I'm afraid you are not going to like what you find in FF XIII. At this point in the series, I see little hope for any kind of revival. The DLC for XIII-2 is most likely just a way for SquareEnix to recuperate the losses from FF XIV. Many publishers are going in the direction of paid DLC, but from what I have heard FF XIII-2 is simply excessive. Truth is, the Enix business model adapted after the merger with Square is starting to look more and more like the business model used by Olympus: Use our brand recognition to sell sub-standard products, so the executives can drain the company's accounts with lavish salaries until the whole thing implodes.

Few people love Final Fantasy more than me -as FF IV-VII and Tactics remain some of my favorite games- but even I think it is time to just stop. Final Fantasy XIII was a train wreck, and even more so XIV, i think it is time to put the series to bed before they damage it even further.

But that's the strange part: Final Fantasy XIII is the best selling FF game of all time. All numbered releases without "Online" in the title keep outselling all previous entries ever since VII came out. As such, Square Enix has no incentive to stop making Final Fantasy games short of development costing far too much versus the profit, which isn't really an issue when they can just slap on nostalgia-ridden DLC (Typhon, Ultros, and Gilgamesh are such content in FFXIII-2) on their new games, charge $4-$5 a piece and see die-hard Final Fantasy fans eat all of it up.

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Formerly known as: Gothann

With all the hype it received im not surprised, besides FFXIII-2 is the worst selling FF to date, at least in the first week in japan only sold around 500,000 copies that shows that people got so dissapointed with XIII that most were reluctant to get the sequel.

FF is dying, luckily i dont care for FF anymore, with series like Growlanser, Persona and of course Suikoden, the rpg side is covered

Well, I think that we're more likely to see a Final Fantasy XV than a Suikoden VI

Sadly thats an accurate sight of the current state of the Suikoden series, i just hope FF XV can be good, if not i will hapilly going to ignore it.

Sequels to and remakes of numbered games have never, ever sold as well as new numbered games. Final Fantasy XV will likely outsell XIII regardless of how people felt about the latter. Hell, people were predicting Final Fantasy was dead after XII was so divisive, then XIII went on to outsell it by a landslide.

Also: Growlanser and Suikoden are fairly dead/dying series at this point. The former is only being ported and re-released (much like Ys) and the latter has done all it can to shed its hardcore fans of the past 4 years.

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Formerly known as: Gothann

Growlanser WoT for psp is more than just a port, i have played the original for PS2 and i can safely say that the PSP version is a completely new game, it has around 50% more content than the original. As for Suikoden im new to this series, i have only played S5 and now i plan to finish all the ps1 and ps2 games.

FXV will outsell FFXIII because fans hope that SE will wake up and remember how to make a proper FF title wich i higly doubt it happen, Suikoden for psp can still come (At least i hope).

Well, there is no doubt that FF XII was Divisive, but there is a difference between divisive and universally deplored, as FF XIII was. It is almost certain a FF XV will be released, as FF XIII-2 fails to fill the massive fiscal void left by FF XIV, but in this regard, I can see it following the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog. That is, they continue to release titles apparently written and programed by an inbred sloth addicted to illicit drugs, thus making the fanbase angry, thus causing another sequel that the marketing departments assure us will return the series to its "roots." Too bad the marketing and development departments seem to only communicate through a series of crude hand gestures, because the finished product ends up being a trainwreck with only minor references to the previous games -like pop-culture references thrown in at the last stage of production of the latest Twilight film.

Repeat ad nauseum.

That being said, I have no idea why we are talking about Suikoden here, as I have made my feelings about the future of the series clear on other parts of the forum. So, I won't go too deeply into it, but to say -again- that Suikoden is quite a different breed of game, and the future of the series is unlikely to follow what I just described.

FFXIII wasn't universally deplored at all. While I have an impossible level of hatred for the game, there are just as many people who love the game for being the absolute opposite of what FFXII was. That doesn't include the scores of people going through the motions, buying Final Fantasy games simply because every new numbered game is a must-have no matter what. Those people are still out there in droves and are the very reason why Final Fantasy hasn't started selling horrendously like most other JRPG franchises out there. It's literally the Call of Duty of JRPGs.

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Formerly known as: Gothann

Unfortunately, I would consider myself to be one of these gamers. I've been playing FF games for years and even still own my original NES copy of FF1. I closely followed FFXIII's development, and saw all of the reviews and previews (including all of the warnings about the glaring flaws in the game). I'm not sure if it's fanboyism, morbid curiosity, or plain old denial, but couldn't stop myself from buying FFXIII and even collecting the platinum trophy for the game.

But with that said, I more or less hated FFXIII. Everything I heard about it was true: It was too linear, no real control until more than halfway through the game, no towns or exploration, etc. I can at least say that I didn't play the sequel.

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PSN: FreshMetal80

i don't know..i enjoyed it for what it was, rather than dislike it for what it wasn't
was it the traditional final fantasy i grew up with? no.
but it was an enjoyable rpg, with an awesome lead character, and fantastic battle system
story wasn't as bad as some people have made it out to be
the linearity was a negative, but wasn't that big a deal to me
..so yea

just waiting for versus xiii

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- bringer of storms -

I didn't hate it for what it wasn't, I hated it for what it was. It pushed all of the wrong buttons when it comes to setting, world design, story, characters, and gameplay.

I just wasn't driven to complete the game after beating it, nor shoot for the platinum trophy. The late/post-game grinding required to allow characters to survive its ultimate enemies is just plain boring without any need to compare it to previous entries in the series.

That said, the little I tried of the FFXIII-2 demo tells me I might pick it up if Square Enix bundles all of the DLC into a "Complete" edition or bundles it in a heavily discounted package on PSN. I cannot justify buying a game that requires twice the investment to see its entire story.

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Formerly known as: Gothann

On that note: Vs XIII is now going to be -officially- Final Fantasy XV. Looks like SquareEnix is getting desperate at this point. Failures like FF XIV are pushing them to rework a side project into an official, numbered title. This is also likely related to the DLC for FF XIII-2, as Lanceheart said, the DLC for the game is extensive, and I cannot imagine that it is for any other reason than making a quick buck to offset FFxiv.

Also, many of Square's other projects have failed lately. The overlooked Parasite Eve PSP release, and Kayne and Lynch 2. With several other titles on the way, many likely being showcased at E3 this year, like the new Hitman game, and the new Tomb Raider game, both of which being titles Square acquired at a high investment, I can imagine Square executives getting antsy. Hitman has gotten some bad press recently with its over the top trailer, too.

Actually, the news of Versus XIII becoming XV was a fake trailer by someone making mock announcements in a school class. I saw it and the inclusion of Wii U yet exclusion of the 360 goes against everything we've heard about Nomura versus the rest of Square Enix' administrative staff.

If it actually ends up being true come E3, expect the trailer to be fairly different... and for the 360 to get a piece of the action.

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Formerly known as: Gothann

Really? well, I tried looking up the article I read to find it had been taken down haha. That is what I get for believing rumors. So it looks like there will be a Vs XIII. I think my point still stands though, that Square is not necessarily in trouble, but people are getting antsy over there to recoup the losses. And if this trend of failures continues, we could see a shake-up at the company.