Does Square Understand Why We Love Final Fantasy?

Genre preference has nothing to do with age imo....

Action games have been more "mainstream" since the 90s. Mario, Sonic, and countless arcade beat them up games. Also I don't think the 20m people buying Black Myth Wukong or Elden ring are all younger audiences. Some of them has to be 40s gamers.


Back in the 90s turn based jrpg was popular because of the narrative aspect and build/character progression systems that action games didn't have. These days even action games have narrative and character progression system, as well as builds variety. The incentive to stick with turn based has decreased.

I am not saying turn based is a bad genre(I still play them occasionally, and it has it's audiences), but I don't think this is age issue at all.

Stay true to yourself.

I don't think younger people find ff tactics and triangle strategy as appealing as people who are older and have nostalgia about such games which were created because there wasn't the graphic power to do what is possible today. I'd love to see an age break down of people that bought triangle strategy or the tactics remake.

Fire Emblem has proven that youth will get into strategy RPGs so long as there's a dating simulator attached making for extended replay value because you gotta wife up every anime hottie, and there's even gay options (and incest family trees, yeehaw).

People are mistaking the reasoning for why action games are more popular now.

It's not that RPGs were once more popular than those, it's that serious adult gamers were a niche and the RPGs appealed to adults, rather than to children, for the most part.

You guys gotta get around on some other forums sometime, but basically, there's an age old CRPG fan vs. JRPG fan who views console RPGs of any age as, "For kiddies" compared to things like Ultima or other RPGs that used text based command for interface and had more emphasis on player choice. And kill the possessed toddlers dungeon rooms.

Like, Afania is pointing out that action games sold way more in the past, too, but that's because older action games were generally made for the arcade/for kids. RPGs made for kids also sold hand over fist (Pokemon).

I'm sure you guys ran into the people who asked why you were doing a kids activity even as you were playing games like Xenogears. There was big myopic confusion on what games and gaming entailed and what was for who.

There still is to a small degree, but since gaming hit the mainstream that's diminished severely. Gaming is for "everyone" and "everyone" is whoever will pay money for whatever reason. Gen Z is surely a huge focus, but there's also other demos that are taken into serious consideration, most of which is average Joe Schmoe who doesn't know much past Greek or Norse myth, and most of that he's gotten from MCU. I say he, but you know, it's just as likely to be she or... "they" cause that's a whole block now too.

The identity of adult gamers is now myriad relative to what it was in the 80s/90s, and the developers/creatives aren't in control of what's getting made. It's suits at the top who are looking at their "insight dashboards" and ***like that.

I have two kids that love games. Ones an honors student the other a bizarre mathematic genius.....

....and if SE made a game called "Peppa Pig vs The Bloody Puddles" they'd play the hell out of it laughing their *** off all the way and would want every single expansion...

tldr;
Kids these days are morons, stop pretending they aren't.

Making profits is easy if you keep it simple, making art is a challenge. Attempting to do both just pisses off everyone.

Just because you're uncultured doesn't make it a ***take.

It absolutely is a gigantic ***take. I've read some pretty wild things, but to preach that FF8 is the best in the series is a pretty *** bonehead thing.

If this is the case, how do you explain action rpg like Wukong or Elden Ring massively outsold persona 5 and FFX?(pretty much the best selling turn based jrpg that isn't Pokemon in the history)

Pretty sure Elden ring/Wukong aren't made for kids..

Another point of reference is in 2000s, Diablo massively outsold Fallout too. And Diablo is loot focused arpg, Fallout is turn based crpg with tons of text.


I think the reason why Pokemon sold well is because it is Pokemon, not because turn based. Palworld is real time (I think) Pokemon-like and it sold better than most Pokemon games in the series except 1 title (scarlet/violet), I think it'll eventually surpass scarlet/violet too.

To be fair, in regards to FFX, it was a PlayStation exclusive back in the day, so that might have skewed the sales then. I wouldn't say Elden Ring massively outsold it, they both put out some pretty impressive numbers. I mean, FFX doubled P5's sales.

You missed the forest for the trees man. The point of my post was that games that target younger people generally outsell those that don't, regardless of genre. And it's mostly always been that way, and most of the time in the past it was action oriented games/platformers.

So answering your current questions would be kind of pointless, cause you missed my point in the first place.

Young adults or kids? Those aren't exactly the same demographic.

Here is top selling video games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

Also if you Google each title's demographic, Pokemon's main audiences is actually 20-29, Minecraft is 15-21. While I can see teens and young adults loving GTAV, I feel Red dead redemption's target audience is much older.


In case of Mario kart 8, it's mostly 18-29 followed by 30-44 according to statista.

If age 20-30 are "young adults" then yeah, this demographic probably dominate most genre. They are barely kids though, nor kids demographic having that much stronger purchasing power advantage imo.

Just play longer. More TripleTriad. More porting of PocketStation (that is the chocobo 8-bit right?).
You can get soo many holy wars and aura stones to just fight Omega longer. It's not a problem of luck, you just grind more.

However, you can beat basically everything at Lv.1, easily. Normally a Lv.1 playthrough of the game is meant to be the challenge mode, not easy mode for the game. The story in 8 was also the worst of the PS1/PS2 titles. Battle system? novel, ya, but endless DRAWing for all your new magics is rage inducing trash of a system. magic are items in FF8 and I hate it.

