Sony honors Square Enix's RPG as only title to sell 1 million-plus in Japan in 2010; Yakuza 4, MGS: Peace Walker, Monster Hunter, more earn Gold-level accolades.
As the end of the year descends upon the game industry, the requisite year-end back-patting commences. In Japan last night, Sony held its annual PlayStation Awards show to honor the best-selling PlayStation 3, PSP, and PlayStation Network games for the November 1, 2009, to October 31, 2010, period in the electronics giant's home region.
Relayed by Andria Sang, the PlayStation Awards show had a single entrant in its top platinum category, which honors those games that sold more than 1 million units domestically. That game was Square Enix's blockbuster Final Fantasy XIII, which earned a strong critical reception upon its release in Japan last December. The game reached the platinum level within 24 hours in Japan and went on to sell more than 5.5 million units worldwide.
The Gold-level awards, which are given to those titles that sold more than 500,000 units in Japan, were in greater supply, if only ever so slightly. Two PS3 games achieved the half-million milestone in Japan: Sega's Yakuza 4: Densetsu o Tsugumono and Tecmo Koei's Fist of the North Star Warriors. That list was augmented by six PSP games, including Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, God Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
Sony also handed out awards to the top five best-selling PSN content pieces in Japan. Sega dominated this list, with After Burner Climax, Hatsune Miku Project Diva Add-On Song Collection Deluxe Pack 1, and Hatsune Miku Project Diva Dreamy Theater all being named. The Sega trio was joined by Sony's Weekly Toro Station and Acquire's Wizardry.
Andria Sang notes that while Sony has traditionally limited the PlayStation Awards show to best-sellers, the company introduced a User Choice category this year. Voted on by visitors to Sony's PlayStation website, the winners range from Demon's Souls and God of War III on the PS3 to Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the PSP.
Platinum Award: (1 million-plus sellers)
Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, PS3)
Gold Award: (500,000-plus sellers, unranked)
Yakuza 4 (Sega, PS3)
Fist of the North Star Warriors (Tecmo Koei, PS3)
Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Sega, PSP)
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP the Best (Capcom, PSP)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Square Enix, PSP)
God Eater (Namco Bandai, PSP)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Konami, PSP)
Monster Hunter Diary (Capcom, PSP)
PlayStation Store Special Award: (top-five sellers, unranked)
Wizardry (Acquire, PS3)
Hatsune Miku Project Diva Add-On Song Collection Deluxe Pack 1 (Sega, PSP)
After Burner Climax (Sega, PS3)
Hatsune Miku Project Diva Dreamy Theater (Sega, PS3)
Weekly Toro Station (Sony, PS3/PSP)
User Choice Award:
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP the Best (Capcom, PSP)
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (Konami, PSP)
Hatsune Miku Project Diva 2nd (Sega, PSP)
Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki (Falcom, PSP)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix, PS3)
Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, PS3)
Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition (Capcom, PS3)
Demon's Souls PS3 the Best (Sony, PS3)
Yakuza 4 (Sega, PS3)
God of War III (Sony, PS3)
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
FFXIII is nice ....a nice example of how not to do a RPG GAME . FFXIII is the worst RPG game i have ever played.....too linear , terrible dialogues ,terrible history ,very bad stereotyped characters full of cliche . Suck to know how garbage sells like this....
"User Choice Award: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix, PS3)" WTH!? Square Enix?
if they keep trying hard enuff, maybe they'll convince me that FFXIII was a good game....but I doubt it
@TheTrueMagusX1: No, I didn't. I gave one whopping huge reason (LACK OF STORY - please reread my numerous posts on the subject). And if you can't see sarcasm in a post on a website, I'm sorry for you.
I think FFXIII was a great game so what if it didn't live up to the hype and the legend that was made by all the previous FF games. AS a FF game it was probably on the down low of the series, but as a game it was still really good. good graphics, interesting characters (i actually enjoyed all the whining), and good story.
@VarietyMage You just did, all you said was the games were not as good as they used to be and not give a reason, as well as give a rather childish statement that people should commit suicide over a game you did not like. Brings me to question your age....
@TheTrueMagusX1 *sigh* You can never fail at a debate as long as you keep arguing, and I concede nothing. I've played more games over the years than most people have, and a lot of them sucked. That's why I cherish the Final Fantasy Series (6 through 10, that is, not including 10-2). Great RPG games with great stories with combat systems that don't suck. I remember when the Dougherty brothers were doing the Questron/LOTA/Blacksilver games, and I'd rather play those old games on my C64 emulator than play FF13. Yes, it sucks THAT bad. If I want to play a level grinder, I'd play an MMO, or Disgaea 3 (far cooler, and no online idiots to deal with). FF13 disgraces the Final Fantasy name. I'd recommend seppuku for the designers, but I'm generally more forgiving than that, and unfortunately those designers are all Squenix has left these days. They just have to re-learn the formula and make FF15 a Final Fantasy again.
@notserbamma I believe we will see some classics from them again. there just outta touch right now. and I cant imagine its as easy as u wish it was to make a good rpg. there is a ton of bad ones out there. You gotta have all these different aspects just right and interesting. Your hearts in the right place, but u gotta believe (if by the developement length alone) that SE's is too. They just havent found that spark for a while
@luna_chanfui yeah i guess I agree with you there... because since I am otaku for FF and SE I really really wanted to like this game... but other than the cut scenes it really wasnt that good. I mean i looked for things i enjoyed like the new battle system they had and the polish on things a simple as how quick and fluid your character moved about...they polished it to no end, it was simply to linear with little substance. more like a movie where the story was all that mattered to them during developement. FF games are supposed to be the ultimate well rounded game that has it all... so theres a lot of pressure for them to be just right. SE just hasnt accomplished that since ff10 really.
@Scootman78 At least they tried something different. Most developers make the same game over and over again with a different name/number attached to it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well I don't mind Square Enix trying something different, I'm always open-minded to new games. I just had a problem with it being called Final Fantasy because when I think of Final Fantasy, I think of non-linear rpgs. I'd have no problem playing the same game over and over again if that game was like FFVII or FFX. If the formula works, stay with it.
@VarietyMage Your statements crack me! Hahahaha! Considering that Bioforge came out in 1995 about 12 years after I was born son. You used false assumptions to make your arguments as basically you conceded your points to me, but failed to acknowledge that you have failed in the debate! :D
@notserbamma I know what you mean. I still imagine what it would look like if you could stand by the observatory at Cosmo Canyon and look down opposite the camera (which always faced the cliffside). Imagine FF done with the Oblivion/Fallout engine. It would be so beautiful (if done to true global scale), it would hurt. The soundtrack of Chrono Cross still haunts me to this day. I liked the story of FFX and the explanation of the magic involved. Characters like Yuna and Aeris (FF7) are the counterpoint to the main characters so much so that the world around them (and the story as well) resonates just due to their presence. Aeris was a bright light in a beaten-down, cynical world, and Yuna was a depressed soul in a world that had to be ever-optimistic just to face each day. You can't help but empathize with souls who are out of sync with their world; you want to be different, but you still want to be accepted - and it never happens until you meet the right people, which is a journey in and of itself. That's the making of a great story, and if you have the world coming down around people's ears while magic and technology meld together, that's a Final Fantasy story.
@TheTrueMagusX1 Yes, FF10 was as linear as FF13, but at least there was story and interaction with NPCs. The world *lived*. And I have played bad games. I remember Bioforge and Wrath of Denethor, though those may be long before you were born. The point was that Final Fantasy as it stands now sucks compared to its glory days on the SNES and PS1/2.
@VarietyMage *sigh* such a simple concept that for some reason has been long forgotten. I don't understand what's so hard about bringing back the golden age of JRPG's...all these DEVS need to do is focus on everything that made fans fall in love with the genre in the first place, instead of removing EVERY SINGLE THING that defines a JRPG... The people who made FF10-13 for some reason thought fans would still love the series even after removing true character development, classic storylines, airships, world maps, interesting plot twists, and meaningful NPC's that lead to side-quests... I just can't understand what they were thinking...SQUARE was done even before they absorbed ENIX, but once the merger happened, they officially died. We will never again see truly classic RPGs like CT, CC, FF6/7, or Xenogears...and it's kinda sad. As a fan of the golden age, sometime in my lifetime it would be nice to see a true chrono trigger 2 that fills in all the holes in between CT and CC...or maybe a re-mastered xenogears since they never even finished the game... Prolly wont ever happen tho...
