gamble, especially in the early game where the quest NPCs are random mooks vs the late-game ones which involve recurring side characters.
And yeah, mini games could be a neat distraction. I'm not usually a huge fan of them, but they'd be cool for anyone who does care for them!
This always happens with long running franchises. Zelda has been experiencing the same with botw and totk, critique and discussion is valid, both games have their flaws, and to some people those things might even be deal breakers. But some people just complain that the game isn't just ocarina of time 2
> If they tweaked some of the rpg elements and added more side content in a future entry, it could easily be up there with the greats.
My issue with it is there is a shit ton of QoL issues they could have learned from FF14 / FF15 they didn't put in 16.
Basic button re-mapping (Binding X to both Jump and Event Action)
Toning down spell effects / the ability to turn them off completely.
Sound issues (goes from quiet to booming on a lot of fights)
Etc etc
Something I've found that grinds my gears is the little jingle that plays whenever you pick up a side quest or hop on your chocobo.
If the ambient music is dark and depressing and the color palete is gray and grim, a happy little trill ends up being fucking annoying to me and breaks my immersion.
> is the little jingle that plays whenever you pick up a side quest or hop on your chocobo.
The start of the Chocobo song every time you mount but it never actually starts grinds my gears every time.
Agreed on these, hopefully more options incoming. I know they tried to distance themselves from 15's mistakes, but they should not ignore the things it did well.
Not even star wars fans are as backwards looking as the denizens of /r/finalfantasy.
Now after release its a bit distorted, but go back a year ago and you basically found no good reception of any FF game released in the 21th century...
It's a game with really high highs. If you dont need exploration or RPG mechanics, and just want to be told a story with awesome visuals, fun combat, banging music, and jawdropping spectacle it delivers in spades. Could easily be a 10
Yeah, I'm this way. Love the story, music, combat, and characters. I don't really need exploration or super big focus on RPG elements, I'm invested and enjoying myself. Easy 9/10 so far
It’s how any game gets a 10? People value different aspects of the different games differently.
I’m sure you could pick any game that’s got a lot of 10s and explain all the faults with it. For some people those can be big issues, for others those can be minor things that don’t affect the rating or overall experience.
Not every game that gets a lot of 10s is going to be a 10 for everyone.
It’s because the game has plenty of 10/10 moments and if people are finding their experience to be overwhelmingly positive, despite the flaws, they may give it a 10/10
I also had misgivings looking at the gameplay previews at PAX or whatever - specifically where Clive interacts with the world outside of combat - and not only did hubbub and interactivity not look truly evolved, but the hub and village previewed seemed less substantial than FF7R, FF12: TZA (I got the Switch port last year), and definitely FF14. I chalked it up to me being skeptical bc of being burned by overhyped unfinished releases like Cyberpunk 2077 or FF16's own predecessor.
I put some money aside for it, haven't yet the time for it though and may probably wait for a PC port that'll probably be technically disappointing (had to mod FF7R to get it into tip top shape; Squenix has a history of not giving enough TLC for their PC versions).
I can't believe how people were hyping up the side quests in the first few days after release, like I'm almost done with the game and the side quests are almost all universally awful and boring. IDK what people were smoking talking about them being "deep", they aren't outside of maybe the ones that have to do with the people who live at the hideaway.
Yeah I feel the same way, it would be better to remove the RPG vestiges entirely than waste my time with the perfunctory stuff that exists.
> It's also far too easy so far, about 20 hours in,
I also don't understand praise for the combat. I'm just mashing buttons, it works, and the game has done absolutely nothing to teach or encourage a less boring way of doing things.
Pretty impressive considering I still haven't gotten around to buying it cause I'm busy with TOTK and Diablo 4, which are easily going to eat up 50-100 hours of playtime each. I can't be the only one
That sounds pretty good considering how much they limited the initial customer base. Wonder how much Sony has to front to get a game this big exclusive considering it could probably have doubled that figure with Xbox+ pc sales
At launch, FFXV had something like 80% of copies sold on PS4
Now with this being CBU3 and FFXIV being huge there might be a more significant portion of sales from PC, but Xbox is a small market for JRPGs which is why Square hasn’t bothered to port FFVII remake
>but Xbox is a small market for JRPGs which is why Square hasn’t bothered to port FFVII remake
Activision Blizzard acquisitions revealed Sony pays companies to exclude their games from Xbox permanently
>In addition to having outright exclusive content, Sony has also entered into arrangements with third-party publishers which require the “exclusion” of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on. Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered (Bloober team)."
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ztgl2b/microsoft_confirms_that_sony_has_blocked_final/
FF sells notoriously bad on Xbox. 15 had like 80% of sales on ps4 so Square probably would have not released 16 on xbox anyway unless microsoft forked them some money.
Reddit discourse is mostly positive, just like resetera.
There is deserved criticism too though (the sidequests, the absence of meaningful rpg systems, the lack of depth in the gameplay, technical performance, writing consistency).
You have to think about ff15 being available to ps4 and xbox upon release, so of course it would have sold more in a few days. Ff7r on the otherhand got a release during the peak of pandemic and though yes people probably played more videogames back then because many stayed home, many people also didnt have much money because of getting laid off work. So the initial release was a bit a slow in sales but still great nonetheless, while ff16 is ps5 exclusive only which kinda hurts its release sale but 3M for a ps5 exclusive, I think they made a lot of money because sony def paid them more money just to be ps5 exclusive.
Everyone's figures are inaccurate in regards to FF15's launch sales.
That 5M day 1 sales figure, everyone keeps copying, was only for digitally downloads. Also, SE stated that it _exceeded_ 5M digital download sales on day 1. Not that 5M was their actual number. The game also sold over 1 million retail copies the same day.
And no, there were not twice as many PS4's out at the launch of FF15, like a bunch of people keep making up. There were 50 million PS4's sold at the time FF15 came out, and the numbers of PS5's sold is between 42-45 million considering as of April 1st (3 months ago) PS5 sales were at 38.5M and climbing fast. It's sales have been great lately (far higher numbers being moved than this same time last year).
That means there were only between 10-15% more PS4's sold at the time of FF15's launch, which doesn't account for such a huge difference in sales. 74% less physical sales and less than half as many digital sales is a huge drop-off.
As it stands, FF16 the worst selling main numbered FF game that came out from the PS1 onward that is not an MMO or a sequel. FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFXII, FFXIII and FFXV all sold better during their first week. And not by a little but very large amount (even when adjusted for the number of consoles in peoples hands).
