An interesting read on the fall of Square

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01.03.2014 5:33am

Thread Creator

Nelfichu
I've been there, hombre.

Let's clear up the reason for Squaresoft's "demise" and why Square and Enix merged -- original post at NeoGAF

And here's the original reddit post where I found this.

Thought it was a good read that pretty much reenforces how most of us feel about present-day Square, and what was going on within the company during the last decade.

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01.03.2014 1:31pm

CaButler
Winter Knight of the Unseelie Court

That was indeed an interesting read. Now we know when Square-Enix began it's downfall.

Hopefully, it'll find a way to resurrect itself and be good again soon.

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01.03.2014 2:02pm

Coolsetzer
Formerly Furysetzer

Nice article. I don't really hate either Toriyama or Nomura. I just think that the quality of Square games really took a nose dive once they were put in charge. I do find it interesting that Miyamoto held out for more money, though. This story really does remind me of Rumplestiltskin more than anything else.

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01.03.2014 6:39pm

SuperSquall
Shortening His Posts

Now we just have to wait until they put Yoshi-P in charge of everything and he can finally correct this decade of terror.

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01.04.2014 4:25am

Darth Howie
Darthpool
Administrator

Yeah. This ties in with the Sakaguchi Exit thoughts I had for a while. Without the Gooch steering the conent ship, things degraded quickly and haven't recovered. I'm not saying Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and the Last Story are perfect games, but they're a fuckton better than FFXIII.

Woe unto he who tries to be helpful, for upon him shall be lain the burdens of all.

- Squall 15:11

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01.04.2014 6:46am

shooter_mcgavin
Registered Member

Darth Howie said:

Yeah. This ties in with the Sakaguchi Exit thoughts I had for a while. Without the Gooch steering the conent ship, things degraded quickly and haven't recovered. I'm not saying Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and the Last Story are perfect games, but they're a fuckton better than FFXIII.

Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and The Last Story. I think if you look at those game only Lody Odyssey is conidered a very good (sometimes great) game by the gaming conensus. I think what we have to remember is that Sakaguchi's directorial style and storytelling is kind of old fashioned and wasn't going to evolve that much further. You could see in the relative small leap between FFIV and FFV, besides the job system and a more open exploration, there wasn't much that pushed the franchise forward.

Though if you look at FFV and FFVI, then FFVI and FFVII. You could see the franchise take bigger steps than FFIV and FFV. At this point Sakaguchi stepped down as the director and gave them to Kitase and Ito. At that point Sakaguchi probably went as far as he could as a director but his role as a visionary and finding talent to makee the right games was still valuable to Square.

Example was FF Tactics, it was Sakaguchi that pushed a SRPG using the FF franchise namesake and wanted Matsuno to direct the franchise. His persistence that FFVII should have no noticable load times.

Ultimatley that was missing with Square Enix now, that creative visionary like Sakaguchi. To find talent and know how to use them when developing a game.

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01.04.2014 5:11pm

Crusader
Not Even My Dad Hit Me

Not to mention the man had a sack made of moonrock. Make something alarmingly complex and off-the-mainstream like Vagrant Story. When was the last time Square Enix did something like that? The World Ends With You was six years ago. Hell, they followed up their most popular best-selling product ever with one of the most intentionally divisive games in the series and that was their flagship title that year. A triple-A like Final Fantasy VIII would never exist in this day and age.

Very interesting, if depressing, read.

Honestly, there's no feasible way to save Square Enix or its properties. My only hope is that it dies soon and quickly so that whatever remains of its talent can finally go off and make games that aren't shit.

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01.07.2014 1:30am

Scribe
The Taru

I don't know if this is going to be a good example, but if blood sells, that doesn't mean I think every single game is going to need blood because they think it'll make money. That's just easy to say in words, but it's not really why it should be in the game. There still has to be a very deep and important substance there to create that blood, and if it needs to be there, it needs to be there. But we're not going to make a game just based on blood and violence because it sells.

I love that man. It was nice to see the creators are just as disapointed and hopefuly are trying to fill that void we all have.

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01.08.2014 12:53am

(Edited on 01.08.2014 at 1:04am)

Spidey
So Sigh Ety

shooter_mcgavin said:

Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and The Last Story. I think if you look at those game only Lody Odyssey is conidered a very good (sometimes great) game by the gaming conensus. I think what we have to remember is that Sakaguchi's directorial style and storytelling is kind of old fashioned and wasn't going to evolve that much further. You could see in the relative small leap between FFIV and FFV, besides the job system and a more open exploration, there wasn't much that pushed the franchise forward..

The funny thing with that is the reason Lost Odyssey is liked is because it does well what Sakaguchi is good at , and thats to develop a world and characters you love. Blue Dragon and last story tried to be different and sakaguchi isn't good at that. Honestly i wouldn't mind sakaguchi making 10 more lost oddysey's, he is that good at it.

i did enjoy last story though, it was fun, but yeah, i dont think it was sakaguchi's contributions that made me think it was fun.

Also I don't understand why Square didn't make a sequel to TWEWY. Wasn't it mega successful? Its like even if something is successful, unless its a bad game they dont want sequels for it.

Crusader: I just rememberd one game that square may have tried something new - but I never played it since it was universally hated by almost everyone here - the last remnant. Was it an attempt at being innovative?

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01.08.2014 2:15am

SuperSquall
Shortening His Posts

shooter_mcgavin said:

Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and The Last Story. I think if you look at those game only Lody Odyssey is conidered a very good (sometimes great) game by the gaming conensus.

The Last Story is amazing. Has you plaid it?

Also as far as Sakaguchi being reaching his limits as a director: The Last Story is amazing. I guess Spidey didn't like it but seriously: the game is great and has some fantastic story and legitimately good voice acting most of the time (unlike almost every video game ever made).

In my mind Sakaguchi's main talent isn't his HR skillz, it's his ability to convey a story and characters with gravity and heart. When we had Sakaguchi we got Terra and Locke, without him we got Vaan and Lightning.

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01.08.2014 6:54am

Spidey
So Sigh Ety

I said I liked the game, just not as much as Lost Oddysey.

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01.09.2014 10:42pm

Crusader
Not Even My Dad Hit Me

Dunno, Spidey. Never played The Last Remnant either. I DO remember SE going on record saying that there will never be a second TWEWY game, but that was a long time ago. Didn't they tease that in the iOS port or something?

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01.10.2014 10:02pm

Thirdtwin
It's you guys' fault

I was interested in Last Remnant, but I heard the console release was really buggy or something so I didn't get it.

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