FFXII hogs top spot

By Robert Purchese Published 6 March, 2007

PS2 holds its own.

Final Fantasy XII has held on to the top spot in the UK software charts for a second week, with the hugely anticipated RPG title continuing to hold off the challenge from Real Time Worlds' Microsoft-published action title Crackdown, which remains at number two.

Despite the immense success of the franchise internationally, Final Fantasy titles have traditionally not held on to top positions in the UK chart for long - in fact, only PSone title Final Fantasy IX managed a run longer than Final Fantasy XII's fortnight, staying at number one for three weeks back in February 2001.

The chances of Final Fantasy XII repeating this feat, despite its huge popularity, seem slim - with both Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories mounting a challenge for the top spot this Friday.

Head over to GamesIndustry.biz for the full story.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Cloudane #1 5 years ago

    Well deserved.

    It really is one of the best game in the last seven years.

  • Dizzy #2 5 years ago

    Teenage angst has never been more popular!

  • insincere_dave #3 5 years ago

    Everyone's a winner it seems!!!

  • killyourtv #4 5 years ago

    Dizzy obviously hasn't played this one

  • Dizzy #5 5 years ago

    >Dizzy obviously hasn't played this one

    True... so it is a FF without teen angst? In that case I support it ;) Haven't seen that since FFVI.
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/07 @ 11:44

  • UNSCmasterCHEF #6 5 years ago

    No teen angst and less colourful than the last few offerings. Seems more atmospheric, definitely deserving of the top spot.

    I'm sick of waiting so long for RPG's to make it. Hopefully with Bluray they can fit all the languages n one disc and have the pal english available with the Jap ones.

  • Nobuo #7 5 years ago

    Why do we have to "Head over to GamesIndustry.biz for the full story" on every bloody news item lately?

  • Steroyd #8 5 years ago

    Two words.

    Ellie Gibson

  • JohnnyWashnGo #9 5 years ago

    I haven't played a FF game for ages after being annoyed with the PAL conversions and also because these days I do not have a PS2.

    Just out of curiosity, is the PAL version full screen with no borders?
    Or are Square/Enix still pumping out crap for the UK market?

    if the conversion is good, I would be tempted to pick it up, along with a cheap PS2 :)

  • Ciaran #10 5 years ago

    Just out of curiosity, is the PAL version full screen with no borders?

    Main gameplay window and menus - yes
    Cut-scenes: fuck no

    The movies all have bloody big borders on three (!) sides of the picture, left, right and bottom. I was really annoyed at first, but tbh, it doesn't *really* detract I suppose. I've stopped noticing them anyway.

  • ChrisBen #11 5 years ago

    I think it's far more interesting that Crackdown is selling so well tbh. Unestablished franchise on a console with a far smaller installed user base than the PS2's. It's among the best 360 games for me so far, easy, and it's great to see that the buying public agree!

  • FabricatedLunatic #12 5 years ago

    Crackdown's performance is more deserved of platitudes if you ask me
    Well, there's been sod-all else worth buying on the 360 this side of Christmas. Lost Planet being the exception, possibly. Gives me a chance to catch up on some of the older titles, at least.

  • FabricatedLunatic #13 5 years ago

    Ah, I see you deleted and reposted something less bundy-esque...

  • Penguinzoot #14 5 years ago

    I'm sick of waiting so long for RPG's to make it. Hopefully with Bluray they can fit all the languages n one disc and have the pal english available with the Jap ones.

    Being able to fit all localizations onto one disc is potentially good, I agree. But the problem is not necessarily the size of the media, it's more like the huge amount of time it takes to localize games. The upshot is, we are only gonna get PAL English (and/or other locales), if Japanese RPG devs perform localisation in parallel with game development. Is that gonna happen? Who knows?

    Being able to fit all languages on a single disc does not necessarily mean all languages will be available together and sooner. The extreme would be the whole product would wait until the last language was localized before the game entered production at all - possibly adding considerable time to the dev process.

    More likely we will still see staggered localized releases as before. Unfortunately.

    Edited by 2 at 06/03/07 @ 12:36

  • itamae #15 5 years ago

    I think we can all agree that it is good that people are buying good games, regardless of personal gaming preference.
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/07 @ 12:34

  • infoxicated #16 5 years ago

    I think it's really great that....

    Head over to AnotherSiteEntirely.c om for my full comments.