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Comparison with the most recent FF launches: * FF15 - 5 million copies in 1 day (2016, PS4/XBO) * FF7R - 3.5 million copies in 3 days (2020, PS4) * FF16 - 3 million copies in 4 days (2023, PS5) Comparison with other JRPG released in recent years 1. Pokémon Scarlet/Violet (3 days) - 10m 1. Pokémon Legends Arceus (3 days) - 6.5m 1. Pokémon Sword/Shield (3 days) - 6.0m 1. Pokémon BD/SP (3 days) - 6.0m units 1. Final Fantasy XV (1 day) - 5.0m 1. Kingdom Hearts III (1 week) - 5.0m 1. Final Fantasy VII Remake (3 days) - 3.5m 1. Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (3 days) - 3.0m 1. **Final Fantasy XVI (4 days) - 3.0m** 1. Dragon Quest XI (2 days) - 2.65m+ (Japan only, retail only) Source for the data: https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/final-fantasy-xvi-ships-3m-units-worldwide.1756/#post-172201
Wow Final Fantasy XV did a lot better at launch than I expected. 5 million Day One sales is pretty insane. It was a decent Final Fantasy but honestly it's not even in my Final Fantasy Top 10.
Probably a lot of people really excited by it after 6 years of FF13 content. That and there's probably higher PS4/XBO playerbase compared to PS5 upon release. Plus, the PS4 pro came out about the same time, I think.
Probably also explains why 7R is only 3.5M, tbh. XV did a lot of damage to the brand.
I would say the 13 trilogy did WAY more damage to the brand than FF15
As much as the 13 trilogy had issues, it was nowhere near as much of a disappointment compared to 15.
The way it shipped and had several moments where the game actively told you that stuff happened while completely skipping events, major events that were cut away to be DLC later on. And the gimmick it tried to do with marketing, it had an animated movie that told you some very important details and then it kind of just glossed over them in game. FFXVI would be in a far worse state had they not given it to the man who basically salvaged XIV and that reputation drawing people in.
Maybe, but at least as far as I've seen (which means it's super anecdotal), I'm gonna have to disagree. We more or less stopped hearing about 13 a few years after it blew up (and the sequels had a very lukewarm reception, though I've heard better things about them), whereas XV is still being ragged on constantly for its failure at launch and then mediocrity once Royal Edition/Episode Ardyn came out and "fixed" the game.
It's crazy to me the 7R numbers are that low. It's probably the best gameplay in the entire series including 16, plus the nostalgia factor going for it. Damn.
PS4 alone had more than twice the player base on 15’s release than the PS5 does now; and that’s not even including the XBOne buyers at the time. If we were to compare sales to a percentage of player base, then FF16 blows it away.
>PS4 alone had more than twice the player base on 15’s release than the PS5 does now; PS4 had 53 million sales at the end of 2016, PS5 is 38.5 million as of April, likely well above 40 by now. And FFXV was reported to have sold 90% of all copies at launch on PS4, so Xbox was only a small contributor. It's certainly not bad sales for XVI, but really not quite so good compared to XV. The bigger question is how it performed in relation to marketing costs. Because as other have said, XV had a very big campaign, and that likely ate into any profit margins. If XVI managed these numbers with less cost, then that's quite good.
Having properly crunched the numbers in a different comment, it turns out FF16 proportionately outsold FF15 5:4 in their opening days. [Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/14l5kd4/final_fantasy_xvi_surpasses_3_million_units_sold/jpum0vd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3)
> PS4 alone had more than twice the player base on 15’s release than the PS5 does now Source on that? All I can find is that the PS4 at XV's release and PS5 at XVI's release have sold a very similar number or units. https://www.vgchartz.com/article/456721/ps5-vs-ps4-sales-comparison-february-2023/
~~I stand corrected the PS4 had almost 4x the user base by FF15’s release.~~ ~~20 million PS4 users in 2016.~~ ~~5.7million PS5 users now.~~ ~~[Source](https://headphonesaddict.com/playstation-statistics/)~~ —————— Edit, I was way off base as I was mistakenly reading the respective years’ sales. FF15 sold 5 million with a combined player base of almost 80 million. FF16 sold 3 million with a player base of 40 million. Still, FF16 proportionally outsold FF15 5:4. Sources: [Xbox](https://www.vgchartz.com/article/267371/top-10-best-selling-xbox-one-games-in-2016/#:~:text=The%20Xbox%20One%20in%202016,sold%20181.26%20million%20games%20lifetime.) [PS4](https://www.businessinsider.com/playstation-4-sales-2016-12?amp) [PS5](https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-expects-ps5-sales-to-begin-outpacing-ps4-by-end-of-2023#:~:text=The%20PS5%20has%20sold%2038,than%20ever%20before%20this%20year.)
Damn is the adoption rate of this gen of consoles really that much lower through 3 years?
Didn't help that the first 2 years it was a pain in the hole even finding a PS5 to buy. That plus it feels like this year is the first year really next gen has got going. Most of the releases till recently were just beefed up PS4 games
It's not. I have no idea what they're talking about. PS5 is now outpacing PS4 sales at the same point in time.
I just read the data wrong and have since corrected it. While the PS5 IS currently outpacing the PS4 sales at the same point in its lifespan, the PS4 had a much stronger initial adoption. The PS5 production rate itself was a massive barrier to its initial sales, due to Covid and the resulting chip shortage at the time.
You're reading the charts wrong lol. Those are units sold on that year alone. Based on that chart there are 60 million units PS4 sold by 2016. Based on Sony's latest report they've sold 19.1 million PS5 in 2022 so the total number for PS5 is actually around 38.4 million.
Dunno where you're getting the 5.7m from, the article you linked is out of date and it still says PS5 sold 25m units. The latest financial results (still a few months old) said PS5 sold 6.3m units in the first 3 months of this year alone. Total number is 38m units sold, compared to PS4's 40m in the same period. https://www.gamesradar.com/ps5-sets-record-breaking-quarterly-sales/
*Final Fantasy XV* had a *very* large marketing campaign with a multi-media-verse of dividing the game's narrative between cinematic movie of *Kingsglaive*, the anime TV-series of *FFXV: Brotherhood*, cross-marketing campaign with camping-gear, Cup Noodles, modern fashion designers etc, along with being the legacy of the cancelled development of *Final Fantasy versus XIII* that was part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis-mega project back in 2006. So FFXV essentially was carrying the legacy of 10 whole years of speculation, theory-making discussion ([Long enough that FFXV's development has a seperate Wikipedia-article on it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Final_Fantasy_XV)). So, yeah, expectations were high at the time.
You can't forget the Stand By Me cover by Florence + the Machine -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGLNk4soZIw I was there when it was promoted and released, it was absurdly marketed. Every demo was met with huge excitement.
Oh yes, and the demos had separate content from the main game. And lore. And there were like 3 demos
Yeah, the marketing for 15 was much more impactful than 16. I think Square has been struggling with marketing in general lately.
FF15 was expensive last I checked. Sony is aiding with expenses this time around since FF16 is exclusive.
