I am aware that complaining about business decisions that I am unable to influence and products that I am unable to purchase is a losing strategy, but I just don’t understand why people do it. Just two of the main third-party companies, Square Enix and Rockstar, are still steadfast in their refusal to support the PC platform.
Everyone is raving about Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which is the continuation of Square Enix’s remake/reboot trilogy. On the other hand, the PC population is still searching for information regarding when Final Fantasy 16 from the previous year will be available for download on our computers.
I’ve heard numerous reviewers mention that it sounds typical on paper but feels wonderful in practice. In addition, there is a lot of love for the hi-fi resurrection of the FF7 world outside of Midgar. The new hotness now enjoys an enviable 92% on Metacritic, with acclaim for its open-world-ish concept.
“Overstuffed in a bid to please,” says Ed Nightingale of Eurogamer, who also notes that “Ultimately, not a lot happens, owing to a frustrating push-pull between moving the plot along and stalling to hold back for the series finale.”
Nightingale’s assessment is more severe than the others. In a piece that he wrote for GameSpot, Tamoor Hussain echoes this sentiment, claiming that “a significant chunk of the game becomes, at best, a distraction and, at worst, filler.”
A flawed but lovable action-RPG that riffs on a Japanese role-playing game classic, with an HD reconstruction of a famous fantasy-industrial environment and a brave attempt at reversing some legendary videogame story twists with meta-narrative shenanigans right out of NieR or Undertale, it sounds a lot like the remake of the first half.
Okay, that’s very tight. I enjoyed the first one and am eager for more, but not until I pay the Square Enix Tax, which is a wait of more than a year to receive it at full price with additional technical concerns.
There was a monstrous case of that modern plague on PC gaming, known as shader compilation stutter, in the original Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which was released on the PC after a delay of twenty months and was an exclusive purchase from the Epic Store for seventy dollars.
Nevertheless, before we ever have to consider our allotted late, stuttering, full-priced edition of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we will (hopefully) have long swallowed that version of Final Fantasy 16, which, eight months after its initial introduction, we still have little word about. We are aware that it will, in fact, necessitate the use of a solid-state drive (SSD).
One of the things that truly irritates me about this practice is how pointless it is. Square Enix is not a Sony company, so what is the point of doing something like that? Even if explosive simulation debuts like Helldivers demonstrate that Sony is definitely leaving money on the table, it is at least reasonable for a console maker to protect its own exclusive title.
This is because the manufacturer should be protecting its own self-interest. I have stated in the past that coming from firms like Square Enix just feels punitive, but Lord knows I will still keep going back for my fill of these weirdly emaciated young guys swinging swords that are twice as huge as their own bodies.
