Are you disappointed with Square-Enix?

[MammothBlade]

I'm generally fed up with Square-Enix. The catastrophic failure that is Final Fantasy XIV, the protracted development of FF Versus XIII, the apparent mediocrity of The Last Remnant (I was quite looking forward to that), and Final Fantasy XIII's many departures from aspects which made the series great - I know there are quite a few who liked it, but in my opinion, I just can't enjoy it except for the scenery porn, and since I lost all my PS3 saves I would find it quite draining to play through it all again, especially the linear beginning.

I'm not sure about FFXIII-2. Is it superior to its predecessor? Is it necessary to play the first XIII in order to get into it?

 

[crono738]

As developers, yes. I hate how they've driven the Final Fantasy brand into the ground.

They get a pass as publishers, though, because of Deus Ex.

 

[keybird]

I am annoyed at them simply because the new Kingdom hearts games have all been for handheld devices. Maybe there is a reason for this, and if so I would love to be informed. Otherwise it just rightly annoys me. The vast majority of gamers are console or PC users, not owning many handheld devices.

 

[WoW Killer]

I've thought Square were on the decline since FF8. Funnily enough that was the last FF game I ever played (other than the PSP version of FFT if you count that as a different game to the original; fucking quality either way). No I thought FF8 veered in too many directions I didn't like aesthetically, and it wasn't like it added anything in terms of gameplay. I don't even care about story and setting all that much, but with the gameplay being the same old shite it's about all I've got to go on.

I never played FF13 or its spin-off, though I did watch it played a little. Mostly I thought "meh" to the combat system. Fair play they actually did something different (which is quite a big deal for Square), but it's still the same ATB at the end of the day. Why can't Square drop that totally, create a real-time combat system, and concentrate on the thing they used to be good at which was storytelling? Square seem to think their games are defined by ATB, and they're not at all. FF6 was great because it squeezed a shit lot of game out of such limited system specs. Every single movement by every character meant something, like subtle shrugs and winks. It felt like the characters were acting. Are you telling me that every other company out there can do things better now, so you've given up? Square used to be like the kings of pantomime. They need to come back and show us how it's done. Fuck looking cool and with-it for this or any generation. Just do a camp as fuck pantomime and show us a villain like Kefka again. The next Square game needs to be to gaming what Flash Gordon is to the film industry.

 

[StylinBones]

Why did Cavia fail? NIER was amazing. Square was pub.

 

[DarkRyter]

I like the Kingdom Hearts games and The World Ends with You was pretty ballin.

I have not played any Final Fantasy games beyond watching my cousin play 12 and playing 13 for like an hour.

So, no. I am not disappointed.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I do like the World Ends with You, but I can understand people's disappointment with Squenix.

 

[Zeckt]

I can describe them with one word. Meh. I'll take a look at the throwback final fantasy they are making for the iphone next month though.

 

[Womplord]

I like them, I'm pretty sure they developed Quantum Conundrum. Plus they hinted a sequel to TWEWY, my favorite game so I guess you could say I'm pretty happy! They make games other than final fantasy.

 

[Kimarous]

Disappointed? Nah. More like "long since lost interest and no longer pay attention to them." If I ever play or express interest in one of their games, it has nothing to do with their brand name.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Not really.

I had no nostalgia for Final Fantasy the only one I had played before the apparent trainwreck that was FFXIII was FFXII and I enjoyed the both. Not ever going to be my all time top games but fun enough for me to play through them both a couple of times each. And XIII-2 wasn't all that bad either.

I have also enjoyed other games that they've developed including The Last Remnant, among others.

And finally they've published some of my favourite games, including my (probably) two top games of last year, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Batman: Arkham City.

I do understand how others who perhaps have nostalgia to previous Final Fantasys and when Square and Enix were two different companies would be annoyed.