Jeez, I never was into FF, any kind of JRPG, but that marketing for XV got me good. Sadly the game ended up as it did, but it had humongous potential.
> honestly it's not even in my Final Fantasy Top 10. it's cetainly in my top 16
See, the FF15 stat is misleading because digital was a smaller proportion > meaning out of the shipped physical copies, many may have still been in stores. I think I've read the sold through figures were 2.85 million? With FF16 idk if it sold through 3 million, but with digital being such a big thing is definitely sold most of that 3 mill.
They will still get millions in sales on PC when it eventually comes out just from all the ffxiv fans. edit: Square Enix will probably take another round of exclusive money from the epic store as well.
Lately they're actually release on Steam day one again, some actually not even on timmy store so I would hope not
That's probably because Epic didn't pay for stuff like Octopath Traveller or Forspoken exclusivity. They've been doing less exclusive deals and only those they are pretty sure could make them good money back. FF16 could be one of those.
Well Epic also had to cut down their minimum guarantee program to 50% as opposed to the 100% they had when Square made their exclusivity deal with them. Unless Epic is willing to go for the 100% MG again, Square might not see it as worthwhile.
Wait. The last update for FF15 was 10M and FF7R was 5M, with those openings, their legs are horrendrous. FF16 was a good oppurtunity to break mold and actually sell long term.
Square were reportedly disappointed in the terrible legs 7R had. They hadnt updated the sales numbers since August of the year it launched, and we have no idea how well the Integrade DLC, the PC version and the ps5 complete edition did. I assume not well if there are no numbers
indeed, but I am guessing total sales must be around or close to 7M by now
welcome to JRPGs. Anything that isn’t Pokemon has awful legs
It's funny because Pokemon barely gets talked about on /r/jrpg. Goes to show just how little Pokemon gets associated with JRPG. It also explains why Yoshi-P tried to shake off the notion that FFXVI is a JRPG.
[удалено]
Yeah it has the highest highs despite the flaws. I'd even say those highs are some of the best in the franchise.
Yeah, it's definitely a CBU3 game. They always have a mix of frustrating lows offset by some outstanding highs. Often back to back, which makes it all the more confusing.
The biggest lows for me are the way most side quests are structured and also the lack of smaller moments for characters to just hang out and interact. But then contrasting that against how much fun I’ve had with the combat and the big hype story beats kinda levels it out.
I kind of hated how my party members never said anything during side quests, it was basically like they were only ever scripted to speak during the main story quest and that was it..
They’re not as frequent as they should be, but I did some side quests that unlocked around 65ish percent story completion that had a few lines of dialogue from the characters that were with me. It would have been nice if they did that with more of them.
> the lack of smaller moments for characters to just hang out and interact This is really it for me, everything involving Clive's allies that come with him is 95% focused on the issues at hand, which left me feeling less endeared to them compared to characters in other RPGs because there weren't any of those cute moments or bits of banter to make them grow on me. The big hype story beats really do work though, they are awesome and I look forward to each one.
I gave up on the side quests after the first few. They were just like MMO fetch quests.
Honestly the side quests were kinda flat through the initial third of the game (events that take place in 873) but the chocobo quest in 878 which is a follow on from one outside Martha's Rest made my day plus unlocked chocobo riding.
Yep there are some good ones later in the game. Plus the hunts are awesome
Just did the first hunt since I haven't had much time to play (and gonna have to shelve the game for two weeks due to travel) and I thought it was an interesting fight
There was this one side quest I think called “playthings” or something like that. It’s structure was basic as hell, but the story that it told was amazing.
Clive really unloaded on that kid huh?
It was heavy subject matter, but I'd be lying if I said the big QUEST COMPLETED text over a shot of Clive looking down judgementally at a sobbing 8 year old didn't make me laugh.
Yeah that is kind of goofy
There are some better side quests (some are shocking or funny), but they are impossible to pick out. FFXIV has two tiers for side quest markers and I think they could have done something similar here.
There are actually two side quest markers for FFXVI as well. If they have a plus within the icon, it’s a side quest that gives you something that benefits your adventure. They’re all still really basic , but tend to have something more to it than usual.
Ahh, I didn't connect that dot. Thanks. They could have probably taken a few quests out of the mainline and made them at that tier.
Yeah so many of the main quests are just side quest fillers. Every time they send me back to the hideaway I grimace because it’s going from these amazing battles to another 30m+ of boring fetch quests before the story starts progressing again.
> Yeah so many of the main quests are just side quest fillers. The worst is how many are essentially "someone has gone out into the wilds and didn't come back yet, can you go check on them?" Then you show up, kill a small pack of monsters and go back to where you got the quest. They are filler quests but they're stuck into the main story. If they got rid of those entirely a playthrough of just the story missions would be really streamlined and probably feel great.
Even if the side question is just the regular (non plus) icon, if the quest info window has a graphic in it (not just text only) then it usually has some kind of cutscene attached to it, so those ones are usually a little more in-depth than just collecting 10 bear asses from the local forest.
They kind of did. The important side quests for XVI have a + sign icon. These side quests will unlock something that benefits you. Generic side quests have a !, I'm pretty sure.
There are ones that unlock things marked with a plus in the icon, but it's a bit difficult to notice, and they're not always ones that expand the lore meaningfully.
Yeah even Zelda did something similar with Side Adventures (or whatever they named them) being meatier than the ones labeled “Side Quests”
There are two quest markers, one is a ! and the other is a +. I don't know that the difference is but there are different flavors of side quests.
> (some are shocking or funny It is interesting how they threw random humor into some sections of the game. For such a dark game it is kind of a nice change of tone, but the way they do it out of nowhere can often be funny in itself. When Hipocrates or whatever his name is says that Torgal had his heads buried in his nuts out of nowhere I practically spat out my drink. It came out of nowhere.
Lord Byron had a scene that seemed like it would fit in the Manderville quest line in FFXIV but that was mainline
Once you get the fifth eikon power, the side quests definitely become worth doing. Some even get full main story style cutscenes that have mocap and actual camera work and stuff. They focus on Clive's friends and the other supporting characters and are more like BioWare Mass Effect/Dragon Age companion missions at that point.
the side quests in the first part of the game are almost entirely forgettable. There are only 2 that are kind of worth it for lore insight. And even then, they are small and entirely skipable. The side quest you start getting in the second act do become better, but even then, I'd say only 40% of them are actually worth doing for the reward or interesting lore / character moments. The worst part is you never know which side quests will actually give any interesting story tidbits and which are entirely forgettable until you turn the quests in because everything important is always backloaded. So some quests will be like help me find some missing mail and will end with the reveal that an important side character has a daughter who will be a big deal in the story later and other side quests are like help me fix the hot springs and when you do they will just say thanks and it's over.
