Square-Enix No Longer The Perennial RPG Powerhouse

Ben Dutka: "When I first heard that Squaresoft and Enix would be merging, I glanced over at my PlayStation collection of RPGs. Along with all the Final Fantasy titles, I saw the likes of Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Front Mission 3, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, Chrono Cross, and Star Ocean: The 2nd Story. Enix only did the latter, but hey, it was an awesome RPG and Squaresoft...well, they were the masters. Plain and simple."

[Imallvol7]

Squeenix has lost its vision. It is way too far past people making games they are passionate about. You heard the interviews. They are 100% into profits.

I understand you have to have that in a company, but you also have to have some heart in your projects. They go hand in hand. You can't really have one without the other. Seems to me like their heads just got too big, and they need to realize they need the consoles more than the consoles need them.

We all heckled Sony for letting Square Enix go (and not pushing hard for all their games on the Sony system), but may be Sony was smarter than we all thought and realized the quality of their products was going down hill.

[kwicksandz]

I put 60 hours into LO and it was enjoyable nearly all the way. I suggest you give it another shot.

... [Edit] reply fail meant to reply to 2.1

[swiftshot93]

look at what happened in March. ONE month the PS3 outsells the Wii and *all of the sudden* we see FFVII on PSN.

They are so into profit they're willing to accept paychecks to make crap games that dont even sell as well on the exclusive console platform they usually choose for their games-Xbox 360.

They are soley reliant on the FF franchise to the point that they would die without it.

They kick @$$ with DS and PSP though :P

Edit: People it was the merge. The merge ruined Square.

[Bnet343]

People will buy Final Fantasy games no matter what. My question is, who is the RPG powerhouse this gen? I say BioWare for Mass Effect IMO, but some might say Bethesda with F3 and Obliv. Or whoever made Eternal Sonata and Tales of V.

[velcry]

1. SE tried to diversify away from FF, because it can't be good putting all your eggs in one basket. Problem is, they didn't devote that much time / effort into it. When they could have had more Chrono Triggers, they ended up with more Last Remnants.

2. SE tried to break into the western market by pandering to certain consoles, and to incorporate western elements into its games. Problem is, they alienated their main fan base, and gave newcomers an unsatisfying experience that they wouldn't want to return to.

3. SE believed wrongly that they people would wait obediently for the next installments of their best franchises. Problem is, gamers need their fix regularly. Starve them for too long, and they move on to greener pastures out of need. The generation of SE diehards are getting older, and the bulk of younger gamers don't know what the fuss is all about.

[TheRealSpy]

ever since FF XIII was announced for 360 there has been nothing be articles trashing SquareEnix. it's ridiculous. these guys have made great games for years, STFU.

this is nothing but unjustified fanboy retaliation.

i'm so bored of this "console war"

[RememberThe357]

Next time read the article. He says nearly the exact same thing you just said, with out the f'ed up attitude.

He's saying that Suqaresoft was a power house of RPG production. But it seems that after Squaresoft and Enix merged, and this new generation started, they have been dropping the ball. This is not about consoles it's about quality.

If Square Enix was releasing quality console titles, people would not be able to talk as much crap as they are. Unfortunately, they aren't and the criticism is well warranted.

[TheRealSpy]

that doesn't change the validity of my statement.

before last year's E3, all we had was SE praise and huge hype around the amazing PS3 exclusive...FF XIII. THEN, E3 hits and SE tells us they are bring it to 360 too and suddenly SE fell off and is only about profits.

it's a joke

oh, and the last remnant and star ocean are both good games and reviewed pretty well. and those are their most recent titles. so what else ya got?

[SaiyanFury]

@ 1.0

I could not agree more. S-E was criticising Sony for not having a definition of what the PS3 was. Sony was marketing the machine as a multimedia home theatre device as well as a games machine. That was the source of discontent with S-E. Now, with the current generation of games, there hasn't been a SINGLE S-E property I've been really interested in. I WAS looking forward to FFXIII but after seeing the trailer on the PSN and seeing how much it looked like an FPS I became completely disinterested. The stale/colourless atmosphere coupled to characters that used no swords or anything. Just the personality of the game crippled my enthusiasm. Yet, here we have Tales of Vesperia coming for PS3, a bright, vibrant game that KNOWS it's a JRPG. I'm really looking forward to it. S-E has lost it's identity. Instead of developing Japanese RPGs, they develop RPGs that they think people in the west would want, instead of making clear games that us original JRPGamers would want. This clearly indicates their interest in profit, and not making quality, original games.

EDIT: I would like to point out a case where a JS/RPG (strategy) meets western interests very well. Valkyria Chronicles is such a game. It's a strategy RPG that caters to the west's love of military games that still retains it's Japanese aesthetic. Beautiful watercolour graphics with a clearly Japanese appearance. The game is approached as a JSRPG, but with a shooting and action aspect. It was brilliantly produced by SEGA, and maintains it's Japanese identity that can still appeal to western gamers. True, the game didn't sell well, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's a Japanese-style RPG that can appeal to western gamers' love of military games. Just a footnote in the annals of gaming history. Valkyria Chronicles will go down as this generation's Final Fantasy Tactics, I swear. In it's time, FFT was also under-appreciated.

