260°

Can Anyone Abolish the Square Enix Juggernaut?

"EA, Xseed, Nippon Ichi, Namco Bandai – who poses the biggest threat to the RPG leader?"

Read Full Story >>
mmorpg.gamezone.com
Joule5373d ago

Just about everyone now, Square has been sucking lately.

I need to be impressed by Versus.

Cheeseknight285373d ago

I'm not a Dragon Quest person so I can't comment on that, but it seems that only Nomura's team can produce great things (Birth By Sleep).

I will admit that I've liked some of Square's secondary division's works though... Taito's Infinity Gene and Eidos' Just Cause 2 + Guardian of Light were all great.

Blaster_Master5373d ago (Edited 5373d ago )

Well I've been a Dragon Warrior fan since the 80's, and let me tell you that even though I love the franchise, Im not faithful to those who turn their back on me regardless of what franchise they own. BTW, Enix are the ones that made Dragon Warrior, Squaresoft and Enix converged to become Square Enix. The only good game Squeenix has ever made was FFX, besides that every game they have made has sucked since they became one. I do not know this company who claims they are Square Enix. They are an impostor. The devs and publishers that Ive been fans of dont even work for the studios anymore, besides Nomura. And they dont give him enough creative freedom to do anything to benefit them anyways, so in my opinion. Squeenix is a shit publisher, and the devs that make games for them are only a bunch of adolescent kids that have been trying to fill in some big shoes, and it never gonna happen. Its not in their dna.

CimmerianDrake5373d ago

Wasn't made by Square Enix. It was the last major FF game that Squaresoft made.

You can place the blame of Square Enix on Sakaguchi. He's the one that thought that making a Final Fantasy movie with absolutely no relation to the game in any way other than superficially (eg, name only) was a good idea. That right there is an example of NOT listening to your fans when you should. Spirits Within tanked, so Sakaguchi had to merge Squaresoft with Enix in order to stay afloat. Then when he did, he hated how Enix was managing Square staff so he decided to leave that company to create Mistwalker, and a lot of the Old Guard (READ: All the talent) left with him. Nobuo Uematsu became Freelance. And we're left with what SE is today. Predominately Enix staff, with an inept CEO, and an increasingly bad catalog of games trying to appeal to the western audience, when the western audience already loved games like FFX.

SE listened to the vocal minority who cried out against franchise staples like ATB, substance over flash, and compelling characters. They instead adopted the "Crow" method of development whereby they make a game all about flash, leaving a lot of key elements out. The result is that their games lose their Japanese roots and appeal, and also fail to impress the Western audience anyway.

Everyone can abolish SE now. Even non-RPG companies could likely create a better one than SE. The only way SE can hope to get out of the mess they created for themselves is to return to their roots. Use what worked and simply improve on it. As the old saying goes... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. AND DON'T LISTEN TO THE RPG WHINERS WHO PLAY ONE RPG AND COMPLAIN ABOUT TURN-BASED COMBAT!!

Cheeseknight285373d ago

Well if you want to get technical, Square-Enix didn't even make FFX, they were still Squaresoft then. Three of the first things published post-merger were FFTA, FFX-2, and FFXI.

Should've sent off a warning bell for the future, I suppose.

Blaster_Master5373d ago

Oh my bad, I thought it was Squeenix who published FFX. No wonder FFX-2 was so freakin horrible. I hadn't a clue. So there ya have it folks, Squeenix has never made a good game, or even a decent one at that.

@CimmerianDrake

I know exactly what your talking about. I consider almost everyone on n4g, and even gaming media giants like IGN and Gamespot the vocal minority. The only people who thought rpg's needed revamping are those who never played or liked rpg's to begin with. RPG's need turn based system, if its not turn based then its an action rpg. Thats why I consider games like God of War action rpg's. Games like Mario Galaxy is a straight action game, games like Uncharted Action shooter, Games like tales and Star Ocean are action rpgs. Games like FF and dragon warrior need to stay turn based rpg's.

