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Message: [QUOTE="Lena CE, post: 62640, member: 26523"] Dragon Quest hasnt underperformed fwiw. Maybe DQ3's remake has, but afaik its sold fine thus far. Idk how you could say the graphics for a game like FF7R are barely better than something like Arkham Asylum. Both games are gorgeous but that's such a wild comparison to me lol. In US the PS1 adjusted for inflation w/ a copy of FF7 is about $600-650. Its really not all that different than a $500 for a PS5 and $130 for Remake and Rebirth. Only by the time the third game releases will we see a cost that rises above what people were more or less paying back in the day, at least in the US. There is more nuance to be had when it comes to pricing of course. I think its more than Rebirth being an exclusive in a vacuum though like all of us have said it is certainly a reason. Worth noting is that Remake was also a timed exclusive but sold waaay better. Part of this could be seen as Remake failing in the eyes of fans but discourse surrounding it online has remained mostly positive so I struggle to see that as the reason. What I find somewhat convincing is the fact that Remake was a PS4 exclusive in 2020 - 6.5 years into the PS4's life - and Rebirth was an exclusive 4 years into the PS5. By the time Rebirth released in February 2024, the PS5 had sold roughly 50-55million units while the PS4 had sold well over 100m units. Certainly a bigger installation base is partially to blame for why being an exclusive worked on PS4 but not on PS5. Then there's the matter of more and more people jumping to PC between generations to replace their console use. The PC port is selling super well by all accounts and is performing better than Remake did when it came to PC both in interest and reviews which is certainly a good sign. In terms of sales rate the PS5 is definitely lagging behind the PS4 generally (71m PS5s by end of year 4 compared to 91m PS4s) and a lot of that can likely be chalked up to PC's meteoric rise during Covid and the PS4 still receiving ports of so many games that do come out even today. I suppose all of that discussion is kinda moot though considering that Square Enix has seemingly sworn off exclusives going forward after both FFXVI and FF7Rebirth underperformed in launch windows. Clearly we're all on the same page and while I'm sure the Sony paycheck helped get such expensive games made, clearly there are better paths forward. Ultimately though I doubt the remake trilogy's interesting attempt at being both a remake, a sequel and a reboot thanks to the timeline fuckery it keeps hinting at being a big reason for Rebirth underperforming. I'm sure some are mad that its not just the OG game fleshed out and I'm certainly someone who disliked Remake for many reasons and hasn't picked up Rebirth. When I look at general interest, discussion habits online and sales trends none of it really suggests that the people who were turned off by Remake's ending make up a super substantial portion of the people who haven't yet played Rebirth. I also just generally wonder if the FF7R project has captured younger audiences who don't have much if any love for the OG or if the vast majority of people who have bought either of the games are older users. Wish there was a way to know. Side note but idk why you dissed the extremely basic crystarium from FF13 of all things. People dog on the crystarium because its just linear progression, basically just a hyper-dumbed down sphere grid from FFX (which people love and praise). XII' more complex license board system also gets tons of praise from fans and Zodiac Age fleshed it out even more. Of all the progression systems to cite as an alternative to FF7's simplicity I'm not sure why you'd choose the absolute more basic of basic systems as a crystarium. The reason people disliked it is because the stats gained from holding X on the crystarium (cause that's all you do) could have just been offloaded to automatic boosts when you level up. It was just weird tedium that barely justified stat differences between the 6 roles a character could have in battle. I mean hell, FF13 is the game that is also infamous for having most non-boss encounters be entirely beatable by the auto-battle button. When it comes to simple that game did both progression and combat about as simply as it could. I've grown to appreciate its unique feel and complexities over the years and XIII-2 certainly fixed a lot of problems, but again of all the FF games to put in opposition to 7's simplicity, 13 feels like the worst candidate. [/QUOTE]

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