All that said, FF8 was my first turn based JRPG and I love it despite it's glaring faults.

For Holy War you just convert a card then keep winning it again on the airship on disc 4...

The way to beat FF8 is to grind grind grind, over level, and get Lionheart. It's not hard, but you need the walkthrough. I loved FF8 but best FF? 2nd best for me, and because of the story mostly.

Like Ody V25, you only need luck if you're bad at it. (giggety)

While it isnt easy to swallow at first the objectification of magic, considering i never was a mage intensive player, so it doesnt affect me as much: im not casting less because of that.

And magics allow you to grind early and become superpowered early what adds some open world feature that only add good points of it.

Resorting to cards or other grinds to find early magic/items add more of that to, so, in the end, FF8 is a FUN game to play.

Storywise, i kinda like the high school vibes it gives, though i dont particularly think the story that good, unless you consider the Squall is desd theory, then it becomes kinda unique.

About Omega, im not sure how its that RNG if you can spam Renzokuken to trigger Lionheart, and just keep the others reviving Squall at low HP for more Renzokuken spam

8 is definitely the oddball in the 5-9 ps1 era.

5, 6, 7, 9 are your standard fare jrpg. jobs, magic, gear, abilities, all the typical stuff.

8... has no gil drops. magic is.. a nuisance. it's like,impossible to find screws feathers pipes and leathers without a guide, and then you can't afford the upgrades anyway cause you never took the rank tests to get gil and it's impossible to earn gil. Can't fast travel because again no gil to rent a car. And if you meander, they reduce your paycheck! It's also a really jumbled story.

It's differences make it stand out. The nail that sticks out gets hammered. You either love 8 or despise 8. There's no in between.

Your first playthrough as a 10 year old you could blindly figure out 5,6,7,9 but 8, man you cant figure out ***! no gear to buy, no weapon upgrades, cant find half the magic, miss half the summons(who are your 'gear') And as you level up the drops change! When you're level 10 there is a different drop pool than when youre 40, that shits crazy. it's a sucky blind playthrough comparatively.

8 was the first one I got, because I played it at a friend's and I couldn't get a ps1 until much later. I liked that I didn't feel pressured to level up because things leveled with me, and junctions were super cool (being able to tailor en-effects and resistances so dynamically gave a ton of character customization). I didn't really miss the equipment aspect, because junctions filled that niche.

In retrospect, it was a cluster**** compared to the other games and it certainly didn't have amazing balance or intuitive design. But, it was still fun.

My first playthrough, while a kid, I managed to progress because I used to abuse summons. As they aare super atrong, you be carried through the game without understanding the mechanics: upgrades when somehow you had the mats, and junctions only with auto-junctions.

Only downside in resorting to summons was Ultimecia, with her auto GF kill. I think my first playthrough i managed by persevering with meds/curing spells and auto attacks.

Thoguh my first playthrough was a mess because i was frsh from FF7, and ended playing the japanese version of FF8 (the english one only would come years later, but i didnt understand english anyway).

Most progression with the help of physocal guides, that also had story translations.

So many memories

I liked FF8, when it came out and a few more plays. Last time I played it and knew the game more it is utter ***because of how early you can get extremely OP though.

FF9 is the best game.

Technically Desert Weapon in FF7 is completely dumb when you realise you can keep it perma paralyzed too.

nope. Grow up.

leveling is counterproductive

I keep meaning to go back and replay 8, but the draw system does put me off. I love how much you can manipulate the battle and exp systems, though. Nothing else like it in the series.

I hate ff8 from a gameplay point of view

I'd only play it again if there was no level scaling at all, and if drawing magic was replaced with a standard mp system and permanently learnable spells from guardian forces like something akin to a job system

Thats all it would take to fix one of the most ***-backwards ff games. Level scaling is literally the worst.

If I ever play FF8 again it would be with a difficulty mod. I've never tried it but beat the normal game entirely a good 4-5x ever. Played FF7+FF9 more times, FF4+FF5+FF6 about the same amount of times. FF1+FF2+FF3 about 3 times each. Hate FF10, played FF12 about 4x but lose interest a lot before last optional boss. Refuse to play FF13.
http://ngplus.net/InsaneDifficultyArchive/www.insanedifficulty.com/board/index97a3.html?/topic/8109-final-fantasy-viii-pc-requiem-v229/

Any replay I do, I always check for an insanedifficulty "upgrade"

...except the FFT one, that one pisses me off ALOT

What's that? There is a hard mode on Triangle Strategy I've not done yet, that is brutally hard.

All the *** enemies are knights, they all have 100% acc on "break" attacks, they all spam it and you cant ever get any weapons or gear, *** that noise!

Hard is great, but I don't want to regear after every. single. battle. It's excessive.

Of course it's hyperbole; the base game knights NEVER use or succeed with breaks. in hard mod, they ALWAYS use it and always succeed.

lolno, gitgud
why? you can literally stock magic you want to use on multiple characters and just move it around if you have to use it. Yeah it's a bit cumbersome but you're in the wrong series if you don't like the grind.

refining magic from items is one thing, but drawing 300 of something gets old, is all. that sound effect doesn't help lol. I'll grab the remake/remaster for ps5 and give it a shot though, see how far I get.

Still one of my favorite memes: