it failed at the time because all the hype (purely by fan specualtion) before much detail was leaked was that it was gonna be a sequal to FF VII or FF VIII, but because it wasn't the sequal to FF VII, upon release it got bad reviews and wasn't given a fair chance... in my opinion it was great Sci-Fi and they did a great job of it, unfortunatealy the FF VII Fanboys/girls and the jaded old school purists that were upset that it wasn't magic and swords were let down, and therefore blinded to a briliant peice of Science-Fiction...