@notserbamma: I concur. Character development occurs in interaction with the environment around the character. While Hope had some small amount of development, the writers could have had a lot more development if he could have interacted with others in his environment beyond the main party characters. @everybody else: Character development includes responses to changes in events in the storyline. Most of FF13 was running from place to place, without significant interactions with third-party characters and incidentals. This severely limits the lines of development of any character in the party. This changes the game from an RPG (which involves significant interaction with third-party characters and incidentals) to an MMO which is geared towards minimal character interaction beyond grouping to kill monsters, raise stats/powers and grabbing loot. Changing the party's location in the world didn't have any significant effects on the main characters - this is how you know you're playing an MMO, not an RPG. Just to reiterate: an RPG is an interactive story. If you make too many mistakes, it's Game Over. If you succeed, you continue on the game's storyline until you reach the story's end. If there is no story, there is no RPG. Period. If there is no player-NPC interaction (who convey the background details and sidequests, and show the end results of the main character's actions, thus allowing feedback for characters to change over time), then there is no story.
@everybody else (part 2): FF13 has no story. It's an MMO masquerading as an RPG. As such, I think it sucks, and I feel I was ripped off. Not like you really want this last bit, but FF13 is about as much an RPG as Disgaea 3. In other words, it isn't. It's a smattering of story attached to a combat system (and Disgaea 3's combat system is immense). The only difference is that Disgaea 3 is a turn-based strategy game, and FF13 is a real-time strategy game (and the combat system isn't as complicated). I like Disgaea 3 for what it is. I don't like my favorite RPG to turn into what FF13 is. It pisses me off, like turning KOTOR into at MMO without creating more KOTORs, or turning Duke Nukem 3D into a side-scroller. It's not the same as what I knew and loved.
@tekken220 HOPE is your only example??? Is that really all you got? I remember when Final Fantasy games had character development for nearly every single character in the game. Do you remember how many chars there were in FF6, and how almost ALL of them had bomb @$$ storylines???? Get the F outta here wit that HOPE mess....HOPE from FF13 is NOT an example of character development...
Johnition said: "@magusat999 If I wanted people's opinion of this game, I'd go to the reviews section. Anyone can write one. There's 58 critic reviews, and 25 *pages* of player reviews. Nobody came to this story hoping to find some unknown gem of a FF XIII review. How exactly does "OMG FF SUXX" or anything else like that have anything to do with this story? The game got an award. An award based on sales." @Johnition You are responding as if people are commenting for your benefit. People comment for all kinds of reasons - none of them have anything to do with YOU. If you only value the opinions of the article writers then why are you reading the comments in the first place? I reiterate - this section is for user comments, complaining about people making comments in a comment section is just stupid.
@SkySora95 are you out of your mind final fantasy as a series is the most superior game of all time if it wasn't the game wouldn't be around for over 20 years
I honestly loved FF13. Definitely more challenging in the later levels than many previous installments and the finale was well worth the wait. Even Leona Lewis didn't throw me off too much :P
@shadowysea07 What I mean by character development is how the characters change over the course of the story. IE: Hope was a whinny little girl in the beginning of the game, and I hated him. Following Lightning, which was an a-hole at first imo, made him shut up for a while and grow a pair. Just how I saw the characters.
its sad though that peace walker sales is not as high as final fantasy... i believe the franchise's story as a whole is far better and epic compared to any final fantasy game....
Just wondering how many people actually played FF 13, beat it, and says it sucks? I bet that number wont be as high as the random people bashing this game. I generally like it, the story and character development is great imo.
@sniper2k0 I'm not holding it against anybody if they like or even think FF8 is the best in the series, but the idea that it is AND that FF9 is the worst in the entire series is just preposterous and probably doesn't chime with what the big mayority of Final Fantasy Fans think. Considering that Hironobu Sakaguchi considers FF9 his Swan Song and Magnum Opus Final Fantasy game, I don't think he will agree ether.
Yeah, this is what I wanna see! If SEGA can keep sales up like this, we'll see the Dreamcast 2 in no time
@shadowysea07: How so? I don't agree with Famitsu on any of its scoring, the system itself is broken beyond belief. But its users reached that conclusion based upon their opinion, it was a statement of fact that I mentioned the list. @decoy1978: But that doesn't mean it's a bad game either. In your opinion, it's average. That's perfectly fine. But that doesn't then make it average overall. Other people may think it's a great game, I'm one of them. No, it's not the best, I like FFX, FFVII, FFXII, FFIX and possibly FFVI more (I'm on the fence with that one, though), but neither does it need to be BETTER than what came before it, just stellar on its own. That is, of course, debatable, but I think FFXIII possesses memorable characters (3 of them, to be exact), a great soundtrack and a rich storyline. Just showing that people can disagree, basically.
