By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales - Square Enix in trouble - time for Sony make a move?

Rob-Ot on 19 December 2010
huaxiong90 said:
Rob-Ot said:
huaxiong90 said:
Rob-Ot said:
huaxiong90 said:
dahuman said:

I feel no sympathy towards Square-Enix these days, they've just been latching on their past successes and not doing much these days tbh.

I honestly want to understand how this is so...I mean, to me, it seems like they're TRYING to achieve global appeal, but they're doing it completely wrong.

I don't even know where they are trying to achieve global appeal, I hear so many people saying they are westernizing their games, but I don't see it. The most westernized game to come out Square-Enix was Final Fantasy XII, its been 4 years since that came out.

I can't see how FFXII was more westernized than FFXIII.

The funnier thing is that FFXII actually had a great story, and the battle system was fine. FFXIII, on the other, hand, the story was awful (more like wasted potential). Battle system was great, though (still could've used fine-tuning as well, though).

FFXII was more similar to a Western RPG, its dialogue and characters were more grounded, the game as a whole felt more "Western" than FFXIII as its more similar to Western RPG's than XIII. Westernization doesn't mean bad in my eyes even though I disliked XII, I felt its story was very weak actually haha. And agreed XIII's story was the biggest wasted potential I've ever seen (the dialogue gives me nightmares...."this dampness is damp"), the whole game was wasted potential actually and the developers know this (if you saw post game interviews, they sound desperate to make a XIII-2 because they know they can do better with the setting and world they had).

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't mind that if it's done right (like Metal Gear, for example). I thought FFXII also blended Japanese concepts with Western stuff pretty well. But FFXIII...while the battle system was great, it was seriously casualized. And the dialogue, as you mentioned, was atrocious. Like it's a low budget Western movie/Fifth Gen Console game. This, along with most of what Wada's been saying in PR statements, only contributes to the fact that it sounds like they're trying to follow the example of Western companies in just about every way. And it's not helping.

The best FF story IMO is FF6. I hope, for the dev's sake, that they can fix the mistakes of FFXIII should XIII-2 come out.

"This nature is naturey". Whenever Vanille spoke I felt like killing myself and paused the game and asked myself why was I playing the game, thank goodness for Sazh being with her in all the chapters, he cancelled out her atrocity. My gripe with FFXII is that I didn't enjoy the battle system, music nor did I like any of the characters or the setting, that was a downer for me and its why its my least favourite, at least in XIII I enjoyed the battle system, music and 3 characters (Sazh, Lightning and Fang). For XII I will say if it had a better story, more compelling characters it could have been the best Fantasy since VI as the map design and structure of the game was among the best in any RPG. Of course thats just my opinion on XII.

I agree FF6 has the best story, after seeing the Epilogue novel for FFXIII that came out 2 days ago it seems a XIII-2 is on the cards, I really think if the devs fix their mistakes we'll get a great game, because the devs of XIII said their next game would be more traditional to the FF series after the back lash. If they do that and utilise the potential the interesting world of Pulse has then we have a good game coming our way. Now if Wada tells them to do a rush job I wouldn't expect much.



Around the Network
mundus6 on 19 December 2010

The big buck comes from new FF and Dragon Quest installments, i think that FFXIII showed that even though that game sucked, it is best from a financial point of view to put it on as many platforms as possible. So if they are smart they start putting their portable games on both 3DS and PSP/PSP2 and stick with their stational on PS3 and 360 (for outside of Japan).

So if Sony would lock Square up, it would probably be worse for Square in the end than staying independent.



tolu619 on 19 December 2010
SuperAdrianK said:

Sony already made the Move.


I knew someone would say it before me when I saw '97 replies' but the only reason I came to this thread was to say this^



http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7530/gohansupersaiyan239du.jpg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> http://www.deviantart.com/download/109426596/Shippuden_Team_7_by_Tsubaki_chan.jpg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> http://image.hotdog.hu/_data/members0/772/1047772/images/kepek_illusztraciok/Bleach%2520-%2520Ishida%2520Uryuu%25201.jpg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">

3DS: tolu619

Wii U: FoyehBoys

Vita, PS3 and PS4: FoyehBoys

XBoxOne: Tolu619

Switch: Tolu619

Kugali - We publish comics from all across Africa and the diaspora, and we also push the boundaries of Augmented Reality storytelling. Check us out!

My thread for teaching VGC some Nigerian slangs

jarrod on 19 December 2010

Sony's not exactly in the greatest financial shape today either... honestly, out of Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo, Sony's the last one I'd expect running to invest.

