Poll: The thing about Square Enix

[Asdalan08]

I know this will be a fairly weak topic, but if you look at what happened to the Final Fantasy series since Enix came into the picture, it's not a good sight.

FFX-2 - Girly ball of pink furry fun...
FFXI - Meh
FFXII - Weak story, very weak main character
the god-forsaken FFXIII - Linear corridors... Auto-attack every round...
and FFXIV - Meh

I see what they're trying to do by trying out new methods and new techniques and that if they remade the same game OVER and OVER, it would be boring. But that doesn't mean they have to completely change the formula that made FF great. Final Fantasy XIII is barely recognizable as a Final Fantasy. There was no Turn-based combat, you only controlled one character, there were no towns to explore, it was linear, there were no NPC's to pester, there was no Nobuo Uematsu. Infact the only thing I seemed to recognize was the Summon names... and only a few of them.

I may sound like an a**hole, mainly because I am, but I think Square Enix should put their act together and actually start making Final Fantasies... like Final Fantasies, If they released FFXIII as another franchaise that would have been fine but they are going against the formula that made the previous ones superior.

In short, should Square Enix get their act together!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Look up Mistwalker. There is your Final Fantasy.

Really. Lost Odyssey was epic.

That said, I like the newer FFs just fine. FF13 is my RPG of the year, even over Mass Effect 2 at the moment.

But for the "classic FF" feel, keep an eye on what Mistwalker does. It even has some of the devs of old FFs.

 

[Madara XIII]

I agree!!!

Square Enix really wen't into a Lull and if it weren't for Birth By Sleep I'd have lost all hope for them

 

[badgersprite]

Well, the latest Final Fantasies are still selling hugely in Japan, so they must be doing something right. Our reaction to the latest games may be completely different from that in their local market. Presumably, the changes they've made have been business decisions. Whether they're smart or not, I don't know, but they're doing whatever they think will make them money.

If you really think a big corporation is in this industry to make a game that people won't complain about or that will make people on The Escapist happy, then, I'm sorry, but they're not. They just want money. Whatever people keep buying, they will keep making.

 

[Blue_vision]

All Square Enix games suck IMO. I need not say more.

Try: Just Cause 2

But other than that, I agree. Square Enix is probably my least liked games developer, because I don't even see how you could like their games.

 

[Nechti_Visara]

Eight words: The World Ends With You and Kingdom Hearts.

A defense: Okay, so the former may not be that great for some people, but I absolutely love it. As for the latter, the best one, the first one, is Squaresoft alone, but the second is still great and Days and BBS are both pretty excellent.

There are absolutely no defenses for those Final Fantasy mishaps, though. They have their moments *coughcoughBalthiercoughcough* but for the most part are pretty bad.

 

[Snotnarok]

Everything after 7 has sucked in terms of Final Fantasy with the exception of Tactics. Even that was ruined when they put Tactics out on PSP with new features, a reworked script and a ton of slowdown (every move that wasn't a regular attack slowed the game to half frame rate). I loved a good chunk of the FF series, Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi, Xenogears, but after I guess Parasite eve 2 everything just went down hill.

Enix made great games too, Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean, but I haven't enjoyed any of their recent titles either.

They don't make good games anymore, if you're reading this and like any FF after 7 then that's good for you, personally I hated 8-X and I gave up wasting my money after that.

 

[Blue_vision]

Well, the latest Final Fantasies are still selling hugely in Japan, so they must be doing something right. Our reaction to the latest games may be completely different from that in their local market. Presumably, the changes they've made have been business decisions. Whether they're smart or not, I don't know, but they're doing whatever they think will make them money.

If you really think a big corporation is in this industry to make a game that people won't complain about or that will make people on The Escapist happy, then, I'm sorry, but they're not. They just want money. Whatever people keep buying, they will keep making.

I kind of see the Final Fantasy games kind of like crack in that way. They may not actually be good, but people buy them just because it's final fantasy. So we probably have a reason to complain for the sake of a video games industry with a soul.

 

[Jimmybobjr]

FFX-2 - Completely Retarded.
FFXI - Meh... Mehmehmeh
FFXII - Brilliant game.
FFXIII - Linear corridors... Auto-attack every round... Forgetable Characters... Really annoying Character... Storyline that cant hold itself up..
FFXIV - Worst. Game. Of. The. CENTURY!


Edit: Not all Square Enix games suck!
Dissidia: Final Fantasy is BRILLIANT! (100+ Hours so far)
The Final Fantasy Tactics games are great!
The Kingdom Hearts (While a bit strange) are awesome to PLAY.
And Final Fantasy: War of the Lions for the PsP is simply AWESOME!

 

[Ophiuchus]

Look up Mistwalker. There is your Final Fantasy.

Really. Lost Odyssey was epic.

Honest to God, this. I've only played about five hours of Lost Odyssey and even that little is enough to make me think that it's what every Final Fantasy since 10 should've been.

 

[Pingieking]

I think that FFX was the beginning of the end for the FF franchise.
It's been all downhill since then, and there doesn't seem to be any good news coming any time soon.

 

[morkalavin]

Look up Mistwalker. There is your Final Fantasy.

Really. Lost Odyssey was epic.

Word!

And still, I don't think FFXIII was THAT bad, it makes perfect sense if you think of it as just half the game

 

[LogicNProportion]

Well, the latest Final Fantasies are still selling hugely in Japan, so they must be doing something right. Our reaction to the latest games may be completely different from that in their local market. Presumably, the changes they've made have been business decisions. Whether they're smart or not, I don't know, but they're doing whatever they think will make them money.

If you really think a big corporation is in this industry to make a game that people won't complain about or that will make people on The Escapist happy, then, I'm sorry, but they're not. They just want money. Whatever people keep buying, they will keep making.

Incorrect. The newer Final Fantasies are actually being loathed in Japan. They have record-breaking returns within a few days for the newer ones. FFXIII, in particular, basically rode back onto the Used Shelves, and they can't sell them.

XIV seems to be the same deal. Many Japanese magazines, blogs, and game critics reviling it.

So, no, Square is pretty much seen as shit everywhere now...

 

[Steppin Razor]

I know this will be a fairly weak topic, but if you look at what happened to the Final Fantasy series since Enix came into the picture, it's not a good sight.

FFX-2 - Girly ball of pink furry fun...
FFXI - Meh
FFXII - Weak story, very weak main character
the god-forsaken FFXIII - Linear corridors... Auto-attack every round...
and FFXIV - Meh

Auto-attack every round? Clear proof that you didn't actually play FFXIII if ever it was needed. Just hitting auto-attack would get you killed pretty fast against a number of the enemies in the game. Also, how is hitting auto-attack in FFXIII when you're fighting the pitiful creatures any different from the previous FF games where you just pressed X on attack until the crappy enemies died?

I see what they're trying to do by trying out new methods and new techniques and that if they remade the same game OVER and OVER, it would be boring. But that doesn't mean they have to completely change the formula that made FF great. Final Fantasy XIII is barely recognizable as a Final Fantasy. There was no Turn-based combat, you only controlled one character, there were no towns to explore, it was linear, there were no NPC's to pester, there was no Nobuo Uematsu. Infact the only thing I seemed to recognize was the Summon names... and only a few of them.

FFVIII didn't have turn-based combat. I'm not sure about the original game, but the DS remake of FFIV doesn't have turn-based combat either. They use the ATB gauge to determine when you can attack. You only controlled one character in combat because you really only could control one character. The fights were too fast-paced for you to have time to mess around telling the other characters what to do. They had the Paradigm system though, so you had a bit of control over what the other party members would do.

I may sound like an a**hole, mainly because I am, but I think Square Enix should put their act together and actually start making Final Fantasies... like Final Fantasies, If they released FFXIII as another franchaise that would have been fine but they are going against the formula that made the previous ones superior.

Square Enix are free to keep doing whatever they want to do. I myself quite liked FFXIII and enjoyed the battle system a hell of a lot. I still enjoy turn-based, but FFXIII was a nice change of pace. Also, it's sold more than 5.5 million copies. Those figures don't exactly paint a picture of it being "inferior" to the other games in the series.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Indeed, they've kinda sucked for almost a decade now and are getting worse.

They seem to have serious problems with their project management, claiming that considering the amount of work to make graphics that deserve HD, it is hard to make towns in the conventional style [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98084-FF13-Producer-Explains-Why-FF7-Remake-is-Unlikely], or that enough content was deleted from the project (FF13) to make an additional game [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.168724-Mounds-of-Content-Cut-from-Final-Fantasy-XIII].

The of course there's the debacle that is FF14, which was announced years ago but came out as an unfinished, unpolished, copy-pasted train wreck with very little content.

I have no confidence that the management of SE are competent.

 

[CmdrGoob]

All Square Enix games suck IMO. I need not say more.

Try: Just Cause 2

But other than that, I agree. Square Enix is probably my least liked games developer, because I don't even see how you could like their games.

I believe that was only published by SE - they had no role in actually making it.

 

[Jimmybobjr]

Square Enix are free to keep doing whatever they want to do. I myself quite liked FFXIII and enjoyed the battle system a hell of a lot. I still enjoy turn-based, but FFXIII was a nice change of pace. Also, it's sold more than 5.5 million copies. Those figures don't exactly paint a picture of it being "inferior" to the other games in the series.

Some people liked the game.
I tried Really, Really hard to enjoy FFXIII, but i just cant.

I miss the days of FFX and before. FF7,8,9,10 are where the games should be at.