Does anyone have faith in Square-Enix anymore?

I've been playing Final Fantasy since I bought the original gold cartridge back on the NES. I loved the series up till I completed FFX, and then came that god-awful MMO and Final Fantasy XII, a heartless, repetitive addition to the series that seemed to forget that story and character development actually matter when it comes to RPG games.

Lately, Square's been releasing some real garbage. FFV and VI rehashes (again....) more low-budget titles for the DS and now we get that Project Sylpheed game, which I know they're only publishing, that is just trash. Have you tried the demo? Dear God it's terrible.

Now add to their recent track record the likes of Dirge of Cerberus and Dawn of Mana. Does anyone think Square can turn around their recent trend of poor gaming experiences?

Yes they can. It's true that the lack of unique characters and the semiautomatic battle system turned off a lot of gamers, but a lot of other gamers really liked it. The ports are for heldhelds, which i dare say don't have games on the scale of a full-out console (fft excepted, i loved that game), so you can't hold the games to the same standard.

So we'll see, of course, but the fact tht not every game they touch turns to gold doesn't mean that they aren't a top-tier publisher.

YOU apparantly don't know what "taking a break from the usuall" means. FF XII is just that, a break from the usuall.

Now blog it.

I used to, but then they announce that all of their next-gen offerings are final fantasy games and I'm thinking: what happened to the square that made new IPs, like in the PS1 days?Michael85

Like the Last Remnant?

Yes. I'm sure they can deliver with their next installment of Final Fantasy. Saveour

I've always been a Square fanboy, but lately I find myself drifting towards Mystwalker, because there's no denying Sakaguchi's greatness. But yeah I have never lost faith in Square, they're one of the oldest most talented devs out there to this day.lantus

It was back when Squaresoft became Square-Enix that they lost / gaveup their original ability of great delivering great story telling along with great music with great graphics, game mechanics and mind blowing CGs.

I still believe they can turn things around, but I have to be honest that things have been going downhill. I know its hard to top FFVII or FFVI but it is perfectly possible. Lets face it, FFX-2 was as lame as it gets, I do not even consider it a FF. FFXII had no character development or storyline...it was basically a road trip. I did enjoy the battle system but thats about the only possitive thing I can say about it. It seemed to have been geared towards newcomers to FF, which in turn made it suck for those who have been with Square for a while.

Yes, Square-Enix can and has the ability to pull things together, whether they do it or not though, depends entirely on them.

They're still a great dev, they just aren't as good as they were in the 90s.

haven't any of you doubters realised that they've been steadily making each subsequen FF more mature?

I've read up on FFXIII and versus and by the sounds of it they're trying to make it all a lot more realistic and fresh.
In a recent interview (look up FF-XIII.net) nomura explains how he's trying to makea story with more emotion, and how he wants to make the characters feel more real.

I find the criticisim of the playstation era FF's very silly especially X. What other game bothers to cram so much detail into the worlds. I'll agree that the characters have a lot left to be desired but cmon in comparison to nearly every other rpg and game for that matter they're a lot more believable. i was dissapointed with XII as i expected So much more, but with that game you've gotta take into account the fact that the director left halfway and the others had to make sense of the rest probably. It's strange how people call FF cliche and ignore the fact that practically 99 percent of games out there have cliche storylines(in fable your village actually burns down!), what gets you through is the gameplay.

If people are hoping mistwalker are going revoluionise rpg storytelling please just look at a clip of blue dragon. it plays exactly like an annoying sugaryanime. Maybe LO will be different, but i'm not expecting it to trump Squeenix.

the very fact that the protagonist of XIII is a woman,andthat she' "destined to destroy mankind". and thefact that they're avoidingmanyof the traditions (having a love story) and the fact that the story of XIII deals with an isolationist dystopian state (cocoon)is kinda whyi haven't lost faith in square-enix. Oh and the world showcased in that teaserclip and the other youtube clipslooks awesome

I still have more faith in Squeenix then in most other companies.Ibacai

yeah totally. i think the criticism and adoration of what they've made is far too high. They made some of my favourite games, and will proobably continue doing so

Dragon Quest IX
It's a Wonderful World
FFCC: Crystal Bearers

Ya I still have faith, really looking forward to those 3.

As a veteran FF player, I agree... every game they used to produce was a must have title... i.e. chrono trigger, FF VI. I didnt really think any were that great after VII, until XII which renewed my faith, however I dont believe one success is enough to prove they are on the right track.

QUOTE="rzepak" "Traditions" like love storys are a good thing if done right. It gives the character other motives, helps character development and so on. And as for as the destined to destroy...Im sorry but I dont play an 80h game to be depressed at the end=) QUOTE

awwwww poor you lol. jk

I agree. But tbh squeenix just like many other storytellers fail to articulate through scenes and dialogue the complex nature of love.so farthe relationship have been as complex asrelationships ina kids movie.NOtneccessarily abysmal just not realistic. Oh yeah and the destroy mankind thing doesnt mean she wont get any action lol just that she'll have more pressing matters at hand like beating up random dudes in armour.
Seriously though, I doubt they'd actually make her kill innocent people i think mankind means the society in the flying futuristic city and maybe the people in pulse as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gXA1uqnGn48

Personally, I think a lot of their audience is just growing up and learning that their storytelling is targeted for a juvenile audience... It's like watching Transformers again and realizing "Hey, the stories are really stupid." My nieces and nephews all love the new FF games, whereas a lot of my friends who were in highschool playing the originals don't like the new ones so much. So, I have faith in Square doing that they've always done - with me liking it less.AfterShafter

This is my feeling on the situation as well. Not only that but I would hazard a guess that they've lost a lot of people over the years and that has lead to their more recent games not living up to the level of their past games. It's natural I guess for that to happen however I also agree that it might be situation where a lot of people that grew up playing their games might have simply done just that. Grown up and their taste and understanding has matured and pretty much outgrown Square's way of story telling.

Then again I think it also could be that they've moved away from the fantasy and steampunkish feel of the series into a more pure scifi based.

I guess I have faith in them, they really don't seem like the same company that existed back on the 8/16/32-bit generations. However, with them still pushing out Star Ocean (via tri-Ace), and content like Last Remnant and FFXIII (whole grouping) I still have high hopes.

While FFXII doesn't have a great story (I haven't finished the game yet, but I'm probably about halfway through, maybe), the setting is very good, and the battle system is the best thing to happen to the series in ages. It streamlines a lot of the tedium out.

I think they're capable of really incredible things, but they don't really have to try in order to sell millions, so a lot of the time, they don't. Sticking Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest on a game is all that's required to make it sell.

[QUOTE="lantus"]I've always been a Square fanboy, but lately I find myself drifting towards Mystwalker, because there's no denying Sakaguchi's greatness. But yeah I have never lost faith in Square, they're one of the oldest most talented devs out there to this day.deepdreamer256

THANK YOU. I think his games are good but they look like FFVII.

Dragon Quest IX
It's a Wonderful World
FFCC: Crystal Bearers

Ya I still have faith, really looking forward to those 3.

laus_basic

Hate to say it, but some of my lost faith is based on 2 of those 3 games. FFCC especially.

I will admit though, while not a fan, Dragon Quest 8 was really good and 9 should be no different......hopefully.