Horii should just jump ship entirely and convince Wada to sell Dragon Quest to Iwata.  Money problem solved, and not like it'd change SE's platform support plans at all (Nintendo's already getting DQ exclusively anyway).  Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing Nintendo scoop up more of Enix's older abandoned IPs (Actraiser, Soulblazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma, Wonder Project J, Door Door, Protopia Murder Case Files, Jesus, Burning Point, Just Breed, Robotrek, EVO, Mystic Ark, Mischief Makers, Bust-A-Groove, Brainlord, Robot Alchemic Drive, etc, etc).  Y'know, all the cool sorts of stuff Enix used to produce before they got saddled with Square's bullshit.... now it's just DQ and tri-Ace. :/



huaxiong90 on 19 December 2010
jarrod said:

Sony's not exactly in the greatest financial shape today either... honestly, out of Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo, Sony's the last one I'd expect running to invest.

Horii should just jump ship entirely and convince Wada to sell Dragon Quest to Iwata.  Money problem solved, and not like it'd change SE's platform support plans at all (Nintendo's already getting DQ exclusively anyway).  Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing Nintendo scoop up more of Enix's older abandoned IPs (Actraiser, Soulblazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma, Wonder Project J, Door Door, Protopia Murder Case Files, Jesus, Burning Point, Just Breed, Robotrek, EVO, Mystic Ark, Mischief Makers, Bust-A-Groove, Brainlord, Robot Alchemic Drive, etc, etc).  Y'know, all the cool sorts of stuff Enix used to produce before they got saddled with Square's bullshit.... now it's just DQ and tri-Ace. :/

I'll pray with you. And btw, it's "Portopia".



Rockstar: Announce Bully 2 already and make gamers proud!

Kojima: Come out with Project S already!

Around the Network
jarrod on 19 December 2010
huaxiong90 said:
jarrod said:

Sony's not exactly in the greatest financial shape today either... honestly, out of Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo, Sony's the last one I'd expect running to invest.

Horii should just jump ship entirely and convince Wada to sell Dragon Quest to Iwata.  Money problem solved, and not like it'd change SE's platform support plans at all (Nintendo's already getting DQ exclusively anyway).  Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing Nintendo scoop up more of Enix's older abandoned IPs (Actraiser, Soulblazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma, Wonder Project J, Door Door, Protopia Murder Case Files, Jesus, Burning Point, Just Breed, Robotrek, EVO, Mystic Ark, Mischief Makers, Bust-A-Groove, Brainlord, Robot Alchemic Drive, etc, etc).  Y'know, all the cool sorts of stuff Enix used to produce before they got saddled with Square's bullshit.... now it's just DQ and tri-Ace. :/

I'll pray with you. And btw, it's "Portopia".


I'd be happy for just VC releases even at this point.  And thanks. <3



dahuman on 19 December 2010
huaxiong90 said:
dahuman said:
huaxiong90 said:
dahuman said:

I feel no sympathy towards Square-Enix these days, they've just been latching on their past successes and not doing much these days tbh.

I honestly want to understand how this is so...I mean, to me, it seems like they're TRYING to achieve global appeal, but they're doing it completely wrong.


They screwed up FF13 with more cons than pros.

FF14............ you know the story.

KH still plays pretty much the same on every platform after a decade, Recoded is a remake of a mobile game which well, will still play the same.

They've released that buggy ass game called TLR which ironically is the best on PC while being a mostly console centric studio.

Infinite Undiscovery really?

Nier was wtf.

Crystal Bearers, I don't want to talk about it.

DQ9 is really just an OK game and fortunately sold very well in Japan.

I haven't seen one good new IP besides The World Ends with You.

If you tell me you like their FMA games, I'll beat you to death with a carrot stick.

They are only able to make decent portable games this gen for the most part, and a lot of them are also old ass IPs. Latching away~~~

Thank goodness they picked up Eidos tbh, the glory of Batman: AA and Just Cause 2 can't be denied.

oh and DQX is nowhere in sight.

 

So yeah, Incapable of making good new IP like they used to when it was still Squaresoft, can't argue against that, they were at their best duing PS1 and PS2 times. The only thing they can do is hanging on to old IPs(FF name for example) and make a lot of the same games over and over these days, they need to hire new talents and change leaderships or some shit.

In that case, I can agree.

It's just, it sounded to me like SE are just sticking to the same formula in the past years, when that's hardly the case.

I've played a lot of SE games this gen, let me tell ya, mostly the same, just in a different presentation, game x having past game y's formula is almost all their games currently (Valkirie Profile on DS for example,) or game a x is just game a's system with tweaks with 10 iterations of the same brand a behind it(KH being the perfect example. not that they are bad games, they just don't wow me one bit.) They took some chances, but for whatever reason I don't want to pretend to know, lack a ton of polish. I for one donot believe, absolutely will not believe, that FF13 was a finished product, as a RPG, it's OK, as a Final Fantasy, it fails very hard, and is pretty much the case for all their console games this gen and it pisses me off since I love their past games very much.

They did make The World Ends with You though, so I can forgive them on a handheld front at least, =P that game is excellent. You'd also think they'd make something awesome like Knights in the Nightmare on DS(PSP analog control is meh) which is awesome good, but they are not what they used to be I guess.



huaxiong90 on 19 December 2010
dahuman said:
huaxiong90 said:
dahuman said:
huaxiong90 said:
dahuman said:

I feel no sympathy towards Square-Enix these days, they've just been latching on their past successes and not doing much these days tbh.

