I'm disappointed at how Square Enix has been handling the Final Fantasy series

#1

Let’s forget for a moment at how the Final Fantasy XIII development was a mishandled cluster fuck (we can also extend this to Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XV), instead, focus on their longstanding agenda of creating ports and remakes of earlier Final Fantasy titles. Allow me to preface this by saying that I’m not opposed to ports and remakes. They can serve a positive purpose for reaching new fans who never got a chance to play older installments of a series, whether that’s because they were too young or just didn’t get around to playing them.

Here’s my problem with how Square Enix has been handling ports and remakes for quite awhile now - they’re deliberately tugging at fans’ heartstrings by garnering hype for a remake, which we all witnessed when the PS4 port of Final Fantasy VII was announced. The way that presentation was planned, all the way down to the original logo design and game footage on the screen before it was properly announced what it was exactly, is indicative that Square Enix knows of the massive demand for the Final Fantasy VII remake. Motherfucking Shinji Hashimoto–in his incoherent English–proceeds to drum up excitement for a port-of-a-port. It’s not like I really want a remake of that game. I’m indifferent to it either way. But it bothers me that they sort of fuck with fans by not being straight up with them. To date, they’ve never said that a PS4 remake of Final Fantasy VII will never happen, but they have given reasons why it would be very difficult in developing the game. With how that presentation played out, I’d be baffled if a remake hasn’t been in active development for a number of years, and this is just the beginning of a proper reveal at Jump Festa or something, but I highly doubt that’s true. Taking up stage time to enthusiastically announce that, come the fuck on. A blog post on their site would’ve been enough.

Man, I’m looking forward to Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Final Fantasy XV, and Final Fantasy Explorers, but their constant port releases are hurting the overall image of the franchise and how fans view it. At the rate they’re going, I wouldn’t be sad to see them shut their company down and selling the Final Fantasy IP to Mistwalker–to the man, Hironobu Sakaguchi, who understood what made a fun, engaging and memorable Final Fantasy game. I don’t think Mistwalker would be able to afford to buy the IP, though.

#2

It’s not only Final Fantasy. Square Enix has been mismanaging all their series to some extent.

I don’t mind them releasing multiple ports. It will make the games accessible to more people and I don’t feel any obligation to buy every product they release.

It does remind me of the classic philosophy example of the ever improving wine. Imagine you have a bottle that will continue to improve with age and never spoil. When is the best time to drink it?

#3

The one IP which has escaped Square Enix’s wrath is Dragon Quest, but depending on how you feel about making a numbered installment of a series an MMORPG, opinions will vary on that front.

Xenogears and the Chrono series were missed opportunities. Both Xenogears 2 and Chrono Trigger 2 were rejected by the decision-makers in the company at the time.

I guess what grinds my gears most is seeing the same Final Fantasy games being released on a new console each time.

#4

Dragon Quest IX isn’t bad, but I do believe it was a step in the wrong direction. The protagonist is disconnected from the world as a side effect of being customizable. Graphics and sound suffered from being released for the NDS.

I haven’t even gotten the opportunity to play DQ10 since Square Enix decided to stop supporting the series in Europe. We also didn’t get the 3DS remake of DQ7.

#5

Ports fund real projects. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it.

#6

Even though the two companies merged, I STILL see those IP’s as being handled by two different companies. There’s a reason that Dragon Quest is awesome is because it feels like Enix is handling it. Now, I don’t know what the hell happened with Square, but it feels like they took on too much during development of the seventh generation games. And with the push into the eighth, nothing is getting released because of it.

It’s going to be interesting to see what they do release two to three years into this console generation.

#7

85b1791fe35095a7.png600×758

#8

That’s a pretty cover.

#9

Is Day One Ed a preorder thing? Also i’m pretty bummed that the PAL covers aren’t pretty white anymore :fish:

#10

d9404e99870ea85e.jpg2523×3403

The collector’s edition has a white cover, unless they’ve changed it recently. I think my local store will send out an email with a download code instead of having it included with the disc.

#11

Cool. I can scalp the misspelled version for $100 after it’s been out.

/s

#12

How did I miss this thread?

For a long time I kept thinking positively about SE, despite how many threads were more on the negative side. Right now I feel very mixed about them. I still enjoy some of the games they release but the company keeps making stupid decisions.

There was this shitty smartphone f2p FF game they released that should have never happened. I want them to work on certain games but they don’t or haven’t yet (FFXII remaster), FF type 0 should have been released on the vita too etc.

The way they have been treating their fans is like an abused wife. So now I care less about them and will ignore their games more easily. I’ll just take what I like without any attachment to their company.

#13

The shitty free-to-play FF game you’re thinking of is probably Final Fantasy: All the Bravest, and yup, it’s absolute garbage. To be fair, SQEX are working on FF mobile games with traditional game systems, and they are Final Fantasy Legends: The Space-Time Crystal, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, and Mevius Final Fantasy, so they are hardly just making throwaway mobile games.

I’d love to see FF12 HD as well, and FF11 HD. :o I have a strong urge to play FF11 again with current graphical specs. I’m most likely going to go back to it to see if I can majorly solo the game’s main story. I heard it’s very easy to do that now, with all the updates and improvements they’ve made to it over the years. Heh, lately, I’ve found myself humming some of the music from FF8. It not only had an amazing soundtrack, but the atmosphere and premise were terrific. If I had to choose between an FF7 HD remake and FF8 HD remake, fuck it man, give me FF8 in glorious current graphics.

I think the issue is that they’re not being consistent with attaining fan feedback, although when it comes to their MMORPGs, they listen to the players who are playing it, although it’s basically required if you don’t want your user base to tank. You can bet they learned their lesson after FF14 1.0. They don’t apply that same focus on interacting with the SQEX fan community to their single player games. A good example of the right way to go about it is the Capcom Unity forum, and their constant interaction with the fighting game fans specifically. Street Fighter has a thriving and close-knit community, and the development team listen to players closely and often.