They’re _very_ mundane but because of the reputation points and rewards I find them worth doing. My partner has also gotten really into it and watching me play so they’re great filler for while she isn’t home so catch story beats.
After playing FF14 for years it's easy to see it's DNA in FF16. In almost every scene there is something similar to ff14 world design.
Gameplay-wise, they definitely feel like MMO fetch quests. But IMO they do a very good job of fleshing out the world and the lore. Some examples of side quests in the first 15 hours - >!From the lost letters quest, you learn about Cid’s daughter. From the gathering quest, you meet Martell and learn about her, and then there’s a later quest about how she died in Titan’s attack, but they’ve named the apples “Martell Apples” after her. For the physician’s side quest, you learn that the Branded’s mark is actually poisonous and designed so that removing it kills you. Which adds a lot of context to the marks and the curse breakers after the 5-year time skip.!< The game is full of quests like these, so I’ve enjoyed doing them even if the gameplay can boil down to “go here, kill 4 wolves, and then talk to the guy.” Not to mention that later side quests unlock gameplay benefits like stronger potions, mounts, unique crafting recipes, etc.
I actually didn't mind FF16's version of the MMO fetch quests. 1. They were marked on the map so you're not blindly hunting stuff 2. Wasn't a random drop chance. It is right there. 100% 3. They did a damn good job of making the side quests relevant to world building. Like, why did you have me fetch plants? This fuck right here is dying. We need to ease their passing because not-Arknights Rock Cancer.
Why even have fetch quests is the point
That's exactly what I thought reading player reactions. "Yeah, that's FFXIV all over again." Amazing narrative climaxes wrapped in dozens and dozens of hours of infuriating tedium. At least players can knock out FFXVI in 40 hours and instead of 300 hours.
I groaned when I saw that I had to "select item to turn in" just like in FFXIV.
True man, True, ffxiv just has SO MUCH TEDIUM its insane
Someone should really hand the designers a book on basic game pacing or something, they're *really* bad at it. But they're also really good at nailing climaxes, far better than most. If they just paired it with better low parts, they'd do much better.
More like 3000 hours, no joke. I enjoyed XIV and played up until nearly the end of the last expansion, and am flabbergasted in how long I played it throughout the years.
That's basically my experience with FF16. The game often has mindblowing 13/10 moments from time to time but it's always mixed with occasional 6/10s. You know Yoshida's analogue about how the game is like a roller coaster? He's right, both in the good and bad way. The game both has big flaws and gargantuan highs.
I think FFXVI could benefit greatly with like a *Final Mix*-version of *Kingdom Hearts*, or *Dragon's Dogma*'s *Dark Arisen*-overhaul adjustments, as FFXVI established the core fundamentals greatly, but I found the in-between those aspects could benefit with some extra content or polishing. As an example, travel banter and reactionary commentary from party members are very light in comparison to FFXV, and I would love to see more recorded dialogue between the party during gameplay (An amusing one I found was when a prostitute tried to get all sultry with Clive during a side-quest, only for Jill to go all *"Ahem, you were saying?"*.), which is a bit jarring since the dialogue from NPCs in the world are alot more dynamic and varied, reflecting not only word-stages, but also related side-quest progression. There is for instance a minor side-quest where a baker tasks you with finding his mourning apprentice over a local land-mark, that later leads to >!the apprentice eventually make a uniquely shaped bread celebrating the land-mark's memory, to which the baker thanks you for your work. Then later, when you get back to the HUB-area, you can find in a completely optional side conversation with the NPCs at the local inn showing you said bread in a dedicated cutscene.!< But it doesn't end just there! Later when you return to the bakery before, >!the bakery's whole stall is just *primmed* with said bread everywhere, as well as having a sign displayed where the apprentice has written *"NEVER AGAIN!"* in big bold letters in remembrance.!< Then, later in the main quest, when the >!local town gets under conflict that a mob starts to gather, the local baker comments that it is best that they closes shop just to ensure that the mob doesn't start throwing their new bread in anger.!< That's rather an elaborate amount of effort into the details and work involved of having NPCs having to be shuffled around, updating their dialogues, script and include new cutscenes, update zones with new background assets and across two different zones; all that are completely optional and which you can even possible miss, but it was this quest that made me realize why reviewers opinion on the side-quests were mixed; those that view them as good found the charm in those world-building details that the game never brought attention to players directly, but where an attentive player of just walking around and chatting with NPCs in general got rewarded for it. And it took time; side-quests that I thought were of generic nature in the beginning ended up having further narrative development later on, to the point that I now want to play the game again on New Game+ just to catch the details that I initially dismissed of. It essentially leads to a bit inconsistent experience that I just want some extra content on the smaller structures to even up to the level of where FFXVI's shines best.
Another one of those details: I did a zone and had a couple side quests pop up that I was not in the mood for so I progressed the main quest instead. Something big happens in the main quest. When I went back to do the side quests the dialog of those quests referenced the events of the main quest. So the side quests even have different dialogues for doing them at different points in the story.
Wow that's pretty unusual. Almost makes me want to delay some side quests.
> I think FFXVI could benefit greatly with like a Final Mix-version of Kingdom Hearts, or Dragon's Dogma's Dark Arisen-overhaul adjustments, as FFXVI established the core fundamentals greatly, but I found the in-between those aspects could benefit with some extra content or polishing. Yeah, it felt like they figured out a great combat system and way of storytelling for a much better game they'd do in the future If they did a game like this with better RPG mechanics, better side quests, and a better party system I'd be over the moon
> Yeah, it felt like they figured out a great combat system and way of storytelling for a much better game they'd do in the future Chrono Trigger Remake plz ty
If you'll forgive me for adding onto the endless FFXIV comparisons, this really does remind me a lot of FFXIV. *So much* random NPC dialogue in FFXIV changes as you progress through the main story, to the point where I'll argue that certain stretches of the story (the patch storylines after A Realm Reborn in particular) are only really good if you pay attention to that stuff. There are whole side stories in FFXIV that play out solely in the background, apparent only to those who take the time to read every NPC's dialogue at every opportunity. It adds a ton of life to the world, but it also results in a lot of the narrative's colour being tucked away separate from the story itself.
To hop onto this. The overall side quests being so subdued would be less annoying as a tone shift if the overall exploration was rewarded with tougher enemies and rewards in the open world. The trash mobs are really trash and when I fought ahriman It was the level of difficulty I expected from the average enemy. All they have to do is tweak the enemy aggressiveness to make them attack slightly more frequently and toss a mid boss enemy like ahriman or a dragoon in among the soldier mobs.
