I thought you didn't like Xenogears :P

Anyway - I completely agree with this post, except that for me, Squaresoft is 1993-200 (since I really liked Chrono Cross, and Vasgrant Story deserves a mention)

Alongside Atlus, Squaresoft was the best thing that has happened to gaming.

Forever remember Final Fantasy IV - X, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Brace Fencer Musashi, Einhander, Parasite Eve, etc etc etc...

lol.  I like it in a nostalgic sense, even though it's plot/translation is total WTF.  Even at the time though, I played mostly for the visuals, soundtrack and battle system.

I liked a bunch of Square's later games too (FM3/4, LoM & Vagrant Story especially) but 93-98 was when I really felt they could do no wrong.  Same for Enix really from 90-95 (while Mischief Makers, DQVII, Star Ocean 1-2 and Valkyrie Profile all still rocked).

soft made awesome games, enix is cool, but soft are the ones

Yeah, it's a real shame how great games (Suikoden 2, Xenogears, Final Fanrast Tactics) can suffer so much from a bad translation.

Xenogears' soundtrack is my favorite ever, and what the developers managed to do with the PS1 at the time is simply amazing, like in this scene: (SPOILERS) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9RB2bSVKO4 (SPOILERS END)

I never really liked Enix, though I liked Valkyrie Profile (hated the way they chose to present the plot, what were they thinking?! |: ).

I'm sorry, but you're actually dismissing a game like Xenogears  and giving Mystic Quest the edge over it? On sheer game quality the two aren't even comparable.

Don't get me wrong, Mystic Quest was a good game, I really loved how you used your weapons on the world map for puzzles and what not, but it doesn't scratch the surface of games like Xenogears, Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story.

They didn't drop a little on the PS1, they actually managed to keep their SNES level, which was already magnificent. 

I liked Mystic Quest. Reminded me of handheld Zelda's.

I never played Xenogears, ergo, I can't judge it.

I'm judging SquareSoft by what games I've played.

Then wouldn't it be fairer to say that you couldn't judge the PS1 era properly because you haven't played the best games properly?

I mean, that's like someone saying that the Snes was a bad console just because the only game they've played was Dirt Track FX, dismissing the true good games.

Square during the 90's was unrivaled and not just in the RPG genre. Einhaender, Tobal 2, Parasite Eve 2, Bushido blade, they just pumped out one quality title after another and were not timid about experimentation or the blending of genres. It's no coincidence that the Gooch was in overall control during Square's golden decade, the man was a certified perfectionist.

Well, given that in retrospect, my favorite company then was Enix, it's a little tougher. But of those 2, it's still a piece of cake: SquareSoft. In the 16-bit era, the words Square or Enix would make me look and seriously consider a title. (Nintendo released too many titles for me to afford in those days.) It went downhill on the Square side for me in the PS1 era, and Enix seemed to basically vanish; Enix also releasing their worst DQ since 1 on PS1 probably didn't help either. (Hence, this being when I started to phase out from gaming.)

But now, the S-E days? It's a lot of crap- milking the name Final Fantasy to mean nothing anymore, and showing almost a fear of trying to sell anything else. The heart in their games is gone, replaced with corporate greed and graphics. The Squenix branding now makes me think "How much do I REALLY want this?" I can't trust it for quality; that's been taken over by Atlus. (And I wish I'd discovered Atlus sooner...)