  • GiarcYekrub #17 5 years ago

    ooooo GTA is out Friday :)

  • Mashum #18 5 years ago

    It's certainly an accomplished game but FF is a bit hard going, especially when crackdown is winking seductively at me from the shelf under the telly, aw... go on then, just a quick go...

  • CitizenGeek #19 5 years ago

    I hope FFXII manages to hold of GTA: Vice City Stories, but it won't. GTA'll be number one next week, despite the fact FFXII deserves that top spot for much longer.

  • Hughes. #20 5 years ago

    Do not underestime the power of PS*


    *Patrick Stewart.

  • dirigiblebill #21 5 years ago

    azmol01

    +1

    Love this thing so far but it sorely needs more minigame sequences like the stage-fight in FFIX, plus a sub game in the vein of Tetramaster or Blitzball.

  • smelly #22 5 years ago

    >I hope FFXII manages to hold of GTA: Vice City Stories, but it won't.

    120 million ps2 owners compared to how many psp owners?

  • JediMasterMalik #23 5 years ago

    glol

    It's the PS2 version!

  • CitizenGeek #24 5 years ago

    "Dungeon crawler", "more to do"? You can't really be talking about FFXII, can you? The dungeons are a lot of fun, possibly the best designed dunegons in any RPG I've ever played and each dunegon is usually puncutated with those beautiful cutscenes and the gorgeous graphics and superb music making getting through dungeons bliss. As for not having enough to do, well, the monster hunting is great fun IMO and there are sidequests and the story istelf is never to far away. FFXII excels everywhere.

  • dirigiblebill #25 5 years ago

    @ Geek

    The core combat is excellent, yes, but unlike previous 3D FFs there isn't anything besides the core combat. I'm loving it, but I'd love it even more if there were some other mechanic (again, like the card game or blitzball) to divert me when I get bored of dungeon-crawling.

    I also agree with azmol's comments on the license board system.

    Anyway I'll shut up now, because I'm breaking one of my own cardinal rules by talking about a game I've only played fifteen hours.

    /thinks guiltily of the Okami thread

  • SomaticSense #26 5 years ago

    FF12 is simply a stunning, amazing game, and while Crackdown is brilliant it just isn't one the same level. For once the top 2 in the UK game chart is a fair representation of quality, when it is usually a depressing barometer of the percentage of chav population in this country.

    FF12 is the first Final Fantasy game I've played since the 7th, and have not been disappointed in any respect whatsoever, in fact my expectations have been exceeded. Superb gameplay, great graphics, and easily the greatest music in any game I've ever played (the movie industry would benefit hugely by hiring the composer as it's miles better even than any recent film scores).

    I've played countless RPG's since FF7 trying to find the same 'feeling' I got from it, and this is the first time I've actually 'felt' it. Didn't get it in any of the other JRPGs, Oblivion, KOTOR, Fable, or even Zelda.

    Only a couple of weeks ago I got a Wii and while I love the console, I was massively disappointed by Zelda. Apart from the motion sensing side, the controls were awful and I absolutely hated the 'auto jump' (died a number of times because I didn't want to jump), annoying save system, and out of date gameplay. I was new to the Zelda franchise and it just wasn't my thing at all.

    With this in mind and considering that FF12 came out last year in the US, how the hell did Gears and Zelda:TP get the majority of the Game of the Year gongs up for grabs on the various gaming sites? *looking at you EG*
    As a gaming experience FF12 is far better and infinitely more memorable than either of those, or anything else released last year come to think of it, and by a million miles.

    Stunning. Hope it stays top for many months to come.
    Edited by 2 at 07/03/07 @ 15:07

  • NegativeZero #27 5 years ago

    Noticed something interesting yesterday when looking at the Australian PS2 sales charts. Usually we're practically lock-step with the UK charts, but FFXII wasn't at the top of our charts this week. Okami was. Given that I had thought it bombed, that really surprised me.

  • kobie #28 5 years ago

    Well strangely enough i love it, it really doe grab me by the testis and pull ever so gracefully....i think the graphics and the world have cunningly been set out...i nice diverse range of customisation has been implemented...there only flaws i could possibly was gemini summon, scorpio,and the end part of pieces...not much though...and obviously wot has bee lost from all but one king of ffvi is the sense of discovery and ultimate adventure which has never been re done again to date....AND i may add i do not see why there is no reason at all to remake it!...capitalise i'd say square