jarrod on 23 December 2009
| Majin-Tenshinhan said: Let me start off by saying that I can't back this up with proof, but I severely doubt that FF7 was "the first 3D RPG", as you put it. I doubt it was even in the first 100 3D RPGs. Either way, I think FF7 got off the ground because it got good advertising and was backed heavily, so it was pretty much the beginning of the series outside of Japan. By this I mean, for a lot of people FF7 was more like "FF1". And as with most series, sequels rarely reach the point of their predecessor. Some of the people who bought FF7 just didn't want to take part in the series anymore. But a lot of people did, which shows why other FFs have had strong sales. |
Several 3D RPGs predated FFVII in the US (Wild Arms, Shining the Holy Ark, Guardian War, Mystaria, etc).
Really though, I think it came down to the right product, the right promotion and the right timing. Previously the only real significant efforts to push JRPGs had come from Nintendo, and they'd all basically failed to take off as hoped (Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Earthbound). Nintendo struck gold with Pokemon a year after FFVII though.
