Yo, SE, Is it true?

[Grim_Lion]

Our Linkshell has the rights to "Squaresoft".

SE would have to buy it off us with phat loots. Maybe even release me the Samurai class, and I might cut a deal.

[Atoli]

All the designers and writers for the most part still work there [..]

Maybe that's the problem.
Final Fantasy has been such a long story, maybe the point is reached where those writers and designers can't pull any more great stories and character designs out of their heads.
You know, like with movies with too many sequels..
Maybe it's time to produce the last, FINAL Fantasy title?

Haha, I can't believe I just said that.
Actually, I still enjoy newer titles, at least in story and design (not so much the gameplay mechanics) but with everyone ranting how games became sooo bad since Squaresoft became Square Enix, this would make sense, wouldn't it?

Oh well, I hope they keep on making new FF titles, for at least I enjoy them

Edit:
Forgot I'm on your blacklist, Cairdeas, so you can't read my comment -_-

[Archadius]

Again? What masters? Everyone of the Major Credited Members from SE for every final Fantasy 1-X are still with the company EXCEPT Sakaguchi and a few programmmers. All the designers and writers for the most part still work there and are manager or vice presidents/execs of a development team.

Yet still the company hands out garbage. If what you say is true, then what is causing this problem? Are they letting the wrong people run the show now? Does the new guy get to write the script for FFXV, FFXVI, FFXVII, KH3, etc?

[Sephr]

Yet still the company hands out garbage. If what you say is true, then what is causing this problem? Are they letting the wrong people run the show now? Does the new guy get to write the script for FFXV, FFXVI, FFXVII, KH3, etc?

That's pretty subjective. With the exception of XIV, i'd say all their games in recent years have sold pretty excellently, and whilst a couple had some slightly below average responses (FFXIII was slammed by a vocal minority, whilst lots of people still enjoyed it, myself included. XII had some issues involving an overly complex and political story, but again, was well received by a lot of people), the generally are producing a pretty good quality of game.

Furthermore, it seems like they're realising shit is hitting the fan by neglecting the opinions of the consumer base and falling behind in terms of gameplay and technical ability (outside graphical quality), and they're trying to sort this out and doing a pretty decent job of it. XIII-2 and XIV are good examples of this.

[Cairdeas]

Yet still the company hands out garbage. If what you say is true, then what is causing this problem? Are they letting the wrong people run the show now? Does the new guy get to write the script for FFXV, FFXVI, FFXVII, KH3, etc?

Ok heres the difference.

10 years ago Squaresoft was not a PUBLISHER. They were only a Developer. Square PUBLISHED through EA and only Published Squaresoft game (Under the name Square EA)

Now a days Square Enix is a developer and a Publisher. But they publish for other companies too (Cavia, gas power games, eidos, and Activision (In Japan).)

The reason "SE" seems to be pushing out so much crap isn't because THEY pushed out crap its because people they had contracts with for publishing did. Thats why they dropped a bunch of developers and games in april. Because they were tired of pushing out bad games from third rate developers.

[Archadius]

That's pretty subjective. With the exception of XIV, i'd say all their games in recent years have sold pretty excellently, and whilst a couple had some slightly below average responses (FFXIII was slammed by a vocal minority, whilst lots of people still enjoyed it, myself included. XII had some issues involving an overly complex and political story, but again, was well received by a lot of people), the generally are producing a pretty good quality of game.

Furthermore, it seems like they're realising shit is hitting the fan by neglecting the opinions of the consumer base and falling behind in terms of gameplay and technical ability (outside graphical quality), and they're trying to sort this out and doing a pretty decent job of it. XIII-2 and XIV are good examples of this.

I try not to base it on sales, because honestly, you can hype the crap out of anything and sell billions of copies. It doesn't mean the game is actually good.

I commend their efforts in redesigning FFXIV and still have hope for it. It's the single player, offline RPGs that I miss. You will not find anything like the games we used to play out there. FFX-2, FFXII, FFXIII, the KH spinoff games (non-numbered), spinoff FF and related games for NDS, some Dragon Quest titles, etc... These are all games are was rather disappointed with. While most of them structurally sound, they lacked the RPG nostalgia, captivating storyline, and general immersion into the game that old-school RPGs provided.