AzaziL5373d ago

The biggest threat to Square Enix is itself, they really need to get back to basics and do what made them the giants in the RPG business and not simply imitating western game designs to appeal to a mass audience...

jc485735373d ago

Sorry, I have to disagree with you on Sagakuchi. The movie is just a movie, so I don't find it fair for you tie it with videogames. H

How does it feel when your favorite franchise is interrupted by spin offs and MMOs? Is it even necessary?

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 5373d ago
OneSneakyMofo5373d ago

Can Anyone Abolish the Square Enix Juggernaut? Waka the Whacko can.

dylandurden5373d ago

Hold on a sec. It's true that Sakaguchi was responsible for a huge loss of money with the movie "The Spirits Within", but it wasn't him who decided to merge with Enix. First of all, the higher charge he ever occupied within the company was vice-president, and most importantly, he lost that position soon after the epic fail of its movie. That decision to merge with Enix was taken by the higher ranks of Squaresoft in accord with their shareholders, it has nothing to do with Sakaguchi.

Anyway, now Sakaguchi is no more a Square Enix member. The same is true for Matsuno, Uematsu, Nojima and many others, that occasionally work for them as freelancer, but are no more inside the company. The only "survivors" of the old Squaresoft are Nomura (who primarily works on the Kingdom Hearts series, and contributes to FF and other games only as character designer) and Kitase, who was great back in the days (man, he directed Chrono Trigger, FF VI and FF VII, the best J-RPGs of all time) but now seems to have completely lost his mind, maybe due to Alzheimer or too many cocaine parties.

People like Toriyama and Watanabe, who now rule the FF series and many other important projects, popped out of nowhere. I can also imagine how the programmers, artists and coders that works in SE these days must be young folks in their early 20s. All the experience and the mastery are gone, we now have a new generation of developers, less skilled and way less passionate about their work.

Add to all that shit president Wada, with his illogical business plans and his blind, insatiable hunger for money, and you have an idea of why Square Enix sucks so badly.

All the remaining hopes lie within Versus XIII. If not even Nomura can provide a proper Final Fantasy anymore, then the series is done for good, and so am I with Square Enix.

BillOreilly5373d ago

I say only sakaguchi can. I cant believe people blame him for bad games when 1-9 maybe 10-11 were all his doing. Look at what square makes nowadays and look at what sakaguchi makes Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, The Last Story, all very much better than any square game this gen. Sakaguchi was the talent of ff and he left. People complaign about square changing but are too stupid to support the real ff aka mistwalker. If you want old scholl ffx play lost odyssey if you want dragon quest play blue dragon. The spirits within was a bad decision and the man stepped away with respect. It has no correlation to the games.

Godmars2905373d ago

Sqaure's pretty much doing themselves in but not making good games.

Though I wouldn't list Namco Bandai among its replacements.

tlarn5373d ago

I don't think Square Enix needs any help being brought down.

athmaus5373d ago

Well...most of the games that they have released have sucked....so i think anyone can take them down.....they are no longer the 800lb gorilla in the room.

TheSanchezDavid5373d ago

Square's been losing momentum lately. Although I have to admit I am totally loving Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. =P

Darkfocus5373d ago

somehow they seem to still be releasing good portable games...yet everything else they touch is terrible...

Show all comments (62)
170°

It Shouldn't Take Expedition 33's Success to Remind Square Enix That Turn-Based Still Sells

TNS: Expedition 33 was the wake-up call Square Enix needed, telling it turn-based RPGs are still popular, but that shouldn't have been the case.

Read Full Story >>
thenerdstash.com
Relientk774d ago

True, but if it does get it through their thick skulls, then that works.

Although, the Dragon Quest 1 + 2 HD remakes will be turn-based and (the worst kept secret) Final Fantasy IX remake should be turn-based I would imagine. Let's see if any newer games go turn-based too.

thorstein4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

DQIII HD Remake was turned based and very successful. Then there was a really obscure turn based game came Balder's Gate 3. I heard it might have done well.