I honestly want to understand how this is so...I mean, to me, it seems like they're TRYING to achieve global appeal, but they're doing it completely wrong.


They screwed up FF13 with more cons than pros.

FF14............ you know the story.

KH still plays pretty much the same on every platform after a decade, Recoded is a remake of a mobile game which well, will still play the same.

They've released that buggy ass game called TLR which ironically is the best on PC while being a mostly console centric studio.

Infinite Undiscovery really?

Nier was wtf.

Crystal Bearers, I don't want to talk about it.

DQ9 is really just an OK game and fortunately sold very well in Japan.

I haven't seen one good new IP besides The World Ends with You.

If you tell me you like their FMA games, I'll beat you to death with a carrot stick.

They are only able to make decent portable games this gen for the most part, and a lot of them are also old ass IPs. Latching away~~~

Thank goodness they picked up Eidos tbh, the glory of Batman: AA and Just Cause 2 can't be denied.

oh and DQX is nowhere in sight.

 

So yeah, Incapable of making good new IP like they used to when it was still Squaresoft, can't argue against that, they were at their best duing PS1 and PS2 times. The only thing they can do is hanging on to old IPs(FF name for example) and make a lot of the same games over and over these days, they need to hire new talents and change leaderships or some shit.

In that case, I can agree.

It's just, it sounded to me like SE are just sticking to the same formula in the past years, when that's hardly the case.

I've played a lot of SE games this gen, let me tell ya, mostly the same, just in a different presentation, game x having past game y's formula is almost all their games currently (Valkirie Profile on DS for example,) or game a x is just game a's system with tweaks with 10 iterations of the same brand a behind it(KH being the perfect example. not that they are bad games, they just don't wow me one bit.) They took some chances, but for whatever reason I don't want to pretend to know, lack a ton of polish. I for one donot believe, absolutely will not believe, that FF13 was a finished product, as a RPG, it's OK, as a Final Fantasy, it fails very hard, and is pretty much the case for all their console games this gen and it pisses me off since I love their past games very much.

They did make The World Ends with You though, so I can forgive them on a handheld front at least, =P that game is excellent. You'd also think they'd make something awesome like Knights in the Nightmare on DS(PSP analog control is meh) which is awesome good, but they are not what they used to be I guess.

Now I can completely agree with you.

TWEWY's such an underrated game.



Rockstar: Announce Bully 2 already and make gamers proud!

Kojima: Come out with Project S already!

Kasz216 on 19 December 2010
RageBot said:

Why should they buy them?

The pepole who actually made SE what it is today are now in mistwalker and in monolyth.

Sony should just buy Mistwalker and get Matsuno.

That's pretty much the case...

you'd just be paying for IPs... which...eh



darkknightkryta on 19 December 2010
Rob-Ot said:
darkknightkryta said:
Rob-Ot said:
huaxiong90 said:
dahuman said:

I feel no sympathy towards Square-Enix these days, they've just been latching on their past successes and not doing much these days tbh.

I honestly want to understand how this is so...I mean, to me, it seems like they're TRYING to achieve global appeal, but they're doing it completely wrong.

I don't even know where they are trying to achieve global appeal, I hear so many people saying they are westernizing their games, but I don't see it. The most westernized game to come out Square-Enix was Final Fantasy XII, its been 4 years since that came out.

Replacing the ending theme of Final Fantasy XIII with Leona Lewis was one thing that came to mind.  Not sure if it was directly stated but getting rid of towns and stuff from FInal Fantasy XIII was to "appeal to western audiences" though that was probably hinted if anything.  The biggest thing is everything that comes out of Wada's mouth.

Adding a english song at the end isn't "westernization". Taking towns out isn't either, I mean have the clowns at Square-Enix seen Western RPG's this generation? If anything FFXIII was most similar to FFX in structure (apart from Towns), I really don't see how it was meant to appeal to the West, because FFXIII is as Japanese as it gets from its art style, characters to even its dialogue. Perhaps they said its meant to appeal to the West to desparately try to make an excuse for the linearity. As the original FFXIII for PS2 was planned to be pretty non-linear (with even a cocoon world map I believe), moving the game to PS3 and the terrible development process (that we spoke about in the other thread) is what led to a linear structure being formed.

I know why the game was linera, but their reasoning for itthe linearity I could have been talking out of my ass, I'm just remembering things from interviews from Kitase and that's all jumbled up, but like I said the biggest thing is Wada, every interview with the man has "western" in it.  Or how they were learning development techniques from Eidos (Which is so horribly flawed considering the crap they've made recently) to improve their games.  Plus in that same interview where some developer from Square said they're learning about development from Eidos and that "westerners" like their games better cause they're more realistic and less fantastical and I can only imagine what fail is gonna come out of the studio now using that mind set.