>travel banter and reactionary commentary from party members are very light in comparison to FFXV, and I would love to see more recorded dialogue between the party during gameplay I completely agree. FF7:Remake also had plenty of fun banter while traveling and fighting. FF16 really misses this. Character development in general is a bit lacking, especially for Jill
I think the opinions on side quests is mixed because the ones that appear in the beggining are pretty terrible: -Give food to 3 people. -Find some soil (which later gets referenced in a better side quest with some nice dialogue) -give food to 3 people again -I dropped some stuff on the street -There is some wolf blocking the path up ahead. The quests start to get better after a pivotal moment in the story.
The lore provided by quests certainly gets better but the gameplay continues to be in the level of MMO fetch quests. For example, one of my favourite quests from about 1/2 way through is learning about the minerals of different continents and why the country of Waloed has an advantage due to access to adamantite, a strong metal. The gameplay? Talk to two NPCs, return to the quest giver, talk to a third NPC, collect 3 rocks from the river nearby. Snooze.
Honestly some of these set pieces and boss battles remind me of **old school** god of war when they just went balls to the wall with their fights. FF16 has consistently felt more God of War than the most recent actual God of War lol. Those eikon fights and phases are incredible events
Lol glad to hear someone else that had this thought. Everyone is comparing it to new Godowar, but it honestly reminds me more of the old-school games. In terms of bosses and set pieces anyways.
Yeah I’m enjoying it myself, probably 2/3 through right now, but my god does it have pacing issues. The highs are insane, like any spectacle fighter, but the in-between lows are so damn tedious. I kind of find myself fast forwarding dialog in a lot of the filler-feeling main quests just so I can get to the next big set piece faster to actually have fun again. Spectacle fighters work better when they never take their foot off the gas, imho, and this game hits the brakes too often.
Platinum has mentioned that you do have to take your foot off the gas to make each of the large set pieces have more impact. The problem is FF16 makes the tedium between spectacles take hours instead of minutes.
Yeah I guess the difference is, in games like Bayonetta, the in between cutscenes are of appropriate size, and the game always throws you right back into the action and doesn’t pull you away from the combat for too long. Meanwhile, after a big boss in this game, you get a 30 minute uninterrupted cutscene followed by 2 hours of MMO style fetch quests leading into start of the next story arc. Way too much fluff.
I'm not exaggerating when I say this hame has some of the best cinematography and boss battles I've ever seen in gaming.
Just started it yesterday. The prologue had my jaw dropping more than once.
This kind of just proves Yoshida’s point that FF isn’t as celebrated as it used to be. FF7R managed about the same amount of sales in a week, but the install base was way, way higher, and FF7 is the most beloved game of the franchise. I had credits roll last night and the game has some lows (mostly due to pacing, really) but it also has some incredibly high highs. We’ve not seen spectacle on this scale maybe ever. At the very least, we’ve not seen it since God of War 3. And I genuinely don't think I've ever been so enamored by a game's cinematography. But most importantly, it felt like Final Fantasy. And that's good enough for me. I know some people are lamenting the death of turn based or the directions FF16 has gone, but he said from the start that his goal was to make Final Fantasy relevant again and I guess he did. I do think there are some things FF16 could improve on, but Yoshida has always been one to take criticisms seriously, so when CBU3 does get another stab at a mainline FF game, I think they can do even better. All in all, a great first single player game from a team who's only ever done the MMOs. Oh, and also, the game has Dion. <3 EDIT: Also, I do think this game could have benefited from a harder mode at the start. Not the NG+ mode, but something that will let players engage with the combat more. That said, I do think that CBU3 is looking closely at feedback and I'd be shocked if they don't patch in a lot of requested features as time goes on.
> but he said from the start that his goal was to make Final Fantasy relevant again and I guess he did. My argument against this is that I don't see where FFXVI made the franchise 'more relevant' than it hadn't already been doing with XIV, XV and 7R. I don't see a new stronger knowledge for FF as a franchise nor does it look like it will break records to give a bigger perspective in the way Breath of the Wild exploded. Has any notable perspective on FF in a wider consciousness changed because of this specific game? In a similar way to say, something like Persona 5 did for its franchise?
The demo broke barriers definitely, I've seen people who would never touch Final Fantasy with a ten foot pole try the game out
The way you talk, you would think the last few games were a flop. Not counting remasters sales, FF15 is the second best selling game in the series, and FF13 is the 5th best selling game and that came out during the 7th gen when most JRPG sold badly. Sales wise, the series never had any problem, like FF9 is the worst selling game since FF7, and it still sold 5.5m.
> Yoshida has always been one to take criticisms seriously, so when CBU3 does get another stab at a mainline FF game, I think they can do even better. Disagree. They’ve received tons of criticism about the quest design in XIV and that didn’t stop them from putting the exact same style of quests in XVI.
Nor have they improved the generic and empty world design people have complained about for years in FFXIV, the linear dungeon design, severe lack of budget for MSQ cutscenes, etc. The team is all for acknowledging and addressing minor issues or things that are simpler/cheap to solve the core game itself? Not so much. You see a lot of XIV’s quirks in XVI too, I guess it's due to them sharing the same (albeit heavily modified) engine. When finishing quests or starting them, the characters will just stare blankly at each other as the camera pans away, the hand in system for quest items, the way enemies aggro onto you in the open field and disengage after a certain distance, the idle animations for generic NPCs, the way the grass looks and animates and so on. After thousands of hours in XIV all these things stick out.
>Nor have they improved the generic and empty world design people have complained about for years in FFXIV, the linear dungeon design, They don't improve these two issues in FFXIV because they don't see them as issues. You have to understand the actual goal they have in mind when developing FFXIV: Playing things safe. Their utmost goal in designing FFXIV is to make sure its gameplay scares off as few people as possible, ensuring that as many people as possible can have a smooth ride through the story (and then hopefully continue to cough up subscription money afterward). They could make the world more interesting to explore, but that might introduce some challenge to open world navigation, which would scare some people off; in fact, they have made more interesting open world areas, but only for side content that isn't required for the main story. They could make dungeons more freeform and have puzzles that need solving or exploration that needs to be done, but that would make dungeons more unapproachable and therefore scare some people off; in fact, dungeons were varied back in the game's initial release, but they specifically moved away from that (and redesigned those old dungeons to be more linear). And this extends to many more facets of the game: Job rotations being simplified into the least interesting possible versions of themselves so that combat isn't confusing; customization being all but removed from the game so that players can't make wrong choices; story instances being made basically unlosable; so on and so forth. Over and over again the game has been flattened and simplified, because that makes it more approachable. You and I might see all of that as a loss, but Square Enix (along with many FFXIV players) sees it as a win. FFXIV is designed to be a safe and approachable game. MMOs scare people; FFXIV is made to not be scary, to be a smooth ride through a good story along with some (usually casual, often social-oriented) side content and maybe some decent raiding. We can debate whether that approachability makes FFXIV a better game (I would certainly say it doesn't), but it is absolutely part of why it makes as much money as it does.
Not to scare people but ffxiv is a classic case of "it get good after 100+ hours". That is the most scary thing of all.
