FFXIII-2 first week sales roughly a third of FFXIII's first week sales

@devwild Now where did it say Square Enix was stating this? And maybe Japanese aren't buying this because they LIKE linearity, and now it will sell crazy in the USA.

@devwild I think you've nailed it.

Final Fantasy is a particularly strong brand. After waiting 5 years for the next title and that on a next-generation console, FFXIII was hyped to death. Then when everyone played it, not very many people actually liked that game.

I personally place my blame on Motomu Toriyama the director. HE is the one you should all be blaming for the supposed downfall of Final Fantasy, not Tetsuya Nomura or someone else.

Toriyama directed FFXIII badly. The amount of time passed working only on the engine of the game resulted in bad direction of the game itself; when they finally got the engine up and running, they still had little idea what to do or how to make the game itself like. They just came up with the simple solution of clearing away every extras and other things that make the game itself varied. Resulting in the extreme linearity of the game. Even the cutscenes themselves were badly directed with corny and badly written dialogue, where Snow shouts out that they've "GOTTA SAVE SERAH, GOTTA SAVE COCOON!" every other minute and all that rich and potentially exciting back-story and general plot of the game was crammed into this text-heavy datalogue at the same time.

Maybe XIII-2 is a much better game, heck, maybe it's even splendid. But seeing as we never asked for this title to begin with, people generally did not like the former title along with the fact that it's a sequel to a sequel in the FF series, being not as hyped and it's definitely not the first title of this generation of consoles, no wonder it did not sell as much.

What does everyone else think?

@devwild

a drop from 30%~ to 20%~ in women is "a moderate change in one demographic?"

Women are half the population, and of the ones interested in the first game, a third of them weren't interested in the 2nd. That's very significant, if you read it correctly.

@Jenks Sorry, I wasn't trying to be insulting, I'm just talking statistics - women may be half of the population, but they were less than a third of the initial game's demographic, and a shift from 30 - 20% is a moderate change overall. Not minor, not major, moderate. That's all I was saying. It's not insignificant, but it's just one player in the overall difference in sales.

@I am a machineee It didn't say square enix said this, but neither did I. I'm just referring to the Media Create comment at the end of the article. Media Create's job is to track sales and while I'm guessing the statement was misinterpreted (I hope), it's kind of funny considering the source.

@devwild
I think that is part of the reason but another is the fact that it's XIII-2 and may not be viewed as a fully fledged FF game. I mean FFX-2 didn't sell as well as FFX. The name just doesn't carry the same significance as say FFXV

@Gexus Actually, by my understanding XIII was well received in Japan. Aside from some normal internet rage, overall it did very well. It got more hate in the west because of the linear gameplay, weak ending, and certain annoying-as-hell characters, but it still did well, and overall still has strong reviews for its genre. (because otherwise, the gameplay was good - also, this all echos strongly of FFX)

I don't think hate dropped sales so much as apathy. But I also doubt Square really cares that much. For low development cost, this game will dribble out sales for all the people who start starving for more FF during the development cycle for XV - same as X-2 did while everyone waited for XII. (more echos... square likes following patterns if they think it means continued flow of money)

@Shadowless I more or less agree, see previous post. :o)

@Gexus

Well, based on what I learnt from the comments on Amazon Japan, XIII-2 has some improvements compared to XIII in terms of the system and combat. BUT, the story seems to have gotten worse with the not-working-so-well multi-ending system, which is seems to be particularly upsetting to the Japanese users who have already played the game.

@devwild
I actually liked FF13. But I also played FFX-2.

I'll rent this one to make sure I don't end up with another copy of FF: Girl Power!

@devwild Enough of this XIII nonsense, already. I'll give you my money if you give me Versus XIII, Square.

@Gratchet Aside from the hateful, hateful internet, Final Fantasy XIII was pretty well received. Believe it or not, it did have some redeeming qualities, like a really great battle system.

XIV, on the other hand, not so much. That's pretty much hated by everyone, including reasonable people who don't freak out and explode every time something doesn't live up to their expectations.

@Roto13 I beg to disagree. A great battle system? I think we played a different game, or find different things to be fun and/or well planned. The gameplay was the one thing I hated the most about this game. All I did was press X the entirety of the game, switch a few paradigms... mostly because I was bored, not because I really needed to.

I believe the swift of focus to the engine of the game instead of the actual game bits, the sudden change of going multi-platform from exclusively the PS3 (and the probable cut of content as a consequence), and the horrible vision of Toriyama (so focused on simplicity and linearity... but on this game, it exceeded the limits) were all combined to produce a really average game (arguably. I found it to be a boring game). Being a Final Fantasy, it was expected to be better than just "it's ok".

I think the disappointment FFXIII was is the real reason it's sequel did this badly. Because, really: who would buy a sequel to a game that let him down?

@(Unverified) Overall from what I saw the battle system was well received. I liked it, but like with past FF games, the gameplay isn't that hard so I expect play kind of casual, and except for the speed-runners I think that's pretty typical. You don't play to win so much as to play more to your interest, style, and strategy, because ultimately you can't really lose. I've never played a FF game where you really had to pay much attention when you were grinding - the only time you really have to use the battle system is in boss fights or the challenge dungeons/monster arenas.

