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[DarknessTear]

Personally I want a game like Terranigma.

Edit: And Scott owned this whole thread. :lol

 

[terrene]

I totally agree with your PS to PS2 comments but I'll never understand the FFX-2 hate.

I think it's tangentially related to most people's hatred of The Spice Girls and Fanta commercials.

 

[DarknessTear]

Well I can understand the FFX-2 hate. It has the power to make people feel like gay people are molesting them the whole time. Plus it's plain embarassing to play.

 

[djtiesto]

I would love to see Enix publish more games from smaller publishers, like they did in the SFC days - Produce, Almanac, and of course the almighty Quintet.

 

[genjiZERO]

Well I can understand the FFX-2 hate. It has the power to make people feel like gay people are molesting them the whole time. Plus it's plain embarassing to play.

But that doesn't make it a bad game. It's a bad game if the play mechanic is terrible or the game is just plain boring. I didn't like the game because it wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be and kinda ruined the idea of the world of Spira for me, but it was still fun to play. Anyway, I generally agree Square and Enix have been a let down this gen, but I think this is problematic of Japanese companies as a whole now. Once they stop making games for "universal" appeal and start making games for the Japanese audience they'll start being fun again.

 

[genjiZERO]

I would love to see Enix publish more games from smaller publishers, like they did in the SFC days - Produce, Almanac, and of course the almighty Quintet.

yeah that would be hot, I've always thought that was Enix's strong suit anyway; finding good games from small publishers.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

In his absence, allow me to summarize what happened to Square.

- They made skillions of dollars off FFVII and other PS1 games.
- Sakaguchi lost ALL OF IT, SINGLE-HANDEDLY.
- Sakaguchi was put out to pasture, because you gotta take blame. He was involved with FF in name only as an "executive producer." Promo tours, a few little meaningless things.
- Despite having never made a playable game in his life, Akitoshi Kawazu promoted.
- The PlayStation 2 came out and budgets skyrocketed from PS1 levels.
- Square, being cash-poor anyway, shrunk its output. Lineup now mostly made out of Kawazu titles, some of which are just blank CD-Rs with (admittedly nice) instruction manuals.
- Around this time, Enix tries again to start up an American branch. This does not exactly take off like a rocket. DQVII fails to set the West on fire.
- Square's poor. Enix is not. Square has a thriving, largish American operation. Enix does not. Wink Martindale makes a Love Connection!
- Mayor of Tokyo gives Akitoshi Kawazu key to city.
- Enix immediately sets about turning Square Enix USA into a publisher of Enix titles, and turns Square into a machine that pumps out cell-phone games and spinoffs of FFVII.
- "Polymorphic content."
- Sakaguchi quits. It takes several weeks before anyone even notices that he left.
- Uematsu quits. Wailing and gnashing of teeth until people realize this means more concerts of the old stuff, less "Ronfaure".
- Basically the entire US branch quits.
- In all the confusion over the merger, Yasumi Matsuno accidentally put in charge of FFXII. Somebody realizes this and he is unceremoniously booted, but not before inflicting massive damage.
- Akitoshi Kawazu, in a landslide victory, replaces Koizumi as prime minister.
- ?
- Sun supernovas, Earth destroyed.
- FFXII released.

 

[Demigod Mac]

A lot like Kingdom Hearts, but eh, the setting.... just ruins it for me.

Give me the gothic beauty of FFT and Vagrant Story any day over Disney.

 

[Tamanon]

I guess I'm really weird. I greatly enjoyed Final Fantasy X-2, SMT: Nocturne, Kingdom Hearts, Digital Devil Saga, Final Fantasy XI and Wild Arms 3. Hell I even enjoyed Legaia 2 a great amount!

I like what Square's put out, has anyone played the new Saga game yet? Looks pretty interesting to me. And I can't wait until KH2 and FFXII. If only they were more prolific, but I'll go for quality over quantity any day

 

[RevenantKioku]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

In his absence, allow me to summarize what happened to Square.

- Despite having never made a playable game in his life, Akitoshi Kawazu promoted.
- Square, being cash-poor anyway, shrunk its output. Lineup now mostly made out of Kawazu titles, some of which are just blank CD-Rs with (admittedly nice) instruction manuals.
- Mayor of Tokyo gives Akitoshi Kawazu key to city.
- Akitoshi Kawazu, in a landslide victory, replaces Koizumi as prime minister.

:lol :lol
Ah, come to me FFIII DS!

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

In his absence, allow me to summarize what happened to Square.

- They made skillions of dollars off FFVII and other PS1 games.
- Sakaguchi lost ALL OF IT, SINGLE-HANDEDLY.
- Sakaguchi was put out to pasture, because you gotta take blame. He was involved with FF in name only as an "executive producer." Promo tours, a few little meaningless things.
- Despite having never made a playable game in his life, Akitoshi Kawazu promoted.
- The PlayStation 2 came out and budgets skyrocketed from PS1 levels.
- Square, being cash-poor anyway, shrunk its output. Lineup now mostly made out of Kawazu titles, some of which are just blank CD-Rs with (admittedly nice) instruction manuals.
- Around this time, Enix tries again to start up an American branch. This does not exactly take off like a rocket. DQVII fails to set the West on fire.
- Square's poor. Enix is not. Square has a thriving, largish American operation. Enix does not. Wink Martindale makes a Love Connection!
- Mayor of Tokyo gives Akitoshi Kawazu key to city.
- Enix immediately sets about turning Square Enix USA into a publisher of Enix titles, and turns Square into a machine that pumps out cell-phone games and spinoffs of FFVII.
- "Polymorphic content."
- Sakaguchi quits. It takes several weeks before anyone even notices that he left.
- Uematsu quits. Wailing and gnashing of teeth until people realize this means more concerts of the old stuff, less "Ronfaure".
- Basically the entire US branch quits.
- In all the confusion over the merger, Yasumi Matsuno accidentally put in charge of FFXII. Somebody realizes this and he is unceremoniously booted, but not before inflicting massive damage.
- Akitoshi Kawazu, in a landslide victory, replaces Koizumi as prime minister.
- ?
- Sun supernovas, Earth destroyed.
- FFXII released.

Awesome! :lol

 

[WrathOfOtaibah]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

In his absence, allow me to summarize what happened to Square.

- They made skillions of dollars off FFVII and other PS1 games.
- Sakaguchi lost ALL OF IT, SINGLE-HANDEDLY.
- Sakaguchi was put out to pasture, because you gotta take blame. He was involved with FF in name only as an "executive producer." Promo tours, a few little meaningless things.
- Despite having never made a playable game in his life, Akitoshi Kawazu promoted.
- The PlayStation 2 came out and budgets skyrocketed from PS1 levels.
- Square, being cash-poor anyway, shrunk its output. Lineup now mostly made out of Kawazu titles, some of which are just blank CD-Rs with (admittedly nice) instruction manuals.
- Around this time, Enix tries again to start up an American branch. This does not exactly take off like a rocket. DQVII fails to set the West on fire.
- Square's poor. Enix is not. Square has a thriving, largish American operation. Enix does not. Wink Martindale makes a Love Connection!
- Mayor of Tokyo gives Akitoshi Kawazu key to city.
- Enix immediately sets about turning Square Enix USA into a publisher of Enix titles, and turns Square into a machine that pumps out cell-phone games and spinoffs of FFVII.
- "Polymorphic content."
- Sakaguchi quits. It takes several weeks before anyone even notices that he left.
- Uematsu quits. Wailing and gnashing of teeth until people realize this means more concerts of the old stuff, less "Ronfaure".
- Basically the entire US branch quits.
- In all the confusion over the merger, Yasumi Matsuno accidentally put in charge of FFXII. Somebody realizes this and he is unceremoniously booted, but not before inflicting massive damage.
- Akitoshi Kawazu, in a landslide victory, replaces Koizumi as prime minister.
- ?
- Sun supernovas, Earth destroyed.
- FFXII released.

Awesome summary. Lets not forget Square's early PS2 efforts seemed high budget (or at least hyped to hell) but bombed:

The Bouncer was supposed to show the awesome power of PS2 with interactive environments. It was a crappy beat 'em up with little interaction and shitloads of FMV. Then there was Driving Emotion Type-S, the supposed ultimate GT alternative. What a failure that was. It think there was another huge game that they made that turned out to be a dud. Front Mission 4 was pretty awful as well. FM3 still kicks ass.

 

[Beowvlf]

Hmm, so let me get this straight, because Enix's shares were traded at a premium, you guys have all assumed (and taken as fact) that Enix bought out Square? Methinks you guys need to read up on the differences between mergers and share buyouts...

Secondly, many of you need to understand the concept in which Square Enix is utilizing it's new 'three pillar' strategy. Do you honestly believe all they intend to do is use those franchises (and only those franchises) as a means of revenue, and that we will get little to no more original content from them? Cripes people, THINK! SE is using the unparalleled strength and viability of the KH, DQ and FF franchises to build a solid foundation for growth for the company. Do you guys honestly believe SE is so short-sighted that they don't understand the key to continued success in the entertainment industry is evolution?

It is a fact that we will soon start to see more entries in various genres and more original properties from SE than we have ever seen before. It is pretty obvious to anyone with an even remote knowledge of business that SE is using the close promixity of the releases of the Compilation of FFVII titles, FFXII, KH2 and DQVIII as the initial building block of the foundation of the company that these three franchises will then sustain. On top of that foundation they are looking to expand into the online sector, mobile gaming, diversified content, etc., and you can bet they will also release a shitton of original games from guys like Kawazu (one of the greatest producers in the industry IMO), Matsuno and Tsuchida.

Alot of people have also greatly misconstrued Uematsu's departure from the company. One, he didn't really leave SE, and has not only pledged to still contribute to every (main) FF game soundtrack, he will also provide music for others projects from the developer. Two, he was one of the last non-freelance composers amongst the heavy hitters in the industry, and I'm actually surprised it took him this long to leave. Three, it is rumored that SE provided Uematsu with some of the startup capital he needed for Smile Please, as a 'thank you' for all his contributions to the company.

And why do so many of you forget the absolutely insane lineup SE has for this fall and next year when you critique their output this gen?!

-Radiata Stories
-Romancing SaGa
-Drakengard II
-Dragon Quest VIII
-Slime Morimori II: Dragon Quest
-Kingdom Hearts II
-Crisis Core: FFVII
-Dirge of Cerberus: FFVII
-Grandia III
-Final Fantasy XII

I mean, holy fucking shit!!

 

[jett]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

In his absence, allow me to summarize what happened to Square.

- They made skillions of dollars off FFVII and other PS1 games.
- Sakaguchi lost ALL OF IT, SINGLE-HANDEDLY.
- Sakaguchi was put out to pasture, because you gotta take blame. He was involved with FF in name only as an "executive producer." Promo tours, a few little meaningless things.
- Despite having never made a playable game in his life, Akitoshi Kawazu promoted.
- The PlayStation 2 came out and budgets skyrocketed from PS1 levels.
- Square, being cash-poor anyway, shrunk its output. Lineup now mostly made out of Kawazu titles, some of which are just blank CD-Rs with (admittedly nice) instruction manuals.
- Around this time, Enix tries again to start up an American branch. This does not exactly take off like a rocket. DQVII fails to set the West on fire.
- Square's poor. Enix is not. Square has a thriving, largish American operation. Enix does not. Wink Martindale makes a Love Connection!
- Mayor of Tokyo gives Akitoshi Kawazu key to city.
- Enix immediately sets about turning Square Enix USA into a publisher of Enix titles, and turns Square into a machine that pumps out cell-phone games and spinoffs of FFVII.
- "Polymorphic content."
- Sakaguchi quits. It takes several weeks before anyone even notices that he left.
- Uematsu quits. Wailing and gnashing of teeth until people realize this means more concerts of the old stuff, less "Ronfaure".
- Basically the entire US branch quits.
- In all the confusion over the merger, Yasumi Matsuno accidentally put in charge of FFXII. Somebody realizes this and he is unceremoniously booted, but not before inflicting massive damage.
- Akitoshi Kawazu, in a landslide victory, replaces Koizumi as prime minister.
- ?
- Sun supernovas, Earth destroyed.
- FFXII released.

