The Downfall Of Square Enix: A Timeline

VelocityGamer: There was once a time when you could buy a Squaresoft game on that name alone. Here is a timeline of recent years where Square Enix is concerned, draw your own conclusions.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

It really is a shame. Seriously no KINGDOM HEARTS on consoles this gen!? Who would have thought that would happen prior to this gen.

[iamtehpwn]

Indeed. There are so many things that went wrong with this company. If you have to boil it down to a few points:

- Lack of timely release of original FFXIII, Versus XIII, and Type-0

- No Kingdom Hearts game on HD consoles

- Lack of responding to the arguably most highly demanded fan requested game of all time (Final Fantasy VII remake or a proper Final Fantasy VII-2)

- Final Fantasy XIII and XIV (in general)

- It is nearly impossible to list one game from this generation their internal Japanese studios developed with a 90+ metacritic. This an absolute failure when you consider that before, a Final Fantasy numbered iteration have anything lower than a 90 metacritic was unheard of.

[Commander_TK]

Nomura and his team is the last hope for Square Enix now.

[badz149]

but they certainly have fallen! KH was one hell of a game and it was still under Squaresoft but when Enix came in and KH2 was released, it felt like a downgrade from KH! who in the right mind thought that QTE is suitable for an ARPG?

[LondonMediaOS]

Sure of hell wasn't me, it was one of the reason I bought a PS3 originally... "Yeah we are gonna get like three Final Fantasy's this Gen and Kingdom Hearts 3 they will all have HD graphics; man I'm so gonna love this generation." Ignorance sucks.

[Hockeydud19]

Really is a shame. Hopefully they find a way to spring back because they have some of the most creative games around. Or did.

[Pintheshadows]

Ahhh Squaresoft, how I mourn thee.

[chidori666]

"2011 May: Square Enix posts a $150 million loss (34.8%) in overall sales for the fiscal year ending in March. The developer lays this at the feet of the disaster that is Final Fantasy XIV.

i hope this happen the same for FFXIII-2

[Canary]

Timeline? It wasn't a progression. Square-Enix has been garbage from the very begining. Square = Good, Enix = Good, everything post-merger has ranged from underwhelming to awful.

[HeavenlySnipes]

was great. Its rated as high as FFVII and FFVI. Awesome game

Disagree?
http://www.metacritic.com/g...

People hate it but have no reason to. Open world, much more content and side quests than any other FF game all with fighting in real time with enemies on screen. My personal best FF game. (Yes I played all of them from FFVI except FFVIII and FFX-2)

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

I like FF12 too. :)

[Pintheshadows]

Sorry, I disagreed with you because i'm terrible with numerals. I thought you said 13 was great. I actually quite liked 12. I was hoping 13 would be similar.

[Canary]

No reason? LOLNO.

People hate FFXII for two reasons.

1) The battle system. Most of this hatred comes from simple ignorance--they fail to recognize that it's pretty much the same as traditional ATB.

2) The story. It sucks, and there's no denying that. FFXII had trouble in production (same as FFXIII, etc.) and that resulted in having a very poorly developed story, including a protagonist with virtually zero role, and huge swaths of the game with zero exposition.

Basically, the same two most common complaints levied against FFXIII. Saying that people have "no reason" to dislike the game, and then pointing to metacritic scores is almost as bad as using sales data to defend a games quality.

[XDF]

It sadden me because I love old fashion, long hours RPGs but it is becoming so niche now. What the heck happened not just to square but all the Japanese Game makers like Sega and Konami.

The only Japanese third party company that is somewhat relevant this generation is Capcom.

Where is my PS3/X360 version of Suikoden, Shining Force, and a proper sequel to Final Fantasy 7 with towns and exploration?

[BitbyDeath]

I disagree, MGS4 has got to be the best thing to come out of Japan this gen.

[Hockeydud19]

Only thing about MGS4 is it's not true true Japanese game. Lot of Western elements in there too.

[XDF]

I may get blasted by saying this, especially on N4G, but I truly think Lost Odyssey is the best thing that came out of Japan this gen thus far. Until Zelda Skyward Sword of course.

[TheDivine]

Totally agree with Lost Odyssey. Its my favorite jrpg yet and any fan of the genre should own it. Demons Souls and Dark Souls are also truly epic games from Japan also. I think VS13 will be another one, im so sick of waiting it looks so good!

[The Great Melon]

Lost Odyssey was great. I unfortunately am stuck on the 4th disc because Microsoft decided to put it in a sleeve with residue that renders the disc unreadable despite looking clean. I am too afraid to try the home remedy of dunking it in hot water.

[tiffac008]

There are only few great JRPGs that really stood out this generation and into our consoles.

