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Some of you may or may not agree with what I am about to say but I'll put it out there anyway: Enix have killed the quality we used to expect from Square.
Square(Soft) brought us tons of great titles but I will be using the Final Fantasy series for the sake of a timeline.

So from 1 through to XI they were all developed by the Square I used to know and love. Sure, a few have the SquareEnix name on the cover, but weren't created by the same team that rubs its ****-stick all over what we're left with now-a-days.

Since the merger with Enix, they've churned out crap. I honestly can't think of a good Square*ENIX* game at all.

FFX was created by Squaresoft and was the last good offline Final Fantasy.
FFX-2: Atomic Kitten Vs Evil. This (rather shamefully) was also created by Squaresoft, despite having the SquareEnix name on it in Western countries as the merger happened between the Japanese and North American releases.
FFXI has the dirty Enix brand written all over my box. But again, it was developed and released (in Japan) before the merger took place. You could argue that some of the expansions have been created by the SquareEnix team, rather than Square alone, but it's not particularly difficult to when you've got a firm foundation to work on.
FFXII is the first Final Fantasy I never completed in the numbered FF series. It's also the first to be created entirely by the SquareEnix team. I was running around as a bleach-blonde Michael Jackson acting camp and being extremely whiney. My friends in the game were a rabbit and a snob that looked like Posh Spice and David Beckham and I'm sure there were a few more too, but I honestly don't want to try to remember too much.
FFXIII I hear is actually quite good. But then I also hear that you have to sit through 20 hours to get to the good bit. Frankly, I sat through about six and decided enough was enough. The characters were the worst I had encountered for a long, lo-- since FFXII. I wasn't too bothered when I died in that game. I actually felt like I was doing the world a favour. Utter tripe.
FFXIV is the reason I'm on the forum. I played XI on and off for six years and enjoyed it so much when I did. SquareEnix seems to have taken everything we disliked about XI and put more emphasis on it now. Example: Rangers crying out for an auto-shoot button in XI. Come XIV and they've taken out auto-hitting things completely! Now you'll struggle to have a chat with your pals whilst attempting anything at all. Brilliant. I'm not even going to mention the new trading system and lack of Auction Hous-- Oops. Well, I won't go in to it anymore.

So, to summarize. Enix, the company which bought you the SUPER-DUPER-FABULOUSLY-BRILL Dragon Quest series has kicked the door off the hinges, stamped into my world and trashed all I loved about Squaresoft in the process. And I hate them.

Thanks.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2010 7:57am by Unohana

Meh, I can't say I agree. I really loved both companies before their merge, and I still love them today. Sure, nobody was expecting Final Fantasy 13 to turn out the way it did, but it was still a good game. Enix gave us Star Ocean, which in my opinion is a crazy good series also. Squaresoft was always known to go above and beyond with their games too, and try out new things. Some of it worked and was really fun, some of it was annoying and not fun, but not game breaking either. They've experimented in all of their games since the very beginning. (FF1-3 for the NES didn't all play identical to each other, neither did FF4-6 for SNES, and FF7-9 for PS1 were pretty unique from one another)

I guess my point is, if you think some of their recent games weren't all that great, I can't see how you can blame Enix entirely, Squaresoft has been doing the same thing they've been doing for over 20 years now.

I'm betting that Square's downward spiral started with things like Final Fantasy 7, 8, and Spirits Within.

Although I still enjoyed all of their FF games (besides X-2), it would be funny if the series that saved them from going bankrupt became their demise.

It's not like I've stopped playing games created by them (Square or SquareEnix) because of the merger. And I don't expect the next game to be the best FF ever. I am one of a minority that would put IX at the top of my list for offline Final Fantasy games. I just love it. The characters, the story, the humour and that a knight is a knight and a thief is thief. It's also the last FF with a proper world map. I miss the world map so much.
I just think it's no coincidence that one company merges with another and starts consistently putting out crap. Three games now in the Final Fantasy series, covering two generations of consoles. I don't believe this is a coincidence at all.

Now that they're the parent company of Eidos, if the next Deus Ex is ruined there will be Hell to pay.

complaining about monotony in an MMO.

I'm just wondering how you can expect your criticism to be taken seriously when you haven't actually played the game yet.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2010 7:28pm by Kirby

Ok, but the point that everyone seems to miss, is that no, not a single one, MMO is polished at release.

Some might be a little closer than others, but the fact is that (from me and my room mates experience), WoW and FFXI were no better off at release than FFXIV is.


While I still get annoyed at some of SE's "fixes" (breaking/overpowering one thing in order to fix another), I realize that this is a crucial stage for any MMO.

Also, FFXIV is running a completely different engine from FFXI. The only real similarities being the races (with swapped names).

Edited, Oct 3rd 2010 8:07pm by Kirby

That's my point entirely. Why should you expect the next FF to be the best ever? It may be the next best game in the series, but it may not be. They're simply making games that appeal or do not appeal. If you like IX more than the other games, and don't go along with the rather impressive crowd of people that like VII the most, you obviously have your own taste in games. You shouldn't let it bug you, if something doesn't appeal to you the next thing just might. Personally, I thought XIII was a very good game, the only gripe that ruins it for most is the storytelling.

