Community MetaSteam | February 2025 - Dragon Pirates of the Bohemian Wilds

[Arc]

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth had a fantastic Steam launch. Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

bsky.app

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth had a fantastic Steam launch. Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

I'd bet dollars to donuts FF7 Reunion (that's the title trust me) will be multiplatform day one. SE isn't going to miss out on PC and Switch 2 sales.

Feel like Im one of the few people anywhere who tried KCD and just never got it to click.



I honestly feel this forum reads like one of very few places where people talk about games like they actually play them.

I had to play it twice for it to click. I don't think it's an amazing game, but at the same time I played it nearly nonstop for two weeks so it was doing something right. I'm excited for the sequel as it looks like it has the same framework as the original but with more stuff and more refinement across the board.

 

[Sobatronix]

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth had a fantastic Steam launch. Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

bsky.app

I'd bet dollars to donuts FF7 Reunion (that's the title trust me) will be multiplatform day one. SE isn't going to miss out on PC and Switch 2 sales.

I also thought that would be the title, but then I remember that's what they called the Crisis Core Remaster, so idk anymore

 

[Joe Spangle]

I was planning to get KCD2 but never finished the first one and so am just going to replay that and hopefully by the time im done with it 2 will be patched up and maybe on sale.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

This was released and it looks interesting.

 

[Paul]

First KCD has its flaws (clunky lock-on system, weak facial animations, some poorly paced late game quests) but overall it is a masterpiece of immersive RPG design and a great showpiece for what actual diversity should be about - team of people making a game about their country's history. Nobody else could make a game like it, this way. Similar case with STALKER or Metro or Wukong.

KCD2 getting huge critical acclaim, with many people calling it "one of the best games they ever played" is hugely gratifying because I feel that way about the first game already. And while Vávra can often be abrasive sarcastic bastard, he is not any of the things either side accuses him of. Funnily enough, if I posted this on resetera, I would get permed.

Couple more reviews

Jez Corden, 5/5

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-review

Luke Stephens

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I think I'm almost at the end in Citizen Sleeper 2. The tone is a bit different from the first game, as for most of the game you'll be traveling between stations and recruiting people for your ship. Like the first game if you play right you'll not have to worry about money, fuel and resources, but these things can be scarce at the start of the game.

It still a game about reading a lot of text and choosing which dice you will assign to the activities, the biggest difference than the first game is the introduction of a "push" mechanic. For acquiring a point of stress you can get a boost for your dice, re-roll it or boost your crew dice, the ability for each one of the three classes is different.

 

[fantomena]

dun dun dunnnnnn

 

[Alexandros]

How it started (for our friends at Icon Era):

How it's going:

 

[Paul]

"It is a time machine that transports you to 1403 Bohemia.."

"Simply being in this world is like a spiritual experience.."

These reviews are ridiculous in the best way

 

[Alextended]

Does the game require AVX2 or RT or anything PCs that could run the original don't have? Including raw power, I don't think it was too smooth for me last time, if it's like 2x as demanding then I probably shouldn't even try it. I liked the original well enough though it's no Gothic and I can't remember the story at all so I'd have preferred some new character (or creator if I'm gonna be in it mostly for the wandering on my terms and not following/shaping a specific dude's path).

 

[Le Pertti]

Time to play KCD 1 ! How to find time though! Between rebirth, civ 7 and awoved hard to play something else

 

[Dragon1893]

Glad to see Rebirth is doing well.
I'm currently in Gold Saucer and they really pulled out all the stops for this game.

 

[Ganado]

How it started (for our friends at Icon Era):

How it's going:

An Era-adjacent website being absolute shite? Who would've known!

 

[Le Pertti]

An Era-adjacent website being absolute shite? Who would've known!

To be fair, that is what we are too! Steam era to be exact

 

[Ganado]

To be fair, that is what we are too! Steam era to be exact

Who said this isn't also shite?




(I kiiiiid, love ya)

 

[Arc]

How it started (for our friends at Icon Era):

How it's going:

Alex Donaldson (@apzonerunner.com)

this smashed all of their expectations and projections for this fiscal year (so from launch thru end of March) btw. One thing is clear: the next game really needs to launch on PC - and ideally if at all possible, everything. Xbox and Switch 2 as well. This is what this series needs to thrive...

bsky.app

 

[Derrick01]

For what it's worth alex said in august the last he heard the game was almost at 4m (so probably had passed it by then).

The remakes are doing fine for jrpg standards. People don't realize just how far the genre has fallen, outside of pokemon almost none of them reach 10m anymore no matter how many platforms they're on. Nier is getting close and it's been 8 years since it came out, persona 5 still isn't there and that's with combining Royal's sales with the base game and a full multiplat release. The xenoblade games are some of the few switch nintendo games that didn't reach 5m+ this gen (think 2 is the top selling at around 3m). Even FFXV which people like to tout how it sold 10m forget that it crawled there over 6-7 years.