Lost Odyssey (360)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Tales of Vesperia (360/PS3) [PS3 ver only in Japan]
Xenoblade (Wii) [No NA release date]

We still do have a couple to look forward to:

Last Story (Wii) [No NA release date]
Tales of Xillia (PS3) [No localization yet]
Ni No Kuni (PS3) [Next year!]

Most JRPGs are flooding the handheld market because Japan has become handheld centric and the developers thinks they can make more money by putting the games in the least expensive platform to develop.

I'm not saying there hasn't been any great JRPG handheld titles to come out but most of the sequels have become just a shadow of their former selves.

[Buuhan1]

I laugh at all the fools who think a FF7 remake would be the holy grail that solves all of S-E's problems. Seriously, c'mooon.

[LondonMediaOS]

This actually saddens me because I WAS a Square Soft-Enix fan, but they have just became another 3rd party developer in my eyes.

[lochdoun]

Just Cause 2 was the only game from Square Enix that I enjoyed this gen. But it doesn't count because they just published it.

[LondonMediaOS]

Im sorry but those who think that S-E will be back to its greatness when they remake Final Fantasy 7 are not seeing the big picture; yes we all want it but when you are just rehashing a story that once saved your company before and you just want to do it because it will be successful then you all are just settling for mediocre. They have stepped away from the elements that made them successful and instead are trying to gain a WESTERN audience. (They already had one.) I understand an expansion of different influences to stay relevant in this society but they have totally shafted their gamers that have stayed loyal to them by publishing "Shooters" and single handedly killing JRPG as we know it. Always Level 5 I guess. SMH!!!!

[khellendros1]

Hopefully the FFX HD remake will sell really well and SquareEnix will finally understand what gamers want.

[CLOUD1983]

Squaresoft made my 2 all time favorite games, FFVII & Xenogears, they also made 2 other favorite games of mine Chrono Cross & FFX (2nd best FF after VII imo), when they marge with Enix, Sagakuchi left and Wada take his place there isn't even 1 game that make me say "AMAZING! another masterpiece from my favorite company" the company it was once known for making one masterpiece after another now make one failure after another, that's how low SE fall. Ofc it's not my favorite company anymore not even 2nd or 3rd, they r nothing I dint enjoy any game from them from the moment they merge with Enix so is the merge the prob? I dont know seriously what I know is that their games is soulless now in many sectors some of them is story, characters, exploration & traditional JRPG elements over all, their games doesn't feel like JRPG or FF anymore they change them so much that it's like a completely different game.
What I want to see again from them in the future if they want to drive me and old fans back is:

An amazing story that will make us all remember our once favorite company again.
Characters that we will love and care for as the game progress, if u dont care about the characters the game will never grow on u.
Exploration/secrets/mini games those 3 is key-elements to any classic FF give the game re-playability by adding many things to do so many that it will be possible to discover new things even when u r playing the game for 10th time.
Huge World/World Map/Transportation many still remember what it was to go out of Midgar for the first time and watch where u were and where u can go it was an amazing feeling I will never forget, I still remember saying to my self "WoW! it seems I have a lot of places to explore.. let's start!" but the game help u to explore this huge world by give u many transportation methods such as chocobos, buggy, airship, submarine.
Battle System first of all I must say that I love turn based battles and I want to command all my characters in battle not only 1, second I hate auto-battles this thing destroy what JRPG's is all about and that's tactical battles that u must think for your self to be victorious, when u leave members of your pt controlled by AI the all tactical battle concept loose any point. So what I want to see is more tactical battles where u will control every single action of your characters w/o any option for AI to intervene another reason FF go downhill is the westernization of battle system all this action battles make the game feel like a brawler a brainless button smashing that's not what JRPG is all about that's not the kind of games Squaresoft used to do(traditional JRPG), all this changes made to draw new gamers that dont like the genre but it draw back all the old fans, is that where they want to go? r they ok if they loose all the old fans who made them what they r? atm they dont seem to care much and every decision they make prove that, that's the way I see it.

[Gamer-Z]

I 100% agree

Sadly they are not the only publishers to take this route, this problem is affecting a whole lot of other games. I think the lack of creativity & innovation in the industry today is because of the uprising of casual gamers. Publishers want to cater to this type of crowd because they know that's where the money is but casuals are not interested in games that require some sort of skill to master, no they want something that's easy to pick up and play hence publishers dumb down the game in order to get casuals interested enough to buy it.

[Laxman]

Seem's they are too focused on publishing now, and split up thier developers with too many games at once. Put all thier eggs in one basket and they would make another classic title, which im pretty sure they havent done in a while.

[tiffac008]

That's from the article. So if anyone still believes this guy is not at fault to why SE is having a lackluster generation and needs to be fired is beyond me.

[jneul]

it's weird how there was nothing wrong with the original direction of squaresoft and they had lots of quality titles back then in return we all bought their products and they had nice profits (win win!!)
when wada took over, he really shouldn't have changed the formula that worked so well....