[Winterclaw]

They say they lost 55 million on lost investment for the games they dropped do to quality.

The ones I could find were Gunloco, Project Dropship, and a few "Unnamed projects"

Gunloco reminds me of brink, so if it played the same... yeah I could see it getting dropped. That could be 10 million alone considering it was getting close to release.

However this begs the question, what is going on as SE?


PS. FF13-2 is looking pretty meh to me. I think it has some quick time events (which people don't really like) which is a step backwards.

I mean, Enix games by themselves were great, and Squaresoft games by themselves were great, but together.. not so good.

Yeah but square was on shaky ground by the time of the merger. FF:SW stank. FF:U wasn't that great either. And those were both pre-merger.

FFX was great if you ask me (a last hurrah?), but I think when the merger happened, I think their egos or vision got too big for them to handle. I was hoping for better after DQ8 (a great game as well) but it never materialized. Basically the kid locked in the candy store woke up with a few extra pounds and a killer toothache.

When they said after the merger that they didn't want to do any more romantically themed FF games I was like huh? Whether you cared for it or not, those themes really helped the characters develop in the respective stories. What would have FF4 been without Cecil and Rosa and a jealous Kain?

I say:

1. Get back to good stories.
2. Romance is good. Time for a harem comedy? Time for the female love interest to be the main villain and you have to decide whether to kill her for her crimes or try to save her from herself?
3. Character Development (storywise) is good.
4. Stop it with the save the world nonsense, it's too cliche. Maybe make it about two rival kingdoms or something smaller.
5. Bring back the traditional summons but in a non-freaky way (FF13 was freaky but I wouldn't mind shiva staying twins).
6. Maybe it's time for a little more story branching.
7. Try to give the players a few more options in how to approach things. Like give us a choice of 3 places were we can fight a boss, but each one has advantages and drawbacks over the others.
8. Stop trying to make movies or interactive movies and get back to making games.


BTW, square started in 1983, square EA didn't happen until 1998.

[Cairdeas]

Please speak for yourself, I loved X2, XII, and XIII.

Still Nier has probably been my most favorite game from SE in the last 5 years.

PS. FF13-2 is looking pretty meh to me. I think it has some quick time events (which people don't really like) which is a step backwards.

The quick time events happen in combat, they actually look like fun, Kinda like a mix of the Advent Children Fights and God of War. They are just extentions on things like the Trigger system from FFVIII

[Archadius]

Ok heres the difference.

10 years ago Squaresoft was not a PUBLISHER. They were only a Developer. Square PUBLISHED through EA and only Published Squaresoft game (Under the name Square EA)

Now a days Square Enix is a developer and a Publisher. But they publish for other companies too (Cavia, gas power games, eidos, and Activision (In Japan).)

The reason "SE" seems to be pushing out so much crap isn't because THEY pushed out crap its because people they had contracts with for publishing did. Thats why they dropped a bunch of developers and games in april. Because they were tired of pushing out bad games from third rate developers.

I seriously hope you're right. But would they honestly have let small developers work on their big name titles like KH series, FF series, DQ series, etc (pre-April)?

[Onidemon]

Rebranding back to Square Soft by be a conflict of interest. As it was the name of them when they were only a Developer (EA published them back then) When they rebranded to Square EA It was because they were doing the publishing for EA in Japan, EA split and Square and Enix Merged. Square being its own permanent developer and publisher.


So Rebranding back to Square Soft which was a developers only name would be... a poor choice. I feel the Square Brand on its own is strong enough as a Publisher Name.

Especially if they go back to the classic RED A style logo.

Not exactly true, Square Soft did publish a bunch of their games and for other companies too Like Breath of Fire which they published in NA for Capcom(1994). It was only in 2003 that Square and EA did a joint venture where EA would publish Square's games in NA and Square EA's games in Asia.

Here's a list of games published under the Square Soft Brand name.

http://www.allgame.com/company.php?i...&tab=published