If anything 7R and Rebirth are both ahead of the pace of most of those games.

 

[Alextended]

Well Final Fantasy was the JRPG flagship in the west so it's still their own fault if the genre has really fallen, but the smaller names are doing great if not better than ever, from Persona to Tales, Trails, Atelier, etc., Xenoblade also grew enough to keep investing within a couple generations, they haven't yet managed to (completely at least, they certainly handled the various ports less than great in both the quality and actual release) fuck up Dragon Quest and as you say Pokemon also continues doing great even with its own missteps inbetween, so, yeah, I'd blame Square, always, every time, all the time, well deserved.

 

[Yoshi]

FREE animated avatar & frames from Steam Idler Fest:

https://store.steampowered.com/points/shop/app/3099240

 

[Derrick01]

Well Final Fantasy was the JRPG flagship in the west so it's still their own fault if the genre has really fallen, but the smaller names are doing great if not better than ever, from Persona to Tales, Trails, Alchemist, etc., Xenoblade also grew enough to keep investing within a couple generations, they haven't yet managed to (completely at least, they certainly handled the various ports less than great in both the quality and actual release) fuck up Dragon Quest and as you say Pokemon also continues doing great even with its own missteps inbetween, so, yeah, I'd blame Square, always, every time, all the time, well deserved.

So I looked up xenoblade sales after that comment and the last update we got for xb3 was may 2023 and it wasnt' even at 2m while xb2 is at 2.7m. So there's an actual decline there in the same franchise on the same generation even though it felt like every nintendo game this gen sold a crap ton.

Many other jrpgs still top out at 2m despite going multiplat, like yakuza games still hang out around that range for several multiplat entries now...meaning there is no longer any real growth going on. P3R and metaphor both seemed to run completely out of steam after reaching 1m too. There is no real indication that the genre is growing and somehow only SE was affected because of exclusivity. They're still selling more on 1 platform than 90% of jrpg franchises do on 3 platforms. As for pokemon it sells because it's pokemon, not because it's quality.

I don't have an answer for why the genre has lost so much relevance and I don't think there's one clear answer. Personally I think a big reason is because the genre is notoriously cheap. Many of the games outside of FF still border on ps3 graphics with at best low end ps4 character models. Majority of them still don't have full voice acting (which is insane for this day and age). You have to spend money to make money and jrpgs are one of the only genres still cheaping out in these ways. Look at expedition 33 and then compare it to an Atlus or Tales or Ys game. Not saying that game's going to be amazing (I think it looks meh personally) but it at least looks like it had some budget put behind it and they're a small independent studio.

 

[r3n4ud]

Thanks for the thread sir lashman

Ohhhh February! Big month for me with picking up KC 2, Civ 7, Like a Dragon Pirates, Tiger golf and of course new Indies! Wooooo great month

 

[Alextended]

The XC3 sales were last updated Q2 2023 so it's probably much closer to 2's sales by now, not that I made any claim that the third title specifically has shown huge growth (or that the games I named, specifically calling them smaller, actually sell more than Final Fantasy now). P3R isn't 6, how about that 5 (+ Royal)? The previous to last (mainline, I'm not here arguing Crystal Chronicles or something would sell more if only it was better - though I guess that could apply to any game) Yakuza was the top selling. Xbox is just about dead so at least for the games Switch wasn't getting Final Fantasy is about as multiplatform as any.

There's also a lot of competition and potential sales cannibalism for the smaller JRPG games as even Square keeps pumping out such stuff with HD-2D games among many many others (which also often do great for themselves all things considered as again, I'm not speaking of sank flagships here). So I don't see what Falcom, Atlus or Namco not trying to go for broke with an AAA production for some of said smaller games but keep them consistent has to do with anything. Tbh Falcom seems to be improving a lot anyway, if presentation is all that matters to someone. And all the mainline P games also made huge leaps so Idk.

Even in the 90s Square probably had the biggest budgets by far, at least since the PlayStation days, maybe a couple pretenders like Legend of Dragoon too.

Do we count From - or main Zelda - if we're counting Yakuza (including the action based series & Judgment rather than just the last Dragon Questy entries)?

Expedition 33 looks interesting. Not sure I'd say it tops some of the above, not that it has to, same as WRPGs like Disco Elysium co-exist with, Idk, Witcher etc.

 

[STHX]

JRPGs are doing great
On mobile
I think the issue with the JRPG genre (not necessary from Japan) is it's one of the genres that suffered the most during the PS3/Xbox days, and part of the fault lies with the publishers/developers. The genre failed to leave a mark on HD consoles, while most JRPG developers focused on handleds. The problem is this strategy started a spiral of death where handled sales were soso in the west but better in Japan -> which caused western releases to be delayed or skipped (many games had sequels on the same platform that were skipped) -> which caused interest in the genre to fall over time here -> which caused western sales to remain low and repeat. The few HD console exceptions were big names like FF and Tales (and those also had multiple handled only releases. Even mainline DQ skipped the PS3 completely. Also I wouldn't consider Tales a big name considering sales were so bad Bamco gave up on the series for a few years!) and an unfortunately long list of low quality releases (like Time and Eternity and its wopping 42 metacritic). The quality problem also helped with the hit pieces of the period that talked about how JRPGs sucked and WRPGs were the best thing ever. People that played JRPGs (or anime games in general) in the west were mocked, and thus sales kept falling. It took direct intervention from Sony and Nintendo to try and reverse this spiral, but most Nintendo effort were still on handleds (most DQ games on DS and 3DS, Bravely series, the first Octopath) while most Sony efforts focused on DQXI and Persona 5 (and in the latter case the JP side pushed the game much more). But in the meantime handled turned into smartphones, and the handled JRPG fanbase moved to mobile gachas. Although the current most popular releases are from China and not Japan, many still have an obvious JRPG-DNA
Looking at (low) sales however does not paint a correct picture. Obviously there is a problem if something like FF struggles to reach 5 million sales, but the issue is this is not a JRPG problem only. Like Veilguard had 1.5 million "players" and that had the full EA advert machine behind, or just look at Ubisoft. These are just 2 companies that a generation ago or less could easily reach 5 to 10 million sales for most of their releases. There is a reason for why so many layoffs happened (and still happen) in this industry. Talking about single-player non-gaas non-forever games only the biggest names and releases can manage to break the 10 million barrier today (checking how many Nintendo series actually pass that barrier makes you realize that even Xenoblade with its 2 million does better than many other Nintendo releases). The truth is that games like BG3 are the exception among exceptions. The truth is that Tales of Arise selling 3 million, or most Atlus releases hovering between 1 and 2 millions is not only the best the genre did, but also the best these series did during the past generation
Personally I don't think there is a magic wand that can make JRPGs truly mainstream yet, but with the increase in gacha games with pc clients we are slowly seeing an increase in JRPG fans that are moving away from smartphones and getting a gaming pcs, which can also be seen with the better numbers the genre is pulling on Steam compared to past years

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I finished Citizen Sleeper 2 and what a ride this one was.

As I said in my previous post the overall feeling of the game is quite different from the first one, while in Citizen Sleeper 1 there's that feeling of loneliness and not truly trusting anyone, here it's subverted as you already on the run with Seraphin, a pilot and your friend.

The game takes place in the Starward Belt, the outer asteroid belt of the Helios System. There you'll travel between settlements, taking some contracts and doing some jobs to earn enough money so you can keep your ship fueled and with enough supplies to finish the contracts, though like the previous game once you reach a certain point, money and resources will not be a problem anymore.

The NPC art is still top notch and the music doesn't gets in the way but sets the mood for the whole game duration. A bit of spoilers but if you played Citizen Sleeper 1 you will recognize some NPCs from the first game as well some events are mentioned.

 

[Kyougar]

For what it's worth alex said in august the last he heard the game was almost at 4m (so probably had passed it by then).

The remakes are doing fine for jrpg standards. People don't realize just how far the genre has fallen, outside of pokemon almost none of them reach 10m anymore no matter how many platforms they're on. Nier is getting close and it's been 8 years since it came out, persona 5 still isn't there and that's with combining Royal's sales with the base game and a full multiplat release. The xenoblade games are some of the few switch nintendo games that didn't reach 5m+ this gen (think 2 is the top selling at around 3m). Even FFXV which people like to tout how it sold 10m forget that it crawled there over 6-7 years.

If anything 7R and Rebirth are both ahead of the pace of most of those games.

Thats what you get when you bet on the FF7 Turd instead of FF8
An FF8 Remake would have done 15 million sales.
Prove me wrong.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

How it started (for our friends at Icon Era):

How it's going:

Latest thread with title:

"FF7 Rebirth Falls Short - Not Even a Week After Release, It’s #35 on Steam Worldwide Charts With a Discount"

with the first comment being:

"we need to keep up these thread titles to stop the bullshit pushed from the traditional games media "

 

[dex3108]

I know people always are hating on Ubisoft for many legitimate reasons, but playing Ghost Recon Breakpoint in 2024 was lowkey real fun. I went through it solo with the AI teammates (not there at launch) and did the two main DLC storylines + all achievements. I kept gear score on since a couple achievements required it, but you can turn it off entirely though now if you hate the Destiny gear score system (I do, but I like achievements more lol). Gonna go through GR Wildlands at some point this year with my brother and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's always online game for no reason so it doesn't exist for me.

 

[Paul]

I finished Citizen Sleeper 2 and what a ride this one was.

I assume CS1 is required playing for full enjoyment?