 

[kingthrall]

who gives a s*** about final fantasy when Thief 4 was the most important game they still have not finished yet. This is where the real annoyance lies

 

[Ljs1121]

I'm not disappointed. I've never really been big on Final Fantasy, so I probably couldn't even tell if their games have been on a decline. Plus they're the distributor of Just Cause 2, which is one of my favorite games of all time.

 

[Strain42]

Short Answer: Yes...

Long Answer: Yes...and here's why. Once upon a time, JRPGs were actually my preferred genre. Whether I was diving back into FFIX, enjoying my favorite video game of all time (Legend of Mana) or playing Threads of Fate because...that game was kinda awesome, I enjoyed what Square was giving me.

Somewhere between 2005 and 2007, I started to realize that I didn't like JRPGs as much as I used to. Most of the ones I picked up didn't appeal to me as much as they used to. I started being more annoyed by certain recurring themes and was just enjoying them less and less.

At this point in my life, the only JRPG series that still keep me hooked are MegaTen and Pokemon. Every now and then, I will look into a JRPG that interests me. I'm always very cautious now, and almost every time that game is a Square game, my heart and wallet feel even more betrayed when I come out not liking it.

Now admittedly I don't blame just Square for this. Other companies like NISA aren't pumping out JRPG games that I enjoy either, and even other Atlus games like Radiant Historia or the Etrian Odyssey series don't grab my attention.

I guess my disappointment in Square comes from my own sense of nostalgia. Unlike these other companies, Squaresoft was once my favorite developer.

Truth is now, the amount of games actually developed by SquareEnix that I have enjoyed can be counted on my fingers, and that's being generous by counting ones that weren't developed directly by them, but more of a third party working under them.

Right now, the JRPG I'm keeping a cautious eye on is Level-5's Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.

 

[malestrithe]

No. In general, they provide me with the games that I like playing.

I simply do not care about the delays with their games because they write complete stories. They are bad stories sure, but they are still stories.

This is a lot more then the "here you do it" approach that western RPG developers pawn off as games. Sorry, but that makes it worse.

And don't bother responding if your only rebuttal is "that's what makes Western RPGs great." I do not care why you like that line of b.s. It is annoying that my opinion gets singled out because it offends you.

 

[scorptatious]

Personally, I think FFXIII is given a lot more hate than it deserves. I do think it's a good game warts and all...

...is what I would be saying if I hadn't played Xenoblade Chronicles. (no spoilers please, I'm not finished with it yet). I still think it's an alright game, but it could have been so much more. Xenoblade Chronicles made me realize that. :/

As for Square Enix itself, I can't say I really agree with their current business practices, from what I heard, they actually ended FFXII-2 on a cliffhanger to get you to buy DLC, FFXIV was a flop, and there is still no Kingdom Hearts 3!

It's such a shame. These guys, well the Square half anyway, created Final Fantasy IX, one of my most favorite games.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

the apparent mediocrity of The Last Remnant

I'm as sick of Squeenix as anyone who started playing their games on the NES/SNES and isn't happy with what's happened with them in the past decade or so, but I have to stand up for this one. It's been a long time since I've played one of their main-line franchises and not been disappointed (the Mana series in particular is dead to me), but I thought The Last Remnant was a lot of fun, specifically the PC version. The console version was a fairly obvious unfinished beta, with lots of framerate issues and some kind of clunky/unpolished gameplay (although my friend still had a good time with it somehow), but they fixed a lot of that stuff along with adding a bunch of convenience features to make the game play more smoothly and party management easier (which makes a noticeable difference when you have almost 20 active characters simultaneously for half the game).

That doesn't mean I think everyone would like it, but I do think it's underrated. If you absolutely can't stand not having direct control over all of your characters, it will drive you nuts, because your control doesn't go further down than squad-level. I personally thought it was a nice change of pace though, and I had fun figuring out how to set my units up in different formations with complementary skill sets to be prepared for any situation I might run into, even without my direct input. I still plan to go back and play it a second time in Hard Mode in New Game+ one of these days (another thing they added in the PC version).

 

[piinyouri]

As publishers? They're done some really good stuff.
As developers?
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA