I feel if thy were going to try this mid tier push they should have consoldated their efforts to 2 maybe 3 at most fully fleshed out games on platforms that still seem to these games well. Highly profitable mid tiers on consoles even in Japan seem to be starting to go the way of the dodo, and the lack of is even more notable there. The handheld market should have been where they focused that energy on.
RPG's are the 3DS and Vita's lifeblood, a "high budget" which would still be next to nothing in console terms would stand a decent chance at getting 1-2 million LTD. FE an utterly medicore series before this generation managed to do it and grow with it's sequel, BD had its budget kneecaped and did not. Low budget entries fired in a shatter shot will work well in a mobile space but not in a handheld or console space. The budget didn't need to be super high but up to par. There's a reason why BD was the only game to suceed in this approach.
Another part of the weight of Square Enix's legacy was that they were a huge global success despite making decidedly Japanese games, and it's hard to continue that legacy on a declining platform category.
I do agree with you that it would make more sense to focus on a smaller slate of products with bigger budgets, and then carefully tailoring those products to their target audience both in ways they do and don't expect, but that's pretty much true of the entire industry.
I also think both CEO's share the idea of making S-E being relevant in the AAA-space again (Matsuda of course giving Japan a bigger amount of projects, with XV at the center of it - and just like you said it needs to succeed and prove they can still compete). But, if we look at what people were saying about Eidos recently released projects, it feels Wada liked to spend a lot more on marketing and letting people know/talk about those games. We may say Deus Ex's sequel came out late, but there was lot of folks here on Gaf saying they didn't know it was already out (and look -> this is usually the people that is reading news and stuff). Perhaps the big focus on XV impacted on it, but, hell... Deus Ex should also mean a lot for S-E nowadays.
For the handheld/console/MMO discussion I don't think S-E is wrong in keep trying to develop big high-end single-player games, especially in Japan. There's still a viable market for those as we've seen and they keep increasing revenue year after year in the dedicated space. It's clear to see that titles like XV, DQXI, VII Remake are the ones we see people talking about and are *usually* most excited for, since they've got the whole potential and appeal that products like XIV and DQXI can't quite reach (they do generate great revenue and were well received, but as Wada said before: it works like a stable base of earnings for their big productions, since they take more time to be released). And handelhd games are going multiplat with smarphones, something that was expected to happen.
It's just unfortunate Japan's dedicated market became what it is today, and we are actually unsure if Switch will be able to change things for the better. I hope it does, but not close to DS level of greatness in any case. Now speaking about the futre of projects: let's not forget about Matsuda's ****brilliant**** "Law of 3 titles"
I feel that Wada saw Eidos as a way regain AAA relevance for Square Enix again and hoped that by Eidos would lead their Japanese teams to success by example and knowledge sharing.
Matsuda's approach seems more about handing off control to Square Enix Europe while asking them to keep a handle on the budget as much as possible. Tomb Raider was signed up for exclusivity, Hitman is a digital episodic series now, Just Cause 3 was extremely budget anemic, Square Enix Montreal was changed from a AAA studio into a mobile game studio, and Sleeping Dogs was dropped. Deus Ex was the only real exception (perhaps because Square Enix felt most comfortable with a AAA RPG?), and after how that went over, I imagine there will be some significant changes.
Which games? I don't think WoFF is solely aimed at their older base. Yes it has big appeal to them due to the references but the chibi art style, narrative and overall presentation tells me this is like a "my first FF": an entry into the FF universe for a younger audience.
When I think of SE trying to please their old fanbase I think of FF7R.
Yes, I feel that one in particular is just a very confused product that doesn't really match the new children's audience it's ostensibly targeting or the older audience they seemed to heavily skew the marketing to.
It also lacked the type of support for either approach. Children's games are generally followed with toys, anime/cartoon shows, lots of product crossovers with existing popular children's brands, and strong partnerships with companies who special in children's content. Major core games are generally pushed very heavily through both traditional channels (i.e. the IGNs and Polygons of the world) and influencers (YouTube stars, streamers), of which this wasn't really pushed anywhere but Jump and Famitsu, where they'd spend their time talking about classic FF character cameos instead of the cute monsters you're catching.
As for games I'd consider to be part of Square Enix Japan's renewed mid-tier approach this generation (which had a variety of success and failure, and not all were targeted to classic franchises):
- Star Ocean V
- Theatrhythm (Both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest)
- Dragon Quest Builders
- Final Fantasy Explorers
- Dragon Quest Heroes
- Dragon Quest Heroes 2
- I Am Setsuna
- Bravely Default
- Bravely Second
- World of Final Fantasy
Upcoming:
- Nier 2
- SaGa: Scarlet Grace
I'm excluding their eSports push which consists of games like Dissidia and Figureheads and their digital push with games like Chaos Rings 3 and Mana.
I also excluded the games before Matsuda took over like Lord of Apocalypse, Army Corps of Hell, and Drakengard 3.
Finally, I excluded continuations of already significantly successful mid-tier series like Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker or Fortune Street.
That said, if we brought these games in, I don't think they'd help Square Enix's case on the whole.
Now, there's probably an argument to be made that I'm being judgmental too early in this process, but I feel their series have generally either started well and declined, or done poorly from the start, and there's not much upcoming for me to point at and go "Oh yeah, that will definitely be a hit." To be completely honest, there's actually not that much upcoming to point at to begin with.