What about Carnival games? That's a million-seller no?

Also, I think the issue with FFXIII is there was sooooooooo much hype about it pre-launch, and when I sat down to play it, and there were no cities or NPC's or witty characters...well, that hurt me. Bearing in mind that I'd just come off re-playing FF12 in anticipation. It's an alright game. But it's not Final Fantasy.

@Wagram. I'm one of those people. FFVII is a good game, but nowhere near as good as many people want you to believe. I thought VIII, XII and III (maybe even X and IV) were better!

Final fantasy 13 sucked, but I live by a two strike and your out policy so I will get versus if it gets better reviews than that #13 waste of my time. #13 might just be the unlucky number.

Maybe you could say that. The fanbase online seems to be split.

Ruby Sapphire are good. It's just they are seen as the weak link of the franchise.

Pokemon still has all that as far as I know. It just goes to show how impressive the FF series is though in that regard. It's had 2 real films. One of which was one of the biggest bombs of all time. It doesn't have an active TCG, it doesn't have a TV Show watched by millions every week. It doesn't have a new film release every Year... Yet it keeps a steady hold on the franchises sales potential.

I always thought Diamond was the weak link actually...

Anyway, OT:

I suppose that's a good point. With nothing other than it's games to back it up, it hasn't got a safety net when it comes to poor sales, but then again, it's never needed to. Also, a 2-strike system is good. I will get Versus XIII and/or XIII-2, but if neither of them re-ignite my passion for the series, I'll stop there and just play Xenoblade, FF12, FF10 and The Last Story until the end of time

This is the only way to stop this threads:

Yes, Final Fantasy went wrong many years ago in almost all aspects, the stories are predictable and boring, full of cliches. The music is not good anymore and the gameplay it's not true to Final Fantasy roots. Everyone who said that they like the latest Final Fantasy games are just fooling themself, deep down they dislike them too. People just buy FF games for the purpose of adding games to their big collection. JRPG in general are not good anymore that's why games like The Last Story  need to sell very well in order to revive the genre.

In conclusion FF is dead and all the people that disagree are wrong.

Carnival Games had legs. That means it has lasting appeal. Call of Duty games have legs even after their massive openings, which means they have appeal. Even some games that had small openings, like Madworld, The Conduit, and Chinatown Wars, kept selling after that and sold several times their openings. That meant they had some appeal beyong the hype (which was more to get a good opening, not to get sustained sales).

I say yes, since in my opinion there has been a more then noticeable drop in quality from the Final Fantasy games after XI was released and instead of all the Final Fantasy  spinoffs (which probably had much to do with the drop in quality ,since they did lead to the oversaturation of FFs.) I would really like to see some more original IPs from Square Enix, such as Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Drakengard and of course Chrono Trigger.

Or I could just be getting overwhelmed with the amount of FFs that are being released.            

All 3 of those games needed better sales

Also, I suppose I see your point. But has there ever been a game which has just...not sold after its first month? I know Tales of Graces didn't, but that was a different matter...

I read the article earlier today, and instantly agreed. But he asks one good question:

"Maybe it was always like that?"

I hardly ever played any SE games, my personal disgust with their style mostly emanated from seeing their cheesy trailers/artworks/game names/characters/cosplayers. Recently I decided to give them a chance, starting with a few classics - maybe their quality just came down over the years? So I bought Chrono Trigger and FFIV for the DS. While Chrono Trigger started out great, the dreadful turn based combat spoiled the fun for me, and after a few too many plot/location twists, it felt arbitrary.

With FFIV it was much worse. The story was the most obvious slice of cheese I'd ever read. Noone who dies is ever dead, friend or foe. Talking holy chrystals. Babyfaced characters are supposed to be kings and queens. The world map looks like it was taken straight from the Chrono Trigger construction set (or vice versa)! It's literally the same! And the turn based combat... really, I'll never understand what could be fun about that. It's basically: 

# enter cave

# random encounter 

# laser barrage laser barrage laser barrage bad breath bad breath bad breath BOO YOU'RE DEAD

# the party has fallen

# ok guess I wasn't supposed to come here just yet...

Nothing ever gets an explanation. Is "Laser Barrage" a magical attack, or a physical? "Object 199"? How am I supposed to know what to do? The healing staff "heals the target". OK. But when I hit my teammate over the head with it, he get's hurt - and kills me with a counterattack? Does "Reflect" block Eidolons? Is that kind of stuff common knowledge in Japan?

Why am I writing this? Because I realized: I don't hate what Square has become, I would have always hated their games. I hate RPGs. It's a cheap way of game design to me, to the point that I wonder what could be so hard about churning them out. They copy all the assets, rearrange them, make up a ludicrous story and invent some new BOO YOU'RE DEAD attacks to piss you off. 

To each their own. I know now that I shouldn't comment on Square's supposed downfall, because I would have hated their games in 1991 already. Oh and don't be too hard on me, at least I spent 80 hours trying. 

Pretty much this. If you're going to release so many games at once, at least prove you can make a great game after years of nothing...

Chrono Trigger 2? HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE!