Are there genuine reasons for hatred against Square Enix?

[silver wolf009]

What I mean is if the company engages in shady practices, or acts in a way that is genuinely harmful or insulting to their consumers. I myself don't know much of this yet, and am liking the company's games a lot, but it would be nice to read about. To further clarify, by "shady practices," I basically mean something like Capcom's DLC antics, or Gearbox and Aliens: Colonial Marines.

I hate Square Enix for, what I think anyway, is a legitimate reason: They do not care about me. I am in no way their target audience, and they don't bother themselves with what I think.

Now, normally that's not a bad thing, I don't waste my time hating companies I don't use, but they're so prevalent, so widespread and ingrained into the gamer culture, that I get tired of seeing their products, which I already don't like all that much, lauded and praised and promoted to the crowd that I am in.

That, and their stories are just dumb.

Dumb.

Duuuuuuuuuuuub...

Dum.

 

[Rozalia1]

Isn't there a HD remaster coming out for Final Fantasy X sometime? I think there's a lot of stock in the 'Sqeenix are just trolling at this point' line of thinking, given every boy and his dog wants Final Fantasy VII remade but the popular consensus on X is 'That laughing scene was fucking atrocious'.

It's kinda funny when you think about it really, since Sqeenix complains about low profits a fair amount yet it's hard to not imagine they'd make money hand over fist with a remastered VII. Maybe they just hate money?

How many times that laugh was purposely supposed to be like that.
FF10 has a very good reputation... okay yeah it got crapped on release but so do a lot of FFs. 9 for example was mauled by the majority on release, yet these days is considered by many to be the greatest Final Fantasy of all time (something I agree with).

Going back to FF10 the title of "last great Final Fantasy" has commonly been given to it for years, but times might well change on that. FF12 which was also maligned by people on release seems like its started to take that title for itself in some peoples view.

Will that happen to FF13? Possibly but I doubt it. The sequels didn't exactly increase FF13s reputation any.

Here I thought that people had agreed that pretty much every final fantasy made after VII was a steaming pile of shit. Then again I suppose it's that whole "Diversity of opinions" thing that the internet seems to keep forgetting exists.

If we were talking on the release of FF8 a great many years back than that'd be accurate I suppose, but its been a long time since that has been a common opinion (especially as FF8 while still hated by some has a good rep among many). Perceptions change all the time first it was all FFs after 7 were crap, than it was 8, than 9, than 10, and I believe we're on the road of after 12.

I could see why Square Enix would ignore people on the complaints about 13. The fans opinions on what is crap and what is a masterpiece is constantly changing so I'd fully believe the likes of Toriyama thinks that FF13 with time will be considered great.
If FF9 can be hated on released, and than beloved as a classic... why can't FF13 right? Well the first reason is no FF can touch FF9, but there are many more reasons why that likely won't happen.

 

[Sung-Hwan]

Isn't there a HD remaster coming out for Final Fantasy X sometime? I think there's a lot of stock in the 'Sqeenix are just trolling at this point' line of thinking, given every boy and his dog wants Final Fantasy VII remade but the popular consensus on X is 'That laughing scene was fucking atrocious'.

It's kinda funny when you think about it really, since Sqeenix complains about low profits a fair amount yet it's hard to not imagine they'd make money hand over fist with a remastered VII. Maybe they just hate money?

How many times that laugh was purposely supposed to be like that.
FF10 has a very good reputation... okay yeah it got crapped on release but so do a lot of FFs. 9 for example was mauled by the majority on release, yet these days is considered by many to be the greatest Final Fantasy of all time (something I agree with).

Going back to FF10 the title of "last great Final Fantasy" has commonly been given to it for years, but times might well change on that. FF12 which was also maligned by people on release seems like its started to take that title for itself in some peoples view.

Will that happen to FF13? Possibly but I doubt it. The sequels didn't exactly increase FF13s reputation any.

Here I thought that people had agreed that pretty much every final fantasy made after VII was a steaming pile of shit. Then again I suppose it's that whole "Diversity of opinions" thing that the internet seems to keep forgetting exists.

If we were talking on the release of FF8 a great many years back than that'd be accurate I suppose, but its been a long time since that has been a common opinion (especially as FF8 while still hated by some has a good rep among many). Perceptions change all the time first it was all FFs after 7 were crap, than it was 8, than 9, than 10, and I believe we're on the road of after 12.