[king dong]

100% agree. before e3 last year, it didn't matter which rpg was on the 360 beacuse the ps3 had ff...but after the multi-platform announcement. lol square were rubbish, and level5 were new rpg masters. just because white knight was ps3 exclusive. also have you noticed how the only ff this gen worth playing according to the losers on n4sonyfanboys is ff versus.

it was the same soul calibre. it didn't matter what fighting game was on the 360 because tekken was ps3 exclusive, then tekken went multi, and was all "it dont matter, it's just a fighting game".

and just look at how they've all(sony fanboys and fanboy blogs)have turned against gta. after gta4 it would appear is going to evolve like the gta3 did last gen. yet, they all want it back as ps3 exclusive, but hate it now it's multi....and hate it even more now that the first episode turned out really good.

twisted loser fanboys!!

bubbles up by the way.

[pain777pas]

This gen I have not played all the Rpgs so I don't know who the true king is. I am looking forward to Tales for the PS3 and FF13. Look if the game truly does not deliver than I will be dissappointed. I hope it is good because I used to love there games and still play missions in FF7 CC. Oblivion is the best RPG so far. ME is not only because I has less things to do and less interactivity. But ME is memorable for so many reasons and I will not spoil the choices that you have to make and tough choices at that. SE will have to step it up if they want to compete with Bioware because they are rapidly rising the ranks. If we were to base this on quality alone Bioware would have my vote on being one of the most consistently great developers on the planet with Insomniac, Bethesda and Kojima productions.

[ultimolu]

Could you guys name *one* game that Square Enix brought out either this year or last year that was 90 and above?

Could you?

I'm pretty sure that people accept the fact that FFXIII is multiplatform now. This has nothing to do with it. It's the deteriorating quality of Square's games that's the issue here.

IN OTHER WORDS, YOU DIDN'T READ THE ARTICLE!

[NeoBasch]

Who's the new RPG powerhouse? ATLUS! :D After playing Persona 3 and 4, there is no other option. Actually, the SMT series in general has been pretty awesome.

[EXCLUSIVEGAMER]

I knew this would happen.

KOJIMA faced the SAME FATE. Except, he refused the CHECK$ AND 9GB DVD, and stayed focused on his masterpiece.

[raztad]

No RPG powerhouse by now. Good to see a lot of companies trying to pull quality RPGs and fill in SE empty space.

I mean, SE has three major selling blockbusters, DQ, KH an FF. DQ is DS bound. FF went the multiplatform route but is taking eons to arrive here, whatever the reasons. Nobody knows about KH3, we will see, it could be very well being released as a exclusive Wii game, I dont know but in any case, it's not happening any time soon.

So there is a vacuum there and it's a good thing to have more than one company producing good RPGs. Way to go SEGA, I LOVE Valkyrie C.

[STK026]

Have you played the last remnant? infinite undiscovery? project sylpheed? These are most of the games SE made or published this generation, it's decent at best. The only good game they published was Star Ocean TLH, and even then, some could argue about that game. They also released some WiiWare games aswell as a Echoes of time, again, nothing to be truly amazed at.

On the handheld side, SE has released an impressive amount of remakes and ports, like FFT, SO 1 and 2, FF 1 to 4, Chrono Trigger etc. Some new content, but not much.

The reason SE was praised like a year ago and it's not today, is mostly because in the last year they released what looked to be promising games and under delivered.

It's easy blaming everything on the fanboys, as they are responsible for alot of things, but SE' descent to hell is only to be blamed on SE.

[edgeofblade]

I agree with the OP that S-E has lost it's vision, but I'm not about to agree that Sony has some premonition of their weakness and (in their all-knowing wisdom) let them go. S-E is about profits, and going multi-plat in this generation is a great move.

It's all worth it to me to see petty fanboys cry "betrayal".

[Guitardr85]

Oh how the mighty have fallen. I look at Atlus and Tri-Ace now for quality RPG's.

[king dong]

hold on, i thought scores didn't matter? normally when someone metions meta-critic, the sony fanboys like yourself usually dismiss it! so what's it to be?

anyway, the only review that counts for me is my own! i've enjoyed LO, last remnant and infinite undiscovery..

[idlewild_]

FFX was actually by squaresoft (it didn't suck), but FFX-2 onwards was square-enix (they sucked)

honestly, the only good games to come out of the merger are dissidia, crisis core, TWEWY, and KHII (debatable, not as good as first, and story has become so convoluted)...4 'good' games in 6 years?

[FlameBaitGod]

Love to see the 360 fanboys still think SE is doing still great but apparently any 1 who says SE is losing it is a PS3 fanboy. Then you clearly haven't been playing SE games b4, If you tell me that SE hasn't change they you are clearly blinded by the fanboy sight. Star Ocean last hope pro game ? Plz lie to your self no 1 else, The last Remnant Lol ? good game PLZ you clearly dk what good games are then and last Infinite Undiscovery. If you guys have the nerve to say SE hasn't lost their touch and say those games where good than dam, you loyalty to the 360 is amazing. Almost every SE game sold over a million ez, have those passed million ? are those quality games with great story play ? Yeah thx

[XxZxX]

I like FFXII, but I hate FFX-2 it felt like playing sailor moon. And Yes that's the only FFX i did not finish. It was so bad, i have to stop.

[thesummerofgeorge]

You'd think they would be listening by now, even if profits are there main concern, you can't increase profits if your fanbase no longer believes in your company. I guess they never heard the saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

[ultimolu]

king dong, do you really think you got me good? In this case, I am talking about Square. Square, before they merged always produced games that were within the 90 range and were critically acclaimed. Now that they merged, the quality spiraled downward.

Don't give me that crap about scores when you 360 fanboys started that crap with scores in the first place.

[Shepherd 214]

Japanese RPG's blow really hard anyways. They are all pretty much the same and they are horribly unoriginal nowadays.

Western RPG's are the best and are much more varied and innovative. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Fallout 1,2, and 3. These are all games that go far beyond Final Fantasy and the countless other japanese lookalikes, such as Infinite Undiscovery, Lost Odyssey, Last Remnant, etc.

Sorry but no JRPG can stand up to Star Wars: KotOR, or the Elder Scrolls games for that matter.

[dktxx2]

In my honest opinion, i don't think square is any worse they've been in the past. I think the japanese style rpg is just getting old. they've been the same for so long, since before ps1 days. The only franchise that has tried new tings is Final Fantasy, which is interestingly still good. Plus with western action adventurer rpgs kicking ass lately. fable, elder scrolls, and i guess people liked mass effect (i don't know why though ugh) it goes to show even more how lame JRPG's are getting. The genre needs new life.

[Imallvol7]

That's a good way to look at it actually. However, I do think they got worse . . . I mean did you play Loss Odyssey? I couldn't play very long at all. The battle scenes were so choppy and convoluted. It held my interest for five minutes.

All of their characters, worlds, and stories have been so stale this generation. Where are the Vivi's, Auron's, and Clouds?

Oh, and Mass Effect is one of my favorite games ever . . .

[Raoh]

I dont think jrpg's are getting old. its just that square is trying to step out of their element and do something they dont do. these new real time action jrpg's suck. and those are mainly from square.

mistwalker on the other hand has done an excellent job of keeping the jrpg gameplay tradition and still upgrading their games.

western rpg's are not the same at all. i consider some of these western rpg's really more like hack and slash games or shooters with rpg elements to them. great games none the less though.

if square wants to make a western game they should build one from the ground up not use one of their jrpg franchises and try to change the gameplay to appeal to americans. cause there are plenty of americans (like myself) that appreciate a good ole jrpg as it. i'll take a good ole turn based jrpg anyday.

that's why they have been failing lately.

[hendersonman]

Lost Odyssey was one of the best RPGs I have played in years. I dont know what you are talking about it being choppy... did you even play it. Because the reviews of that game were wrong, the battle load times were not long like sites (1up, IGN) said. They actually game was more smooth than the review copies

EDIT: BTW I was right, checked your gamer card...looks like you never even played LO

[gaffyh]

LO is great, I think you are talking about The Last Remnant and got your RPGs mixed up. Lost Odyssey is probably one of the best JRPGs this game, although I didn't like some aspects of it (main enemy design, cheesy dialogue, voice acting not too good)

[Imallvol7]

Hendersonman . . . I most certainly have . . . but it was on my room mates console. We have 2 360's, 2 PS3's, Wii, and a plethora of old consoles between us so don't accuse me of simply trying to make a game look bad for no reason.

You are obviously in the minority when you say you like this game. However, I know that's possible. There are alot of games I love that weren't critically praised and alot of games that are praised critically that I don't like (see GTA series).

[Marquis_de_Sade]

I disagree, Lost Odyssey is easily the best classically styled JRPG of this generation (by the I mean turn based). The story line isn't the main highlight, it's the characters and their background that made it into a good game in my opinion.

[N4Flamers]

it felt like a good old jrpg and im a fan of those, so if you dont like it thats your opinion. I will say this that if the games square has been comming out with were more simmilar to what mystwalker has done, less people would complain.

[XxZxX]

henderson, GamerTag only show recently played games. NOT ALL games played. HOW are you right?

[hendersonman]

Because you can go into the achievement list and it tells you weather or not it has been played at all.

[jkhan]

I think the problem with SE is that they are taking too long with FF-XIII and in the mean time they released a couple of half baked games and not to mention there failure to release a single game on a console whose predecessor was there bread butter and which has a bigger install base in Japan than the 360 where JRPGs really matter. Instead of wasting budget and development time on those gimped games, they should have put all there resources in releasing FF-XIII. SE has hurt PS3 really bad, if all those game, even those half-baked JRPGs were released on PS3 as well, it would have been a totally different story and PS3 would have been around 5-6 million in Japan already.

[Max Power]

have taken too long with FFXIII, but they will realize the strength of the Sony market which they have ignored this whole generation. The sales of FFXIII in Japan alone will make their whole business outlook silly right away.

[dericb11]

Its sad to see people disagree with the truth. FF:13 will sell more in Japan then any other place. Apr. 16th we get to see what crazy sale a Blu-ray will put up cause its packed with a demo. Not to say people aren't buy it for the movie but why wait to buy a system when a demo comes out.

[N4Flamers]

ff 13 will sell alot more in japan than both versions in america, thats just my guess. I wonder will we have fanboys still complaining about SE then.

[Kamikaze135]

Since they aren't good anymore, might as well re-release what made them good in the past.

[KingDizzi]

Plain and simple, the top teams at SE have yet to release a game. I am talking about the FFXIII team, KH team whom are making Versus and also DQ IX which is a combination of companies.

SE have taken a long time to make these games, that has been the problem. KH 2, the FF games since SE formed and DQ have been fantastic. The problem is that the lesser teams have released games which are no where near the quality we expect.

All I can say is wait a few more days and watch how people foam over the FFXIII demo let alone the full game. Versus is being made by the KH so that is a given to be a great game but like I said, it has simply taken a long long time.

[INehalemEXI]

At least they are not failing as a company financialy, they attempted to take over Tecmo and did get eidos. I remember when they where a penny stock for awhile there before the merger.

You just got to take the good with the bad I guess, They still do deliver the goods from time to time. Fabula Nova Crystallis games will be one of those times as well as Dissidia, Parasite Eve 3rd B day etc. Considering that they have had money issues in the past, I can't blame them for a bit of milking to get there company healthy.(honestly though I do get pissed about ff7 milking)

[dericb11]

I mean we have all seen the lost revenue reports by them.
I do find it funny that on the Japanese PSN they're games
are always in the top downloads. Its like they don't
release games for PS3 but they seem to release one all the
time.

[INehalemEXI]

Earnings are down yet they are about to recoup alot of earnings when the flagships drop and they are far more stable even in a weak economy then they where a decade ago. acquiring > merging.

[Da One]

They wanted to do so that there would be no competition between them and that they would be able to clean house with DQ and FF

unfortunately this isn't working out so well

[FF7numbaone]

I really dont see them milking FF7 to the fulliest. But they obviously rank it 1 in their list of FF, in terms of success.

[DNAgent]

Square-Enix is the king of mediocre RPGs. This is why I don't bother playing games from them regardless of what they are. It's not hard to avoid them since I hate playing their garbage so when it's a game by Square-Enix, I will avoid it. I'm sure there FF games will get good scores (due to fear of fan backlash like GTA4) and even good sales (because there are still idiots who think that the FF games are still good) but overall they will be nothing but overhyped garbage just like GTA4 was.

[cryymoar]

and sega is kicking their ass with their PS3 RPGs. :]

[jams_shop]

Back then Squaresoft and Enix were the biggest and most popular RPG maker around. They also were competing each other and in the process, each of them were trying to out perform the other. That's why the quality of their titles was so good. Once they merged, there was not one to compete with and it became unnecessary to put all the company's resources in one game, when they could be developing ten average games at once. Consumers were going to buy Square-Enix's games either way. That's one of the reasons their recent games are lacking on quality.

[KingDizzi]

SE actually are struggling financially and there is nothing that can be done about that for them sadly. RPG's take a very long time to make and SE are making 2 FF games of huge budget's, the size of each game makes other WRPG and releases RPG's look tiny.

When people hear "FFXIII" everyone expects an AAA game which sets the standard, most people do agree that the game is going to be fantastic. Making such a game has taken longer then SE would have liked, budget must have gotten out of control and for that reason the game went multi-plat.

I do hope FFXIII, Versus, Agito, KH: BBS, KH: 358/2 days and DQ IX sell fantastically, such hard work deserves rewards.

[dericb11]

I really don't blame people for writing so many articles about SE sucking balls. I just find it odd that so many exist and SE still continues to suck balls. If Sega/Tri-Ace game turns out to be good (Its got some cool concepts), then SE was the problem and I think some of SE employees need to walk out on them.

Most people will think it will hurt Final Fantasy but it really won't since those have to stay top notch. They will pay out the ass to get those games out and at the best level.

[v1c1ous]

since that's where their fanbase is.

afterall, xbox 360/wii owners never owned a ps1/ps2 nor played ff games before. lol am i right guys?

[jams_shop]

It doesn't matter which/what is their main platform. Their games are lacking the quality which made them number one in the RPG market, that's all.

[dericb11]

They bulk of SE sells do come from Japan so PS3 is smarter in the sense that they can(I say can because its not always the case but the majority) sell more there then anywhere else.

And the quality of there last 5 titles sucked. So they need to fix that too.

[Marquis_de_Sade]

No, you're not right, many of my friends who owned PS2 and PS1s now own 360s, I on the other hand had an Xbox1 but now own a PS3. A silly assumption to make.

[Shaka2K6]

..

[JOEdANGEL]

Say what you want, but the flagship franchises from this company have not yet seen a new release, i.e. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. I think the long delay in releasing these games is hurting their reputation in the long run, not these "alright but not great" games. They've been making these types of games since long before the merger. Besides the only franchise that had anything to prove was Star Ocean and it scored about as well as its predecessors.

Edit: The World Ends With You. Fantastic game.

[Zeus Lee]

...And it's even sadder that one of the largest and most popular Japanese development company isn't one of them.

After looking at Final Fantasy 13 and reading about it,there's no doubt left in my mind that Final Fantasy 13 will disappoint me when it releases.The upcoming Ps3 Demo can COMPLETELY change my perspective,but if it's EXACTLY like the gameplay video we've seen and the previews we've read,then I just can not see FF13 being a AAA RPG experience.

