FF7 Remake has sold 5 million so far!

[JJ Strife]

https://www.gematsu.com/2020/08/final-fantasy-vii-remake-shipments-and-digital-sales-top-five-million

What does everyone think about this?

I maybe thought it'd be a bit higher at this point, although the fact that it's a PS4 exclusive still clearly has an impact. The fact that it's only part 1 certainly has an impact too.

The fact that FFXV sold so highly (about 9 million at this point) has definitely biased my expectations too. I assumed FF7 being the most famous would massively outsell XV, which it doesn't look like it will (I'm guessing it'll just about equal 9 million over its lifetime though)

[maybee]

Well, it's the Final Fantasy VII remake so no surprises on it making at least 5 million.

[Example]

To be fair XV had the advantage by not being released during a pandemic.

[Lord Golbez]

Seems debatable whether the pandemic was a bane or boon to sales.

[Fynn]

Or XV is just better ;)

[Lord Golbez]

The remake has significant flaws that tarnish it, but FFXV is just kind of boring to play and the remake isn't.

[JJ Strife]

Or XV is just better ;)

I'm a huge XV fan, but it really wasn't very good on launch. It was only after they'd patched up the holes in the story (with Ignis and Prompto DLC especially) that the story actually works.

I think it sold quite a lot because it's open-world. There are a lot of people who are non-FF fans who just like playing open-world games.

[maybee]

One is a whole full-ish game with DLC content and the other is just 5% of the original Final Fantasy remade. Seems unfair to judge and compare between the two. Sales doesn't equal to good or better, or Mcdonalds food would be the most tastiest delight ever and not just cheap almost plastic never decaying grub.

One just managed to grab people's interests more and not be in the middle of Covid.

[Fynn]

No but you don’t understand. I’ve only played XV, therefore it has to be better.

[JJ Strife]

Lol you still not played it? Don't you know anyone who'd lend you a PS4 for just a couple of weeks?


One is a whole full-ish game with DLC content


Full game + DLC is a bit misleading for XV. Full game because of DLC seems more accurate. Gladio, Ignis and Prompto and Royal Pack DLC were certainly part of the core story. I'll accept that Ardyn DLC was an addition though, and maybe Comrades counts as an addition.

[Lord Golbez]

Even if you get the DLC for the "full game" do you actually play those episodes in the context of the game?

[JJ Strife]

I do. I play FFXV with everything in its chronological place. Including Ignis DLC, which a lot of people prefer to play later because it contains a few spoilers.

You obviously have to do that manually though, because they never included at option to boot the DLC from within the main game, which they really needed to.

[Fynn]

Yeah I did the same thing and it works. I was, however, spoiled on a lot of things so it didn’t hurt. I definitely wouldn’t recommend playing Episode Ignis at the point that it happens to complete newcomers. Gladio and Prompto work pretty seamlessly.

And no, I don’t have anyone to lend me a PS4. I’ll just wait for the eventual PC release. Plus, it’s not like a huge priority for me.

[maybee]

Lol you still not played it? Don't you know anyone who'd lend you a PS4 for just a couple of weeks?


One is a whole full-ish game with DLC content


Full game + DLC is a bit misleading for XV. Full game because of DLC seems more accurate. Gladio, Ignis and Prompto and Royal Pack DLC were certainly part of the core story. I'll accept that Ardyn DLC was an addition though, and maybe Comrades counts as an addition.

That's what I meant. That the game is a unfinished puzzle piece without the DLC.

[Lord Golbez]

I do. I play FFXV with everything in its chronological place. Including Ignis DLC, which a lot of people prefer to play later because it contains a few spoilers.

You obviously have to do that manually though, because they never included at option to boot the DLC from within the main game, which they really needed to.


Well that answers my question. So not only is the game incomplete without DLC, which is bad enough,bit it's fragmented by nature such that you have to intervene yourself to play the DLC in the context of the game
Which also means you have to already know where the DLC goes in the story to play in chronological order apart from the need for manual intervention. Yeah. Doesn't sound like the DLC makes for a complete game to me.

[Fynn]

It’s plainly obvious where the DLC is supposed to go

[Lord Golbez]

That doesn't make any sense. There's no way it could be "plainly obvious" ahead of time without spoilers. I'm sure it's obvious after you've already played the game, but that's a different story. I imagine there's some "choose your scenario kupo" situation in the game (which I never reached), except there's no actual moogle telling you to choose your scenario, kupo! So really unless you already know that's where the DLC fits in, you're not going to know to stop the game and start playing DLC there.

That's not even addressing the fact that you said you wouldn't recommend doing Episode Ignis in the chronological spot for a newcomer. How would a newcomer even know that, aside from your recommendation?

[Fynn]

No but it’s literally the moogle situation just without the moogle. Each of the three guys leave at one point and it’s clear that’s what the episodes cover. Episode Ignis only reaches far into the end game in the very last scene so theoretically it can still be enjoyed normally with only slight spoilers - but we also live in a different world now than we did in the 1990s, and people just talk online and it’s a fact of life.

The only two exceptions to that are Comrades (which could still theoretically be played before chapter 14 but since it’s a hefty multiplayer add on, why would you) and Episode Ardyn which is clearly a prequel and thus, logically, should be played after the main game. Point is, if you know what the DLC is just by the title, you’ll know where it’s supposed to go.

[Raistlin]

Have played the game pre-DLC, it was pretty obvious where the DLC episodes would fit in. The fact that it apparently needs the DLC to be a complete game is still a very legitimate criticism.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yes it was pretty obvious where all the DLC was going to take place in the vanilla game. Gladio's was painfully obvious but most fans guessed pretty easily where Prompto and Ignis' were going to take place. It really just was as simple as looking at points in the game the character wasn't in the party. Gladio's DLC is pretty easy to skip, but both Ignis and Prompto's DLC fills some major plot holes concerning the empire that made the later chapters jarring in the vanilla version of the game without it.