I could see why Square Enix would ignore people on the complaints about 13. The fans opinions on what is crap and what is a masterpiece is constantly changing so I'd fully believe the likes of Toriyama thinks that FF13 with time will be considered great.
If FF9 can be hated on released, and than beloved as a classic... why can't FF13 right? Well the first reason is no FF can touch FF9, but there are many more reasons why that likely won't happen.

Very good post. You do bring up a good point of how Final Fantasy games have a reputation for being harassed for a while on release, then looked upon favorably in years. I believe there was even a saying that 7 was disliked on release, but can't confirm.

 

[Signa]

Continually showing contempt for your customers is a good way to get hated.

Hell, I was talking with my co-worker about the supposed FF7 remake, and we both agreed that we would be happy with basically a fan-modded version of the game. Sure, it would take a team of artists the better part of a year to remake the backgrounds and redo the character and enemy models, but it can't be that much work that they wouldn't get a good return on it. I know I'd buy it again if it just was a graphical overhaul.

The risk comes in when you start fucking around with the battle system or the open world. Just make the grass textures higher rez, or something, but you don't need to remake the thing into a fully new game.

 

[sageoftruth]

Longtime fans of RPGs have another reason to dislike the company: their priorities were pretty messed up for 10+ years. Despite gaining a foothold in de west with games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy, they decided people were no longer interested in those games and whatever RPGs did have that old-school flavour were kept in Japan. It took Nintendo publishing Bravely Default to show them people still want to play those games.

Then there's the fact that they're neglecting pretty much any Japanese RPG series that isn't Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts or Dragon Quest. Heck, they're not even bringing over Dragon Quest VII to the west! So, while they used to be the company that brought gamers Vagrant Story, SaGa's, Xenogears and much more, they're now that company milks the old Final Fantasy games and may one day release Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV. They do have one valid excuse for this lack of creativity, though: in the late 90's early 00's many talented people left to start their own studio or work freelance.

(They are working on some new SaGa stuff, but I wonder if those games have any chance of reaching western shores.)

Speaking of Chrono Trigger, I (and others I'm sure) are still a bit sore about how they handled the crew behind Chrono Resurrection. I was really hyped for it at the time, and I feel like they could have done much better than to just say, "Hey! That franchise is ours! Pack up your things and quit the project or I'll see you in court." They had an opportunity to profit from royalties and chose instead to kill their fans' love project and completely piss off their fanbase.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Isn't there a HD remaster coming out for Final Fantasy X sometime? I think there's a lot of stock in the 'Sqeenix are just trolling at this point' line of thinking, given every boy and his dog wants Final Fantasy VII remade but the popular consensus on X is 'That laughing scene was fucking atrocious'.

It's kinda funny when you think about it really, since Sqeenix complains about low profits a fair amount yet it's hard to not imagine they'd make money hand over fist with a remastered VII. Maybe they just hate money?

The PC and upcoming PS4 versions of VII are HD remasters though. They run in HD and have updated backgrounds, though that's about it.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD got significantly more effort put into it, but it is still not a remake. It's the same game running in HD with rerecorded music and updated assets.

Generally speaking you can't do this with PS1 games, but I do think that, due to the pre-rendered backgrounds looking fairly nice, you could substantially improve the visuals with new character models and some more details in the world map. You'd have to remake some of the CG cutscenes that, for some reason, use the in game models, though.

The kind of remake most people want would cost literally as much as a new AAA game.

 

[Aerosteam]

Aside from everything else that has been said here, there is the over waifu-ization of Lightning. Fuck that.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

But Tomb Raider is getting a sequel, isn't it?

I keep forgetting that. Point stands on Deus Ex though.

 

[aozgolo]

I think to summarize most of these points it can simply be said "Square Enix does not pay heed to it's western audience" and that is a very egregious offense in the eyes of their western fans.

I personally don't know how well they cater to their Japanese market but it's been made plain time and again that what Square Enix's western audience WANTS from the company is NOT what they get.

Whether it's withholding games from being localized outside of Japan, unpopularly releasing game remakes as mobile only ports, or giving fans second rate sequels or supplementary material instead of what they actually want (IE: FF7 Remake)

The bottom line speaks that Square Enix has closed up shop with their western audience, they'll happily still accept our money but they will tell us what we should want, not ask us.