I really hope Square Enix have a plan B of sorts,because once Final Fantasy 13 fails to revolutionize the JRPG genre and is only deemed as an 'ok' game,they're going to have a very rough time ahead of them.

And I don't think Versus 13 will help them either.First of all,they're going to strain their relationship with Sony even further by announcing it for the Xbox 360.Not a good idea to give the finger to the only Japanese console manufacture engaged in High Definition gaming.Second,the game won't see store shelves for a long long long time,so the only game that will help them 'til Versus arrives is Dragon Quest-and while the game will do fantastic numbers in Japan,I currently do not see it doing very well overseas.

Square Enix had the gamer appreciation and respect that Blizzard has,it's an absolute shame they lost it all due to horrible decisions that primarily involve Microsoft.

[San Frandisco]

oh man i just went to this old school gaming/comic shop earlier and bought Bushido Blade,and damn did i miss that game.. yes its not an RPG game but SQUARESOFT made it possible to take chances and succeed all while keeping a very VERY strong relationship with is fans.

but NOW,.. now square-enix have seperaed their SQUARE fans all over the place .. its like once the merge took off so did the fans lol.
Me being one of them since ive ben a HUGE RPG fan and squaresoft fan for a long time.
wen i was at that store picking up my game i saw all the old school RPG classics that squaresoft made memorable in gamers hearts alike everywere... it was so refreshing to look at and sad at the same time as i recalled the classic gaming days of squaresoft.

*shakes head* why does greed and money hungryness allways destroy someone... damn square-enix.

they havnt supported he ps3 this gen AT ALL so far and thas strait sad but i guess all is well since most (if not all) of their nex-gen games underperformed by not only a technical sandard ut by a gamers standard.

ALL WE AS GAMERS AND OLD SCHOOL SQUARE FANS ASK IS THAT YOU LISTEN TO US.

[San Frandisco]

wut? hey fvck you whoever gave me a dissagree..

how can you disagree wih facts? or strait truth huh? oh i dunno i guess i didnt go to the store after all.
loser.

[ultimolu]

Not one f*cking game for the PS3.

I don't mind multiplatform anymore but they've completely ignored the PS3 this generation.

They claim that they want to be fair to all consoles and yet they screw over gamers.

FFXIII looks great so far but I hope it delivers.

[jams_shop]

true not even one

[Roper316]

well they did release a port of a crummy Iphone game to the PSN. BFD thanks for nothing SE.

[Jackel2072]

In this day and age i perfer Atlus for my JRPG fix over Square any day.

[Da One]

This is true

[DelbertGrady]

Bethesda, Lionhead and Bioware are the ones who push things forward at the moment. Or at least try.

[tehReaper]

I'm confident you got disagrees because those companies tend to favor the 360. Fanboys are pathetic.

[TheColbertinator]

I agree with Soda that RPGs are greater for bioware and Lionhead but this article points towards JRPGs

[axeru777]

Square Enix is stupid. They ignored their PlayStation fans.

Good hing Level-5 and NIS are here.

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

They're stupid for thinking that they could save the 360 in Japan.

[TwistedMetal]

atlus, Nis, and lvl 5 have replaced square enix with sega trying to get some rpg action as well. the money went to squarenix head and they thought they were rockstars. they better not freaking water down ff 13 ps3 version becuase of the x360 and ff vs 13 better stay ps3 exclusive otherewise its over for them.

[360Hater]

They did it to themselves..

[el_bandito]

I've said this before: What was great about Square (before the merger) is their drive to put all their efforts in making the best games TO get a loyal fanbase; earning at the same time. After the merger, thinking it has reaped so many fans already, SE's only concern is making money, period.

[ssipmraw]

This could truly be the last numbered Final Fantasy, besides versus, i cant imagine a final fantasy XIV

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

Square-Enix would be nothing without Final Fantasy.

[ssipmraw]

but anything over XIII seems like overkill

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

There are over 30 Final Fantasy titles. It's already overkill lol.

[ssipmraw]

i said numbered

[Firstkn1ghT]

Never cared or played a JRPG but I started playing Lost Odyssey. I played about 5 hours into it and so far it's a fantastic ride. Great game.

[DMasta718]

I'm just going to say to me, when i see a Square Enix label on the game, I don't automatically think "this must be a Ace game" anymore. Its a maybe at most.

And Atlus replaced my JRPG needs. Just patiently waiting for them to convert to the next gen.

[jrsenkbe]

The best rpg's are the Shim Megami Tensei series (Devil Summoner, Persona, etc..)

[espada_assassin]

I love Shin megami games but alot of them are just the same and a alot of them lack depth.

It's funny people only really started to bash square when XIII went Multi before that it would never happen.

FFXIII, Versus, Agito, Dissidia, 3rd birthday, Birth by Sleep, Crisis core and a few others. I'm sure all these will deliver (Dissidia and Crisis core already have)

Sucks if you dont have a PSP and just like w4nking over consoles all day.

Handheld gaming is currently at the best it's ever been.

[Da One]

Hell they're kings in there own right regardless they've got some great games............

