The Restructuring of Square Enix - Will It Work?

It should be no surprise that Square Enix has been having it bad as of late. With their disappointment of outside developers with their products to the fact that Final Fantasy XIII wasn’t up to par with gamers as previous to just – simply stated – the epic load of fail that is known as Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix is just losing their hold on. Some other things that may apply to such are the fact that JRPGs, and Japanese games in general, don’t have much of an appeal outside of Japan like they used to.

Still, Square Enix is trying their best to bounce back from the losses they are getting by what seems to be restructuring of their upcoming games as well as making calls towards other systems more so than anything else.

[DA_SHREDDER]

Get rid of Wada is step one. Step two, stop pissing off your original fanbase with these broken action games with rpg elements. Leave that to western devs. Step three, bring back the original gameplay to FF. Step 4 only applies if they don't follow steps one through three. Shoot yourself in the head squeenix..

[Sprudling]

There is no "original FF gameplay". It has been changed numerous times. Unless you mean the gameplay in FF1, which by today's standards is pretty bad.

[darthawesome90]

"Some other things that may apply to such are the fact that JRPGs, and Japanese games in general, don’t have much of an appeal outside of Japan like they used to."

No. No. No. JRPG's have not lost appeal. The last good JRPG was X. XII was a mixture of JRPG and MMO and XIII was a disgrace to RPG's and JRPG's.

JRPG's decline are due to crappy games not lack of appeal! Just look at Versus XIII, demand for a Final Fantasy VI/VII remake...plenty of appeal there!

[Lamarthedancer]

I think he's means gameplay from FF7,8 and 9

@darthawesome90

"Just look at Versus XIII, demand for a Final Fantasy VI/VII remake...plenty of appeal there!"

and a FF8/FF9 remake :)

[Ryudo]

"and a FF8/FF9 remake :)"

Please don't remake FF9 I don't think I could suffer the horrible character design in HD....

But 7 and 8 yes please!

[kvg88]

Square Enix should have been more ready for this gen then they were, that's for sure.

Also, I don't get it - their handheld games are almost always of a premium quality, why is it that their console game experience is unable to match that quality?

[LiL T]

Handhelds- Nintendo, Sony
Consoles- Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

Hope so. Just look what it did to Sony.

[nickjkl]

helped there finances

but that has no effect on he amount of work devs put into games

[DFresh]

Get rid of Wada would be a great start.

Next listen to what your consumers want.

For starters the following things need to be released.

Line Up:
-FFVII Remake [PS3 Only]
(Fans want it. Give it to them.)

-FFXIII Versus
(Let Nomura finish the damn game and keep it PS3 only.)

-FFXIII-2 (PS3/Xbox 360)
(Improve the exploration/side quests. Expand the story of Lightning some more.)

-Kingdom Hearts 3 (PS3 Only)
(I'm dying here for a next gen Kingdom Hearts game.)

-Final Fantasy: Collection [PS3]
(FFX, FFX-2, FFXII, etc. = Have fans vote on what games they want remade.)

-Chrono Trigger (PS3/Xbox 360)

-Kingdom Hearts: Collection [PS3]
(Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 2: Chains of Memories.)

-The Last Story
(Port it w/ HD graphics over to PS3/Xbox 360. PS3 will use PS Move and Xbox 360 will use Kinect.)

Seriously now if Square Enix can release all of these games I mentioned and get rid of Wada they'll be swimming in money and the fans will be happy.
(Everybody wins at this point.)

[Newtype]

Why you gotta fuck with Chrono Trigger? Leave it alone.

[DFresh]

I don't mean a Chrono Trigger remake.
I mean like a next gen Chrono Trigger game.
It could be handheld, console, or PC.
Doesn't matter.

[k2d]

I don't want a FFVII remake anymore. Guess it's comes with age....

PS1 era remasters on the otherhand :D :D

[DFresh]

Possibly as a PSN game could work.
:D

[kanetheking]

what you don't want the game to look like this.

[k2d]

@ Dfresh: Word, man! :D

@ kane: Could'nt load you're vid, but anyhow... I've come to terms with that FF7 will never satisfy with re-visioned graphics and voice acting. But a HD-remaster would atleast make it more appealing to coming generations.

