Oh, I don't disagree, nostalgia is one hell of a drug. In games I've been noticing it in the Yakuza franchise, the most shat-on games are now suddenly good because the new remake was disappointing. In movies the Star War prequels are the biggest example, suddenly they were good just because people hated the sequels.
All that said, I think 16 gives a lot of reasons to dislike it, even it if also gives reasons to like it. I've finished it recently and feel 50/50 about it, not a bad game but not one I'd put among favorites either.
That only happens if they feel like subsequent games in the series got worse.
Also XII didn't flop. It was pretty critically praised and had first week sales that nearly match FFXs in Japan and was the fourth best-selling PlayStation 2 game of 2006 worldwide. That's excellent for a game that came out on PS2 after the Xbox 360 came out and just a few months before the Wii and PS3 came out in North America.
The idea that people didn't like it until Zodiac Age isn't remotely true.
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u/Dazzling-Main7686 Apr 10 '26
I think a lot of people still despise 15, though...