Profchaos4d ago

I wouldn't be shocked if they switched ff to the vii remake combat system

PapaBop4d ago

It won't get through to them though, despite E33's success, they still won't risk going fully turn based for their big budget projects simply because they are still in the mindset that it needs to be action combat to appeal to the mainstream audience. I hope I'm wrong but don't underestimate just how stubborn Japanese execs can be

barom3d ago

Ya'll are hyping up Expedition 33 too much. Reminder that FF XVI sold 3 million in a week and it took Expedition 33 approximately a month to get to that (33 days to reach 3.3 million).

barom3d ago

1 platform vs 3 platforms
1 week vs 1 month

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3d ago
DivineHand1254d ago

While it is true that Sqaure Enix has moved away from turn based games compared to how they were in the past, there is a good reason for it.

Older gamers will know this but during the ps2 era, we were flooded with turned based games from Japanese studios and this created a form of fatigue back then going into the next generation.

When Square released FF13, they received heavy criticism for making the game turned based like every other FF game and not doing enough to innovate. This is why they made FF15, FF7 Remake and FF16 have real time combat. It gave the series a fresh spin and has brought in new fans to the series.

I personally would be happy with either turned based FF or the real-time combat version we see today.

Shane Kim4d ago

Remake and Rebirth have "turn based" if you set it in the settings.

Lexreborn24d ago

Dang wish I saw your post before I made mine because we definitely feel the same way lol

Profchaos4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

Yeah hit the nail on the head but its like ww2 games we get hundreds of them then a decade of nothing and people start missing them i think we're going to start seeing them return

Claire, dragon quest even yakuza have seen turn based return

Runechaz3d ago

Every Pokémon game is also a Turn Base RPG.. and selling millions

andy854d ago

Only need to look at their own game DQ 11 approaching 10 million to show there's a market. And that's not as big of a name as FF

Runechaz3d ago

you can also look at the Pokemon game number

Tacoboto4d ago

Another article about Expedition 33 and Square Enix and turn-based games? This is starting to sound like propaganda.

The game didn't sell because it's a turn-based game; it sold and is enjoyed because it's a really freaking good game that released completed at a good price without gamer drama attached to it. No Mtx, no wait-until-it's-patched, minimal bloat, a self-contained story, no multiplatform BS. Just a solid original game that absolutely nails what it intended to do.

Redemption-644d ago

I was just about to say the same thing.

anast4d ago

This comment should have a 100 upvotes, at least.

CrimsonWing694d ago

Maybe try actually listening to the fans who have supported the series for decades. This habit of ignoring your core audience just to chase people who were never interested in Final Fantasy in the first place makes no sense. And when that approach fails, doubling down on it is beyond baffling.

The battle system has never been the main reason non-FF or non-JRPG players stayed away. Gutting the series’ identity to chase a broader market doesn’t attract new players. It just alienates the loyal ones.

Keep going down this road and we’ll end up with Final Fantasy Fortnite abomination or a F2P Battle Royale game.. Oh wait…

Show all comments (27)
170°

Final Fantasy IX 25th Anniversary Lottery Announced

Do not miss the Final Fantasy IX lottery commemorating its 25th anniversary and see the new merch release by Square Enix.

Read Full Story >>
gamersocialclub.ca
jznrpg23d ago

It would be nice if they had the lottery in other parts of the world as well.

CrimsonWing6923d ago

I’m hoping Xbox Showcase will be where the Remake gets announced… freaking all this stuff with FF9’s anniversary and still nothing on the Remake…

50°

Square Enix Sales Drop but Profits Grow as it Aims to Shift from Quantity to Quality

Square Enix announced its financial results and the continued strategy for the Medium-Term Business Plan that will span two more years.

Read Full Story >>
simulationdaily.com
franwex47d ago

If Capcom managed to turn things around, I’m hoping that Square can too!