[Pika-pie]

Only FFXIII can redeem them... Im pritty sure it will be a AAA title, once it eventually gets released.

[Lingonbak]

Square enix has lost its touch. The company betrayed its fans by the 360 exlucive deals. Iam a ps3 owner and iam not really sure, is there eaven a square enix title out on the platform? The new RPG kings is nippon ichi!

[militant07]

first of all you ment to say "im ps3fanboy" not "ps3 onwer".

2nd thing is that Square Enix is third party publishers and developers and THEY CAN DO WHAT EVER THEY WANT !.

3rd so they didnt betray nintendo in the first place?

4th if your really fan, I dont think pay 200$ to play thier games is a big deal!!

and after all ,all games square enix JRPGs games released on 360 from TRI ACE, and THEY NEVER MADE AAA TITLE last genrtation, so why start whining now ?!

[bigjclassic]

unlike the PSone/2 era where they did alot of fan service. But that is okay. They are still the RPG powerhouse based on sales and Titles alone. No other RPG maker has come close to popularity or sales like a Square-Enix game.

I would like to see Level 5 and Monolith soft rise up from Squeenix bad judgements and become a bigger player. WRPG cant even compete with JRPG so ill leave that alone.

[militant07]

fuuck not agine.

why do people count the tri ace flops as main SE titles?!!.

games you used to love and play is Developed by SE not TRI ACE and they still developing the games (FF13,FFV13).

and finally did tri ace ever become a AAA game maker?!, my point is, square enix is getting hate because its supported the 360, simply as that.

[Guy169]

The Last Remnant was a Square title.

and Tri-Ace made SO3, which was a AAA title. it was way better than FF10, let alone 12. VP2 Silmeria was awesome as well, just not mainstream.

and in the past Tri-Ace made SO2 which was one of the best rpgs ever, comparable to Square's Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and FF7.

[Namikaze_Minato]

Finally!

I'm tired to say: Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean - The Last Hope are TRI-ACE GAMES! The ONLY game who was produced by Square-Enix was The Last Remnant (and it was the SaGa Team who worked on that...).

Think about the relationship between Kojima Productions and Konami! The first one made MGS4, the second PUBLISHED the game!

Other thing: why S-E didn't released a game on PS3 until now?

- Last Remnant: The 360 version have many technichal problems (caused by Unreal Engine 3), this engine do not perform well on PS3...

- FFXIII: MANY PEOPLE are working in this one only on the PS3 Version, a Final Fantasy game takes too much time of development, discussion, and other things! The game is 80% complete now... and a EXCLUSIVE DEMO FOR PS3 is arriving.

- FF VERSUS XIII: A PS3 EXCLUSIVE, the Kingdom Hearts Team (look, it isn't the "weak" SaGa Team)is working in this title.

They are yet to release a FLOP or a CRAP this gen (TLR on PC is a great game)... just wait people. Square-Enix is producing AAA titles.

Blame Tri-ace if you want...

[KingItachi]

LO was not the best JRPG I played this gen, the best JRPG for me was on a last gen system the PS2 and Persona 4! is the game. As for Squeenix they are just taking too long the game was announced in 05 or 06 and we still don't have our hands on it, I could care less that it is going to the 360 just give us the damn game already.

[ukilnme]

:)

[Knightofelemia]

The did a great job with Crisis Core but since the release FF 10-2 they have gone downhill the only things that might save them is if FF13 is a hit and a release of KH 3

[bosukete]

Kinda old news.

[Etseix]

dont get me wrong when i say this but, this all started when SE decided to make look good the Xbox over Japan,
M$ paid SE to do a lot of exclusives on Xbox so fast, this is wath they get, now like apena89 said , sega is kickin theyr asses :P lol

[tawak]

they r nw calld square dog enix
waging their tail to a 360 master..

[tiamat5]

I know you all will hate me for saying this but ever since Square Enix started making games for the Xbox 360 their games have declined in quality. Their older titles even Final Fantasy XII were good but ever since then instead of concentrating on character or story which is what their RPGs were famous for instead they keep trying to find a new ways of battling. That is good too but they let the story lag and become extraordinarily boring and cliche.Microsoft I believe always seems to have a corrupting effect on games. Rare made excellent games until Microsoft brought their company.Now it's one failure after another. Sigh. I fear for Final Fantasy XIII

[Mallow]

Square-Enix is trash and it's not because they're putting out games for 360, hell I wish they'd put out some amazing games on 360, PS3 or whatever

Lets take a look at what they've developed
FFX - Not bad but not that great [When the series started going downhill]
FFX-2 - Wow, really sucked.
FFXII - More FF failure.
Kingdom hearts - Not bad
Kingdom hearts 2 - Sucked
Romancing SaGa - Eh
The Last Remnant - Not good

Square put out some amazing RPG titles but since they merged with Enix they haven't put out 1 amazing title, FFX was good and so was Kingdom hearts but that's it.
Maybe FFXIII will be great but I doubt it, haven't played a great FF title in 9 years.

