Oh god, we're turning into resetera, doing any and everything to shit on Final Fantasy
Soon there will be the Kingdom Hearts hater group here too.
And we know the only reason a lot of them shit on it, is because it's not on Xbox. As if being on more platforms would magically reverse or improve what seem to be declines set in from years of polarizing design decisions in previous installments.
Everyone is saying Rebirth is amazing, and digital sales could be picking up the slack, but there are probably some things Square-Enix could consider to revitalize interest within the mainline installments going forward. Namely:
1: Put some dating sim mechanics in there
2: Try a theme of marrying classic fantasy & steampunk with modern society stuff
3: Try to make future installments with coinciding anime & manga series
4: Maybe have future installments be in a sort of 'shared universe' where characters from previous installments can logically have cameos in new entries
5: Maybe implement some sim-like elements into the game design, like managing a village that can grow certain supplies but also getting materials and such for the village from spoils won in the dungeons (slayed enemies become a source for meat for example). Suikoden had something like that with the army base, it'd be interesting to see Square-Enix try that in a new Final Fantasy.
The usual suspects who are going to shout "Just make it multiplat then! Stop the exclusivity!" are just showing their laziness in the conversation; we have plenty of exclusives on PS5 that have performed extremely well and either had significantly less drops week-on-week or actual gains week-on-week. So it clearly isn't an exclusivity issue at play here.
Like I said, everyone seems to be raving about Rebirth, but potentially polarizing mechanics and features from previous games might have caught up to the franchise, and Rebirth could be paying the price for that. This is
assuming digital sales aren't strong. It could also be, that the fact each mainline installment shifts so radically from entry to entry, is having an effect where people just look at each entry as its own series. That can be a benefit, and was seemingly a big benefit in the '80s, '90s and early '00s, but I guess as time goes on it could become more of a negative.
In any case I hope Rebirth finds the commercial success it deserves, but it could also be a good time to streamline and adjust some aspects of the game design to the benefit of future mainline entries, going forward.
For real... Same oddly high expectations for this franchise that plagues forums. Idk why people love looking at this series with a magnifying glass
Because for a lot of folks (particularly hardcore Xbox fans), it's a vector being used to take digs at PlayStation, the supposed problem with lack of Japanese 3P support on Xbox (this is a myth), and the supposed "anti-competitiveness" of 3P exclusivity deals (this is also a myth).
The seeds for this BS were being laid during the ABK circus last year; in light of Microsoft's expanding multiplat strategy, it's just continuing especially since Good Guy Phil™ came out crying about Helldivers 2 being a PS5 console exclusive. That was a signal of sorts, and Rebirth is being roped up into it and, supposing it's as big a hit it looks to be, Stellar Blade will be, too. On ResetERA for example there are already a few (not many in number, but they're there) posters trying to label Stellar Blade fans as istaphobe (specifically: sexist) chuds.
It's all tied together and forcibly being pushed for one main reason: to make PlayStation look "bad" because it has 3P exclusives. They feel if these stupid pressure tactics can get Sony to follow in Microsoft's footsteps, it'd be "good for gamers", when at least some of them also know it'd effectively kill the selling value of PlayStation consoles...which is what they want. They want a pyrrhic victory for Xbox, because these people (the diehard Xbox fans pushing for it) are stuck in 2007 and still have a console war mentality.
Worst still, they're in a lot of places, some are even content creators and journalists, and it gets easier to spot the patterns plus see the few colluding PCMR and Nintendo fans who join in on similar sentiments knowing what they're actually advocating for. It's why things like the "PlayStation fans are asking for Helldivers 2 on Xbox" stuff never made any sense, and will continue to not make sense, unless the ones saying that are just masquerading as PlayStation players.
You'll notice that with Rebirth, for a lot of these people all the focus is simply on the sales, and many of their suggestions ALWAYS lead back to "just put the game on more platforms", insinuating the PS5 is the problem, when games like Spiderman 2 have no problem selling 10+ million copies, or games like Helldivers 2 are on their way to 10 million with most copies being on PS5. Or, that games like Persona 3 Reload and Yakuza are still selling the majority of their copies on PlayStation despite the heavily Xbox-centered marketing in the West.
They also always ignore that even if Rebirth itself is excellent, previous more divided reception to games like XVI, Crisis Core, XV etc. have potentially had residual effects on successive entries, the full weight of which may take time to finally manifest. So even a great installment like Rebirth, could pay some type of price for the "sins" of previous ones. It's like how the Dreamcast, despite being a great console, ultimately paid a heavy price for the years of bad decisions with the Saturn, 32X, and SEGA CD. Same idea, just in this case for a game instead of a console.