:lol That was some good shit.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Yeah.. but they need to make some games first before I start pimping them...

I'm too much of a realist to to ZOMG at concept art and story synopises; yet, when I look at "two new franchises for next gen", compared to Square side of Squeenix's "FFVII telethon for next-gen development funding"*, I at least get a reason to get excited.

*SoL is neutral to KH in all its forms, so that doesn't factor in

 

[MoxManiac]

They published Radiata Stories, which rocks. Give em time, now that they publish Enix games, they'll have some great stuff out in the future.

 

[uncdeez]

Well I can understand the FFX-2 hate. It has the power to make people feel like gay people are molesting them the whole time. Plus it's plain embarassing to play.

You forgot to mention the gameplay sucks.

 

[Red Scarlet]

Square seems to be on par with all previous generations..releasing FF's, a bunch of crap, and a handful of non-crap, non-FF games. That's how it was in the NES/GB, SNES, PS1, and PS2 eras. Strangely, 9 of my 10 PS2 games are made by Square, Enix, or Square-Enix, and Square's best "hit ratio" was on the Wonderswan Color (3 for 4 that I've played).

But I'm weird.

 

[speedpop]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

I was hoping he'd had pop by earlier in the thread, it took until Scott at the very end of page 2 to turn things from a GameFAQs bitch-fest to a sense of normality. Thank you for your contribution.

edit: Oh yeah.. Kawazu needs to die. Why on Earth he is still commanding respect within the company is beyond me.

 

[Vashu]

In all the confusion over the merger, Yasumi Matsuno accidentally put in charge of FFXII. Somebody realizes this and he is unceremoniously booted, but not before inflicting massive damage.

How exactly do we have to interpret this? Matsuno is probably one of the best designers (FFT, Vagrant Story) at the moment, so I'll see this as Square Enix seeing that Matsuno is doing something drastically different and they're afraid to divert too much from their 'FF-plan'. If you meant otherwise, then I won't take it seriously...

Anyway, I've been pretty fond of Square Enix this gen, I tend not to look at the 'two-sides' of the company. Sure, the start was a bit rough, but they are trying to cope with eachother, ultimately turning into a fully complete business. Of course, it could take a while, people got used to the idea of Square having FF and Enix having DQ. It never could've been something else right? But I guess it did.

And yes, I'm unhappy with some decisions they made too. They should put Matsuno in charge of a new Vagrant Story tbh, but I guess it will take time for them to manifest themselves as this great big gamedeveloper/publisher both of them were before the merge. Untill that time, I will happily accept games like Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest VIII, Radiata Stories, Grandia III, Kingdom Hearts 2, Romancing SaGa, Code Age, Drakengard 2 and all the other stuff they work on.

Damn, I just lost a gazillion bucks again..

 

[DDayton]

Hmm, so let me get this straight, because Enix's shares were traded at a premium, you guys have all assumed (and taken as fact) that Enix bought out Square? Methinks you guys need to read up on the differences between mergers and share buyouts...

Oh, we're not trying to claim that Enix technically bought out Square... it was a "merger" that resulted in the Enix folks ending up much better than the (incompetent) Square folks who were desperate to avoid being absorbed by Sony.

 

[Starfire]

Paging JackFrost to thread #64214, paging JackFrost to thread #64214.

