One week after its release, the sales figures for the game came in.
Despite being released simultaneously on two platforms, sales barely reached 200,000 units.
Dragon Quest, on the other hand, had sold 140,000 units in its first week.
At first glance, this seemed lower, but Dragon Quest was released on a single platform, while Final Fantasy was available on two.
This provided Tanimura Masahito with yet another opportunity to criticize the game.
What a garbage game! Only 200,000 units sold across two platforms? It's doomed to flop!
Two years prior, selling 200,000 units in the first week would have been a guaranteed hit, as consoles had only sold fewer than two million units at the time.
But now, the two consoles had already captured over ten million users in Japan, and yet, only 200,000 units sold across both platforms in the first week. It was indeed a recipe for disaster.
At Shimayose Game Store, Shimayose Yosuke sighed wistfully, looking at the unsold cartridges in the shop.
As a fan, he regretted Atlas's misstep, but he had also ordered a substantial number of cartridges.
"From a production standpoint, Atlas probably didn't lose money. Just based on the sales price, that's over ten billion yen in revenue!"
Two hundred thousand cartridges at 8,000 yen each meant 1.6 billion yen in total revenue.
Compared to Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy was certainly disappointing.
After all, Dragon Quest was released exclusively on the FC, while Final Fantasy debuted simultaneously on two platforms!
"Ah, forget it. What's the point of dwelling on that? I need to figure out how to sell these cartridges first!"
Shimayose Yosuke stood up.
He still had dozens of unsold cartridges piled up in his store!
When Final Fantasy was released, a barely noticed news item appeared in the newspapers:
Final Fantasy was being released first in North America.
Canada.
Greg Zeschuk bought a Final Fantasy cartridge.
As previously mentioned, he would later become one of the founders of BioWare, the company that created classic RPGs like Dragon Age and Neverwinter Nights.
It's safe to say:
Greg was a huge fan of RPGs!
Since Dragon Quest wasn't released overseas, he couldn't play it.
Final Fantasy was his only option.
The overseas price for Final Fantasy was fifty dollars—a significant sum. Even today, games priced at fifty dollars are rare, usually reserved for major AAA titles.
Fortunately, Greg had the money.
"The box is quite thick—standard, nothing special. But it comes with a lot of extras, including a poster."
Greg glanced at the poster, not particularly impressed.
American aesthetics were naturally different from Japanese ones. Rumiko Takahashi's work might be popular in Japan, but it didn't resonate with him.
He casually set the poster aside, skimmed through the instruction manual, and began playing.
Exploring, forming a team, transforming—
Within half an hour, Greg was fully immersed in the game.
"A labyrinth? Damn it! Labyrinths are the hardest to navigate!"
Greg cursed under his breath, pulled out paper and a pen, and prepared to draw a map.
Mapping was a basic skill for any gamer; anyone who couldn't map couldn't play games with labyrinths.
As he drew and played, Greg suddenly realized his character had somehow exited the labyrinth.
"Not bad," he thought. "Pure luck."
As the story progressed, he quickly entered a second labyrinth.
Before he could finish mapping, Greg felt a sudden sense of clarity, like clouds parting to reveal the moon.
"Huh?! I'm out again? Was that also luck?"
Greg was puzzled.
He considered himself a skilled gamer, but labyrinths shouldn't be this easy.
He rubbed his eyes.
Could this game be enchanted?
He looked down at the completed map.
Basically, every detail of the map had been explored, with only a few unexplored paths remaining.
Greg couldn't help but draw several large question marks beside the map.
How on earth did they do this?
He couldn't figure it out, but his curiosity was piqued.
The more he played, the more Greg became obsessed.
The game's branching paths offered excellent variety, the transformation abilities were cool, and the teammates seemed reliable. But the one thing that puzzled him was how the labyrinth was designed!
After playing repeatedly for a week, Greg finally completed the game, having accumulated a thick stack of maps.
Based on his week-long experience, Greg had a theory.
The game's map didn't seem to be randomly generated. Instead, it appeared to be carefully crafted to ensure players wouldn't miss any paths. Most side paths looped back to the main path after a detour, leading to the labyrinth's end.
This design meant that while the exploration difficulty was reduced, the sense of discovery remained intact.
Greg secretly clenched his fist.
Brilliant design!
He loved the labyrinthine difficulty in the game, the transformation system, and the storyline, which he felt carried a subtle critique of power dynamics.
Canadians hate the Americans down south!
Enlivened, Greg quickly grabbed his hand-drawn map and prepared to go out and recommend the game.
During the beta period, I'll have to recommend it to at least a few dozen buddies!
Recommending the game was secondary; more importantly, he still needed to sell the strategy guide!
Greg's work is always top-notch!
On that day, North American players finally received the game they'd been dreaming of: a role-playing game!
Role-playing games have always had dedicated fans worldwide. Even in the new era, where RPGs evolved from turn-based combat to real-time action or even incorporated shooting mechanics, the genre remained universally beloved.
Among the most lucrative game genres, alongside later competitive and shooting titles, only online role-playing games consistently dominated the charts.
At that time, there was no IGN or similar gaming media in the United States, but gamers had their own channels for sharing information and resources.
Overall, North American players were highly satisfied with the quality of Final Fantasy.
The game belonged to a rare genre at the time and contained nearly all the elements they had long dreamed of.
Most importantly...
The dungeons weren't difficult!
North American players were a peculiar bunch. On one hand, they loved games with challenging difficulty and skill-based gameplay. On the other hand, they were universally directionally challenged and deeply loathed, even despised, dungeons.
As a result, American RPGs rarely featured dungeons as a selling point. For example, while Diablo had vast exploration areas, its "dungeons" weren't really dungeons at all. They were essentially large open spaces cluttered with various obstacles.
This was why Japanese RPGs had always had only a small, dedicated audience in North America.
But Final Fantasy from Atlas was different.
It had dungeons, but the dungeons weren't difficult!
At the same time, the dungeons were vast, full of exploration opportunities, and constantly delivered unexpected surprises.
As players marveled at this inexplicable phenomenon, they couldn't help but wonder:
How on earth did they manage to pull this off?!
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