Square Enix Hasn't Been Kind To Its IP-Revivals Recently

If anything, they are more like de-vivals, bringing about these IPs' gradual demise.

[phoenixwing]

Disagree. I liked both star ocean and valkyrie. If you didn't buy them that's on you and a little on square because they didn't mass market it as much. But it's not like they sent them out to die they just don't have a huge marketing budget for games not dq or ff. Diofield chronicles and other new games that weren't remakes didn't get big marketing either.

[shinoff2183]

Star ocean 6 was dope as fk imo. I wish they'd english release star ocean second departure.

[Abracadabra]

What keeps Square alive is Final Fantasy. If we take out Final Fantasy, most of their games are flops/forgettable...

When Square had Crystal Dynamics and Eidos, they owned a few decent Games/IP's.

[Old McGroin]

Never got around to Vagrant Story back in the day, supposed to be phenomenal. Wonder what a remake of that would look like.

[Hofstaderman]

Not profitable enough though. That’s what happens when you sign timed exclusivity deals with the way less popular and preferred console manufacturer in the case of Tomb Raider. Other games were purely cash grabs that backfired on them such as Avengers.

[CrimsonWing69]

@Old McGroin

They’d probably change the battle system to Devil May Cry and cite that they want to bring in people who aren’t fans of the series and they’d tell you turn-based/real-time targeting is archaic design.

That’s my guess.

[forevercloud3000]

I think an aspect that is missing from this article is one of sheer overcrowded release timeframe. Square Enix released far too many titles in close proximity to each other and other more notable titles. Star Ocean Divine Force, DioField Chronicles, Valkyrie Elysium, Crisis Core and Tactics Ogre Reborn all came out in holiday 2022. They all have significant overlap with each other when talking about the fans they appeal to. I know i had to make a sacrifice on which ones i got on launch.

I got Diofield and Star Ocean on launch, Crisis Core was a christmas present. God of War Ragnarok owned the holiday so everything else was fighting for what was left.

Which also brings me to another issue....pricing. Tactics Ogre pricing is absurd when thinking of a minimally touched up 2D port from the 2000s. The quality of work visually for Star Ocean, DioField, and VE was dodgy in comparison to what consumers expect in a full priced title. If i wasn't purely trying to support their valiant efforts I would have waited for deep sale. Which is sad because i found them all very fun, with some genre forward ideas.

These games needed to be more spread out release wise and more varied pricing to bolster appeal. Oh, and actual advertising so people know they exist. 😛

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I didn't care for either recent iterations of those franchises, although I kinda like Havestella based on the demo.

I noticed that marketing seems to be a big failure point for Square-Enix to the point where games like TWEWY Neo was practically a stealth release. I would love them to bring over the Second Story, I was hoping that would happen sometime after First Depature released in English.

[GoodGuy09]

They put these games out to test em....but barely put any budget and effort. They come out bad and blame fans for not buying these games and disliking them and think we don't want any more of these games. What we want are QUALITY games square...

Square only cares about FF and NFTs now.

[blackblades]

Starocean it was the low budgets scenes in the demo that got me off of it but I did hear good things about the game. Valkyrie was alright of what I played. I agree to an extent that needed more attention to them and not just a throw out. On the other hand I'm not expecting big FF focused for them just a little bet better like AA not AAA like FF and DQ.

[shinoff2183]

If you have any interest in star ocean. Check it out. Star ocean was never ever a game that got a huge budget to begin with. Fun as hell though

[blackblades]

Ive played SO4 and i have SO5 that been sitting in digital dust for years i know they aint big budget but still those scenes was horrible. Small budget done better then that, I'm not expecting motion capture level obviously but Indies done better then those scenes.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I could not stand the Star Ocean games after 3: Till the End of Time, I think it was 4 where I got to the last boss and just dropped the game, 5 I started and played a few hours before shelving it permanently.

I'm just finding alot of SE titles in recent years to be a very bland experience with the occasional gem surfacing every now and then.

[jambola]

what is the budget of these games?

[XiNatsuDragnel]

We need more IP revivals tbh

[NecrumOddBoy]

Chrono Trigger HD-2D

[kingnick]

Depends on who's developing said revivals. I'd rather franchises lay dormant then the subpar revivals SE has put out the last ~10 years. So many of their smaller budget games are uneven, even basic stuff like the lack of texture consistency make me wonder if there's any QA and really hurts the initial impressions of the game.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I just want ports/remasters of their old games, alot of their old library is full of fantastic classics that I would happily shell out for.

[Chevalier]

Same. Would love to play Ogre Battle again

[IamTylerDurden1]

FFVII wasn't successful?

[BandarHub]

Don't switch up the topic to make it FF, Square is way more than FF.
It does not take a genius to understand that they are talking about:
Valkyrie Elysium, Neo: The World Ends With You, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Diofield Chronicles and Octopath Traveller.

