It's simply amazing that a game could, after more then a decade, be topping the charts in the HD generation, but that's the power of Final Fantasy VII. Despite what many purists say, this classic is the pinnacle of Final Fantasy and RPGs for millions of users, as evidenced by the fact that the downloadable version is the PSP's most popular digital purchase of 2010 thus far.
What's the second most popular? Why, that would be Final Fantasy VIII! Yes, even more polarizing than VII, but only slightly less popular on the download front. Both of these ancient games have beaten such modern titles as Chains of Olympus, LittleBigPlanet and Grand Theft Auto.
We're so used to the popularity of these games that it's hard for us to be amazed when we hear that VII is a chart-topper. However, when you truly stop to consider the age and graphical prowess of the game in question, it really is something to be astounded by. We talk so much about the graphical superiority of the PS3 and PSP, but it's these clanking old PSOne games that are still selling in droves. Amusing.
Hit the jump for the full list, as generated by PSN's Pulse.
- Final Fantasy VII
- Final Fantasy VIII
- Tetris
- God of War: Chains of Olympus
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- LittleBigPlanet
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
- Madden NFL 10
- Gran Turismo
- Resident Evil 2
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
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Contest:
9:00 AM on 03.20.2010
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Tetris is third .=.
Same here.
I'm proud to say I contributed to the welfare of Final Fantasy VIII though!
It's popular with people that played it previously - not mainstream new retards.
I hope they'll release FF IX at some point, I love it so fucking much.
Now where's Vagrant Story?
Last I heard they "took them out" because they spent so long on CGI and graphics. And no, we didn't "all" complain about towns. Actually out of all the complaints I've heard about the genre, I can't think of that many who had towns on the top of their remove list. Maybe improve on them but remove?
So what is defining RPG in your Oppinion ?
You seem like the type of person who would suggest to crop out dialogoues of P&C-Adventures in order to reduce them to pure puzzling madness.
Dungeon crawling with Story progression is not what a JRPG should be.
I can`t even think of good rpgs without towns...
kthxbye.
In the words of the all immortal Stan Lee: "Nuff Said"
I'd love if they brought out IX.
I did buy FF VIII though!
I'll inform Bethesda and Bioware on that. They've been getting it wrong for years it seems.
Yes because the only thing people enjoy in RPGs is running through a corridor fighting the same monsters for a few hours with no escape option just to drag it out longer until yet another another memory gobbling CGI scene in which a badly dubbed Australian accent that's like nails on a chalkboard says something with "Cie" in it five times in one sentence.
What else could you possibly ask for?
I gave it a much more thorough playthrough afterward, including getting knights of the round, and defeating Emerald Weapon with it only leveled up once (If I recall I was only able to use it twice.. I had to rely on Cloud's Omnislash). The battle took almost an hour of constant near-deaths. I never felt so accomplished seeing a boss turn red and die.
I might pick it up now. My girlfriend was obsessed with the game and went out and bought a new memory card big enough to store it before it came out on PSN, but we just never got around to buying it for the PSP.
While I still feel Final Fantasy 6 is my favorite of all time, this one is a very close 2nd, followed by Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest =p j/k, although I did play and beat that one too.
@cryophantom: I could be dead wrong, but I don't remember video gaming being too "popular" until the Playstation came out. That probably was why 7 got more attention than 6. Also, SNES games were expensive when they came out. I honestly think my father paid almost $90 for FF3 SNES when it came out (I want to say it was $74.99 before NYC tax..). I don't know if he got jipped or what, but SNES games were expensive. I know they cost at least 60, maybe 70 a cartridge after NYC tax. I don't think FF7 was more than $40 when it came out, because CD games were much cheaper than cartridges.
Now where's Vagrant Story?
just selecting attack on a menu doesn't make it an rpg. Mass effect 2 is a million times the rpg xiii will ever be, and you actually control combat in that.
But back on topic, VII was great and I totally bought it even though I have a physical copy, to play on PSP, which is worthless otherwise.
I married Barret in a civil union ceremony last June in Vermont.
Actually, it just means that you're very weird.
Seem to be under the impression that I only want towns. Far from it. What made FF good was all of it. Including battles, story and towns.
Things like the towns, camps, academies, bases, Story NPCs, sidequests, shops, and all that jazz helped set up a good pace for the game (and the characters), flesh it out and seem bigger than it was as well as the world it was happening in.
FF games, as any fan of the series knows, have always been linear to some degree, so this one continuing that trend is no surprise. It's the fact that they stripped out nearly everything except combat and cutscenes that makes this game "linear" even for a JRPG. If you took out the combat, it'd literally be a B Movie with horrible voice acting and dialogue with nothing missing from the story and you'd have the same experience.
I remember when I heard all about how "linear" the game was. And this is exactly what I said about that on the 21st of Dec on another forum:
"Linear? That means it's bad? Linear is part of the JRPG motto at this point."
But I spoke way too soon. I didn't realise they had actually stripped away chunks of what makes these games a joy to be sucked into for hours because they decided to increase what is easily the must meaningless part of any game, CGI cutscenes.
It isn't just that 13 is missing towns; it's missing anything to do OTHER than battle, and if that's what they want then redesign the combat to work like GoW or DMC, because the battle system is not that much fun. Libra an enemy the first time you come across them, and just mash X. The crystallus leveling system is linear. I mean yeah, occasionally you can choose to skip a 10HP sphere, but why would you? Without giving the characters defined roles that you could choose later on to specialize into a'la FF10 it defeats the purpose of leveling all together. The board in FF10 meant that there were limited spheres and limited abilities one could procure. In FF13 there are no limited resources just fill out your characters crystals and bam you can be anything.
In 7 the basic battle system wasn't all that was used to get you through the game. Sometimes you had to dress up like a Shin-ra guard; sometimes you had to dress up as a tranny; sometimes you had to pilot a submarine; sometimes you had to snowboard. Chocobo raising and racing were among my favorite things in FF7, and to do this date I don't think any FF game has included the amount of side content that 7 has. Developers really do not respect side content these days. These were the things to do that helped to flesh out a world or universe. I will say though that I loved the FF8 card game. And I might be among the few that actually liked the Junction system. For me it wasn't about the time consuming rounds of sucking magic out of bad dudes, but it was about being able to customize your character. No FF has really given you the ability to customize your party the way the Junction system did. Want to be immune to a status effect? Junction. Want to deal more magic damage? Junction. It was a vastly under-rated system. And I think because of the way FF8's difficulty was implemented it probably has had the most staying power with me over the years. I think the lowest anyone has beaten it is like level 7 or 8 or something. But people don't give credit to amazing game design that allows for that kind of alternative gameplay.
Not exactly what I'd call surprising.