Why it seems like the new Final Fantasy game just dropped and despite its sells, it just feels like under the radar compared to their mid ass FF15 game?
FF15 was supposed to "revitalize" the series. At that point, Square was relying on FF14 keeping them afloat.
So the hype was
huge in comparison. FF13 (and the sequels) were disappointing, so folks were hoping for something to fix all that.
Folks then gaslit themselves into thinking FF15 was a good game (it was not, still quite mediocre). So FF15 came and went, but half the budget was marketing. There has been no other FF game that was pushed as hard as that game. Side stories, animations, a movie, crossovers. However, FF14 was pulling in even more money with the expansions and new users.
Now FF14 is the golden goose, but there still isn't a "mainline" single player FF game (not including FF7rapeyawallet).
So they bring in Yoshi P (FF14's director) to make a single player experience as he has experience making an engrossing story line that pulls on the heart strings.
Issue is, people still have a bad taste in their mouths from FF15 and they made the dumb decision to sign an exclusive deal in 2023 when the FF brand isn't hot like that anymore.
They can't seem to do anything outside of final fantasy games, so they are kinda stuck.