It's very bizarre business practices to be honest.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and XIII-3 are pretty legitimate reasons to hate them.

Seriously, the first one was okay, but oh man, after that they went neck deep into some shit.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I'm kind of pissed because they haven't done anything significant (recently) with Deus Ex or Sleeping Dogs(no, Definitive Editions don't count). Also the fact that they made Rise of The Tomb Raider a timed exclusive, and that Hitman Absolution was pretty boring.

I blame them for mutating IO Interactive so that they made Kane & Lynch 2, and some people I know have expressed distaste over their treatment of Kingdom Hearts.

I'd count those as genuine reasons.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

As someone who loved most the FF games up until the recent ones, I don't hate them but I do think it's such a shame that said series is so detached from what it once was.

This thread actually made me check out news for a game which I'd not looked for in at least 6 months - FF15. Oh man, it just looks so, so, so, so, so, so, bad to me. Compare the likes of Auron & Kimari to this boy band quartet we're presented with. I just don't know what to say.

Part of me is glad the FF series is dying a slow death, because with each release it becomes easier to accept what once was has now long gone.

 

[Gone Rampant]

They've got pretty high expectations for their games- while they make plenty of good ones like Absolution, Human Revolution and Sleeping Dogs, they've pretty lofty expectations- most of those games pulled a few million in the first week and then Squeenix would say it was "Below expectations," and Tomb Raider 2013 supposedly only broke even after six million copies were sold.

Aside from that, they've made some games I've liked and I don't need to connect to a website to unlock all of the content like a certain publisher that put British accents in a game with French protagonists.

 

[infinity_turtles]

On top of the all the great reasons people have listed, you can also add knowledge that Square Enix better served the fans of its series when it was Squaresoft and Enix.

 

[NPC009]

On top of the all the great reasons people have listed, you can also add knowledge that Square Enix better served the fans of its series when it was Squaresoft and Enix.

Well, no, not really. Squaresoft was pretty much non-existent in Europe. Most of their games were published by other companies (usually Nintendo or Sony), and there are a ton of titles that were never released in English. It was after the fusion that their worldwide presence started to improve.

Of course, at the same time the number of original titles started to plummet, but that had everything to do with financial problems and talented employees leaving.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Square Enix primarily produces entertainment media, usually in the form of video games or film. In other words, they are producers of entertainment. Recently, their "entertainment" has been poorly received by the general public, with a few exceptions here and there. Ergo, it is entirely realistic to genuinely hate a producer of media for creating shitty media.

Creating good media is their job, and they suck at it.

 

[Ygrez]

In addition to what everyone else has mentioned, they bought Quest Corp. in 2002 and haven't done a new Ogre Battle or Tactic Ogre game since. They are kinda like a Japanese EA.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

And at point two, I don't really get what you mean by this, but I will look into it and come back.

Just the way Square Enix has been coy about the fan calls for a remake of Final Fantasy VII. It's all well and good for them to say they're not going to do it because it would be too expensive, which they have, but they pull things like the Playstation 3 tech demo -- which recreated the opening sequence of Final Fantasy VII in a shiny new engine -- and this recent Playstation Experience event where they make it out like they're going to bring a new version of Final Fantasy VII to the PS4 but then reveal that it's just going to be a port of the PC version, which is itself just an updated port of the original game.

Sure, it's still one of those arguable "subjective" things to get upset about, but in my eyes it's pretty hard to deny that those sort of actions are Square Enix openly taunting their customers.

Isn't there a HD remaster coming out for Final Fantasy X sometime? I think there's a lot of stock in the 'Sqeenix are just trolling at this point' line of thinking, given every boy and his dog wants Final Fantasy VII remade but the popular consensus on X is 'That laughing scene was fucking atrocious'.

It's kinda funny when you think about it really, since Sqeenix complains about low profits a fair amount yet it's hard to not imagine they'd make money hand over fist with a remastered VII. Maybe they just hate money?

In the west, yes, but in Japan FFX is the more beloved one in the series. It surpasses even FFVII. Or, at the very least, it did. A Famitsu magazine fan poll from the mid-2000s declared FFX to be the best game of all time. FFVII was #2.