Its not in the top 50

Hell no. Only if pigs fly and when hell frzzes over. Final fantasy is the most famous rpg series in gaming and even if people think it's mediocore it will still sell more than better rpg's.Just because you think last story would be a better game does not mean it will sell like 10 million plus units. I think it will be lucky to sell 2 million.

My confidence towards this game's success (possibly) in the West is that it has a real-time action combat system that vaguely reminds me of Gears (to a point, anyway), and the graphical style is one that the West should be more receptive to than say, a Tales game or something like Blue Dragon or Star Ocean

O.O

Yeah thats a positive. The combat system looks fresh, modern and new. The art style is good too, something that can be mass marketed.

If you look at shots of it, its a kinda tactical, sorta squad-based, real-time combat with the way the camera works, it looks closer to a medieval Gears or Resident Evil Mercenaries, or even an Assassin's Creed, than your stereotypical JRPG

You're right. And I'm sure all those who voted "Yes" are PS360 FF fans who want to be able to come back and gloat, by claiming that "most" Ninty fans thought the Last story would shit all over FF; whereas it will barely raise a fart in the direction of the Tales series. OK it might schmear a few skid marks on Tales on it's way past their individual format sales, but it probably won't beat the combined PS360 / PSWii sales of the Tales games.

But with the Wii install base anything's possible.

Didn't do bad, doesn't give much confidence.

This is a TLS vs FF thread. Clearly that's the context in which the JRPG audience is being considered. Handhelds are a different story.

Pokemon Wii relative to Pokemon DS was a flop (please read my original post with some care). And given we're comparing to FF games 340K for a main numbered FF title in EMEAA would be an absolute flop of megaton proportions. So if you're suggesting 340K for one of the biggest JRPG franchises of all time (perhaps THE biggest) is an indicator of FFXIII beating sales potential for The Last Story in EMEAA then you are gravely mistaken.

Fact: Sales history of JRPGs on Wii in EMEAA territories suggests The Last Story has little chance of unseating the FF franchise as biggest JRPG on home consoles this generation.

Personally, as a potential franchise, I think if it can get to 500K in EMEAA it means there's potential for it to see significant growth in subsequent entries. But this first game won't be a FF killer, except as a remote chance in Japan. Even in Japan JRPG in Wii doesn't instill a great deal of confidence in the FF killing sales potential for TLS. It'll need to almost double the sales of Monster Hunter Tri to kill FFXIII. Do people expect it to kick MH Tri's arse to that extent? I'm thinking it won't get past MH Tri in Japan, let alone come close to FFXIII.