In his absence, allow me to summarize what happened to Square.

- They made skillions of dollars off FFVII and other PS1 games.
- Sakaguchi lost ALL OF IT, SINGLE-HANDEDLY.
- Sakaguchi was put out to pasture, because you gotta take blame. He was involved with FF in name only as an "executive producer." Promo tours, a few little meaningless things.
- Despite having never made a playable game in his life, Akitoshi Kawazu promoted.
- The PlayStation 2 came out and budgets skyrocketed from PS1 levels.
- Square, being cash-poor anyway, shrunk its output. Lineup now mostly made out of Kawazu titles, some of which are just blank CD-Rs with (admittedly nice) instruction manuals.
- Around this time, Enix tries again to start up an American branch. This does not exactly take off like a rocket. DQVII fails to set the West on fire.
- Square's poor. Enix is not. Square has a thriving, largish American operation. Enix does not. Wink Martindale makes a Love Connection!
- Mayor of Tokyo gives Akitoshi Kawazu key to city.
- Enix immediately sets about turning Square Enix USA into a publisher of Enix titles, and turns Square into a machine that pumps out cell-phone games and spinoffs of FFVII.
- "Polymorphic content."
- Sakaguchi quits. It takes several weeks before anyone even notices that he left.
- Uematsu quits. Wailing and gnashing of teeth until people realize this means more concerts of the old stuff, less "Ronfaure".
- Basically the entire US branch quits.
- In all the confusion over the merger, Yasumi Matsuno accidentally put in charge of FFXII. Somebody realizes this and he is unceremoniously booted, but not before inflicting massive damage.
- Akitoshi Kawazu, in a landslide victory, replaces Koizumi as prime minister.
- ?
- Sun supernovas, Earth destroyed.
- FFXII released.

I was going to reply in a simmilar vein, but this summarizes it better than anything I could've said.

I weep for Square

 

[Blackace]

Oh, we're not trying to claim that Enix technically bought out Square... it was a "merger" that resulted in the Enix folks ending up much better than the (incompetent) Square folks who were desperate to avoid being absorbed by Sony.

thank you!! people just refuse to believe...

 

[Diablos]

Oh, we're not trying to claim that Enix technically bought out Square... it was a "merger" that resulted in the Enix folks ending up much better than the (incompetent) Square folks who were desperate to avoid being absorbed by Sony.

Desperate, huh?
If Sony bought Square you could bet that Sony would probably let Square do whatever they wanted. With Squeenix, it's like "ok, you release FF, we'll release DQ. And then we'll throw games like KH in the mix to shut people up."

 

[Blackace]

Desperate, huh?
If Sony bought Square you could bet that Sony would probably let Square do whatever they wanted. With Squeenix, it's like "ok, you release FF, we'll release DQ. And then we'll throw games like KH in the mix to shut people up."

do you have proof of that? or are you just saying that because you wanted them to be bought by Sony... for whatever reason they didn't want that.. Maybe because they still wanted to make GBA games, and other platforms as well.. And PC titles....

 

[silenttwn]

No Crystal Chronicles love? I had some good times in multiplayer with that one.

 

[Vashu]

No Crystal Chronicles love? I had some good times in multiplayer with that one.

I really need to find two more players I play this game occasionally with two, but why couldn't they give us that moogle just so that we can kick ass at the same time and not worry about that chalice?? Ah well, good game, and I'm glad I'm not the only one liking it a lot.

 

[trmas]

I would like to see a real sequel to FFT on the PS3. I love Squenix games, but we desparately need sequels to FFT and Vandal Hearts to go along with the FF, DQ, KH, and Grandia games.

Then Squenix would be my God. Although they'd have to make room for Kojima every three years.

 

[Blackace]

I would like to see a real sequel to FFT on the PS3.

well considering that the guy who made it f*cked up his big chance with FFXII you might not see it for a bit.. I'd rather see it on the PS2 anyways..