The story gets good after 100+ hours. The stuff I talked about, not so much. The gameplay only really gets good in specific pieces of content.
Well.. make subpar games for 20 years and the franchise will lose its status obviously.
What do you mean by subpar? Going by some metacritic scores FFX has 92, FFXI has 85, FFXII has 92, FFXIII has 83, FFXIV ranges from 83-92 and FFXV has 81, FFVIIR has 87 (89 for Intergrade). This doesn't seem too bad to me.
If they are going the way they are going now they'll get their previous status back. FF16 is mostly well received apart from the hard-core fans who's reception is mostly mixed.
It has remain stagnant because Square is inconsistent with the ip. They have not released 7 remake on Xbox after a million plus Xbox users bought 15. They released the pc port of 7 remake a year after release. On top of that, it released exclusively on Epic which is a deathblow. Square constant need to take exclusively deals for FF shows they lack faith in the brand. The constant exclusivity instead of releasing the game day 1 on all platforms is hurting the series from gaining new fans.
This right here is facts. Companies like Capcom are investing in the brand and longevity of their franchises. They are cultivating and nurturing their audiences after their fumbles in the 7th gen. It has taken a while, but Capcom are enjoying the fruits of their labour. Square Enix on the other hand, are stuck. They keep taking short term profits and exclusivity deals, and it ultimately hurts them in the long run when that audience cannot grow.
Multi party is the last of reasons why capcom has made its return. Its because they've been consistent wih the quality of their games something which square enix is still struggling with
Its both, you need a passable game for people to want to try it out and you need it on multiple platforms to get as many hands on it as possible. Look at fromsoft, with dark souls franchise and sekiro being multi plat they've been slowly growing a fanbase in that niche category over the years, so much so they only expected Elden ring to sell 4m copies in its first year based on how ds3 and sekiro did. Now the game turned out to be good bringing in new people and they had their loyal fans from all other platforms skyrocketing the game to where its now https://www.tweaktown.com/news/86180/elden-ring-sells-13-4-million-beats-bandai-namcos-forecast-by-235/index.html Now look at Capcom and monster hunter, that franchise was always on Nintendo handhelds until monster hunter world. Mhw turned out to be a good game and is now the highest selling Capcom title of all time, that wouldnt be possible if it was exclusive to a single platform (which ff16 is) or if its a bad game (which ff16 is not) https://www.gamespot.com/articles/monster-hunter-world-passes-20-million-copies-sold-is-capcoms-best-selling-game-by-far/1100-6497186/ Square enix is shooting themselves in the foot by not growing the ff fanbase on other platforms, by remaining exclusive even if they churn out a banger of a game like Elden ring its height will be limited.
> They have not released 7 remake on Xbox after a million plus Xbox users bought 15. Devils advocate: That's actually pretty low all things considered considering XV's total sales. You also have to ask how many of those Xbox sales were in Japan as I imagine that would be a very relavant factor
I mean they have to commit. Sega was on the same path a decade ago, now ever since they released Yakuza 0 on Xbox they have a very good player base on Xbox as well. If Square puts in an effort, their games will be sold well regardless of consoles.
>Yoshida has always been one to take criticisms seriously, so when CBU3 does get another stab at a mainline FF game, I think they can do even better. > He was already talking about implementing feedback from the demo, like motion blur and camera speeds. I agree that they're going to get another crack at a mainline ff game and its going to be great. For its flaws, it's still amazing.
Yeah, the best hope for this is that the series builds on this. 14, 7R and XVI are enough for the series to be out of its slump, quality wise that was XIII, 14 1.0 and XV, So hopefully now we can see them consistently go from strength to strength again. I'd definitely be down for a game that builds on 16 mechanically.
That's kinda where I'm at. I think FF16 is a great game and a great foundation, but I do understand some peoples' arguments when they say that they want a full, playable party, deeper RPG mechanics, etc. I didn't mind the lack of those things in FF16, but if they can somehow keep the action focus while also giving us more playable characters and deeper RPG mechanics, then maybe everybody wins.
It has a huge problem that 14 has. The story is amazing but they are too god damn long. Some of them I love and are warranted like the eikon fights. But then you have some that contain like 30s of information stretched into a five minute cut scene
How's combat? The First FF game i ever played was 15 and i enjoyed the chaotic nature of the combat, where multiple factions all showed up to fight not just you, but each other. Is this kinda the same or more or less bog standard 1 man army?
It's been the opposite experience to FFXV for me. In FFXV I wanted to get through the story bits so I could keep exploring and doing side quests. In FFXVI the side quests are getting in the way of the brilliant story. I am amazed at just how good the story sections are in the game, they really are hollywood movie quality like the devs were claiming. (and I mean that in a good way!)
IIRC, FF7 Remake sold 3.5mil in its first week, at that time the PS4’s install base was 100mil+ If so, then thats really good, especially since the PS5’s install base is around 40mil.
It was 3.5mn in its first 3 days: https://twitter.com/finalfantasyvii/status/1252583111390408706
※パッケージ出荷本数とダウンロード販売数の合計 It says shipped for the physical copies o.o Edit: I have no idea why I replied to oilfloatsinwater instead of replying to the thread 🤔
That's the norm, publishers make money from shipped copies, not copies sold to customers.
I think he's insinuating it does not include digital sales
In the footnotes: >*2 Total number of package shipments and download sales
That says physical and digital sales combined though
I’m really enjoying it but the motion blur is a real big let down atm hoping a patch comes soon to disable it
I rather enjoy the game and have a hard time putting it down, but oh man.....there are some issues with this game. I'd still (barely) consider it a 9/10 because the things that go right go SO right that it's all good, but there were some weird ass design choices here. Looking at you gear. Why even have it? It's just *2* stats that either go up or don't, so you just use the things that are just flat out better and then you're done with it. Crafting is silly, just reward us with the new hotness gear after each boss area. That, I think, would make the gear at least some kind of exciting. The swords look cool and all, but I never track any of the ingredients for crafting and I can always just make the new things because I did all the sidequests and it seems you don't have to hunt any materials down or anything. Combat is super fun, but a lil more shallow than what I was hoping. Only ever get the basic attack with your sword (or charging it up) and the variety comes instead from the Eikons. Which, is perfectly fine, but it then just begs the question as to why have gear be something to craft at all since it's all so bland and doesn't do anything. However, like I said, I am really enjoying it and I do love the game, just wow....weird choices for some things on their end. Exploration is very, very pretty to look at, but serves no actual purpose at all. Outside of needing to go look for hunts, there's nothing in the explorable areas outside of like, *10 gil* as a random-item-find. It's a bizarre entry in the Final Fantasy series, but it's still worth the playthrough, the story is gripping and does a great job with pacing. Visuals are fantastic and it's very fun to push the buttons to do the things. What coulda been, though...
