Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

the digressions and side quests and goofy fluff are a significant part of what the game is "about." it's a 90s jrpg with the polish sophistication of a 2020s Western AAA game.

I think it's a fair criticism for people who care about plot; there are multiple instances where the gang goes from A to B without much rhyme or reason (which the writers seem to be self-aware of; see Barrett's gag right at the start of the Grasslands). I can see how this kind of storytelling won't work for everyone, but having said that, I don't think the plot matters much here since the game does a million things that I find more interesting. Despite being the middle of a trilogy and thus laying a lot of groundwork for the finale, I think the game still managed to deliver an intrinsically fulfilling sense of what this whole journey was "about", though it'll hinge on how much you care about these characters for sure.

Every major media industry is in a weird spot man. I'm not entirely sure why but boards of directors have much more faith in greenlighting remakes than risking new projects/IPs. You could say its a case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but its probably more like "its safe to pick a beloved IP so lets go all-in on that." Either way Square Enix definitely made a mistake putting so much money/faith into a sequel remake game.

I hate to argue the corporate angle, but new IPs are a very risky businesses for so many reasons, and because of that no AAA developer wants to really put all their money behind a new IP when AAA budgets are so massive.

Think about Skull and Bones, Calisto Protocol, Starfield, Forspoken, and Redfall. They all had their own reasons for falling short (some more than others), but when a new IP fails, it absolutely bombs. Even if a new Call of Duty, Battlefield, Sonic, or Watch Dogs game flops, it yields some level of return on investment.

But also there have been plenty of new IPs having success still. Elden Ring, Hi-Fi Rush, Returnal, Ghost of Tsushima, Cyberpunk 2077 (eventually), and Deathloop were successful blockbusters in recent years so it's not like people don't want new IPs.

idk why you would say Square had misplaced faith in FF7Rebirth as if it flopped. It's a PS5 console exclusive, released less than 4 years into a console lifecycle as opposed to 7 years into a console lifecycle, so the sales numbers for both XVI and Rebirth shouldn't be a surprise at all. Even Sony doesn't release games exclusive to the PS5 really, everything comes to PS4 as well and gets a PC port. Like Remake, Rebirth is a game that will continue to generate sales for years and years regardless of initial sales figures.