Phew - July 23, 2000 - Andrew Kaufmann
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of
the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There
is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Treasure the time you spend alone. Don't say we didn't warn you.
On the same day that Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France, AK finishes his marathon DA run.
I think Lance's accomplishment is far more impressive, having come back from cancer to win
two races in a row. Congrats to Lance!
Lance is a cool name, too. Lance was my favorite character on Voltron, next to maybe Keith.
Both were so cool it's hard to compare.
Chris comes back tomorrow. Yay!
| Some numbers |
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You asked for some numbers. Here are some numbers.
DRAGON QUEST: 1,500,000
DRAGON QUEST 2: 2,400,000
DRAGON QUEST 3: 3,800,000
DRAGON QUEST 4: 3,100,000
DRAGON QUEST 5: 2,800,000
DRAGON QUEST 6: 3,200,000
As you can see, sales peaked at Dragon Quest 3, then dipped and peaked again with the last incarnation of Dragon Quest. The assorted remakes and side games have done well, but generally hover around the 1.5 million mark.
Before Final Fantasy 3, the Final Fantasy series did not break a million sales in Japan. Here are the ones that did:
FINAL FANTASY 3: 1,400,000
FINAL FANTASY 4: 1,440,000
FINAL FANTASY 5: 2,450,000
FINAL FANTASY 6: 2,550,000
FINAL FANTASY 7: 3,700,000
FINAL FANTASY 8: 3,600,000
The numbers for Final Fantasy 7 include the International Version rerelease, which explains why they're a bit higher than Final Fantasy 8. Sales figures demonstrate a steady increase of popularity. In fact, Final Fantasy 8 was the best selling game in Japan for 1999, and defeated Pokemon Gold & Silver by 500,000 units.
Final Fantasy 9's run isn't finished yet, but in the two weeks and two days since it was released, it has sold 2,226,406 units.
The numbers obviously show that Dragon Quest has been more popular than Final Fantasy from its beginning. DQ broke a million with its debut, whereas it took FF two sequels to do that. What's more, the last time DQ and FF were in competition (within 2 years release of each other) was with FF6 (1994) and DQ6 (1996) and DQ wins handily in that comparison, outselling it by 25%. Even the previous game, DQ5 (1992) outsold FF6 by several hundred thousand.
FF7 and 8 both topped DQ6's sales, but there hasn't been a DQ on the PSX at all so comparisons are nearly impossible to make. You might say FF7 and FF8 did so well partly because there was no DQ alternative. It's a likely explanation, given that even Square adjusted its release date for DQ7's release -- not once, but twice. Of course they may just be acting prudently based on the past.
"The worst selling Dragon Quest is a better seller than the best selling FF game" is definitely false. A more true statement would be "every time DQ and FF have competed, DQ has won easily."
This of course has no bearing on the future. When the Japanese public picks up DQ7 and sees a game that looks and feels like a PSX game from 1997, maybe the numbers will dip. Of course the hardcores would have us believe that Japanese gamers will recognize true gameplay in its pure unadulterated form and, like minor gods, will ignore petty graphical and interface concerns and ascend to a transcendental state of bliss -- that is, they'll put DQ7 ahead on the sales charts once again. Personally I believe the momentum and name recognition will do that more than anything else.
My source is The Magic Box, which you guys have frequently linked to for news stories, and shame on you for not exploring the site! They have a lot of cool numbers there. The best selling game of all time, in Japan, is the original Super Mario Brothers at 6,180,000 copies. Pokemon does not trail it by much.
JOHN FORD
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Hooray for numbers! Thanks for doing that research, John. I'm going to stubbornly stand by my prediction that FF9 will outsell DQ7, but I'm not nearly as convinced as I was before. It is nearly impossible to
predict, as you say. Maybe now the subject can rest, at least until DQ7 comes out.
| Wow. New levels of low |
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Hey AK,
Well, after all the arguments about DQ vs. FF and such, I thought to myself,
what better way to brighten your day by sending you a horrible videogame
related joke? So, here you are:
Hey, have you seen the new Pokemon movie yet? I thought the plot was pretty
Weakachu.
Get it?!?!?!ZING!!!!!!
Uh, anyways, yeah. there you are. I'll just shutup now.
-=-J. Samson
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I nominate that for worst joke of the year. I dare anyone to top that.
| Disputing one of the Erdrick theories |
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The grave thing was already done when the Nintendo Power contest came about.
The FF contest Aaron mentioned awarded the winner (who was required to snap a
photo of Warmech, for the record) his name in a Nintendo video game. For the
longest time, I thought the winner was Mike Jones (of StarTropics), but I'm
not so sure anymore. Does anyone know for certain?
