- You have a point about FF VIIR probably taking ages to be completed. And I'd much prefer getting a FF VI remake over FF VII. But I would not want Nomura to be the one directing VI. He has his own style, and I don't think that style suits VI. If they could give that to Ito, that would be much better in my book. But I want XVI to be good/much better than XV... So it's a dilemma.

- The only thing that's really a mess in FF XV is the damn hair on the characters. That pixelation is so distracting. Other than that, the engine doesn't display any issues that aren't present in all other current gen engines running on consoles. Framerate issues were ironed out when they patched the "Steady" performance profile in the game's options. Although I'm not sure if its a feature exclusive to the PS4 Pro or if things got improved for the standard PS4 version. 

- Sure, the quality of the games that are made by what used to be Squaresoft really isn't as good as it used to be. But if they keep doing remakes, they can never really move forward.

- Sakaguchi is making the games he based on the budget he has. He isn't working for a big publisher anymore. He has his own small company, and he likes to spend his time surfing and go to dinners with old friends. xD But having him as a consultant wouldn't mean he'd make mobile type games. He'd just make sure the current developers stay true to the core spirit of the franchise. Something they have been struggling to do since FF X-2.

I've heard this a lot, people often say that Square was at their peak during the SNES, PS1 and PS2 days with some going as far as to draw a red line at the point of the Square Enix merger. I think this is often due to views about the FF series as opinion of those games through time seems to correlate strongly with opinion of Squaresoft/Square Enix at those same times. Of course sometimes, as is the case with this OP, their less popular but still well regarded titles get brought up but I can't bring myself to agree that the Square of today is significantly worse than that of the pre-PS3 era.

I enjoy too many of their modern games to say that they have fallen, although I probably would say that my absolute favourite few games were released on or before the PS2. This holds for my overall taste in games though, not just Square Enix. Their output seems to be lower, I haven't actually checked this, but I would guess that's due to projects becoming larger than ever with some requiring support long after release. I actually like that FFXV has received extra content as I would have accepted the base game as a quality finished product. I also think that when this discussion arrises it tends to ignore the acquisition of Eidos IP so I will also ignore it in this overly long thought on the matter. Eidos is probably its own little discussion on how far they've fallen or not, since the old days.

I think people tend to view Squaresoft with nostalgia goggles. The claim that they were brilliant (they were and still are in my opinion) usually stems from them releasing a few very well regarded classics over many years, stuff like Chrono Trigger or 'insert that one FF you really liked here' but in reality they were always churning out stuff that was poorly received or instantly forgotten. Even the "golden age" of FF games contains the often derided FFVIII, the lukewarm FFV and FFX, which depending on who you ask is either the last true game of the franchise or the point the series died.

Then look at Bushido Blade, some say this was good but overall nobody cares or ever did. Most Mana games are only enjoyed by very small groups of fans, really only Secret of Mana gains widespread acclaim. For every critical darling like Vagrant Story and FF Tactics there is an Ehrgeiz, an Unlimited Saga or The Bouncer. Chocobo Racing, Chocobo Mystery Dungeon and Tobal No 1 helped bulk out their PS1 days while Threads of Fate bombed hard and received average reviews. Then Brave Fencer Musashi, a middling title itself was followed on the PS2 by the commercial and critical failure of Musashi Samurai Legend. Star Ocean is nice but very few people cared about Radiata Stories or would say it is a true classic. Although a few of us enjoyed Drakengard 1 and 2, most did not and almost nobody would say those games are of the same quality as Nier Automata. FFXI may be a favourite of a small number of diehards but FFXIV has clearly surpassed it in popularity and quality in most people's opinion. Xenogears certainly has it's fans but there are also a lot of people who think the game was unfinished and a chore to get through the second disc. Square got it's grubby hands on Grandia 3 but that is largely considered to be the worst of the main trilogy.

I actually like a lot of these games and a lot of their newer stuff too, but most of Square's games are not well regarded and never have been, at best some of the less popular titles may still be seen as hidden gems by small groups of fans (like me) and that's the situation we are still in with their modern stuff where Bravely Default, I am Setsuna and The Third Birthday will be quickly forgotten except when we want to wax lyrical about all those Square Enix gems that get overlooked and how the company just puts out trash on the PS6 unlike those glorious days up until around 2020.

TLDR They are only perhaps not quite as good as they once were, but they continue to release good games that tend to get overlooked/forgotten and at no time in their history have they had a period where they released nothing but good games, many of them were bad.

So you're going to use his flops to judge his career? That's dumb. As if any Producer has a straight ace track record.

Hironabu Sakaguchi was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. He's referred to as the grandfather of the RPG genre. Testuya Nomura will never have that accolade because he's an egomaniac and a perfectionist who prioritizes detail and fidelity over any and all other features in the video games he directs. Tetsuya Nomura is a cancer to Square Enix, and is the reason FFVII Remake and other projects (Versus XIII) take FOREVER to complete.

If anything SE made most of the game what it is.  Story, music, production and direction wise with Yoko Taro at the helm.  Platinum did have the gameplay on lock very well but considering the experience of Nier A, it's highest quality outputs were more the story and soundtrack.  The first Nier didn't have very good gameplay yet it was still highly, and is still highly looked upon despite that in terms of being a great experience overall.

Sqaure-Enix?

Most japanese developers had a hard time adapting to HD development and Square-Enix was not the exception (I still remember that time when they said making HD towns is hard ) + they had some really bad project management during the PS360 era + they tried to develop their own messy engine. I think they've improved in all those aspects but it's not as easy to make PS4 games as it was to make PS1 games.

This would be so amazing, hopefully it's what is happening.

I've felt the same way about the company ever since the merge. They've been making a recovery lately, but back when they were Squaresoft, anytime I saw their logo on a game, I knew the game was going to be good. Nowadays it just doesn't have that same feel. I doesn't help that FFXIII has ruined and left a hard stain to remove off the company.

I play the DS cartridge on a 3DS. First of all, the story is very good, it tries to catch the worries, fears and goals of young people quite well, I think. The whole setting has a very vibrant feeling. There's a mechanic that lets you read other peoples minds and listen to what concerns them, for example. And I believe these are things that many real life people worry about as well like paying debts, health, jobs, school and so on, although some is also rubbish like chasing trends, fashion, popstars, etc. Then there's the music. Stylish beats, catchy tunes. Fits the trendy youth culture theme very well.

The main story focuses on very deep themes. It deals with questions about existence, motivation, the meaning of society. The characters evolve during the story pretty much, and there are lots of plot twists.

But the best thing is how it manages typical rpg tropes like grinding, for example. It allows you to grind because that way you can get lots and lots of pins. Pins are equivalent to attacks / bonus effects during battle. But on the other hand, it's not mandatory at all since you get enough pins on your way through the story by default. Enemy encounters can be skipped most of the time. The difficulty setting can be changed on the fly, and the game does not punish you for doing so. In fact, it rather incentivises difficulty swapping since many enemies drop different pins based on the current setting. And to top that even more, you can adjust the player level on the fly as well. So in order to spice up the difficulty a little or to give you a little challenge even when playing on easy, you can lower your level. And this is also incentivised as it affects the enemy pin drop rate.

I can highly recommend it, to sum it up.

I'm guessing Thief is one of said games?

kappa ;-D

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it ! Your comment, in-turn, made my day actually .... Funny how that works. 

And I am not saying The Bouncer is bad. I am just poking a bit of fun at a great developer.