@VarietyMage I couldn't agree more with you. FF is now a very old with very little innovation franchise. It's basically the same game over and over again with different coats of painting. I am very tired of FF now. I think there should not be any more new FF games for a very long while.
@VarietyMage I like that line "I buy RPG's for STORY and FF XIII had none compared to all previous FF's."
Yeah, Sony, give Squenix a pat on the back. FF XIII's probably the last Final Fantasy I'll ever buy. I didn't finish it before my PS3 got nuked by a lightning strike, and it's not worth playing again. Think about the following carefully, Sony: This is Squenix's LAST million-selling Final Fantasy, because Squenix created a game engine without a game attached to it. If I had wanted to play a MMO mixed with an RTS, I would have bought one of each and been much happier. I buy RPGs for STORY, and FF XIII had none compared to all the previous FFs. Even *Dynasty Warriors 6* had more story than FF XIII. Go back to FFs 6 through 10-2 and re-learn what story is all about, or you won't get a dime of my money anymore. I originally bought a PS3 because of Final Fantasy - Sony exclusivity. I *will* reconsider my brand choice when the PS4 comes out thanks to Squenix's suckfest of a Final Fantasy. Probably will be final, too. Put pressure on Squenix to go back to the original FF formula, or you might lose some PS4 sales in the near future (not just mine). Personal Favorite: FF 8 - not just for the story, but for the beautiful soundtrack, which I also have on CD. Come to think of it, all of Nobuo Uematsu's FF soundtracks were great. :)
@ calvinsora - I do agree that a lot of people LIKE the game, but it doesn't mean its a great or good game. I would consider myself a FF fanboy. I've nearly every single FF game and offshoot that was ever released. I'm not afraid to say that NOT ALL FF GAMES ARE GOOD. I think that FFXIII in the long run of the FF series was AVERAGE. And it shouldn't be that way for an FF game. I believe that each game should be better than the last in every aspect and thats where FFXIII falls short. This game storyline wasn't as good as FFXII. For those who played other FF can you honestly tell me that this Final Fantasy XIII was better than Final Fantasy VI or even Final Fantasy IV? Those were GREAT games. Rich storylines, characters you fell in love with, memorable soundtracks, etc. I can honestly rank FFXIII as another Square game, right up there with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and Chocobo Racing. Its another game slapped with the FF name to make some money. A
@newvegasbaby besides pulse and some of eden its a straight line from the beginning to the end though so if you miss an item its gone which can really hurt you if it was important like the elemental rings. then balance that with no control of your party for 20 hours or the paradigms for that matter and its far more linear than 10. they tried to copy 10 by naking it so that you had to use certain formations for certain fights but because of the lack of control for most of the game theres little stratedgy other than libra stun the enemy and kill. as for ff12 being open world yeah there was alot more to go to but the open world was empty and most of the areas were small/narrow like the sand rigs, caverns, forests, tower ect. there was no point in going to alot of them besides summons/ a mark hunt if the area even has that. and what made it worse was treasure was random so even after taking a long walk to an area to get a certain item the chances of it dropping were close to none (better chance to get traps in ff13)
@ TheTrueMagusX1 OK dude damn, I said I was wrong geez. I aslo said I dind't need a history lesson and damn sure dind't need you to repeat what I said. You corrected me, you was right, I was wrong, I understand. Don't put it in my face when I told you I acknowledged it.
Not bad for Square Enix. I'm not the greatest Square Enix fan. But I did buy Final Fantasy 13 and Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. This year. FF13 was very playable. Even if it wasn't "True" To the Final Fantasy style.
I'd like to correct the misconception some have that the game only sold for its name, and that it generally was disappointing for the buyers. Look UNDER the Platinum award and you'll see the user choice awards. Count down that list, and you'll see FFXIII is among the recipients. On top of that, if anyone bothered to look at Famitsu's user list of top games of all time, FFXIII is in the top 5. Not that I agree with that, it wouldn't crack my top 100 games, but many people LIKE this game. And seeing how people are allowed to have their own opinions, which are no less right than the opinion of others, the argument that it only got this award for its name in terms of sales seems a bit weak at this point.
@decoy1978: A person doesn't have to be a loyalist to like a game. I like the game a lot, but have a critical mind towards many of the series titles. I mostly wanted to point out that the scores aren't average, they're actually great, around 8.3. Average is around 6.0, quite a difference there.
FF13's combat sucks compared to days of old but its pretty. 9 still my fav. I want a new GRANDIA.
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