[KrimsonKody]

...That's like, so 1st quarter last year old.
No one is sweating S/E any more.
There's so many great RPGs out now and coming soon to look forward to, while S/E has been sitting on their..., oh-wait,
we did get those DS FF:crystal stuff...,

[KrimsonKody]

FFX- Good, could have been great.
FFX2- Once the (gasps), a FF sequel thing wears off, your stuck with a 'cute' game, that's decent.

FFXII- Very close to great. The production, gameplay, etc, was all up to par, in a very nostalgic 'noble' way. ( but yeah, the game was nothing of what I expected).

Kingdom Hearts-...Love it. Next,
Kingdom Hearts 2- Good, a decent follow up, but not as great as the 1st ( hopefully KH3 will redeem itself, Wii exclusive or not).

Romancing Saga- From what I demo'd, I don't think it's a gem.
The Last Remnant-...'pretty'...

I tell you, one of these FF's(Versus,XIII, whatever) better be so damn good that we're forced to slap ourselves in stupidity of 'even' debting SQUARE.

Oh,
BEST FINAL FANTASIES:
1-FINAL FANTASY 7
2-FINAL FANTASY 10
3-FINAL FANTASY 9
4-FINAL FANTASY 12
5-FINAL FANTASY 8
And 6-FINAL FANTASY 10.2 (Included, for goodness sake)

[Redempteur]

made a best list of square AND enix without any snes rpg ?

FAIL

Go play chrono trigger , FF6 and/or illusion of time or star ocean 1

[Guitardr85]

I want my JRPGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks at PS3 and cries...

[CobraKai]

Square focused on quantity over quality and now it's hurting their rep. I think the reason the majority of their next gen games came to 360 exclusively was they could crank it out faster and thus more of it(any deal with MS not withstanding). The sad thing is this was how I used to see EA. USED TO being the operative words.

[Knightofelemia]

I am sorry to say but with FF13 and VS 13 being released I think I will just use the money and rent the game. I rented Star Ocean 4 on the 360 I was not impressed I wasted money on Last Remnant thinking it was better than Infinite Undiscovery. And I wasted money on Infiniye Undiscovery thinking well hey its a Square game remebering the old NES through PS2 days both games got traded in the same day they were baught. Square games lost the magic and the feeling you got cause it was a Squaresoft game it will be a long time before they get that feeling back or it may never comeback. And since SquareEnix baught out Eidos well Lara Croft will never be the same again.

[dmixwell]

Yes , Square has fallen and im mad as hell about it . it dosen't make any freckin sense. SQUARE has been around as long as Nintendo. They made a big impact in the gameing world with the charecters they have created over the last 20 something years . At some point you got to (as a C.E.O) sit your ASS down and ask yourself , If nintendo has Mario, Link, Samus ect. , and we been around just as long , who do we have ? Then maybe , just maybe we as the fans will be happy with SQUARE -ENIX. Final Fantasy 6 should have a game put out every next gen. Final Fantasy 7 should have a game put out evry next gen .Final Fantasy 8 should have a game put out every next gen . 9 is debateable . Final fantasy 10 should have a game put out every next gen. Chrono should have a game put out every next gen . You cant go wrong with a drawing board like this. you guys have a developed roster & a developed catalog , you have to stop adding cluter and give you company some permenat faces so we can idenify you.

[AriesFury]

SE has lost touch as to what got them to be the powerhouse that they were.

Before it was about the game and the fans that bought them. Now it's about the money. And thinking like that somehow always end up being bad. The JRPG that went to MS have tanked, and tanked badly. And when fans like myself heard that FFXIII was going to 360 too, that really put a hurtin to them, IMO.

[BobbySaget]

Yeah was oblivious to the merger when it happened, but after reading this article i COMPLETELY understand what your talking about.

I remember purchasing FFX and Kingdom hearts, two of my favorite games of ALL TIME. I just googled them both and it turns out they were both developed by Squaresoft, before the merger.

Then i remember i never picked up Kingdomheart2 because i heard it didn't really live up to the original. I googled it aswell and it turns out they developed it after the merger. Then, thinking back, i realized, after FFX and KH, I havent picked up a single game baring the Square Enix name.

I didn't do this on purpose, it was completely subconsciously. You said in your article that they still do good things with FF, however i guess the repetition got to me, and i just didn't desire any of the new stories or games. However i have been keeping my eye on FFXIII.

Btw: Am i the only one that liked FFVIII?

[360_Rules]

All you droids I bet if FFXIII is exclusive to the PS3 you love Square and say it's has the best RPGs. Hahahhahahahahhaa you fanboys are so pathetic. Hahahahhahahahaa

[Xbots play games]

We are almost a year into the Square announcement that rocked E3 and we still are getting Anti-Square blogs that mean ZERO to the company. Final Fantasy will easily be the biggest RPG of 2010. It will shatter RPG records around the world and make every Square ENIX hater STFU.

[infekt]

Don't agree with you there. Will it shatter records, I doubt that. However, it will sell well. PS gamers are the ones that know the history of the series inside out and nearly everyone thats played the games have played it on Sony's consoles. No matter what anyone says, even those that are boycotting the game on PS3, it will sell more on Sony's platform.