[KillingAllFanboys]

The Last Story is owned by Nintendo and it soldout in a day you wont see the game on Ps3 or 360 stop being a graphic nerd and just get a Wii if you want to play it gosh not playing in hd isnt going to hurt you.

[DFresh]

Well then never mind I forgot Last Story is owned by Nintendo.
My fault.
I can always borrow my friend's Wii anytime I want.

[Stealth20k]

Just copy what they do in handheld games because thats where square enix shines

[Cloudberry]

.
Get Hironobu Sakaguchi back.

[Pozzle]

Ah, good ol' Sakaguchi. His current games might be a bit outdated, but they feel more like Final Fantasy than actual FF games.

Didn't he recently say that he was disappointed with what the FF series had become? Must hurt seeing your own creation treated like that. :(

[just_looken]

the shutdown of edios and hitman 5 cancelled are bound 2 happen now like pandemic and ea.

[ally12345]

get rid of enix.

[SicilianGunner]

amazed why some people would want a final fantasy 13 sequel i thought final fantasy 13 was weakest final fantasy game ever the characters were pansys the story sucked and battle system left u with little or no control. only strategy in it was the paragrims or wtv they called which can get repetitive. They saying japanese games dont have much appeal outside of japan? thats why ff13 did better in US then japan. Japan actually hated ff13 if i remebr correctly. I say make final fantasy 15 stick with ur roots with added graphics like ff10 did i loved that game

[jag_stilvecchio]

This has to be one of the most poorly written articles I've ever read. Absolute garbage. My 7yr old nephew writes better than the author.

Back on topic - yes, some management changes are needed at SE. The company can turn it around but needs to focus less on trying to attract a Western audience and flashy graphics and more on just making a good game with a good story too.

[lightningsax]

Yeah, the writer mentioned "restructuring" so much, which I took to be "corporate restructuring," but then he/she just went off on games that are "restructuring..." the FF franchise, maybe? It didn't make sense.

Here I was thinking that SE management had completely shifted. Note to writer: When games affect the direction of a franchise, it's not "restructuring." If it's positive, it's "rejuvenating." If it's negative, it's "butchering," "killing," "maiming," "dismembering," etc.

[hintonmj]

I was waiting for someone to comment on this. It is such terribly written article that I kept wondering if this was one of those auto-translated articles or if English was the author's first language. I hope it wasn't.

Besides the writing itself, half the points were very poorly made. The logic was lacking and evidence was slim. For instance, why was Square waiting a year to release the game on 360 in Japan such a blunder? Was releasing it simultaneously on both systems in Japan going to somehow save the game? We don't know because the author offers no reasoning, just a statement that the game was ignored because of this. Ignored by whom? All those 360 loving Japanese?

I think there were probably some good points behind the off-putting writing style, but I couldn't get past it. If the author's first language is not English they should have someone proofread their posts in the future before trying to publish in a language they haven't mastered.

[Ngai]

maybe it's not them, maybe it's us, ever thought about that?

[Kon]

No because it doesn't make any sense.

[Lamarthedancer]

Well they could get started on a FF7 remake what fans have been asking for ages.

I'm not a massive fan of FF7 but I would like to see people enjoy a remake of it since they've been asking for so long.

Then I can sit back and wait for a FF8 remake and FF9 remake :)

[Laeto256]

If they remade FF7 they'd probably add more to the story and do some alterations and cuts, i think the overall story will need it especially if they want to make 1 or 2 more sequels since dirge ended with Genesis coming back.

[BigDollarZoe954]

I think versus and 13 2 will be there resurrection there come back into being know as best rpg game creators but that's just my thought on this

[Lamarthedancer]

Versus has a good chance are doing that but not so much of FF13-2....that game is just really for the fans who liked FF13 since they apparently had left over content, not much will be improved or changed in the game, I mean it's coming out this year, kind of early for a Final Fantasy game, it's coming out before versus

[BigDollarZoe954]

Oh so this winter 13 2 next year hope to see versus they can take a little more time cause that's game of the year material there to me