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[ShadyAcshuns]

Nintendo should by them, if anyone.

 

[Shut0wen]

Honestly dont even think FF doesnt even carry them anymore but there in total denial, yet dragon quest makes a profit but square is to scared to pump a huge amount of money into the series

Kinda feels like FFXIV is carrying the rest of SE these days. I do expect FFXVI to do well though, probably 15-20 million lifetime.

I don’t expect Sony to buy SE unless they have to. They can get exclusivity for cheap as it stands so why would they.

 

[StueyDuck]

Fuck acquisitions and those who champion that shit like a bunch of stoolies without brains.

Square Enix will be absolutely fine, they just need to fix their management, they've already cut away some dead weight, remove the decision makers that hire Gary whita for wokespoken and promote those who sign-off of FFXIV re release and FFXVI

Also let's not forget the behemoth that is dragonquest

 

[jm89]

It's crazy how all the criticism levied agains them for FF15 and they do alot of the same mistakes in forspoken by the same damn studio.

Some of there AA games should have gotten a bit more effort, valkryie elyseum could have been so much more with more effort put into combat and the world. Some of there AA games have potential but always feel half assed.

 

[Dane]

My memory might be foggy, but I don’t remember too many subpar Japanese games from those companies on XBOX and even the good games usually didn’t sell too well. The sales for Japanese games in general always heavily favored PlayStation and that is a huge contributing factor as to why PlayStation gets so many Japanese exclusives.

The demographic for those games is just much smaller on XBOX unfortunately. I don’t think XBOX gamers skip those games because of bad experiences from Square Enix or other companies, but because those type of games just don’t appeal to the majority of them.

I definetely do remember those days, Sylpheed, The Last Remanant, Infinite Undiscovery didn't have a good reputation, Star Ocean 4 was mixed and still underwhelming compared to the previous games, even Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey while had a positive reception by players, were regarded as far cry from the PS2 days and people moved on to Mass Effect, TES and Dragon Age. Guess who was the best performer? Dead Rising, from the guy who criticized the industry back then and became a joke without context years later, because people definetely did agree a lot with him back then. Playstation 3 owners wanted to play Bioware games and Witcher 2.

Even back in the OG Xbox days a lot of it was a mixed bag, I think Tecmo had the best exclusive output. And I didn't even mention Bullet Witch and Vampire Rain.

 

[simpatico]

I can fix her bro's.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I'd prefer less emphasis on graphical fidelity and more AA games with fun gameplay and decent storytelling but I think most of their storytelling talent long left the company.

At least with Dragon Quest you always know what you are getting. To this day it still retains it's charm.

Over time with the merge the talent split off where Sakaguchi split, Uematsu went freelance, some talent formed Alphadream who has recently closed shop, and the minds behind Xenogears first went to Namco with Xenosaga and now are with Nintendo with Xenoblade. Eidos IMO has gone down the drain.

As it is now Square Enix really only has Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, NieR/Drakengard(Primarily Automata) and Dragon Quest to fall back on with their other entries being undercooked.

It will probably be overlooked but Star Ocean Divine Force is good. I supported Valkyrie Elysium but it leaves much to be desired. I think if Elysium was made by Tri-Ace it would have been better but it was outsourced.

Sadly I think Square Enix has it in their mind to wow people with high end graphics before anything else yet has not much of value beyond that.

Stuff like FF7 primarily does well because of success coasting and name recognition. Where before they were reinventing the wheel they tend to copy others and put a name brand label on top of it.

 

[bender]

Honestly dont even think FF doesnt even carry them anymore but there in total denial, yet dragon quest makes a profit but square is to scared to pump a huge amount of money into the series

I'd be scared for Dragon Quest if Square did pump a huge amount of money into the series.

 

[Madjaba]

Octopath 2 is an absolute GOTY contender and it shows that Square could do way better when they are not toying with big IPs they are not comfortable with.

You can’t name a company that release as much games as them on a year so obviously there will be some failures especially as their expertise is on niche games.

But each year among the average games, there are 1 or 2 games that are absolute great games whatever their commercial success is.

In a world where big publishers won’t try anything because of profit, they try with AA outputs. Some are commercial failures like the Tokyo Factory games, reboot of praised IPs like Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile but on the other hand they gave birth to Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy or Theatrythm even Voice of Cards is really interesting but not enough polished yet to cater to a greater audience.

They also managed to bring back Dragon Quest, Live a Live and numerous IPs in an average to really good remaster/remake/new episode format.

I’m not aligned with every choices made (FFXV still hurts…) but they really are trying to cater to their core audience since a couple of years and I hope that FFXVI will be the greatest proof of that this year.

JRPG passion speaking here but we have been treated really good recently.

 

[yurinka]

Looking at their mobile gaming profit, now I understand their NFT plans.

I just hope that despite the skew in profit in favor of mobile gaming, Square Enix will not abandon us console gamers.

Mobile gaming is totally unrelated to NFT.

