Final Fantasy's sales crisis is also an identity crisis
Final Fantasy's sales crisis is also an identity crisis
The news that Square Enix considers its two major Final Fantasy titles in the past year – Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fa…
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Well let's see...
They took a 40-60 hour PS1 game and tried to make three $70-$90 titles out of it. They weren't content to just remake the game in a modern engine, it had to be a trilogy full of a bunch of extra padded stuff. Because just like the Hobbit, they wanted MONEY, not to create something of great value to players.
Not to mention they waited 23 years to remake FF7 despite everybody begging for it at least as far back as the xbox 360 days, if not the ps2 days. I saw the remake as a cry for more traditional JRPGs like they had been known for and wildly successful for in the 90s.
Now they've released another main line final fantasy game in a format that is nothing like what originally made them popular. I've played it, I don't particularly enjoy it. I dropped it about half way through the story and have instead put 80 hours into Unicorn Overlord which I picked up for $40 just two months after release. A game that almost certainly has a way lower budget - and i'm not even done with it yet. I keep picking up that ps5 controller every now and then and doing a level or two before life takes over again, and each time I love it and want to keep playing. It feels more like a final fantasy game, albiet final fantasy tactics, than FFXVI feels like a final fantasy game.
I just can't help but feel like maybe a big budget and big pricetag doesn't mean quality. That stellar graphics don't always mean fun. Maybe Square needs it's own paradigm shift where they figure out how to make really cool games that are cheap with a lot of staying power without giant budgets and huge art production teams. You know, avoid the things that necessitate $210-$270 in release prices to be financially viable.
Or maybe the people who made final fantasy great in the 90s were cut from a different kind of cloth than the people who work at square today. Total shot in the dark, but i'm left questioning why they do what they do like I have now for about 18 years.
Square Enix has had offerings in lower tiers. The Bravely series has been their AA-budget Final Fantasy, and the rest of the Asano division's output (such as HD-2D) specializes in that range. They have also gone even lower recently with The Voice of Cards. SQEX's new president recently laid out a new direction for the company, so it's hard to say what their lineups will look like going forward, but for now, there's a range for players to choose from.