SonicPanda
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I don't know, myself. I thought I remember it being just a mention in the
credits. But my memory sucks.
| A confused petition |
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Hey AK.......I have an idea. What if we petition the gaming companies to revive the old systems and make games for them? From what ive seen and heard, Old School gamers would pretty much prefer that format better. And of course, New Schoolers can continue to play the new systems. Dontcha think that would work? Prolly not, because no matter what, I think people just LIKE arguing amongst each other about games. Basically I dont think people are happy being happy, but are happy being unhappy, and unhappy about being unhappy. I love humans, such a masterful work of paradoxial art. :<)
Kandrin on ice.
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Man, what a depressing letter. I consider myself Old School, but I consider that more of a "feeling"
than a specific graphical style. FF9 has keen graphics but "feels" old school. Something like that.
| I can picture her on bass |
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Hmm... what with all this discussion about bands, I just thought I'd
mention something really weird I found on the Internet whilst searching for
a song - there is apparently a "noise" band out there called Yuffie
Kisaragi. Moreover, they have some sort of "label" (I couldn't exactly
figure out what it was but it's something that distributes cds) which is
called Yuffie's Sub-Quest. I dunno... just found this odd - in particular
as the home page for the band has a dating service for dragons on it!
---Vierran of House Guaranty
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What an odd tale. I wonder if Square minds...
| Mesa Boogie |
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You know, AK, putting that tasty little question in the disclaimer is only encouraging us guitar geeks to once again flood the column with guitar content! But anyway, I think Mesa Boogie amps (Santana, MeTaLLiCa) beat both of em. Too bad they cost an arm and three legs... However, I use one of those nifty Line6 Flextone amps (one of the new fangled amp modeling devices), and it IMO kills every solid state amp I've played before. All at the convenience of sounding 95% like various classic amps. Decent on-board effects, too.
You know, with the coming of DVD equipped game systems, I think we could see some unknown bands gaining some recognition by doing some rockin' game soundtracks, in RedBook audio of course. Hey, any American RPG developer need some hard rock music with freaky vocals? Uwahaha!
Minion
Still waiting for some brave soul to tab out the music playing during the battle with "the top of the tier" at the end of FF6. Duh, duh nuh duh, duht duht duh duht duh! Or something.
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I like the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, but it's way too pricy for me. And maybe I have a bad touch,
but whenever I turn on a Mesa Boogie, it sounds like it's about to explode. I think my ears are
still ringing from the last time I tried at Guitar Center (note: if I broke it, that wasn't me. That
was the dude standing next to me). I actually came really close to getting a Flextone, but I had
heard bad things about their reliability. The whole thing about having to rely on a computer chip
for the sounds scared me. Too many things that can go wrong. But the tones were pretty good. They couldn't quite touch the real thing, but not a bad attempt, especially for the price. The effects
were decent, but not being able to mix-and-match them took out some of the fun. Don't tell me you
don't enjoy seeing what happens when you add a phaser to flanger with an octaver and delay! I must
say, though, that the instruction booklet was very entertaining. A pleasure to read, it was.
The idea of putting bands on the soundtracks for game is an awesome one. Of course, since most
bands are developed in Japan... well, you might want to practice your J-pop technique.
| One shining force |
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Hey mister Double Agent d00d,
How's it going? Sorry if I'm being too off-topic here, but I have some
amazing news. And no, it doesn't have anything to do with new games coming
out, but I still think it's sorta cool.
In a couple of weeks, I'll be traveling to Saudi Arabia to visit my dad,
who works for the Boeing branch of the military. Isn't that nifty? Hopefully
I'll be the first RPG player over there, or something. If you want, I could
e-mail you from there, too.
Um.....now that I think about it, this post makes it sound like I'm
bragging. Well, uh...maybe I'll get my hand chopped off. Yeah, that makes it
sound better.
Cross your fingers for me and hope I get into some international
conspiracy and I get to star in my own movie and game series. Don't worry,
I'll give you all credit. "Special thanks: AK and all the RPG fans out
there. I couldn't do it without you. And no, you're not getting any of my
precious millions in gold, bwahaha!"
~Burn Griffith, the inter-continental RPG player
P.S.: What do you think of Valkyrie Profile as of now? I mean, I don't know
if you've played it or anything, but it looks really cool. Unfortunately,
I'm going to be in Saudi when it's released. Drat, and double drat.
P.S.S.: I was the one who initially brought up the whole FAQ thing. Send all
flames this way, hehe.
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Cool deal, bud... how's the weather over there this time of year? Hope you
stay cool! And stay out of the oil fields, OK? Gas prices are high enough
as it is.
Valkyrie Profile looks pretty cool, but Vestal's played it and said he wasn't
horribly impressed. Pretty par for the course. It's a neat concept, though;
I love mythology.
Closing Comments:
The past 9 days have been a ton of fun! Thanks everyone! Chris will be back
tomorrow. Take care, have a great week!
-Andrew Kaufmann
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