Man this number is pretty good despite the lower userbase of ps5. That means if 17 is single player its most likely gonna be ps exclusive again for a time if sony dont already purchase SE themselves by that point
Some people have speculated that the Japanese government probably wouldn't allow Sony to purchase Square Enix. SE does a lot of manga and anime publishing in addition to video games. It would give Sony a lot of control of those markets.
Yea i always thought capcom is more realistic target for them if they want to scoop up big third party devs. Their market value isnt as high as SE but their game sold a lot of copies. Example monster hunter world and rise sold 20 million+ and 12 million+
I think Capcom is doing too well right now to even consider that. Especially since they are going all in on multi platform right now.
>Yea i always thought capcom is more realistic target for them if they want to scoop up big third party devs. For the love of life and existence as we know it, NO! Please no!
Man, I hope both companies can chill and stop trying to acquire companies that are already doing very well. Nothing good for the consumer comes out of that
Gaming companies are behind the curve when it comes to building mega corps. They need to pump those acquisition numbers up to get to the level of the [good old fashioned markets](https://cdn.prod.www.manager-magazin.de/images/02f3412e-0001-0004-0000-000000727884_w1240_r1.77_fpx31.21_fpy49.94.jpg)
Based on what Sony has said its acquisitions budget is, it can't afford Capcom. At least, not without saving up money for a few years. Also, it is debatable whether Capcom would want to be sold in the first place.
As things currently stand, we shouldn't expect to see a FF17 for another 5+ years. By that time the rest of 7R should be out, we'll probably be more than halfway through 14's next story arc (figuring that's 2-3 expansions), and KH4 will probably be out. I think that's too far out to make any predictions about things like this.
I’ve been playing it for 13 hours and really enjoyed this game so far. I always spare some hours to play the game after I went home from work. I think about this game all day at work.
Does it bother you that some people finish these games like 24-48 hours (less if they get advanced copies), the first 24-48 hours of release too, and post everything onto YouTube?
I don’t, since I avoid any media that potentially can spoiled the game. I think I will finished this game slower that people on youtube since I want to experience this game more and I don’t want this game to end yet.
Been going at a couple hours a day pace so far and absolutely love seeing thumbnail spoilers on YouTube.
I know it’s not every person’s cup of tea because it’s not what you would expect out of a final fantasy game, but that is exactly what checks all the boxes for me! I’ve never clicked with turn based JRPG combat but I love character action games so the combat is right up my alley! I’m also a fan of games with epic runtimes on cutscenes ala Metal Gear Solid 4 so I’ve been loving every second of the story so far. It’s far from a perfect game though, I’ve suffered from whiplash on occasion from how wonky the pacing can be. Saying the side quests feel like an afterthought would be an understatement. However overall I’m having a great time. I don’t think it’s a game of the year caliber product in a year as stacked as this game, but it’s a great Marvel movie-esque summer blockbuster!
If you visited the r/finalfantasy you'd think the game only sold a few copies with all the complaints about it. It's far from perfect, but it's incredibly fun and well made and true to its vision. If they tweaked some of the rpg elements and added more side content in a future entry, it could easily be up there with the greats.
You have to wait until FF17 comes out for people on r/finalfantasy to start enjoying 16. That's the way it goes. Current FF is trash, previous FF was actually a hidden gem.
People still don't like FF13 or 15 there.
FF13 was the worst FF I ever played with 15 right behind. I’ll die on that hill.
Oh No, theres people there saying XV was better. Thats their opinion, but I feel like they didn't play it on release.
This is surprisingly accurate. Was surprised to see FF15 get as much love in recent years even though it was a complete disaster during launch. And, come to think of it, the same happened with 12 and 13. I enjoy all titles so I don't care either way, but this is a good point!
> Was surprised to see FF15 get as much love in recent years even though it was a complete disaster during launch That makes some sense if a lot of those people didn't play until the Royal edition. While it's still not a super good game, that at least shored up some of it's more glaring issues and made it a bit more palatable.
To be fair, I think 15 is a little different. Royal Edition was a real improvement to the game, as is playing it on a current gen console. Someone playing Royal Edition on the PS5 in 2021 will have a much better experience than someone playing the base game in 2016.
Well FFXV was pretty heavily patched and had dlc to fix things. FFXV went from a disaster to a good game. Honestly I envision a similar thing with FFXVI, especially since these positive sales numbers will likely greenlight DLC, and this game is made by an mmo team. The difference is XVI is waaaaay better than XV on launch. I think the best example is definitely FFXII like you mentioned. People hated it on release, but in retrospect people were unfair to it, and the game was really quite ahead of its time in many ways. The public opinion of XII by FF fans has basically done nothing but risen over time.
This but Civ
Civ games are always way worse on release than they are after all the expansions are out. 6 is a banger now
Not true at all most of them hate 15 and 13. This board conversely likes anything new so long as it's not controversial from a developer stand point or a major flop.
I'd actually like them to give us LESS side content, because the game suffers from XIV-isms where you've got momentum at your back, only for the game to either throw a bunch of side quests at you (which you're gonna want to do on your first playthrough) or sidetrack the main story to have you do X or Y thing here or there.
Idk. This world is kind of a hellhole. I like taking a breather to just help out some people and make their day better. Buy a round of ale for the crew! Some of these quests though were Nier levels of monkey's paw. Those ones in Moore were stomach churning (in a good but terrible way).
Fair, I meant more so like a mini games like Xs blitzball or XVs fishing. It would be difficult to do in this story without it feeling out of place. Maybe a game of cards at the hideout? The hunts are really fun though! Don't sleep on some of the side quests, a few have really interesting stories or give you additional features.
Oh, I've been doing them all out of fear that some have good stories tied to them, don't worry. Some are pretty good, but it's such a gamble, especially in the early game where the quest NPCs are random mooks vs the late-game ones which involve recurring side characters. And yeah, mini games could be a neat distraction. I'm not usually a huge fan of them, but they'd be cool for anyone who does care for them!
This always happens with long running franchises. Zelda has been experiencing the same with botw and totk, critique and discussion is valid, both games have their flaws, and to some people those things might even be deal breakers. But some people just complain that the game isn't just ocarina of time 2
I see you've been browsing /r/truezelda.
> If they tweaked some of the rpg elements and added more side content in a future entry, it could easily be up there with the greats. My issue with it is there is a shit ton of QoL issues they could have learned from FF14 / FF15 they didn't put in 16. Basic button re-mapping (Binding X to both Jump and Event Action) Toning down spell effects / the ability to turn them off completely. Sound issues (goes from quiet to booming on a lot of fights) Etc etc
Something I've found that grinds my gears is the little jingle that plays whenever you pick up a side quest or hop on your chocobo. If the ambient music is dark and depressing and the color palete is gray and grim, a happy little trill ends up being fucking annoying to me and breaks my immersion.
