Jeff Zero posted... I've had a hard time believing Square's current staff could write things as well as they did with game from FFVI onward -- Chrono Trigger, FFVII, FFT, Xenogears, FFVIII, Vagrant Story, FFIX, Chrono Cross, FFX. Even if you dislike any of these (I have really mixed feelings toward a couple!) it's hard to deny the general quality of writing from this era was leaps and bounds ahead of what has come out since.
Maybe its because their stories are aimed at teens, so we liked all of those more when we were teenagers? I've seen quite a few people complain about FF13 for its story aimed at teenagers, but lets be honest... most jrpgs are aimed at teens. People have just kinda grown out of them
I don't know if you can blame the merger. Pretty much all of Square Enix's executives were the Square executives before hand. I think it's more likely that while they were willing to give him uncompromising control over smaller projects, they weren't willing to give him complete control over their flag ship franchise. Much more money was at risk.
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Maybe its because their stories are aimed at teens, so we liked all of those more when we were teenagers? I've seen quite a few people complain about FF13 for its story aimed at teenagers, but lets be honest... most jrpgs are aimed at teens. People have just kinda grown out of them
This is a pretty common statement and I can't say there isn't some truth in it regardless. But I know this, so take it or leave it -- I was reading the classics as a young teenager, I was watching 'geeky' shows with real messages like TNG and DS9, I was watching things in theatres like Schindler's List and enjoying them to no end... and I thought games like Xenogears were damned impressive too.
I'm watching the girlfriend play FFVII for the first time right now. She's 22. She's also much more impressed with its ability to convey a meaningful story than she was with FFXIII. And in rewatching, so am I. It's got some genuine good in it, it really does.
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From: FateStayAlbion | #051 Maybe its because their stories are aimed at teens, so we liked all of those more when we were teenagers? I've seen quite a few people complain about FF13 for its story aimed at teenagers, but lets be honest... most jrpgs are aimed at teens. People have just kinda grown out of them
PS1 Square JRPGs were pretty dark, for the most part. I don't really think they were teen-oriented.
Enjoyed by teenagers, sure, but it's not like they never dealt with mature themes.
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RevolverSaro posted... I don't know if you can blame the merger. Pretty much all of Square Enix's executives were the Square executives before hand. I think it's more likely that while they were willing to give him uncompromising control over smaller projects, they weren't willing to give him complete control over their flag ship franchise. Much more money was at risk.
You've got a good point there. I think it might be a mixture of both but I also think your point is definitely very valid and true. They just weren't willing to compromise from things like "your lead can be no older than 21", which wouldn't have worked for Basch in Matsuno's mind.
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From: FateStayAlbion | #051 Maybe its because their stories are aimed at teens, so we liked all of those more when we were teenagers? I've seen quite a few people complain about FF13 for its story aimed at teenagers, but lets be honest... most jrpgs are aimed at teens. People have just kinda grown out of them
Sounds like a poor excuse for crappy writing to me. A good writer can make a story that appeals to all ages.
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i mean FFVII was the only PS1 numbered FF that really had some mature themes to it. FF8 was a teenage adventure love story and FF9 wasnt super deep or dark either. Tactics was also pretty damn deep.
FF10 was similar to FF8 in its general story themes.
I wouldnt say the "golden years" FF games were way more mature or anything. 2 of them were.
Then again, 2 FFs nowadays equals about 6 years of games. So maybe the PS1 era did seem to have more mature themes.
Id also argue that FF6 had a bit more mature of a setting, but maybe consider it to be a little before squares golden age.
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Reminds me of socksmakepeoplesexy's thing about wondering if he just grew out of the series over time, Harmonica. That's how I've always felt too, really. It really isn't nostalgia; I'm not immune to the thing per se but I'm pretty damn resilient to it. If I'd have replayed one of these games and it wasn't as good as I'd remembered, I would have definitely gone "oh man, it was just for teens."
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It's funny, I mean I remember as a kid seeing FFVII's PC version had Eidos involved and thinking "it's nice of Squaresoft to work with such a smaller company."
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SquareEnix also runs one of the biggest manga magazines in Japan, and racking in a lot of cash through it. Thats probably helping it keep afloat as well
forgot about that *Wheres my CT and Mana Series Manga Squeenix*
Are you familiar with an SE rep said in like mid-2010 or so concerning Chrono Trigger receiving further media? It's one of the most infuriating things they've ever replied with and quite infamous among the fans.
"Oh, the fans want more Chrono-related entries? I wasn't aware -- they should have bought more copies of Chrono Trigger DS, then!"
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Only 1.1 million people bought a port of a port of an easily emulated game released on one of the most pirated platforms - clearly a sequel would fail!
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_Harmonica_ posted... Only 1.1 million people bought a port of a port of an easily emulated game released on one of the most pirated platforms - clearly a sequel would fail!
Yep. It's a wonderful world of utter delusion SE lives in.
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Here's hoping that Square Enix will go down in a fiery blaze of un-glory in the next few years, then rise from the ashes as a smaller, more focused company that actually likes making games, and start making smaller-scale, charming and fun RPGs like the ones we see a lot of on the DS.
Radiant Historia showed that an old-school low-budget JRPG can still be ten times better than most other games on the market.
Stress of directing a project on the size and scale of FFXII, along with continual creative disagreements from corporate, forced Matsuno to take a leave from the project. Most of his work is still in the game, though, even if he didn't see it all the way through.
ZFS posted... Stress of directing a project on the size and scale of FFXII, along with continual creative disagreements from corporate, forced Matsuno to take a leave from the project. Most of his work is still in the game, though, even if he didn't see it all the way through.
Daisuke Watanabe has often expressed regret that much of the new writers' intended scenes didn't make it into the game in time. While we'll never know whether or not that's a blessing in disguise, one of my few big criticisms of FFXII is that it has too much space between cutscenes for an FF.
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Yeah, that happens with every game. Time usually prevents everything from getting into the game, so stuff has to go on the cutting board. I think, for better or worse, FFXII ended up being well-made game with most of the ideas making it in. It's a more gameplay-centric game compared to the past few before it, and it's rough around the edges in some areas, but it's still really good. It's a shame instead of building on that good foundation they had they abandoned it completely in favor of FFXIII.
I think some people are underestimating the failure of FFXIV. SE is losing millions upon millions every month from that game, and they are going to continue to lose TONS of money because they continue to poor money into it while getting nearly no revenue for it. That game has been the biggest financial failure in MMORPG history.
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I knew something was wrong during FFXII. The story is all about Ashe and Basch, but some doofus, teenage, sky pirate wannabe with no shirt (much like a doofus, teenage, soccer star wannabe with no shirt) was given lead character status. I thought that trend would stop with XIII, but then some whiny, inept, mama's boy dominated half of the game. I think we've grown out of Square's target demographic. Unlike Pixar or SMT, they seem to be stuck TO that demographic too, instead of branching out.
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"Should I slice off your tongue or break your countless bones? Either way, I get paid; you'll bleed to death and die alone." - Blood Money
gaming as a whole is fine, just a lot of the older and more established publishers like square, nintendo, capcom and sega aren't good anymore. lots of newer devs doing great things though!