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Is Square back?
- Thread starter Firmus_Anguis
- Start date
OP
OP
Yes, this I absolutely agree with. No matter the blunders, I definitely believe they're on the verge of a Capcom-esque comeback. This is the gen.
Hard for me to overlook that they released their best game in 2019 in the West... SaGa Scarlet Grace.
They hit the rocks hard in the PS3 era when they moved mostly to DS/PSP and then didn't localize half of their output, but now, I'm pretty happy with what all of their Japanese teams are working on. Their Western branch is... mismanaged, I guess, but there's not really an analogy to Square or Enix in the 90s or 00s so there isn't really something that got worse.
They hit the rocks hard in the PS3 era when they moved mostly to DS/PSP and then didn't localize half of their output, but now, I'm pretty happy with what all of their Japanese teams are working on. Their Western branch is... mismanaged, I guess, but there's not really an analogy to Square or Enix in the 90s or 00s so there isn't really something that got worse.
given that the gameplay impressions have been surprisingly good so far, I hope this game's story is so bad that it loops around to being the Metal Gear Rising equivalent for the decade
In spite of their Switch efforts and continued support, on top of my GOTG in Dragon Quest 11, I want to say undecided, but nope.
Their subpar pile is vast and numerous and outshines the few good to the very few outstanding. We'll see how they handle Dragon Quest and their continued Switch support, because otherwise, I have little to no faith in their other software.
Their subpar pile is vast and numerous and outshines the few good to the very few outstanding. We'll see how they handle Dragon Quest and their continued Switch support, because otherwise, I have little to no faith in their other software.
Dunno, I'll wait and see how FF16 turns out. FF14 is great, and the FF pixel remakes have been surprisingly good aside from some small issues. Hardly seems like a return to form when Square was tackling tons of genres and doing all sorts of cool stuff, but it's not nothing either.
Do bad games like Balan and Left Behind go into your brain and erase the fun games like FF7R, KH3, DQXI, and Nier Automata?
Apparently. And it doesn't work past an arbitrary date in the past, so Musashiden 2 or Dawn of Mana don't count the same way.
DQXI was great, but the DQ team never fails.
KH3 is the only game I've pre-ordered last gen and it was the biggest disappointment for me. It is the worst console KH game, imo, and I didn't even come close to finishing it.
FFVIIR was okayish, but it was full of corridors and the maps were lame. There was way too much forced walking which slowed down the pace considerably and the combat was boring. The only interesting part about the story was how humans are sucking the world dry. Also, I could've lived without everything after Wall Market. It all went seriously downhill from there..
TLDR: Nope (beside the DQ team, of course)
KH3 is the only game I've pre-ordered last gen and it was the biggest disappointment for me. It is the worst console KH game, imo, and I didn't even come close to finishing it.
FFVIIR was okayish, but it was full of corridors and the maps were lame. There was way too much forced walking which slowed down the pace considerably and the combat was boring. The only interesting part about the story was how humans are sucking the world dry. Also, I could've lived without everything after Wall Market. It all went seriously downhill from there..
This is where I'm at: FFXVI is do or die for SE. Still mildly excited for it, as I do believe they have what it takes to make a succesful JRPG. Also, kinda hopeful for Forspoken.
TLDR: Nope (beside the DQ team, of course)
They never left IMO, but given what seems to me to be a general hate-boner Era has for Square Enix I'm not at all surprised to see "Nope" winning by a large margin.
Bear in mind, "They never left" doesn't mean I think their recent output has been anywhere near flawless (see Avengers and their abysmal E3 presentation).
Bear in mind, "They never left" doesn't mean I think their recent output has been anywhere near flawless (see Avengers and their abysmal E3 presentation).
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Seriously lol. We got new NieR and TWEWY games this year, excellent remasters for old Final Fantasy games (about time, and featuring some of the best sounding Uematsu renditions), as well as some awesome FF7 DLC. FF14 is still riding high with an expansion coming, as well as FF16 and more Life is Strange (published only but still). And for my personal invested interests, KH3 Re: Mind is some of the best content gameplay wise in the entire series, leaving me really excited for what Osaka team has in store. They're doing great.
That's far above what any dev ever can hope to achieve again. That combo of quality + quantity will never be matched in this industry again. Games take too long.
Unrelated to your post, it's OK for old IPs to die. People are obsessed with Square continuing IPs that clearly nobody in the company has artistic drive for anymore.
Yup, that's how I feel.
For me, it's all dependent on how FF16 turns out, because that FF Origin Stranger of Paradise looks like terrible, laughable cringe.
The Japanese branch is killing it. People saying they haven't made a good game since snes/ps1 are ridiculous
The Western branch needs to do a little better.