 

[Punished Miku]

I definetely do remember those days, Sylpheed, The Last Remanant, Infinite Undiscovery didn't have a good reputation, Star Ocean 4 was mixed and still underwhelming compared to the previous games, even Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey while had a positive reception by players, were regarded as far cry from the PS2 days and people moved on to Mass Effect, TES and Dragon Age. Guess who was the best performer? Dead Rising, from the guy who criticized the industry back then and became a joke without context years later, because people definetely did agree a lot with him back then. Playstation 3 owners wanted to play Bioware games and Witcher 2.

Even back in the OG Xbox days a lot of it was a mixed bag, I think Tecmo had the best exclusive output. And I didn't even mention Bullet Witch and Vampire Rain.

Damnnnnn I miss Project Sylpheed. I loved that game.

 

[vkbest]

What would be the point of Sony acquiring square enix when their games are either already exclusive to PS or sell mostly on PS anyway. The audience is already there on sonys platform. They would only do it as a defensive move if there was a threat of Microsoft getting them, but there is no chance of that happening imo.

I bet if MS get Activision, Capcom/Square/Ubisoft will be the next.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Just keep making good dragon quest games please.

This new final fantasy does not have me convinced at all...but fingers crossed I guess. Nothing wrong with trying something new if they feel they can't deliver a good final fantasy single player anymore.

 

[Madjaba]

Just keep making good dragon quest games please.

This new final fantasy does not have me convinced at all...but fingers crossed I guess. Nothing wrong with trying something new if they feel they can't deliver a good final fantasy single player anymore.

FFXVI is not a single player game anymore then ?

The shift towards more action is inevitable, the majority of players won't accept ATB system and turn based system, I won't say that it's something I agree with but you have to cater to the market and it's not even an issue if it's done well like it seems to be in the case of FFXVI.

I hope to not live what I lived through FFXV vanilla though

 

[lyan]

Just keep making good dragon quest games please.

This new final fantasy does not have me convinced at all...but fingers crossed I guess. Nothing wrong with trying something new if they feel they can't deliver a good final fantasy single player anymore.

Unfortunately with their Dragon Quest Walk/Tact mobile games printing money as if they release a mainline entry annually, I can see them changing their approach to milk the core (JP) fan-base there and experiment with mainline entries like Final Fantasy to gain new audience.

 

[fermcr]

They need to become a multi-platform studio again. It's simply bad business for a 3rd party studio to ignore gaming platforms like the PC, Xbox and Switch.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Reminds me of embracer group light.

Square has just taken a scatter shot approach to their game releases and it shows.

They are stuck in this crappy semi realistic anime style so all their recent games look exactly the same to me.

Diofield chronicles. Valkyrie elysium. Forspoken. Kingdom hearts.

As a lapsed square fan why are you pumping out the same game over and over? This weird shitty DMC rip off aesthetic. I thought code vein was a square game cause of the style.

Not saying all these games are bad. Just saying they all look the same and have action rpg elements. It's boring.

It's the same position that companies put themselves in when Anthem comes out and sucks but 5 other companies decide to release a crappy destiny clone just like anthem.

I think the problem is that you might be blind if you’re not exaggerating with your claims on all the games mentioned “looking the same.”

 

[BootsLoader]

Their developing style is outdated. They are not forward thinkers so their games are outdated when they are released because they take a very long time to release.

 

[NahaNago]

I'd say no but they really have more of a management problem in Squareenix.

 

[Lunarorbit]

I think the problem is that you might be blind if you’re not exaggerating with your claims on all the games mentioned “looking the same.”

Vaguely Caucasian/Asian characters wearing some kind of medieval/modern fusion battle garb.

90% of the heroes faces are blemish free looking like they were airbrushed.

Kingdom hearts style hair on several main characters. Spiky hair that mimics their oversized weapon.

Battle systems that are very similar to older versions of their games. This isn't bad in itself but the new combat systems in both 2d and 3d start to feel the same. If their games were spaced out more it wouldn't be so noticeable.

Look at the characters in Diofield chronicles and then on valkyrie elysium. You can't tell them apart.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Vaguely Caucasian/Asian characters wearing some kind of medieval/modern fusion battle garb.

90% of the heroes faces are blemish free looking like they were airbrushed.

Kingdom hearts style hair on several main characters. Spiky hair that mimics their oversized weapon.

Battle systems that are very similar to older versions of their games. This isn't bad in itself but the new combat systems in both 2d and 3d start to feel the same. If their games were spaced out more it wouldn't be so noticeable.

Look at the characters in Diofield chronicles and then on valkyrie elysium. You can't tell them apart.

I can absolutely tell the characters apart. I’m really not sure what to tell you.

“Battles are very similar to older versions of their games.” Such as?

 

[Evil Calvin]

Uh.....maybe the issue is innovation.

When was the last game they released that wasn't a sequel., spin-off, remake or port? Octopath Traveler in 2018? 5 years ago?

 

[Woopah]

Uh.....maybe the issue is innovation.

When was the last game they released that wasn't a sequel., spin-off, remake or port? Octopath Traveler in 2018? 5 years ago?

Forspoken in January, Harvestella last November and The Diofield Chronicle in September.

The issue isn't lack of new IP, it's the quality and marketing of those new IP.

 

[Satansblade]

They aren't in trouble at all. FFXIV is more than enough to keep them out of the red. Corporate profits aren't calculated with an eye for honesty. Losses on small projects create tax breaks for large ones.