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History of SquareSoft
thryllkill writes: "GameSpot currently has an excellent article posted about the history of SquareSoft. As most /.ers know Square is responsible for bringing console RPGs to the mainstream, and some claim brought the PlayStation the success it needed to dominate the late 90s video game market. The article is light on corporate info, but a great rundown of Square's contributions. The only error I noted was the omission of Final Fantasy SGI." And FFX is supposed to ship next week.
FF SGI was just a demo of some 3-D renders of characters from Final Fantasy VI - Terra, Locke, and Shadow, if memory serves. It was basically assumed to be a technology demo to show what style Square had planned for the N64, but when Nintendo refused to give up on the RDRAM platform for media, and Square was discovering the luxuries of FMV, Square decided to bail. The N64 was workable, but contrary to how Hiroshi Yamauchi sees it, Square was just making a much more viable business decision - Ninteno felt stabbed in the back...Not that they didn't deserve it, seeing as how they tried to give Sony the shaft in the first place by displacing them with Phillips as the manufacturer of the SNES-CDROM add-on...
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Square hasn't actually disappointed much lately, except for their bizarre character designs and incomprehensible names (I guess this is due to the lack of the great Yoshitaka Amano...)
Wrong. Amano did the character design for Final Fantasy IX.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Kind of on-topic: The article states that Square probably won't be releasing a game on a Nintendo system any time soon, but Brownie Brown will. They're made up of former Square employees who were behind Secret of Mana and they have confirmed that a GameCube RPG is in the works.
My other
I've been playing the Japanese version of FFX for the past few months (though I haven't beaten it yet). I must admit it is a *very* visually appealing game. The character's are also more likable than, say Squall of FF8. It also has an interesting new level advancement system where you get points which allow you to move your characters around a large map - different locations means getting different abilities. Its kind of hard to describe but it works really well, and it is easier to use than say, junctioning, and makes more sense than materia.
The voice acting in the Japanese version is *amazing* and I hope they got American actors that are up to par. I would have prefered that the American version of this game have just been subtitled in English, but I understand most wouldn't like that.
The only downside, and this is sort of major for me, is that the game is *extremely* linear in nature. The story is great but it doesn't give you much chance to explore outside the rigid framework they give you. I've noticed there's been less and less freedom in FF games recently.
Lastly, I must say the underwater polo game is awesome!
Fact is, Square was knee-deep in the black at the time, and was one of the few gaming companies with several million dollars in the bank. The name "Final Fantasy" was probably more of a bad translation than anything else.
All subsequent Square adventures were based exactly on the FF2 engine
I will assume you mean FF4, as the actual FF2's engine was closer to the SaGa line of games than the following FFs.
In either case, though -- you're wrong. Mind you, all subsequent FFs were obviously highly influenced by FF4, but FF is far from Square's only franchise -- let's not forget the SaGa and Seiken Densetsu series, as well as Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Xenogears, to name a few, all of which are about as far as you can get from Final Fantasy. (and just for those who don't know -- although the SaGa games never caught on in America, they've enjoyed a good bit of success in Japan. There are, AFAIK, 8 games in the series, all of which have wildly varying battle systems based upon similar concepts)
Gaming, particularly RPG's, is about evolution and inspiration and new fight engines
Could you explain what you mean by "new fight engines"? Looking at the realm of console RPGs, most series tend to have very similar combat engines. Also, I'm not an expert on PC RPGs, but I would daresay that series are more likely to keep the same engine than console RPGs -- take a look at Might and Magic, for example, or the Baldur's Gate/Torment/Icewind Dale games.
Pen and paper RPGs are much harder to compare to, since they rarely spawn "sequels" -- about the closest thing I can think of is the three editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and each one obviously is highly influenced by the previous. Let's not forget the White Wolf games (Vampire/Werewolf/Changeling/Hunter/etc), which, as far as I can tell, essentially use the exact same combat systems.
So... Can you present any examples?
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
I hereby mod you to (-1, Wrong).
The name "Final Fantasy" was probably more of a bad translation than anything else.Kinda hard to mistranslate it when the name is written in katakana. What else are you going to read it as when you read "Fainaru Fantashii"? And apparently, if it is an urban legend, it's enough to fool GameSpot and also Mr. Sakaguchi himself in this interview. Listen to the beginning of the second clip - He says right at the beginning that Square was really struggling at the release of the original Final Fantasy.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Actually, even Square admits they wrongly started the Nintendo feud. Basically the Square president is quoted as saying pride was their downfall. When they switched to playstation, nintendo pres Hiroshi Yamauchi said it could not be helped. Square on the other hand returned by bashing nintendo and influencing Enix to jump ship. There are records of Yamauchi bashing Square but most likely in response to what square started.
This is the best source I could find right away but there are plenty more:
http://www.cube-europe.com/news/231001a.html
Square is the one that burned their bridges with nintendo. Now they are paying the price, it is never good for a company to burn their bridges just in case they want to go back. Since Nintendo actually turned down Square's application to develop Gameboy Advance games, Square now regrets their past remarks.
Don't put too much stock into this article. It's full of fluff and omissions. Most of it is mini-reviews of games and the only real history they give is the breakup with Nintendo that everyone knows about. They didn't even mention the tension that lead up to the breakup. The writers obviously didn't do any research or they'd know the abusive license policies Nintendo had in the 80s and early 90s and how Square did not like those policies to say the least. They didn't mention Nintendo's strong arm intimidation tactics nor their exhorbinant licensig fees.
They also barely mentioned the renaming scandal. The real reason Final Fantasy IV was called II was Nintendo originally was supposed to port all three NES Final Fantasies. But they grossly underestimated the translation effort and it took them three years. Nintendo will tell you the renaming was to "prevent confusion," but it was really a coverup.
Nor did they mention the constantly broke stats of the company in the 1980s or the truly terrible Famicom Disc System games that never made it over here.
This is a sad article. If I wanted reviews I'd go elsewhere. A history is supposed to be about the company's workings over the years, not one paragraph blurbs about the U.S.-only releases of a company.