LOL
The first company that came to mind was Square Enix as well.
In the past, they made amazing games. Today, they CAN make amazing games but it's as if they refuse to. All that comes out from them is rubbish. Mainly due to the fact, they have no idea what they're doing or what they want to do (e.g. early in the development for Final Fantasy XIII) and Wada spitting out nonsense about how Final Fantasy needs to change and all the things they're doing to their latest games to westernise it. For example:
(potential spoilers final fantasy XIII)
1. They changed Lightnings real name in the english version to Claire. In the Japanese version, it was Eclair. Guess What. Eclair means LIGHTNING so it makes perfect sense but for some reason Eclair isn't good enough for westerners (so they think) and change it to Claire which to me is stupid.
2. The role names have changed. Attacker was changed to Commando and Healer was changed to medic. FPS's are huge in the western world right now. What kind of image to you get when you think of commando? You think of some muscly soldier. And what about a medic? You think of a medic in the modern day army. This is not in the modern day. This Medic is using magic to heal a person. A healer just suits the role so much better and so does attacker. You usually don't have 'commandos' in fantasy. It just sends off the wrong feeling.
3. Choices in songs.
No prelude and no battle fanfare. Why is this? They are critical components of a final fantasy game. Why change the original theme song to My Hands? The original theme song worked just as well with the game. Why change the song in the love scene between Snow and Serah to 'Serah's theme'? Why not keep the original 'Eternal Love'? The scene with Serah's them was average at best but when played with Eternal Love it becomes so much more amazing.
Another example is Nier. There was nothing wrong with the original character design and there was nothing wrong with him being an older brother. Why change him to this ugly old man that is now a father? I first saw the trailer for the english version and was completely turned off by it and had no interest in it. Later, I saw on the net pictures of the japanese version and looked so much more interesting. Too bad i'll never play it because of the changes they made.
I wish they would stop focusing on so many games and other platforms like handhelds, social websites and digital distribution. Wada once said he would like final fantasy to be distributed digitally in chapters. Why would I want that? Why would I want a Final Fantasy I couldn't proudly put on display with the rest of them? Why would I want to wait for the next chapter to come out? I want the whole thing right then and there in physical form.
I know he said more stupid things but I can't remember them. I also feel sorry for the development teams that have to cater to the likes of Wada and produce garbage when they could make what they want to (Which I hope is very different to what Wada wants.) and it would most likely turn out being pretty decent.
When I play a Japanese game, I want a Japanese game not a Western game that they think I like (which i most definitely do not like their 'western' games) because I'm from the west. Of course, I do enjoy a number of western games but when a Japanese game or franchise is made to become more western I hate it. I prefer the style of Japanese games and I hate they fact that i'm not getting something I'm interested in because they think that we all want Shooters.
I can only hope they decide one day to go back to making what they're good at making and not what they think the rest of the world wants.
Sorry for being so aggressive in my rant. Considering how easy it is to get put on probation here and so on, do you think such a nasty post would get me in trouble? Or is it only EA that doesn't like it when people don't enjoy something and want to tell other people that they don't enjoy it?
