Square is running out of ideas.
 

I love Squaresoft to death, but they're smothering their own creativity. How many Final Fantasy games have we seen released in the last two years alone? Two? Three? How many will it be when FF12 is released later this year, or later next year? How many Kingdom Hearts games are in the works? Two. One on Gameboy Advance and a sequel on PS2. The hell, Square? What is wrong with you?

Why haven't we seen another Chrono game? It's been what, three or four years since Chrono Cross came out, and we've seen not even so much as one single screenshot or video clip of the next game in the series, Chrono Break. Why? Because you guys are funneling all of your resources into more Kingdom Hearts and FF games?

What's with the story from FF12? Anyone that has played the Dreamcast/Gamecube RPG Skies of Arcadia can see the blantant and striking similarities between the stories of these two games. FF12's main character? Vaan. SOA's main character? Vyse. One of the kingdoms in FF12? Arcadia. The world in SOA? Arcadia. Lots of airships in both? Check. Lots of air-pirates in both? Check. The main characters in each game are trying to become the leader of a fierce crew of do-gooder air pirates in order to combat an evil empire? Check. As of right now, the story scraps we've been fed are pretty vague, but even with those vague descriptions of the plot, the similarities are too great to be mere coincedence. I'd be willing to bet money that the huge, armored dude with the two swords on FF12's logo is named something similar to "Galcian".

And what's this about a possible Devil May Cry/FF7 hybrid? Featuring Cloud as a Dante-like character performing all kinds of neato juggles and aerial assults? Wow, really creative there, Square. Let's take our most famous heroic character from the Final Fantasy games and just stick him into a DMC clone. That'll sell. It's just a rumor, but it's enough to get my blood boiling. Aren't you guys just simply satisfied with recycling Cloud and Sephiroth for Advent Children without having to resort to more resurrections of these old characters?

And what about the Enix side of Square-Enix? When are we going to see a new Dragon Warrior game? Or a new Actraiser? Or a new Illusion of Gaia/Soulblazer type-game? What about The 7th Saga? Since merging with Enix, what have you guys done to appease the Enix fans in the crowd? Have you done anything? Are you planning on doing anything?

Square is running out of ideas. They're rehashing FF7 and FF10, because those were their two greatest financial achievements in their entire history, and they're milking them for all they're worth. They're ripping off ideas from other games, most notably from Skies of Arcadia. They're ignoring their own franchises and the franchises of the Enix side of their company all so they can squeeze out as many new Final Fantasy games and Kingdom Hearts games as they possibly can in the shortest feasible amount of time. Squaresoft, you're disappointing me, and I hope to God that this trend ends soon.

I don't know. Maybe they're just in a slump.

I do agree that they're running out of ideas, but oddly, stuff like that sells.. remember Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition, etc.

Yeah, but it sucks ass. Square needs to throw the longtime fans a few bones here. Do an update of Actraiser. Make another Mana game. FINISH CHRONO BREAK. Something. For the love of God, Square.

Agreed.


Agreed again. The problem is, it's easier to rehash old ideas instead of coming up with new ones. Found an article that says it better than I can:

http://www.gamentropy.com/mockery-14.shtml

I'm secretly hoping that Chrono Break is being worked on in some top-secret underground laboratory or something, and that's the reason for no news about it. I doubt it though..

Heck, the problem isn't just with Square. When's the last time you saw a truly original game?

For me, I haven't seen one like that since Daggerfall in '96.

Well, kingdom hearts was just gay anyway, and I agree about needing to show the enix side of square-enix, but I see no problem with continuing the final fantasy series. I could understand if they were continuing the same stories every single game, but they don't. It's always a new story, with the exception of FFX-2 so far, and there are always new battle features or something.

The stories are getting to be a little predictable, though.

I want a FF game where you play an evil character from the get go. Instead of saving the world, you should conquer it.

Or how about a more personal game story? Where the hero isn't out to save the whole world, but maybe only his small country/hometown from a few other groups who wish to conquer it.

I love the evil character idea.

If it's a Chrono sequel that you want, say so.

There really can't be that much bashing the Final Fantasy games as none of them (almost) have anything in common. They're just milking the name actually. (That's exactly what the movie was.)

Also, the guy on the cover doesn't have a name. He's a generic one of many. I believe they're called judges or something similar to that.

Also, I would love to see a 7th Saga or Illusian of Gaia game coming out sometime soon.

Yeah, that guys a Judge. They seem to be the villains in 12. FFXII happens in the world of Ivalice from the Tactics games. Judges are the rulers of the kingdom.

I would like to see a semi 3d game like secret of mana or evermore or illusions of gaia(interactive battling or whatever you want to call it) where you do more than just give commands in battle.

True, true. They could make some more enix games, but i never really played any of them.

I bet if they do make a game where you are an evil character, he'll suck.

Daggerfall was the sequel to Arena. Daggerfall had the largest fucking game world ever. It took literally a week to move from one end to the other on foot. Morrowind was released recently in 2002 and is equally great with much graphical improvements. Square obviously doesn't like originality or they wouldn't be still making sequels to a game named "Final Fantasy". I don't care about the next FF game and I'm much more excited about Chrono Break but I'd gladly give that up for Fallout 3. Go to Hell, Interplay.

You mean like in Crystal Chronicles? (SoM and SoE were much better examples of that playstyle, however.)

Don't know, haven't been bothered to download Crystal Chronicles yet.

wat would b the point? ... if u r an evil char u should b all powerful and stomp ur oppenents to the ground!!!!

It could be that there are many evils and many good guys. All are strong, and your part in the game is to keep getting stronger and capturing more lands and killing more people. There could be special crystals and whatnot that power you up and stuff. The good guys and the bad guys are both trying to head you off.

My biggest complaint is that Square is ignoring their own franchises. It's been about four or five years since Chrono Cross, and we haven't seen a single screenshot of Chrono Break. Yet, we get a new FF update every single year. That's not necessary.

Plus, since merging with Enix, Square has done nothing to appease the Enix fans. You would imagine that they would at least do a Dragon Warrior update, but then again, I don't know anything about this Drakengard game, and that could very well be a DW game, for all I know.

My biggest complaint is that, instead of expanding their creative outlets into more of their avenues, Square is pigeon-holing themselves into making nothing but FF games and Kingdom Hearts games. That sucks ass, and it's genuinely disappointing to see them smother themselves like that.

Square-Enix needs to come up with a whole new idea. FF games are pretty much always the same, it starts out all good and interesting, then all this irrelivant crap gets pushed into the storyline, and the ending has nothing to do with what the games about(exept FFX). And FFX-2 is just gay, crappy gameplay and storyline.

And they also made a cheap scrolling beat em up for ps2 awhile ago, and the main character was an exact copy of Zell from FF8, but with a different name and no face tatoo.

They push the FF series so far because it saved them from bankrupcy and 17 years ago, but enough is enough, they outta get their act together and start a new concept with new ideas and characters.

First of all, I think that the FF games are very different and I love the series. Second of all, FF X-2 is awesome, I love the gameplay and the storyline. Finally, Yeah, they're milking their products too much and need to get together and think over a long period of time about a very original storyline. And to all you people who hate Kingdom Hearts, kiss my ass >:O That game was really good. BTW, FF CC is very good, I am doing single-player and I love it.

People like FFX-2? I am surprised...

It took like 16 hours to finish the game, including the time I spent on leveling. Though I only had like 50% completion rate at the end, but I don't find the story and gameplay to be anything great.


Front Mission 4 is a little shorter than I've expected... but it was fun nonetheless, and it's good to see an update on Front Mission.


I sure hope they would come up with original ideas for FF, though, rather than digging up the grave and recycle the old heros.

I LOVE the gameplay, but the story could've been improved. I am striving for 100% because i'm sure that would increase the satisfaction level. By the way, all of you who have played it, when you went to play it, did you think it was already going to suck or did you try to keep an open mind? I was not going to judge the game before i played it and i like it. 2 factors that contribute to it is : (1) I'm a HARDCORE FF FREAK (2) I really liked it, I enjoyed it.

FF X-2 is just a little too Charlie's Angels...

That's exactly the way it struck me. I haven't played the game, but from what I've seen, the focus seems to be a little too much on the entire "girl power" apsect rather than on a genuinely compelling concept or plot. I don't intend to pick it up any time soon.

It's more of a comedy than anything serious, that's for sure. Doesn't do as much with the "girl power" stuff as you probably think, though.

man, they are just experimenting to see wht people like and don't like to make future games that much better.

That's a Square game? Well, it doesn't necessarily surprise me that it is, considering that it's allegedly pretty mediocre, just like Drakengard and Front Mission 4. If it's not Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts, Square apparently can't be bothered to do a better-than-moderate job on it.

Drakengard sucks, but I liked the other Front Mission games. Part 3 was a bit repetitive, though.

I've heard a lot of mixed opinion on Drakengard. Although that mix consists of "it sucks", "it's alright" and "it's the worst game ever." I have yet to hear anyone genuinely praise the game.

I never played the FM games. I've just been hearing that FM4 is surprisingly less-than-stellar.

Don't like their games? Don't buy them. Stop bitching about it and make your own.

FM4 is a bit too short... It has 2 heros (one of them being a heroine) and each of them has their own party and plot. Only 15 missions for each side, and I was thinking about 30 each. But still, it is a great game in the FM series.


Don't like these threads? Don't read them.

Only 15? That's definitely shorter than part 3. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing, though.

Ya, you got to play this side for a while, then switch the play the other hero. I thought that after both side have defeated the villains, they would meet up for the real missions. But it didn't happen....

Wow, that's pretty weak. How much is the game going for? Because if it's standard MSRP, that's a pretty weak deal.

I've already made my own game. It's called get poked in the eye by my bassist and then spend the rest of the night in a pain-killer induced stupor because he cut the side of my eye open and it hurts like crazy. I give it half a star.

I think the main problem people have with Drakengard is that it's mostly a Dynasty Warriors ripoff.