Before 2003, Square Enix didn't literally exist. Instead, two companies called Square and Enix did, both producing competing RPGS; Square with their famed Final Fantasy franchise, and Enix with their insanely popular Dragon Quest franchise. However, when Square came into financial difficulties due to the ill-fated Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie, the two merged and formed Square Enix.
The president who took Square down its slippery slope (Tomoyuki Takechi) left the company, and Yoichi Wada was promoted to be the new president of Square, and then Square Enix. Since then, many people have become more and more disillusioned about Square Enix's conduct and the games it produces.
Kazuyuki Shindo, who worked on games including Legend of Mana, Final Fantasy XIII, and SaGa: Emerald Beyond, has left Square Enix.
While FFVII ranks highly, there's more to the series than one game. Here's Chit Hot's picks for the seven best Final Fantasy characters.
Alex Donaldson: "Hindsight is a hell of a thing, however, and in the years since Final Fantasy XIII, my respect for the decisions its developers made has skyrocketed. In the two Final Fantasy titles since we see both the brilliance and the folly in alternative approaches - and in Final Fantasy VII Remake, we get a more nuanced understanding of what FF13 was trying to accomplish from many of the same development leads."
FFXIII is actually one of the best Final Fantasy games.
I also sort of was disappointed at the time, never as much as the bandwagon. But really all the fantastic 3D rendered cutscenes and I actually liked the characters and the story though convoluted was actually fantastic and the ending was extremely emotional. So much budget and time were put into that game Square had such big plans, I actually have always felt kind of bad for how things played out.
I have been thinking for years how great it would be to get all three games on one disk for PS4 or 5.
Gotta take off the nostalgia glasses. It's the worst FF. Shiva as a bike, I mean come on.
Shiva as a bike is strange but saying FFXIII is the worst FF is not at all a fact, that's simply your opinion.
When I got my series X a year ago, I bought FF13 for nostalgia reasons but ended up being disappointed. When I first played it around the time it launched, I didn't have a lot of experience with final fantasy games, so I enjoyed it. Fast forward to when I played it again, I found that the game had many unnecessary filler moments instead of just giving us meaningful content.
The game is also very linear and a quote on the article said it best. "It is like a sewage pipe that leads to the ocean until it opens up on Grand Pulse."
The story didn't make much sense either and I believe it is my mistake as I played the FF7 remake on PS5 prior which is a night and day difference in terms of pacing, storytelling and likeable characters even though cloud is aloof.
Probably was a mistake to play any of the golden era FFs first (e.g. FF6 through FF10), it makes it harder to enjoy some of the FFs that aren't as good. I think FF12 was where major issues with the series started becoming apparent, and it just got worse from there.
I didn't really care for it that much, the only saving grace was that it had a better story than 15 (overall it was better than 15) and possibly 12, and even then, you had to read some of it through primers, like reading a book. Plus the battle system was reasonably fun for what it was, even if it was more the spectacle that was exciting for me (e.g. summoning). And to be fair, the 13 trilogy got better with every games, I still don't like Snow though.
Ff13 is only good if you haven't played a ff before, or any other games that are decent for that matter.
It is in fact no way the best Final Fantasy game, it's one of the worst
Linear corridors, Cutscene, Fight, Cutscene...rinse and repeat
Dialogue and characters are pretty bad, especially Lightning as the main FF hero, they literally said they tried to make a "Female Cloud" and they failed.
Story was pretty awful
I could go on
I think the only alright thing that came from the game was the music.
That's not a fact that's your personal opinion. The game sold 11 million copies between its 2009 release up until 2014 including critically reviewed as an 8 out of 10 or an 80 out of 100. The game does have some issues but it's not at all a fact as one of the worst FF games.
i liked the game alot but i didnt like how they handled the terminology.
i dont mind reading data logs but it had soo many.
but i always loved the music and how it looked. the battle system wasnt too bad either.
but i like 13-2 more :)
i still dont understand why we never got a remaster of the trilogy
Xbox kinda did. Besides the video files of course which are still best on PS3 due to bluray.
XIII is a pretty solid game, but XIII-2 is WAY better. XIII-2 was one of the few games I decided to go for a Platinum trophy in, early on. Had so much fun the entire way through getting it too!
I hated this to when it released. I haven't much liked a ff game since ff10 as much , aside from ff7remake. I decided to give it another shot on my series x since it's not on a current ps and was liking it quite a bit(just takes me some time to get over things ) until star ocean 2 remake came out I was all over that.
Square should definitely remaster it or something for ps4 ps5
After FF13 VS,I'll be officially done with Square Enix 'til they release Kingdom Hearts III next gen.
If that doesn't tell you how poor their software library is this gen,then I really don't know what else to say.
Square Enix seems to doing the same thing Namco-Bandai is with the Tales of series in Japan: Release tons of games one after another, to the point where the fans are like, "Which ones do you want us to buy now?".
You'd think they would get that releasing games like crazy hinders their profits. >.>
The problem is that Square and Enix merged in the first place.
When they were their own companies, they were number 1 and 2 in the rpg business. The competition between the two drove them to create some of the best rpgs of the last several generations and, because they were vying for the cash of consumers, to constantly push the envelope in terms of creating new and innovative worlds.
But when you merge the top 2 talents, you tend to become complacent and arrogant. You tend to take shortcuts in development because you know people will buy it for the pedigree. You tend to just "phone in" development of new IPs and rely on the quick buck of remakes.
I mean, looking at the list of titles released by both companies before and after the merger is eye-opening--93% of the titles released since 2003 are re-releases or re-makes.
Dear Mr. Nomura,
Please abandon the sinking ship, known as Square-Enix, while you still can. You are worth more than the entire company right now. Your the last hope for jRPGs.
Sincerely,
Chris Hansen - Dateline NBC
I think it's mostly the cool-to-hate attitude and opinion that people have about them that's hindering them. The Last Remnant did work, it was about as Mass Effect but because it was made by Square Enix is was marked down and it was also marked down because it wasn't Final Fantasy.
People also say that now that they're on 13 they should stop the series and do something new but whenever they do people complain about lack of work on Final Fantasy.
I for one have bought most of Square's major releases in the last few years and there's been very few that I've not liked and the remakes are fantastic, especially the recent Chrono Trigger one(it was the first time it was available here in England).
I think they should continue with their good work and people should stop expecting miracles from them. It's also interesting to note that Taito is autonomous. Square are also publishing a lot of other people's games nowadays and still making a tidy profit so they're doing well.
Anyway, as I was saying people do criticise them too much, apart from maybe EA they're probably the most hated developers in the world. How come people don't complain about Valve? they take five years to develop games as well. What everyone should do is stop complaining and let them do what they do best, JRPGs.