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Cerebralbore101 on 11 November 2024
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Chrkeller said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

It's really hard to tell what would have done well. Panzer Dragoon Saga wasn't out until 98 but was as much of a tour de force as FF7. Sega Rally was the first driving game to have terrain based physics. Perhaps it would have taken off in the West. GT sold 10 million units so don't count out a humble racing game. 

Also if Saturn hadn't bombed in the west Konami, Capcom, and Core Design would have kept making games for it. Imagine N64 having to deal with another system that has MGS, Resident Evil, Castlevania, Tomb Raider Trilogy, etc. 

Finally if FF7 got ported to PC, it would have likely got a Saturn port too. 

I really can't stress enough how much retailers in the USA screwed over the Saturn. It was pretty much a Toys R Us exclusive system. The nearest store to me that even sold games was an hour away. By 1998 nobody carried Saturn stuff at all. 

Nah, you really don't believe Panzer (from a US commercial perspective) is on the lines of Final Fantasy.. do you?  Especially FF7?!!??  

There is no doubt retailer situation hurt, but there are so many others facts:

1) Sega had NO reputation by the time the Saturn launched.  They burned the crap out of people with the CD and 32x.  Both were just trash "upgrades" that alienated their core demographic.

2) Pricing, $400 for far too much for a system that was no more capable than the competition.  

3) I still maintain their game lineup was weak for the US.  A bunch of arcade games, not much else.  The world was moving on from arcades.  You compare Sega Rally to GT...  you do realize GT has an entire massive career mode with hundreds upon hundreds of cars, tons of customization, etc?  Which is my point.  Sega was launching Daytona and Rally, arcade ports.  Sony was moving to robust single player games with career modes.  Sega was behind massively on where gaming was going.  

Panzer was on the same level of quality as FF7. Would it have done as well commercially? I don't know. Possibly. 

Didn't know there was as big a difference in career modes between Sega Rally and GT. Yeah it wouldn't have sold like crazy then. 

Saturn could outdo PS1 graphically but was hard to code for. Look at Power Slave and Panzer 2 for examples of graphics that outdid PS1. It also ran fighting games perfectly, which is something PS1 struggled with. 

But anyway to say that the Saturn is overrated is pretty shortsighted. The library holds up better than N64 and PS1 due to how well the 2D games have aged.