| 2000cc said: despite all the criticism Square enix seem to be getting here, they are still religiously adored in japan, plus I tink its become fashiionable to dislike them in english speaking countries Having been in japan at the time of DQ9 and FF13 release days, they were basically national holidays Plus there is a lot of positive fedback from over there as to the direction they are taking, to generalise, the majority love it, there will always be a few detractors (like me with ff7) but the majority I talked to at least seemed very happy To use wider figures also FF13 got rated best game ever in famitsu's reader poll in Jan this year, not best FF, not best RPG but best GAME ever, and regardless what you say about famitsu it is the most widely subscribed to gaming japanese magazine so is a good measure of popular opinion based on that (as it is the largest representative sample of the indusrtry), as this was a readers poll the magazine staff had no say in the outcome. Dengeki also loved the game wanting to give it 120 out of 100 Then it came to the west and got very 'mixed' reviews. all I'm saying is there are plenty out there who think square enix is getting better (including me but I am admittely japanese biased) so things may not improve for western square fans ( i hope they do but just saying). It appaers the two fan bases may be becoming somewhat mutually exclusive. The things that we appreciate in wrpgs are not highly regarded there (though I havent like a Wrpg in a LONG time) and we may simply be looking at a cultural disconnect |
I think this whole Square Enix hate in the west is being greatly exaggerated. Most people still like Square Enix and have no problem with them. Final Fantasy was released here in the west and it has become the fastest selling final fantasy title in history when you combine the 360 PS3 numbers. It's the bestselling rpg period so far this gen beating out all of the wrpg's that people are praising this gen such as Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Oblivion etc. If people thought the game was so terrible it wouldn't have sold so well.
Using vgchartz numbers the game has sold almost as much as final fantasy 12 so the only titles that have completely outsold it are FF8, 10, and 7. Final Fantasy 13 hasn't even been out for a year yet or received a major price drop in the United States so I suspect that when it is all said and done FF13 can overtake FF8 and FF10 to become the 2nd most popular Final Fantasy title in history.
I am one of those people who think that the quality of Square Enix games have dropped but not as much as others because I still enjoy their games. I still think they are one of the best jrpg developers in the world. I do however think they have gotten a lot better in other areas such as localization because it use to take a 1 year or more for games to make it to us overseas now it seems like most major titles only take 3 to 6 months to make it over here and I think the english voice acting in most of their games are well done for the most part.
