Thread 11934183

>Japanese sales:
>Final Fantasy (Famicom): 520,000
>Final Fantasy II (Famicom): 760,000
>SaGa (Gameboy): 1,100,000
>SaGa 2 (Gameboy): 850,000
At one point SaGa was more popular than Final Fantasy.

It's not surprising for two reasons: less RPG competition on Game Boy and the games were half price compared to console games.

>Final Fantasy
>Release date: December 18 1987

>Final Fantasy II
>Release date: December 17 1988

>Saga
>Release date: December 15 1989

>Saga 2
>Release Date: December 14 1990

Damn I had never realized that. Anyway SaGa's release date and the way it sold more than its sequel tells you everything you need to know: it was one of the first RPGs on GB.

>>11934221
If Romancing SaGa came out a month earlier, it would have came out in 1991. A RPG a year. Kind of nutty when you think about it.

>>11934470
Saga 3 / FFL3 was December 13 1991 too

>>11934183 (OP)
The Game Boy was kind of RPG starved compared to the NES, and there were almost twice as many Game Boys sold in Japan than Famicoms, and by the time SaGa released Square actually had a reputation to drive sales.

I doubt anyone would realistically argue that Saga 1/2/3 were better games than FF1/2/3, even if you hated 2.

>>11934183 (OP)
Nipnoids yearn for Kawazu jank

Now tell us the sales numbers of Final Fantasy III

>>11934637
OP sisters...

>>11934470
I mean, look at how that was done for the GB SaGa games, and for the NES Dragon Quests as well.
Significant asset reuse. Modest scope. And so on.
We could have that again, you know, if the market was willing to accept it.
I've sort of kicked around trying it, but my experience thus far has been that people get really mad about those sorts of things.

>>11934587
>I doubt anyone would realistically argue that Saga 1/2/3 were better games than FF1/2/3, even if you hated 2.
They are

>>11934657
We still have that with Pokemon and DQ and sports games, and even FF7 Remake. Everyone else, including Square themselves, hotshotted the market to shit and now expectations are overinflated for certain areas, unless you fit a certain hype-machine driven meta and then you can release dogshit everytime and make bank

>>11934884
saga's only selling point was that it was a jrpg... on the gameboy

>>11934587
>there were almost twice as many Game Boys sold in Japan than Famicoms
In 1990? I don't think so.

>>11935005
>not all gameboys were sold by 1990
>but all copies of saga were sold on release day
use your brain dumdum

also if they sold anything like in america, there was even a rerelease years later after all 3 had already come out

>>11934183 (OP)
Maybe it's because I played it first, but I think SaGa 1 is better than Final Fantasy 1. I'm debating whether I think Final Fantasy 2 is better than SaGa 2

>>11934183 (OP)
Also, I'd never really looked at the Japanese box art. It's pretty rad that he has the chainsaw you can use to OHKO God in his hand.

>>11935031
Yes the sales charts goes up to 1999 so it's obvious that the Saga GB series benifited from the incredible life span of the GB.
It's also worth noting that outside of the first one being on Wonderswan, they weren't re-released much during that period of time, while FF1 got released on MSX, Wonderswan and PSX; and FF2 on on Wonderswan and PSX as well.

Meaning if you wanted to play FF1/2 in the mid to late 90's you had options and options more relevant/current than digging out the old Famicom, but for the Saga series customers would go with the GB which was still seen as current console.

I don't have sales data for the MSX/PSX/Wonderswan versions of 1/2 but if you add them it probably surpasses the Saga series

>>11935031
The majority of a game's sales would be typically within a year of release, yeah.

>>11934884
Maybe better than 1 but not FF3. 3 is perfected

>>11935063
> but I think SaGa 1 is better than Final Fantasy 1

No fucking way

>>11935089
I enjoy them more. Having three races that develop differently is just more appealing to me, and it's a pretty brisk game with going to new areas and game length.

>>11935075
lmao in ye olden days? 99% of the market didn't follow game releases, they just went to toys r us and bought whatever had the coolest cover art or what their friends had

>>11935086
Yeah, was gonna say, Saga 2 is a masterpiece and better than FF1 & 2 but...FF3 is fantastic

>>11935521
>>11935086
FF3 is the worst one

>>11934183 (OP)
SaGa 2 is KINO

>>11934637
Itiny dicks are cute btw

>>11935089
Pretty much this >>11935418
I like FF1, but it drags and always feels like a real slog by the end and the most interesting decision you get to make in the whole game is your party set up.

>>11935669
Not him but FF3 is legit one of my favorite games in the whole series. It might actually be my favorite behind 6. I like 5, but 3 more. It's also got one if the best arranged soundtracks ever put out.

>>11935073
Sunsoft even republished/reprinted the Legend games later into the 90s.

>>11938413
AFAIK that's US only though and this topic is Japanese sales. Unless they also did that in Japan

>>11935428
Okay, you win. Zero copies of SaGa were sold in 1989. All of the sales suddenly came flooding in in 1996. Happy?

>>11938373
>ILUSTRACIÓN Y AMANO

>>11935418
It's superior mechanically I think, yeah. Superior character/battle systems, more interesting choices per hour, weirder and more interesting setting. FF1 is audiovisually superior and offers a world that feels bigger and deeper and far more coherent. There are good reasons to choose each of them over the other.

>>11934183 (OP)
Man, I haven't thought about it for so many years, but now you just triggered me to remember the airship music from FF Legend III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L84tPqqZYsA

>>11939635
FF1 is better balanced and feels like actual dungeon crawling. It also has better story and world building

>>11934189
/thread

>>11940798
What do you mean by balance?

>>11934183 (OP)
Seems to me this was very brief and it wasn't by that much. There is also the difference of one being on GB and the other the Famicom. This is ultimately nothing that special to even note OP sorry.

>>11939635
>>11940798

Final Fantasy has a bigger world, but I think Legend's along with it's story is much better in concept. FF has some neat areas but the story is really just you're the warriors of light going around the world to fix each crystal. Legend starts with a mystery of what the world is all about and you climb this tower seeking the truth to find each level of the world is progressively more miserable with the last being a grim apocalypse. Only to reach the top and be congratulated by the creator of it all who made all the fiends and everything horrible on purpose as a test. So you say fuck you to God and cut him in half with a chainsaw. It's simple, but one of the best jrpg stories out there.

saga's pretty much what you would expect - an early attempt at a portable jrpg... it's super barebones

>>11942035
FF1's story does not get enough credit, it's not in the grand aspects of the plot, but all in the details and worldbuilding. Like the way you discover an extinct world little by little with only hints of what was and a few people struggling to survive. I feel like no other FF game had worldbuilding this good until 8 and 9, especially with how varied the world was.

Saga's story and world feels very artificial to me, because it literally is, and I realize that's the point, but as a result it also makes it feel very "gamey"

>>11943374
While in The Final Fantasy Legend you are assaulted by Suzaku unable to harm it and have to find a way underground to evade its terror. You can see above ground a city laid waste. Then needing components to take down a generator to actually face Suzaku. Or people on a beach with palm trees convincing themselves that what they've found is paradise. Or those that resist and develop weapons to strike back at the gods.

There's a lot in the worlds of the first SaGa game.

>>11944694
I'm playing through it now and have been surprised by this a lot. I still think I prefer FF1 to it, but only barely, and SaGa 2 blows FF1/2 out of the water IMO. That was a wild ride.

>>11943374
God, I recall posting that.