When I wanted to really experiment with the paradigms I'd find something appropriately hard to fight, then you had a chance to experience how it really worked, but if you never seek that out, yeah it's "just hit X"... same as past FF games (Heck, in XII it was usually "just walk around" once you were set up right, but it's still one of my favorite games).

@(Unverified)

It's true that the battle system almost seemed like an after-thought during the first hours of the game.

But during the later parts of the game, battling the strongest enemies with all characters maxed out managed to provide me with more thrill and excitement then any other RPG in a long long while. And I mean that.

The battle system itself was great. The problem was that it only felt rewarding and worthwhile during the later parts of the story (except for the bosses, the bosses were awesome). So the problem, really, was poor pacing.

@singleandlovinit

But remember it can also work with

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, can't get fooled again.

@Lerkero Final Fantasy XIII has a Metacritic average of 86. That's only a low score if you're one of those 7-10 scale morons.

@Roto13

What critics SCORE a game and what they SAY doesn't always match. I am certainly not a 7-10 scale person, I read reviews and its often the case with high profile games that critics will chastise a game for its flaws and then say "but the game is still good so ignore all those flaws."

If anyone were to tell me that FF13 was universally successful then I would think they did not pay attention to any of the feedback. I believe FF13 may have split the FF fanbase at least 50/50.

@mrantimatter There's a demo!?

@KenobiEagle
They had one at PAX. included a dungeon, a town segment, a puzzle segment, and a boss fight.

@Zippy Zapp That's exactly what they did. They changed the formula, making a very different game. Thing is, it's hard to convince people of that exact fact, considering that the previous title was a very bad game.

@Zippy Zapp You think 13 was fast paced? lolol

What definition of "fast paced" are you using exactly? Because making all of the enemies HP sinks means the battles moved along like molasses.

@Gexus Quit saying people didn't like it because it was different when there's plenty of valid reasons to dislike it out there. This excuse is getting as worn out as your mother.

@Faceless Troll If regular battles took you a long time, it's because you never got the hang of the stagger system. You can't just hit attack over and over and over again to win any more.

@Faceless Troll

I was referring to the mechanics of the game and battles not the battles themselves. You are correct in that some of the bosses were ridiculously powerful with way too many hit points. I prefer an open world map where you can freely explore areas versus being on rails with the XIII linear approach.

@PhiloSirus In what fever dream do you live where real life is anything like the world in Final Fantasy XIII?

@(Unverified)

WTF are you talking about? FF12 was turn based. All FFs (of the main series) are turn based.

@DjiegoMoz
FF12 was real time, in a sense. You set up gambits and the gambits could issue all the orders needed.

@Sprinterstar7 Well they damn well better have a target release date for Vs. XIII soon. Its the only FF related game, as well as Type-0, that I am actually somewhat excited about.

X-2 actually sold almost the exact same amount as X did in Japan (and way more than this game). The reason was because people really liked X, X-2 was greatly inferior to X and people still bought it because they wanted more X.

Now look at XIII-2, a greatly superior game selling much much worse, the only explanation is because people didn't like XIII and don't want more.

FFXIII was easily the worst "big budget" game Ive ever played. I'm a big RPG fan and I found it unplayable.

@passthemstickscom Dat hyperbole

@singleandlovinit Have you played Skyrim? THAT is the worst big budget game I've ever played. Or tried to, since it has mad glitches.

@passthemstickscom

HA!!!! you can't even put Skyrim and FFXIII in the same category together because, to be honest, Skyrim completely destroys FFXIII in every way possible. just sayin'....

@Liquidfingers I think that Skyrim is completely over hyped and just not a very good game. It makes no attempt at telling any sort of decent story because it lacks direction - and that's WHEN you're able to play it when it's not glitching. It's not even really an RPG - I have no idea why everyone feels the need to claim their game is an RPG these days when they don't fit into the genre. FFXIII told an interesting story and had a fairly strong set of characters. The ONLY thing really wrong with it was its linearity... And it was about an open as the more beloved FFX was in the FF series.

@passthemstickscom: Just because your one of the few that actually enjoyed FF XIII, it doesn't make the opinions of others wrong. FF XIII was indeed a very crappy game for the vast majority of those that played it. It's dust collecting pile of dung and has ruined the FF franchise for me and many others. Even with all it's glitches, Skyrim has made the FF franchise it's bitch. XII was a disaster, so it's no wonder the latest installment is falling short of projected sales.

@(Unverified) While there is no denying the commercial success of Skyrim, that doesn't make it a better game than FFXIII. There are plenty of people out there that thoroughly enjoyed FFXIII. Just because it's not all over every site you see doesn't mean the love is not there. I don't understand the reason people are overly critical of FFXIII, unless they're just accustomed to WRPG and Adventure games like Skyrim or just jumping on the hate wagon.

And just because you disagree with me doesn't make my opinion wrong, either.