It's Konami's fault no one knows what Suikoden is, not Final Fantasy's. Would anyone really give this a chance? I don't know what kind of promotion 2 got, but 3 certainly didn't much at all, they're only now trying to promote 4.
I don't really compare Final Fantasys to other games, unless they have very simlilar game play, like Tenchi Myo RPG and Tactics.