If Sony fans support Japanese games why did these games sell so low?
There was a conversation not a couple of days ago talking about lost odyssey and people were saying if it was on ps3 it would have sold better.
Why are those games I mentioned not selling despite most of them being exclusively on Sony platforms?

[shinoff2183]

Lost odyssey would've definitely sold better on ps3 no doubt. Say what you want and feel how you feel. Due to certain western dickheads alot of us were starving for jrpgs during ps3 360 Era. I bought my 360 specifically for the few offerings they had. Not for halo gears and whatever else they had nope the jrpgs

[Flawlessmic]

@bandar"If Sony fans support Japanese games why did these games sell so low?"

Such a dumb argument I swear.

Games on Sony's platform tend to sell better than xbox that's a fact, especially Japanese games.

But that does not mean every single game sells, what kind of bullshit expectation is that, sony fans are supposed to buy every single game is that what ur saying?

Or every single Japanese game?

Sony's fans obviously support Japanese games a lot more than most that's not to say every single game.

Marketing, quality of game and all that stuff comes into play.

Stop creating ridiculous arguments or shift the goals posts in way where you can prove your xbot point.

Makes you look stupid with statement like that.

Are you honestly trying to say lost Odessy wouldn't have sold more on ps3 than 360? Pls say it.

However mu h those game sold on ps it's defs more than it would have been on xbox not sure why ur even trying to argue that, then again blind fanboyism doesn't make for great thinkers.

[kingnick]

SE management are dumb AF.

Octopath Traveller 1 was on Xbox consoles but not on PS consoles, Octopath Traveler II was on PS consoles but not on Xbox consoles. I suspect MS did a deal with SE for Octopath Traveler 1 but still.

The Tomb Raider deal was another eye rolling moment and would have hurt the franchise overall. Stupid short term choices at the expense of the long term are why SE is in a mess.

I'm sure SE's games would sell more if they returned to form but management is the company's worst enemy.

[BandarHub]

@Flawlessmic
"Games on Sony's platform tend to sell better than xbox that's a fact, especially Japanese games."
They sell better because there are a small amount of gamers that play Japanese games on Xbox they are 99% of them are on PlayStation. So that means 99% of the sales number outweigh the Xbox by a large majority.
Xbox was not able to sustain a community of gamers who play Japanese games. Because for a decade and a half, there were no Japanse games released on Xbox.

"But that does not mean every single game sells, what kind of bullshit expectation is that, Sony fans are supposed to buy every single game is that what ur saying?"

So now expectations switches, when it favours you but when it comes to Xbox all must buy. See the hypocrisy that you lot spout out. It is the same analogy that i use, if you say it doesn't make sense for Sony fans to do so that it makes equal sense for Xbox fans.
Sony fans have most of the Japanese games supporters which mean a 99% of the sales should be happening on their platform. The rate at which they are selling, it obvious that those gamers are in a minority.

"Are you honestly trying to say lost Odessy wouldn't have sold more on ps3 than 360? Pls say it."

No, it would not have sold better on ps3.
It's a simple look at the jrpg exclusive White Knight Chronicles(950k) and Ni no Kuni (650k), sales compared, its sold just around the same amount as Lost Odyssey(900k). If jrpg were selling like hotcakes why did that game not sell exponentially more than Lost Odyssey? Why were the numbers on the same level as Lost Odyssey considering that PlayStation had a large majority of gamers who play Japanese games.

"However mu h those game sold on ps it's defs more than it would have been on xbox not sure why ur even trying to argue that, then again blind fanboyism doesn't make for great thinkers."

You were previously talking about the expectations of Sony fans and then you shift your focus to saying that Lost Odyssey would have sold better on Ps3. You can even keep your argument consistent.

This argument is not about selling better it's about Sony fan's ego and how it hurts them knowing that Microsoft funded Sakagushi's studio and he deliver a classic like the Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon exclusively on Xbox 360.

The fact that Sony fans can't accept that Xbox created their own JRPG and respect it, is something that baffles me. Saying it would have sold better on ps3 is a coping statement to undermine the moves that XBox was making. It's a shame that Peter Moore moved to EA and made Don Mattrick was made in charge of Xbox at that time because that when Xbox stop focusing on Japanese games.

I could shift the argument and make a comparison with the shooters that Sony created.

Resistance, Killzone, MAG, Socom, Starhawk, and even "Halo Killer" Haze would have sold exponentially way better than it did on PS3.

But I am going to do that because I respect the fact that Sony published and built those games. You will never see Xbox fans port begging for those games.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Because it's Square-Enix, I haven't consider Square-Enix to be at the peak of their game since the PS1/early PS2 days. Most of those games you listed either weren't very good or had barely any marketing, I just chalk it up to Square-Enix being somewhat incompetent (probably the management side screwing everything it).

It's not like they can put these games on Xbox and magically have enough sales to save a bad or poorly marketed game (it's just throwing good money after bad).

[Ronmaest]

It not sold north f five million.

[jambola]

Don't get the hate for Valkyrie Elysium, thought it was one of the best games last year