What is your personal opinion about the current state of the franchise and why?

[Chocomog]

There has been a lot of talk in the last 25 years.

A lot of controversal topics like identity crisis, decreasing sales numbers and wether or not the latest releases are the start of a new beginning or rather the final nail to the coffin.

But even though there is all this talk, I miss a place where you can do it seriously. Because on Reddit or Twitter people get quickly rejected for their doubts. I hope we can do it a bit here without getting personal.

That said, I don't want to talk so much about what strategy will save the franchise for Square Enix. But about what you personally think and feel about your experiences with the old and new games.

And if you think Square is on the right path for you personally.

Thanks for your thoughts

 

[Ghost X]

I can't speak for FFXIV, which people seem to like, but the franchise has been hit and miss since FFIX in my view, and increasingly of the miss variety. I have hope given that the fix is relatively simple, though it is unlikely, but that goes into commentary on SE's strategy, so I'll leave it there .

I enjoyed the old FF games for their RPGness and their well-developed and engaging stories and characters, which seemed to be the product of inspiration that no longer exists. There are still some good things about the latest FF games, but it is not like the old games, and so I haven't bought any since FFXII (which was actually one of my favourites). Granted, I rarely buy games at all, so... .

 

[Elkazor]

It's complicated for me.

I thought FFXVI was great. The story was terrific, everything you want in a good Final Fantasy game. I thought the side-quests were fun too. Gameplay was good fun, but I sorely missed the more fleshed out RPG elements and sense of exploration in the world.

FFXV, with all its hiccups, was still great fun, it's just a shame we had such a strong promise for an amazing experience in the trailers only for the final game to have an altered vision.

FFXIV is still awesome.

The Remake project seems to have really fun and good gameplay but I was disappointed and mixed about the directions they went for the story.

Like Ghost, it's hit and miss for me. But I give grace that there were more hits to me than there were for Ghost.

I think less gacha and aggressive monetization, and more focus on the actual full games is a good step forward. That way there can be more quality put into the full games. I know that seems a pipe dream considering what the industry is atm though.

I'm just really not sure where the series would go from here. Just endlessly coming up with new different mainline entries? Focusing more on fun spin-offs? (Another Dissidia with Clive would be pretty cool)

My final note is: If they ever intend to end the mainline series, the last mainline entry shouldn't have a roman numeral, and instead should have the prefix "The". Calling it "The Final Fantasy"

 

[Theozilla]

Regardless of one's opinions on the games themselves, I think it can be stated that the Final Fantasy franchise is in a better place compared to PS3/PS4 times simply due to no longer being in the development hell of Versus XIII/FFXV and the disastrous mess of the original FFXIV 1.0 product and launch.

 

[Cthulhu]

XVI was a step in the right direction imo for mainline games; the combat system and open world concept could've been a lot better but story/storytelling/visuals were great. I didn't like XV at all. XIII series was alright. XIV is also alright, even if I put hundreds if not thousands of hours into it at this point

But! the Remake project is great (better than XVI) and I really hope they shift the series in that direction more for the next mainline game.

 

[Elkazor]

I will say, yea I'd like if they took the gameplay of the Remake project as the blueprint going forward for original mainline games, with FFXVI being a shining example of how they could make great original stories.