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With Final Fantasy slated to be released soon for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it has to makes you wonder what took Square so long to come to terms with making their RPG series a multiplat series.
How different things would have been if Final Fantasy III was released for both the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis in the 16-bit days.
or Final Fantasy VII released for the PlayStation and Saturn
or Final Fantasy XI released for Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube
I didn't have a SNES growing up, so aside from the times that I borrowed a friend's, I didn't get to sample Squaresoft too much in the 16-bit days. I did manage to play through Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III/VI in this fashion, and the former is still a favorite of mine, although these days I tend to think it's a tad bit overrated.
So most of my experience with Squaresoft happened during the PlayStation era. Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, SaGa Frontier (yes, I am one of the 20 people who absolutely loves this game, and I will defend it to the death), The Legend of Mana, and Final Fantasy VIII rank among the best games I've ever played, and not just of that generation.
Personally, I haven't had much interest in Square-Enix since its inception. The last game from them that I absolutely loved was Final Fantasy XII, and it's actually the only post-PSX offering (besides the occasional GBA port) of theirs that I have played all the way through. Sadly, the whole debacle surrounding FFXII's development ended up with one of my all time favorite developers, Yasumi Matsuno (the man behind the Ogre Battle & Tactics Ogre series, along with Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story), leaving the company. So I doubt I'll be too excited for anything the company puts out anytime soon.
I have to agree with Jerry, things are looking bleak. The last time I got excited about a new Square game was Parasite Eve 2.
Where the hell is my Parasite Eve 3?! Where is Chocobo Racing 2!? Where's Front Mission 5!? They just dropped all the good series to focus on Final Fantasy and lost my dollar and my interest.
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Originally Posted by Nunzio
Oh man, I completely forgot to mention Chocobo Racing! I guess it's kind of a guilty pleasure, but from what I remember it was a really fun/solid kart racer. And there was sooooooo much to unlock in that game, which I'm kind of a sucker for.
And I will second another Parasite Eve. There had to be one in the pipeline at some point.
I prefer the Squaresoft from the PSX era myself, as Parasite Eve and Einhander were two of my biggest favorites from them. Speaking of Einhander, I liked how they tried a good variety of genres around that period, scoring a great fighter in Bushido Blade, and whipping out a fun action title in Brave Fencer Musashi. I'll even go as far as to say that Xenogears is probably their finest product from that period (though I did not personally complete the game, I did watch my brother go through most of the game and I was very impressed with it).
Their SNES days were fun too, as Final Fantasy VI (the only Final Fantasy game I completed, and still one of my all-time favorites) and Chrono Trigger were well worth the price of admission for me.
But I have to agree, modern Square-Enix doesn't interest me these days. In fact, I haven't bought anything from the company (aside from Project Sylpheed) for quite some time.
And on the subject of Saga Frontier, I loved that game too. I have the first two on PSX (both great games), and I thought Unlimited Saga on PS2 was actually pretty fun when I checked that out. A very underrated series in my opinion.
:ok: +1Quote:
Originally Posted by Milkymagic
I haven't played much of SaGa Frontier II, but I intend to give it a shot after I've completely finished with the first game (and I'm almost done, currently about halfway done with the last of the seven scenarios). Never played Unlimited SaGa, although from what I understand you really have to work to understand the game mechanics, even more than in Frontier. I'd really like to pick up the Romancing SaGa remake for PS2 as well, I've heard that was quite good. I'm even a fan of the Game Boy SaGas (which were localized here as The Final Fantasy Legends), which were among the first RPGs I ever played.
I'm a huge fan of the series, and one of the things that I like is that almost every game is vastly different from the previous one. I wish the games were more popular here, or just in general. I'd really like to see a SaGa Frontier III.
It kind of gets a bad rap, but as far as the Mario Kart clones go I think Cocobo Racing has the most value. Plus it got a US release, something I'm sure wouldn't happen with Square today!Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry coeurl
I also agree w/ milkymagic about how diverse a company Squaresoft was during those days. Aside from like, a straight-up sim, they pretty much covered all the genre bases. It's kind of a shame that these days it seems they won't even consider a project unless it's some form of an RPG.
Square sunk massive funding into "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" with minimal return.
That's what killed their diversity going into the PS2 generation.
in all fairness, Spirits Within didn't have shit to do with any of the games and royally sucked. Proof that Square really is just a bunch of untalented hacks and their "OmGZ AweSOMe STOriEs!" are a steaming pile of dogshit when compared to real movies. This is the exact reason I don't like long cutscenes or overblown stories in games. No matter how good it is, it usually isn't any better than a mediocre made for TV movie, so screw it. Watch a movie for story, play a game for gameplay...period.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knuckle Duster
I feel no shame in admitting I like to be told a story as I'm playing a game sometimes, and I also don't mind a game when it tries to be artistic either. After all, I firmly believe that with variety in not just gameplay, but presentation as well, keeps the gaming industry much more interesting than it would be if everything were as basic as "combat game" or "fighting game" per say.Quote:
Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes
However, I would agree that some titles do go to unnecessary lengths to tell a story, but I'm still for the idea of telling a story if its got some weight to it. Metal Gear Solid and Snatcher from Hideo Kojima do a good job in my opinion, but even then, I don't feel that every video game around the corner needs to tell a story the caliber of Citizen Kane as long as it's fun of course. ;)
I know they lost a shitload of money on Spirits Within, but haven't they recouped any of that since then? I don't remember any other major turbulence, and their games seem to still sell very well. I'd have to assume that they have mostly been in profit-making mode since the merger with Enix.
Yeah, don't forget the Taito & Eidos absorption.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry coeurl
They're one big fugly megaforce now.
I've often thought the same thing and agree with what you're saying, but sometimes the best way to enjoy it is to take it with a grain of salt, sometimes even the way you look at a cheesy cult action movie rather lightheartedly, just for fun. This kind of thinking has improved my outlook regarding storytelling in games and I learned not take it too seriously, and just allow it to come to me without expecting much to begin with, whether it strikes me as being compelling or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes
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Originally Posted by Milkymagic
As always, I need to make the distinction between what is good for games and what isn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by 5233
Games like Shadow of the Colossus have minimal non-interactive cutscenes, yet is one of the most epic and cinema-like games around. That is what I consider a "good" type of video game story: one that unfolds during gameplay. Panzer Dragoon is another such game (at least the second one, haven't played the first). Panzer Dragoon has little in terms of cutscenes, but the story unfolds in a very cohesive way as you play.
On the other hand, games like Final Fantasy (VII and onward), you might as well just throw the controller on the floor for 95% of the game because it's all a bunch of BS story nonsense while you sit and watch characters spit text at each other (or later spit bad voice acting).
Now there are things like point-n-clicks and full FMV games that I don't really consider games, so they get a pass, but if you have level upon level of nonsense and then a long winded cutscene to poorly attempt to glue the pieces together, you've failed as a game maker and a story teller.