Did FFVII overshadow Final Fantasy Tactics in 1997?

As many people know Final Fantasy VII is considered to be one of the greatest JRPG’s of all-time. Final Fantasy VII was definitely one of the best video titles within it genre to come out of the PS1 era of the 90’s. Not only was Final Fantasy VII a massive success on a commercial level but it managed to reach close to 10 million in terms of copies sold worldwide. In fact, Final Fantasy VII ended up becoming the second best selling video game on the PS1 behind the original Gran Turismo title which also came out in ’97 as well. It would be safe to say that ’97 in general was an good year as it pertained to gaming especially for those who were PS1 fans. While FFVII was one of the first major 3D RPGs that achieved a great degree of success; traditional 2D styles RPG’s like Final Fantasy Tactics were eventually overshadowed on the PS1. While Final Fantasy Tactics was a great JRPG it looked like something that belonged on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In fact, the visuals for Final Fantasy Tactics highly resembled that of the Super Mario RPG title from 1996.

While the SNES had its limitations Super Mario RPG looked and played great on the 16-bit console. If Square Enix did not have its fallout with Nintendo over the joint console project back in ’94; its quite possible that Final Fantasy Tactics would of appeared on the Nintendo-PlayStation game system. In fact, Final Fantasy Tactics could have been a huge attraction on the SNES or PS1 if it came out any where between ’95-’96. The is no question that FFVII overshadowed a majority of JRPGs that appeared on every game system in 1997. However, most of the high profile RPGs that appeared on the PS1 from ’97 onwards was created by Square Enix themselves. Square Enix is known for setting the bar high for themselves in relation to developing their RPG titles and seem to out do themselves almost every year. The year ’97 was a great one for those who were fans of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series and titles like FFVII and FF Tactics were the reasons why.