Remember the mysterious and somewhat alluring countdown to a new Square Enix game? Well, over the last couple days new items kept appearing into the landscape (like a dragon, then a boy riding the dragon, now a girl.) My heart was aflutter...
But no, we don't get pretty things. We get "The Four Warriors of Light" for the DS. I mean, I guess that's good news too, if uninspired games with high production value are your thing. With the same visuals we've seen on the last umpteen DS square games (reguardless of the awesome dragon art) I'm left wondering if this will just be Crystal Chronicles in disguise.
Anyone remember Squaresoft? I miss Squaresoft.
*teases*
Are you blaming Enix for this?
"With the same visuals we've seen on the last umpteen DS square games" I assume you're referring to the chibi 3D style like in FF3 & FF4 remakes. What about things like the World Ends with You? Chrono Trigger? Valkyrie Profile? Dragon Quest 9 (& remakes)?
Do you think that it would be different if they were still Squaresoft today?
While in 7 years, (1995 to 2002) we received
SaGa Fontier, Parasite Eve, Threads of Fate, Chrono Trigger, Einhander, Xenogears, Brave Fencer Mushashi, Vargent Story, and Kingdom Hearts (which is borderline, but is most definately its own genre/story, but I didn't count Erherghiz)
AND, during this time they still managed to release Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 11, Final Fantasty Tactics, Final Fantasty Tactics:Advance, so its not like they weren't also milking themselves a little. My point being is that... that company "was" better than this. They managed to accomplish so much when others just couldn't. Even Kojima feels shitty about releasing another metal gear game... and he's only up to like... 8, while Final Fantasy is probably in the 30's, if not 40's.
I'll still buy their games. Their games will still be great... But I don't look at them with the same bright eyes and bushy tail I did for squaresoft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Square_Enix_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Square_games
Didn't answer my question about the ds visuals or whether you blame Enix though?
Also, SaGa Frontier doesn't really count since that's just a sub-series of the SaGa franchise.
But still, point taken. I personally didn't get into RPGs until the year 2000 and don't have much of an opinion on whether Squaresoft was a better company than SE. All I really want from SE is to develop good KH games and to publish DQ and tri-Ace games. I don't even consider myself much of a fan of the FF series since I'm a more gameplay-oriented gamer as opposed to the narrative-driven approach that most FF games take (my favorite FF games are always the ones that are least liked by the mainstream).
@Zeouterlimits: No, Enix bought Square when they were about to go bankrupt due to the supposed monstrosity that was The Spirits Within (I watched this before I had ever played an FF game and I thought it was fine, really...), but it was mainly the Square peoples that took up leadership roles in the new company (like the company president, for example).
Meaning that whoever decides that a remake/sequel is a better idea than a new IP was most likely originally a Square employee.
All that the Enix merger did was give them a bigger budget. People often cite Enix as being to blame for FFX-2 as well, but that game already came out in Japan a month before the merger (also, it's a good game).
2002-2009 new franchises
1kingdom hearts
2drakengard
3Fullmetal alchemist
4heavy metal thunder
5radiata stories
6code age commanders
7infinite undiscovery
8Soul eater
9yosumin
10fantasy earth
11Nanashi no game
12sigma harmonics
13last remnant
14the world ends with you
15concerto gate
16karuizawa yukai annai
Though I will admit, my scope was narrow, but it really isn't my point to argue with you guys. I can't argue for games they didn't even deem fit to send stateside (though code age commanders looks like it could have been pretty cool.) My entire point was that even pretending the companies never merged, the "Square" timeframe showed much, much more intiative to try new things.
Also, I blame the spirits within for everything.
The DS thing was FF3/4/Chronicles (which I have played all, and own 4/chronicles.) 3 and 4 were solid games, but entirely uninspired imo (even if they added tons to 4, and we never played 3, it was like dragging our faces through the mud... "See, see how cool that thing we made like 15 years ago was."
Chronicles was... well, I didn't like it. And in The Four Warriors of Light I see "Crystal Chronicles 4: Now with more retconned and dredged up plot"
Dude, I agree to an extent, I just wanted to better understand your position.
*hugs*