I don't really mind the Royal Edition fixing the story issues, I mean it's better than having it left in an Ultimania or even worse, a developer interview where they talked about all the stuff they wanted to put in. I kind of think of it like SMT3: Nocturne, because the Maniax version we got in the West was the director's cut that actually added a bunch of stuff to help the story make more sense for players. P3: FES does the same thing. So I see Royal as more of a director's cut. Would it have been great to have it like that when it first came out? Yes, but fans were seriously pressuring SE to release the game and they made a bad call on giving into the demand. The service model idea was just a bad idea overall, and so far, SE has taken that to heart if VIIR is any indication. Still, I feel the fan expectation for XV was so high that even if most of the DLC/Royal edition content had made into the original release, the game was still likely to be lambasted by the fanbase. It was a lose-lose situation for them.

[Psychotic]

FFXV was clearly rushed out to launch, and I understand that from a business perspective it had been in development hell for too long. I am sure Square-Enix had sunk a lot of money into its development, I assume their accountants wanted something on the income column and Square-Enix were in a difficult position. I'm not going to white knight a multi million dollar corporation that I have given a lot of money over the years to though.

They sold FFXV at full price despite knowing it wasn't complete and they removed parts of the story with the intention of selling it later as DLC too. That's not a great way to treat fans, customers, or whatever else you want to call us saps.

I played an okay game that felt it lacked in several areas and that's my perception of FFXV. Clearly they've added some elements that make it a better experience but that means very little to me. I was left with a bit of a meh feeling afterwards. As a result, I'm not inclined to go back and play it again, nor am I inclined to pick up Episode Ardyn or play Comrades or whatever else it has added since.

[JJ Strife]

I definitely wouldn’t recommend playing Episode Ignis at the point that it happens to complete newcomers.

I probably still would for newcomers. Not only are the spoilers in Ignis' vision quite vague, but there's no way of knowing for sure at that point whether they're true.

I think that's worth taking the hit given how important Ep Ignis is for explaining Ravus' character arc throughout the later game. Which you needed that additional Chapter 13 Verse 2 DLC as well. Without all of that, he's such a bizarrely random character throughout the game who seems to have no clear motivations or purpose. Just shows up for the sake of acting like a weird emo, then leaves.

But if you play the game straight after watching Kingsglaive, then include Ep Ignis and Verse 2 DLCs, Ravus is actually quite a good character.

[Fynn]

I mean that’s true - if you only mean Ignis’ premonition. The scenes that happen during the end credits though take place after the time skip (which is in itself a spoiler even with the distant prologue of the Ifrit fight) and really do spoil things thematically, with Noctis talking about his resolve. I guess ideally someone should play Episode Noctis after chapter 9 but not watch the credits, and then watch the credits again after beating the main game.

[JJ Strife]

I don't think there was any clear spoiler in that end scene was there? Also, there's no way you're just gonna guess there's a 10 year timeskip from something like that. You'll just assume it's a few months later or something.

That's one of those things where you only know its a spoiler after the fact, but it would never be clear beforehand.

[WarZidane]

You know about the timeskip from the start of the game anyway. Game can wave it off as a dream all it wants, it's obvious it's a flash-forward.

[JJ Strife]

Not obvious it was 10 years though. That's also not really a spoiler in any meaningful sense. The only real spoiler in my opinion was that Ignis sees the end cutscene in the vision from the dog.

[Lord Golbez]

Spoilers! Oh what the hell, I'm probably never going to finish FFXV anyway.

[JJ Strife]

Lol woops. But why has anyone on a Final Fantasy forum not played the most recent games in the series? I would've thought that was a given.

[Loony BoB]

Lol woops. But why has anyone on a Final Fantasy forum not played the most recent games in the series? I would've thought that was a given.
Many people, actually. There is a huge following for the older games made up of people who have no real interest in the newer games. But the key part is that not everyone has played every game, and we are in the FFVII forum, so FFXV spoilers should definitely be marked with the spoiler tag. :)

I'm actually amused at how much this thread is discussing FFXV instead of FFVII :D Comparing games is always fun, though, and natural. Personally I'd say that the main reasons for not as many people playing FFVII Remake are:

1) It's just a part of a bigger game. Many have said they'll wait until the entire game is released.
2) It's not entirely new. It's not a new story, or at least, not entirely new, and many people don't care for remakes of older games. I know I've not played the Zodiac version of FFXII or the HD remakes of FFX etc. because I just don't have any real interest in playing the same game with different gameplay/graphics. Gameplay might be more doable but honestly I just prefer a new story more than anything. FFVII is an exception in a big way because it's a divergent story, it's got more background to characters included, more lore, more dialogue, and it's my favourite game of all time, which always helps.
3) It's not a main numbered game, exactly. Some people are just interested in the 'main' line, and only bother with the originals.
4) I might be incorrect but it's due to be released on PC at some point? FFXV wasn't as clear on this at the time of release, even if it's on PC now.
5) I might be incorrect on this too, but I believe FFXV was sold on multiple platforms? Xbox One as well?
6) I might be incorrect on this as well! Weren't consoles more widely used at the time of the FFXV release, and weren't there considerably more PS3s sold than PS4s to date?

There are all kinds of things that can impact it.

[JJ Strife]

Yes I realise some people have just played the classics and lost interest in the series as it changed around the PS2/PS3 era. But I'd kinda assumed most of those people wouldn't be joining forums, given that there's only so much you can keep talking about something that happened 20 years ago until you've said it all!

[Christmas]

My goal is get a computer worthy to run it. :(