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America is getting bored with Final Fantasy

xsynergyx | May 01, 2008 | News | Playstation Portable Company 
Square Enix has been kicking out with Final Fantasy for 18 years and it has proven to be quite successful...until now. Their decision to try Final Fantasy on the Playstation Portable hasn't quite paid off with Crisis Core selling a mere 380,000 in it's first month in America. Looking at the chart at the source, it is nowhere near to what they've sold before on other Final Fantasy games. You can't blame it on the PSP due to the fact that America has 3 million more PSP sales than Japan. The chart also shows the down in sales of each Final Fantasy game release in America. Is America getting bored of Final Fantasy?
Square Enix, not one to sit one their hands, decided to try and give the Final Fantasy VII Compilation another shot of adrenaline, hoping not to appear to be beating it like a dead horse. They developed Crisis Core, and instead of try to mix it up with something totally new again, the developer designed the game fairly similar to the successful Kingdom Hearts series. Furthermore, they also strictly developed Crisis Core for the Playstation Portable, in an attempt to tap an otherwise quiet market. As of current, their decision appears to be a move that hasn't necessarily paid off anywhere near as handsomely as they likely hoped.

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  • 0 thumbs!
    neto_360 | May 02, 2008
    I just think that SE needs to stop milking Final Fantasy VII and focus on new titles. I hope Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XII live up to the fans expectations...
  • 2 thumbs!
    Seeker X | May 02, 2008
    Either that or the majority of the people that WERE going to buy Crisis Core already imported it from Japan...just a thought.
  • -4 thumbs!
    The_Don | May 02, 2008
    Personally, I never got into the whole FF series. Anime games like this aren't that popular compared to huge titles like Halo or GTA in North America.
    • 1 thumbs!
      Zero and X | May 02, 2008
      The Final Fantasy series are not "anime" games dude.
  • 0 thumbs!
    gamefreak101 | May 02, 2008
    To be honest, I've been disappointed with the series for the past 6 years. The last epic Final Fantasy game in my opinion was X. Still haven't bought Crisis Core, but I'm truly hoping that XIII will blow everyone away. FF is my favorite series, and I hope for the best.
  • 0 thumbs!
    MusiKon | May 02, 2008
    Topic should be changed to "America is getting bored with Final Fantasy VII"

    I'm finally getting my chance to play FF9 on my PSP, and I'm loving it. So it can't be the whole franchise in full for me.
  • 1 thumbs!
    Gothic Girl | May 02, 2008
    This might have something to do with the fact that the FF games have been on a steady decline in quality ever since Sakaguchi left.

    It's not only in America that's losing interest. There have been a few recent Final Fantasy games that have had mediocre sales/reviews in Japan too.

    People are starting to realize that the series isn't the same quality that it used to be.
    • 1 thumbs!
      StarJet | May 02, 2008
      quote
      People are starting to realize that the series isn't the same quality that it used to be.
      Come on! Crisis Core is almost as good as the original VII.
  • 1 thumbs!
    Avalith | May 02, 2008
    Final Fantasy - Uematsu - Sakaguchi =/= Final Fantasy

    It's simple math, really.
  • -3 thumbs!
    Final Blade | May 02, 2008
    Seeker has a point with the CC sales in America. Many people played the import version so thats the reason for the decline on that end. As for FF, I think they need to go back to their roots and stop making shitty games like FF12 and DoC. I commend them on taking risk's but FF RPG's are known for their Turn Based battle system. And while CC was probably the first FF game to ever use the KH battle system really well, some didn't like it.

    I don't think it has anything to with Sakaguchi. It wasn't just him who made FF7 and the past great it was the whole staff including Nomura. But taking risk's in adding things like FF12 and DoC did, wasn't anything impressive. "Don't fix what isn't broken".

    While i have no doubt FF13 and Versus will be the FF10 of PS2 being the last great game on a Sony console, they just need to do what the series has been known for.

    This is my opinion on this, and im sure im going to get thumbed down for this as usual.
    • 0 thumbs!
      Gothic Girl | May 11, 2008
      quote
      I don't think it has anything to with Sakaguchi.
      It has alot to do with Sakaguchi. he was the man who kept the rest of the team in charge - He was the creator of every FF story.
      Nomura was nothing more than a concept artist before Sakaguchi left - Now that concept artist is friggin' directing games? wtf?

      Take a look at Sakaguchi's recent game Lost Odyssey. It has everything that the recent FF games have been missing - It's practically identical to a good traditional FF game.

      Recently it has become a little too obvious that Sakaguchi was the man in charge of keeping the FF series "on the right track", so to speak.
      FF seems to have become Squeenix's "experimenting ground" nowadays. I don't mind changes, but some of the new ideas just don't seem to be as well thought-out as they should be. Now that the main man is gone, Squeenix have run wild with new ideas - and those new ideas haven't always been good ones or well thought-out ones.
      • 0 thumbs!
        Final Blade | May 11, 2008
        Yea so? Look at Sony brand. The creator "Father" Of PS is gone. And its going to be the next man who steps in and bring his own idea in the mix. People don't stay forever with one thing they expand and go to different places.