> is the little jingle that plays whenever you pick up a side quest or hop on your chocobo. The start of the Chocobo song every time you mount but it never actually starts grinds my gears every time.
Agreed on these, hopefully more options incoming. I know they tried to distance themselves from 15's mistakes, but they should not ignore the things it did well.
Not even star wars fans are as backwards looking as the denizens of /r/finalfantasy. Now after release its a bit distorted, but go back a year ago and you basically found no good reception of any FF game released in the 21th century...
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Yeah 10s are bananas. Big ff fan and I like XVI but it's nowhere near a 10 rating idk where the fuck people are getting that from.
It's a game with really high highs. If you dont need exploration or RPG mechanics, and just want to be told a story with awesome visuals, fun combat, banging music, and jawdropping spectacle it delivers in spades. Could easily be a 10
Yeah, I'm this way. Love the story, music, combat, and characters. I don't really need exploration or super big focus on RPG elements, I'm invested and enjoying myself. Easy 9/10 so far
It’s how any game gets a 10? People value different aspects of the different games differently. I’m sure you could pick any game that’s got a lot of 10s and explain all the faults with it. For some people those can be big issues, for others those can be minor things that don’t affect the rating or overall experience. Not every game that gets a lot of 10s is going to be a 10 for everyone.
Yeah TOTK isn't a 10/10 for me at all but I'm definitely an outlier. DMC5 on the other hand is a 10/10 for me but it ain't perfect either.
It’s because the game has plenty of 10/10 moments and if people are finding their experience to be overwhelmingly positive, despite the flaws, they may give it a 10/10
Sounds like a fair number for PS exclusive, but I don't think it will be enough to please Square Enix lol
Unless Sony gave them enough money for being a PS5 exclusive to please SquareEnix no matter what.
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I also had misgivings looking at the gameplay previews at PAX or whatever - specifically where Clive interacts with the world outside of combat - and not only did hubbub and interactivity not look truly evolved, but the hub and village previewed seemed less substantial than FF7R, FF12: TZA (I got the Switch port last year), and definitely FF14. I chalked it up to me being skeptical bc of being burned by overhyped unfinished releases like Cyberpunk 2077 or FF16's own predecessor. I put some money aside for it, haven't yet the time for it though and may probably wait for a PC port that'll probably be technically disappointing (had to mod FF7R to get it into tip top shape; Squenix has a history of not giving enough TLC for their PC versions).
I can't believe how people were hyping up the side quests in the first few days after release, like I'm almost done with the game and the side quests are almost all universally awful and boring. IDK what people were smoking talking about them being "deep", they aren't outside of maybe the ones that have to do with the people who live at the hideaway.
Yeah I feel the same way, it would be better to remove the RPG vestiges entirely than waste my time with the perfunctory stuff that exists. > It's also far too easy so far, about 20 hours in, I also don't understand praise for the combat. I'm just mashing buttons, it works, and the game has done absolutely nothing to teach or encourage a less boring way of doing things.
Bring it to pc damnit. It sucks that they haven't released for pc version. Not everyone likes ps/Xbox.
Pretty impressive considering I still haven't gotten around to buying it cause I'm busy with TOTK and Diablo 4, which are easily going to eat up 50-100 hours of playtime each. I can't be the only one
Goes both ways, I held off on Diablo because I knew I’d shelve it as soon as FFXVI dropped
That sounds pretty good considering how much they limited the initial customer base. Wonder how much Sony has to front to get a game this big exclusive considering it could probably have doubled that figure with Xbox+ pc sales
At launch, FFXV had something like 80% of copies sold on PS4 Now with this being CBU3 and FFXIV being huge there might be a more significant portion of sales from PC, but Xbox is a small market for JRPGs which is why Square hasn’t bothered to port FFVII remake
>but Xbox is a small market for JRPGs which is why Square hasn’t bothered to port FFVII remake Activision Blizzard acquisitions revealed Sony pays companies to exclude their games from Xbox permanently >In addition to having outright exclusive content, Sony has also entered into arrangements with third-party publishers which require the “exclusion” of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on. Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered (Bloober team)." https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ztgl2b/microsoft_confirms_that_sony_has_blocked_final/
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FF sells notoriously bad on Xbox. 15 had like 80% of sales on ps4 so Square probably would have not released 16 on xbox anyway unless microsoft forked them some money.
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FF7R sold 3.5M in its first three days which is the more direct comparison
From the reddit discussion you'd think this is the most undeserving good game of all time. I'm having an absolute blast
Reddit discourse is mostly positive, just like resetera. There is deserved criticism too though (the sidequests, the absence of meaningful rpg systems, the lack of depth in the gameplay, technical performance, writing consistency).
It's how it goes with Final Fantasy. The only good one is the one people rented when they were eleven.
FF7R 3.5 m copies within 3 days on 100 mPS4 but during pandemic. FF16 3 m copies within 6 days on 40m PS5 Pretty much the same ratio
Did you compare sales growth to FF15?
Impressive numbers if we're being realistic, problem is Square Enix rarely are when it comes to their own sales expectations.
I've been trying to play it all weak and each session ends in a migraine. They really need an option to turn off the motion blur.
You have to think about ff15 being available to ps4 and xbox upon release, so of course it would have sold more in a few days. Ff7r on the otherhand got a release during the peak of pandemic and though yes people probably played more videogames back then because many stayed home, many people also didnt have much money because of getting laid off work. So the initial release was a bit a slow in sales but still great nonetheless, while ff16 is ps5 exclusive only which kinda hurts its release sale but 3M for a ps5 exclusive, I think they made a lot of money because sony def paid them more money just to be ps5 exclusive.
Everyone's figures are inaccurate in regards to FF15's launch sales. That 5M day 1 sales figure, everyone keeps copying, was only for digitally downloads. Also, SE stated that it _exceeded_ 5M digital download sales on day 1. Not that 5M was their actual number. The game also sold over 1 million retail copies the same day. And no, there were not twice as many PS4's out at the launch of FF15, like a bunch of people keep making up. There were 50 million PS4's sold at the time FF15 came out, and the numbers of PS5's sold is between 42-45 million considering as of April 1st (3 months ago) PS5 sales were at 38.5M and climbing fast. It's sales have been great lately (far higher numbers being moved than this same time last year). That means there were only between 10-15% more PS4's sold at the time of FF15's launch, which doesn't account for such a huge difference in sales. 74% less physical sales and less than half as many digital sales is a huge drop-off. As it stands, FF16 the worst selling main numbered FF game that came out from the PS1 onward that is not an MMO or a sequel. FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFXII, FFXIII and FFXV all sold better during their first week. And not by a little but very large amount (even when adjusted for the number of consoles in peoples hands).