[Raoh]

I have a question for the xbox 360 fans. and this is not flamebait or an attack or anything negative. just a question.

most of the time when discussing jrpg games many said they didnt like them. saiad they didnt know how i spent so much time playing them on the ps2 including mmorpgs like ffxi and EQ. when the ps3 vs 360 battle was kicking off many said those jrpg's are gay and not real gaming. etc

so after squares announcement to make ffxiii multi platform in the u.s. i know many sony haters said "yeah, take that sony"

but aside from some ffxiii hype and the multiplatform news, are you excited for ffxiii? would you look forward to visiting the series and other jrpg games from the past? aside from sticking it to sony, are you excited about sqaure enix games? have you played lost odyssey and blue dragon and new square games on the 360 and thought to yourself "man, i've been missing out on a whole genre of gaming"?

so the question is do you care about these games or are you just glad sony lost some of these games as exclusives?

[BobbySaget]

I think you are forgetting that 99% of 360 owners, also own a PS2. I myself loves RPG's but i grew out of JRPG's very fast. The main reason is because of turn based attacks. I know some people enjoy this nuance, but i personally cannot think of a single game mechanic more flawed than this one. When Playing FF VII-X turn based combat was okay, but in this day and age it seems like an unnecessary limitation(Like standing still when shooting in RE5 to "increase" the non existent "suspense") Imagine how frustrating it would be in real-life, if you couldn't punch someone until after they had punched you first.

Turn based fighting requires a lot of patience, and if 'load-screens' have taught us anything, its that gamers do not have patience. Todays games are fast paced and require alot of 'skill' and 'attention' the same cannot necessarily be said about turn based combat.

However that said, FF games have some of the most immersive stories, and fun features. Also it has been said that FFXIII will NOT BE turned base. So yes, we are excited about FFXII.

The reason a lot of us said "take that Sony" when the PS3 lost FFXIII as an exclusive is because N4G consists of 80% PS3 Fanboys. Open up any 'hot story' and you will see several unprovoked comments about how the PS3 is technologically better. Having personal experience working with both systems, and a clear understanding of how the hardware works, it is a gross overstatement to say that the PS3 is 'better' or even 'more powerful' in fact, it could easily be argued that the 360 is stronger. Because of the constant misinformed attacks from PS3 fanboys, us 360 owners are constantly in 'defense mode'.

It was said that FFXIII, Assassins creed, Grand Theft Auto 4, Devil May Cry 4, Virtual Fighter 5, etc. could only be ran on the PS3 thanks to the 'Cell'. So naturally when the PS3 lost these exclusives and the 360 not only sold FAR MORE copies, but arguably ran these games better, we were all rejoicing.

Personally the only JRPG's i wold consider revisiting are probably FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX. But honestly, they are so outdated that they have 'kind of' lost their touch, and the turn based combat would piss me off. I would be much more likely to revisit Kingdom hearts, as it is one of my all time favorite games.

As for Blue-Dragon, i got it for free when it came out, played it for about 2 hours, and have not picked up since. It just did not catch my attention. Squaresoft was one of my favorite developers during the PS2 era, however when they merged to become Square Enix their games have, for the most part, have gone down hill. This story is about this exact dilemma

[Argento-Nox]

@BobbySaget

Are you serious, with regards to the Sony fanboy comments? Were you not here on N4G for 2006 and 2007 when 360 fanboys kept flaunting exclusive 360 titles, jumped on every multi-platform game being superior on the 360 (even now with the microscopic visual comments making the 360 superior), or the delaystation comments?

The best 360 fanboy comment of late generally goes towards the billions Sony has lost on the PS3 as if the 1.1 billion (before fixing and refurbishing) spent on RROD is non-existent even though MS will never re-coup that this gen, even with multiple Halo and GeOW.

Forgive me for my indiffence towards a company that has given us the most faulty console in gaming history while charging gamers for an online system that should be free to begin with.

Your complaints about turn-based games is valid, but if you're indeed a former RPGer, you should know that it's still a popular genre in Japan and worldwide. It's pure irony as a former RPGer, that you fit in the category that doesn't justify having 360 JRPG exclusives. Square has been touting how they wanted to be fair to all systems this gen, yet they haven't done a single game on the PS3 (even Last Remnants is nowhere in sight for the PS3 version).

Do you not see anything wrong with what SE has done this gen? The 360 is not the best primary system for JRPG's. The best selling 360 JRPG has been LO which is at what, 1 million worldwide? WKC on the PS3 practically did 500K in a month in Japan alone. Wait until FFXIII comes out for the PS3/360 and we'll all see whether or not 360 fans truly cares for JRPG's, afterall MS did say a short while ago that it would sell more on the 360 (rolls eyes, sheesh!).

I can see the validity in your argument with regards to the PS3/360 power comparison, but SE's FFXIII game will show one thing quite in favor of the PS3, a format with more space without the need for multiple disc. For a system so highly touted, the 360 hasn't put out a better graphical game than Uncharted or KZ2, nor has it put out a game with more online co-op players or number of players than R2. 360 may have equal footing on power comparison, but it's a whole different issue for media type. I don't even think a game like MAG is possible on the 360 due to space issues.

[DYD]

SquareSoft were about making beautiful games.

SquareEnix were about making beautiful amounts of money.

Nothing is sacred to them which devalues everything they release. Mainly because there's infinite sequels to anything that works for the,.