 

[Li Kao]

I had a good enough time with Darkest Dungeon (haven’t lost a character, yet, lol) and looked at my favorite French streamer covering DD2 release in early access.
Now admittedly I expect the game to be far more polished now, but seeing the flaming train wreck that was the UX at EA release explained a lot of things about DD1 controller layout.

 

[Mor]

To be fair, that is what we are too! Steam era to be exact

I knew we sucked but you shouldn't tell us loud

 

[dex3108]

dun dun dunnnnnn

So basically what many of us are saying for years.

 

[lashman]

 

[LEANIJA]

Some Outlaws and WesternQuake3 vibes here, nice

 

[lashman]

Some Outlaws and WesternQuake3 vibes here, nice

yuuuup, can't wait!!!

 

[ezodagrom]

People don't realize just how far the genre has fallen, outside of pokemon almost none of them reach 10m anymore no matter how many platforms they're on.

Are there any JRPGs that ever reached 10m outside of Pokémon and Final Fantasy?
If no, it's not that the genre has fallen, it's just not a genre that usually reaches these huge numbers of sales outside of Pokémon and FF.

 

[Stallion Free]

It's always online game for no reason so it doesn't exist for me.

That’s why I prioritized it lol. Wanted to get the 100% before they “The Crew 1’d” it to the void.

 

[Dragon1893]

FF isn't the juggernaut it once was, but JRPGs as a whole seem to be doing fine.
There was a time when Yakuza and Trails were at a serious risk of not getting localized anymore and look at them now. Hell, look at how far Persona has come. It's easy to take P5's success for granted now but those are crazy numbers for what used to be a niche series.

 

[Dandy]

It's about ethics in journalism

 

[Le Pertti]

Varva is definitely one reason I might want not to play the games...

 

[lashman]

 

[Durante]

dun dun dunnnnnn

Console exclusives by third party publishers were obsolete roughly a decade ago, it just took some of them a long time to realize it.

 

[TrishaKit]

Now if only Vanillaware would get the memo

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Best Devil May Cry 5 mod

 

[Derrick01]

FF isn't the juggernaut it once was, but JRPGs as a whole seem to be doing fine.
There was a time when Yakuza and Trails were at a serious risk of not getting localized anymore and look at them now. Hell, look at how far Persona has come. It's easy to take P5's success for granted now but those are crazy numbers for what used to be a niche series.

Watch persona 6 still not have full voice acting despite the series being big now. I mean they cheaped out hard with metaphor but you could maybe give them an excuse that it's a new IP.

And I don't think it's fair to still judge yakuza from the standard that it used to almost not get localized. That was like over 10 years ago now. The reality is they gained a small boost in sales from going multiplat but now they've hit a wall again where every entry seems to max out at 2m sales (we don't even know if 8 reached that yet).

 

[Arulan]

dun dun dunnnnnn

This has been obvious I think for a while, but there is a lot of denial from the usual suspects.

And all for the better. The need to buy several machines that all do the same thing just to play different games has always been ridiculous. Now it's far easier to just stick to your preferred platform, especially on PC.

 

[toxicitizen]

No official post yet but Watch_Dogs just got Steam achievements!

Safe to assume Watch_Dogs 2 and Legion will be next.

 

[lashman]

 

[edin]

My Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Steam Deck article is up on RPG Site.

 

[Alexandros]

My Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Steam Deck article is up on RPG Site.

I wish more games used CryEngine and not Tim Sweeney's crapware.

 

[Ascheroth]

For what it's worth alex said in august the last he heard the game was almost at 4m (so probably had passed it by then).

The remakes are doing fine for jrpg standards. People don't realize just how far the genre has fallen, outside of pokemon almost none of them reach 10m anymore no matter how many platforms they're on. Nier is getting close and it's been 8 years since it came out, persona 5 still isn't there and that's with combining Royal's sales with the base game and a full multiplat release. The xenoblade games are some of the few switch nintendo games that didn't reach 5m+ this gen (think 2 is the top selling at around 3m). Even FFXV which people like to tout how it sold 10m forget that it crawled there over 6-7 years.

If anything 7R and Rebirth are both ahead of the pace of most of those games.

Imo JRPGs are doing well, but like STHX said, I also think a lot of them kinda went to mobile in F2P gacha form.
These are very JRPG-adjacent in what they offer: anime aesthetics, focus on narrative, party-based combat, progression systems and banger soundtracks, although ironically most of the current most popular ones are not from Japan.
Imo progression systems in those games are generally a lot weaker than ones from "traditional boxed" games, but other aspects are seemingly strong enough to make up for that, alongside the extremely low barrier of entry (free on phones) and constant content releases.

The point that STHX raised that now that many of these games have console and PC releases this could be an entry for mobile gamers moving there and picking up more "boxed" games is something I hadn't thought about though.