        As much as FF12 wasn't up to my standards doesn't make FF bad.
        People leave and new people take over. Its how everything works. and to be honest, it doesn't have a damn thing to do with him. People want something new. And once FF7 compilation is done, the people will like the series again. Games in general are a trial and error. You won't know what people like unless you try it.

        By your logic the future of Playstation will be shitty since the main man is gone. Nah i don't think so. FF13 and Versus will probably blow everyone minds. Its looking like it will.

        Have faith. I don't like people stating one man made this and without him its sucks. What about all the people who worked for him for years, who learned to grow and share ideas with him?

        New generation new people, try new idea. Some may work some may not, but if your going worry so much about if this game may not be liked by others nothing gets done.
        You can't please everyone in the world. The best you can do is have a good portion of them to like it and buy the game and recoup their money that they lost developing it.
        Games, in general, is a trial and error.
        • 0 thumbs!
          Gothic Girl | May 11, 2008
          Congrats on missing my point. >_>

          The Sony example has no relevance to what I was talking about.
  • 0 thumbs!
    The Power | May 02, 2008
    Perhaps if they think of something else to get the Americans into something else. GTA for example is great and you have to wait a long time for each one to come out.
  • 1 thumbs!
    Silver Mirror | May 02, 2008
    So what your suggesting Square turn Final Fantasy into GTA? No logic at all in that.

    I'm thinking that XIII and Versus look like a good return to form, of course we will have no idea until we actually play them.

    I personally blame Enix for ruining recent Final Fantasy games, ever since they merged they have been interested in nothing more than a quick buck (eg FF X-2, DOC etc)
  • 0 thumbs!
    Cruxis Mana | May 02, 2008
    I don't think the quality of the Final Fantasy series is diminishing, I think that people just need to wait it out.
    The titles talked about in that article are all games that were outsourced to different developers within SE - developers who don't make FF games. Thus they were mediocre at best.

    Final Fantasy X was amazing.
    FFXII was amazing and even though loads of people didn't like it, it still got amazing reviews and sold well.
    You can't say the whole series is going down the drain just because you don't like one of the games, which is what a lot of people seem to be doing. I, personally, hate FFVIII, but IX is my favourite in the series so far.

    FFXIII is being developed by the same team who made FFVII and FFX. It has a hell of a lot of potential and I'm willing to bet it'll be another amazing game, just like the rest.
    • -1 thumbs!
      Final Blade | May 03, 2008
      Pretty much how i also feel. I never said FF12 was a shitty game, it was amazing, but my problem was the storyline about politics and No character development. I will let the Battle system slide since it wasn't that bad.

      @kik Games in general are all repetitiveness. There is no game in history that wasn't repetitive. So that point in CC is moot. If you was a solider thats the type of missions your going to be doing, which is why Sephy didn't like doing them, while Zack did.
  • 0 thumbs!
    kik36 | May 02, 2008
    I think X-2 really scared people away......I mean c'mon that game blew hard!!! I never even finished it, I only got a few hours into it and didn't want to waste my time anymore. They went from an absolutely amazing game (X) and turned the "sequel" into complete shit. They need to gain back the confidence of the consumer.....hopefully XIII does just that.
    • 0 thumbs!
      tallteen86 | May 02, 2008
      That might be part of the reason. Sort of like Squeenix 'sold out' to the 'sex + game = awesome' idea...

      I DID like the graphical quality of X-2 though. It wasn't that bad of a game, I've played worse. But yea, I preferred X much more.

      I don't have CC and I have a PSP....I don't have a lot of money to go around ATM....
  • 0 thumbs!
    kik36 | May 02, 2008
    Yeah X-2 was hot graphics wise.......in fairness I haven't given it a fair shot, and I do plan on beating it one day.

    CC is a good game......but there is so much repetition with the missions and even the material synthesis that it can bog ya down.....the graphics, especially on the cutscenes are gorgeous!!!
  • 1 thumbs!
    Zero and X | May 02, 2008
    Too many FF games are coming out way too quickly, no shit this is gonna happen. Plus, nobody wants any of these games, we want the actual next numerical FF game, not another DS remake or a FF7 prequel/ sequel.
  • -4 thumbs!
    teodortenchev | May 04, 2008
    I DO blame it on the PSP though. Or maybe people didn't like the idea. Personally I prefer FFs that are completely different from the rest and that bring us a brand new world to explore with new concepts and so on.
    • 2 thumbs!
      StarJet | May 04, 2008
      Why do you blame it on the PSP? The PSP is the best platform for it unless they wanted to make it a fully fledged NextGen game
      If they wanted it to be a portable game, nothing could be better than the PSP for it. All Nintendo fanboys just have to admit the fact that the DS would've ruined it. The game is 1.6 GB for god's sake! Can a DS cartridge hold all that content?

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