As for the world map, I miss it too, but let's be fair here... In the current generation of gaming there's just no room or interest for a small world scale where gigantic character models cross through. Nearly every developer aspires for realism, world maps with a small amount of towns and caves simply don't fit in this 'realistic' model.

When I said that FFXIV had a different engine than FFXI, I was talking about the underlying mechanics. Which would account for all of these "fresh" problems for SE to overcome in FFXIV.

I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at. I've actually noticed a fair bit of differences along with the similarities to FFXI. But why do they need to be compared side by side?


Anyway, the whole "FFXIV seems to be FFXI-2" thing seems to fly in the face of "Why isn't FFXIV the same as FFXI?" complaints that seem to flood the FFXIV General.

Edited, Oct 4th 2010 3:00am by Kirby

Oh ffs, it's subjective. You think they're all bad, others don't.

Because there's not much to talk about in this case. You're acting like they utterly destroyed any and all childhood dreams you've had. You have no insight in their business strategies and you have no insight in the way they develop new games. You just assume they're making 'crappy' games because they merged with Enix. They're not crappy games, you just don't like them.

You've said so yourself, you're still buying FFXV because it's a Final Fantasy game. A game that belongs to Square-Enix, a company that you hate and that only creates bad games. Why would you buy it then? Because Square used to make good games? What kind of an argument is that? The merger isn't responsible for the games they produce, they need to move along with the current age and day. People mostly care about graphics, gameplay and variety. Just about any new Square-Enix game provides these things, it may sit well, it may not sit well.

Long story short, I think you're overreacting and I also think there's little to discuss.


Glee is awesome.


Edited, Oct 4th 2010 6:08am by BlackyLakshmi

I still read Naruto even though that's turned into crap too. I have done for 10 years. It's just something I do. A creature of habit. But I don't pay £40 or £50 for each edition. And Naruto doesn't hype up all the improvements and new innovative ideas which they've implemented. SquareEnix do. They have to. It sells products. Products which cost a young gamer their entire month's pocketmoney (or more, or less - depending on their circumstances). When people such as myself do throw money at a game which does cost a fair few quid, we have a right to air our disgruntlement.

The thing is, you're making out that I am sitting here with tears dripping on to my keyboard. I'm not. I'm *bothered*, of course. I did just pay around about £300 for a sh*t game (when you include graphics card and PSU upgrades aswell as the game itself). But I'm not balling. I also paid for XIII and XII which I didn't like either. Hell, I even bought X-2 thinking it was going to be amazing. It wasn't. And that was SquareSoft. But after three full SquareEnix games I started to notice a trend and thought I would start a discussion about it. If you disagree that's cool. Again, I'm not going to cry about it. But at least keep it constructive.

Edited, Oct 4th 2010 10:38am by Unohana

I've got just enough money (overdraft) to buy something when it's released. But not enough to shrug it off as if it was an insignificant amount. I also like to buy things on release date. I tend to get double reward points for preordering, which comes in handy considering the amount of games I buy. PS3, 360, Wii, PC, PSP and am working on my backlog of PS2 games too right now. That's just how I roll.

So, Kingdom Hearts, eh? Well, the first was released in 2002 and therefore is a SquareSoft game. Kingdom Hearts 2 was a SquareEnix game, but was nowhere near as good as the original. My opinion? Yeah. But several review sites would agree with me too.
I never played any of the others except for Birth By Sleep. And while it definitely was enjoyable, it lacked so much content in comparison to the first and second. It could be argued that it was on the PSP and therefore couldn't cram as much content into it, but there have been PSP games based on PS2 which have rivalled or surpassed the PS2 'original' in terms of narrative and content (See: GTA: Liberty and Vice City Stories).
Crisis Core was also pretty good. It looked stunning for a PSP game. It's difficult to compare this to anything else as it's a prequel set on an entirely different engine and system, whereas Birth By Sleep was based on the same engine. I did enjoy Crisis Core, but I wouldn't ever consider it a true Final Fantasy game.

I bought the Last Remnant. It was awful. I still own it. I might try and play it again one day, but it didn't press any of my buttons other than the 'This is Gash' one.

I do own Star Ocean too. I got a few hours into it, but didn't really *get* into it. While it was somewhat enjoyable, the characters annoyed me. I'll play it again maybe.

I also have Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3, but haven't gotten around to playing it yet.

I buy a lot *lot* of games from a plethora of different developers. I've had video games in my house since I was about four (I'm 27) and my brother got his first Spectrum 48K. I'm not someone that's just picked up a title and decided that as this one sucks all the other games by that developer must do too. I am an over-the-top passionate gamer.

There is one other factor which I haven't considered though, until now. A man which I like to put on a pedestal: Hironobu Sakaguchi. He hasn't produced or directed a Square game since FFIX (other than as an Exectutive Producer). And this could be a major factor in why I think the titles created after he left Square are not as good. I've only played one Mistwalker game though (Lost Odyssey) and although I really enjoyed it, it's not really enough to form a decent argument based on the theory 'Sakaguchi makes games good'.