The Western branch needs to do a little better.
Growing up Square was, like, the zenith of gaming, with their stuff being the highest quality and beyond what everyone else was doing. They're good, but they haven't quite gotten back to that.
Like, Peak Square felt like Peak Pixar and Modern Square feels like Modern Pixar. Still good, but everyone else has caught up and they're not as good as they used to be too.
Like, Peak Square felt like Peak Pixar and Modern Square feels like Modern Pixar. Still good, but everyone else has caught up and they're not as good as they used to be too.
In the fact they never stopped making games? They never left. But they are certainly a shell of their former selves.
Personally, I view this as a wider Japanese Game Development issue. Capcom, Nintendo, SEGA Atlus and Square all took nearly a generation to get acclimated to the HD era hardware which in all honesty put them all in a sort of rut but all of them are surely getting back on track and pumping out consistently better titles.
Square definitely managed to understand HD era hardware and what people expect from the games/franchises now and if they don't fuck it up with future installments from their franchises then I guess they could be close to where they once were.....maybe but we are way past their peak days now.
Square definitely managed to understand HD era hardware and what people expect from the games/franchises now and if they don't fuck it up with future installments from their franchises then I guess they could be close to where they once were.....maybe but we are way past their peak days now.
Nier Automata was good I guess. Nothing else they have put out in the last few years has done anything for me, but I haven't liked their JRPG's since the SNES days, and I've tried a lot of them, including Dragon Quest XI and Kingdom Hearts 3. It's not that they are bad at making those games...it's just that those games do absolutely nothing for me as a 38 year old.
They never really left. Final Fantasy XIII and XV were both crap, but their other series were great.
The main difference between the PS3 era and PS4 era is that their series like Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts were on handheld in the PS3 era so it felt more like they'd left and are now 'back'.
The main difference between the PS3 era and PS4 era is that their series like Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts were on handheld in the PS3 era so it felt more like they'd left and are now 'back'.
Pretty much this. Their Western developed and published games have been very hit-and-miss in recent years
I love how quickly these posts appeared.
Which is why I feel comfortable saying that Square won't ever be a thing again until they make Chrono Break.
No Chrono Trigger/Cross sequel/remake, no Brave Fencer Musashi, Vagrant Story, Einhander, Parasite Eve, or Threads of Fate, or Bust-A-Groove remaster, no new hand drawn games ala SaGa Frontier 2/Legend of Mana, no proper, big budget 3D remakes for the SNES or PSone era FF games aside from a padded version the first disc of FF7.
To me, S-E is a shell of their former selves. They've largely abandoned the roots that brought them their breakout success in the US. They went from my favorite publisher from 1996-2006 to pretty much irrelevant outside of mainline FF entries (which haven't exactly impressed me in a while).
TWEWY2 is the quirkiest thing they've put out in like 15 years, but the art style really turned me off. I miss when they had quirky stuff like that all the time. They'll live on forever in my heart until they embrace their late nineties/early '00 roots and bring back the stuff that really stood out.
To me, S-E is a shell of their former selves. They've largely abandoned the roots that brought them their breakout success in the US. They went from my favorite publisher from 1996-2006 to pretty much irrelevant outside of mainline FF entries (which haven't exactly impressed me in a while).
TWEWY2 is the quirkiest thing they've put out in like 15 years, but the art style really turned me off. I miss when they had quirky stuff like that all the time. They'll live on forever in my heart until they embrace their late nineties/early '00 roots and bring back the stuff that really stood out.
They have great games but unlike Capcom they have made a lot of bad decisions.
Picked "undecided".
Picked "undecided".
Japanese dev side is doing quite well.
Publishing-wise, it's a mix: They've got the 2 Nier games, and Outriders, which seems to be doing ok but they've also got Left Alive, Quiet Man, Balan Wonderworld that were all huge flops, and Babylon's Fall isn't exactly looking promising right now. Though I guess CHAOS also counts as a published game, so that might offset it.
Eidos has been pretty much dying, since I think the last 2 games that met expectation were Human Revolution and Tomb Raider 2013.
Oh, and RIP Square Enix Collective, :(
So I guess the answer is "it depends"
Publishing-wise, it's a mix: They've got the 2 Nier games, and Outriders, which seems to be doing ok but they've also got Left Alive, Quiet Man, Balan Wonderworld that were all huge flops, and Babylon's Fall isn't exactly looking promising right now. Though I guess CHAOS also counts as a published game, so that might offset it.
Eidos has been pretty much dying, since I think the last 2 games that met expectation were Human Revolution and Tomb Raider 2013.
Oh, and RIP Square Enix Collective, :(
So I guess the answer is "it depends"