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.

Comments

Great Games

[Erasei]

Personally, I do not like RPGs at all, from Zelda through the latest Final Fantasy, just not my thing.

But! Rad Racer is still one of my favorite games.

Considering the very limited processors in game consoles back then compared to the computer power in todays gaming consoles, the programmers back in those days were true Code Poets. I mean, they did some amazing things with their limited resources.

Quicker, easier history of Squaresoft

[Chardish]

They were an RPG company that made a lot of great games. Then they got the bright idea to make stuff other than RPGs, except all of it sucked. So they started making only RPGs again.

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...)

Weep for Amano, and Uematsu, for without them there is no Final Fantasy.

-Evan.

FF I = X

[ImaLamer]

I must admit that I wasn't a fan of the FF series when it was NES but after seeing FFVII I went to FuncoLand and bought the NES games (all for under $10!).

I was younger and wanted action then. Plus NES graphics didn't give the game what Square was all about. The games are great but when you are 10 you'd rather play Contra.

Seeing FFVII blew me away. It actually made me buy a playstation [and Quake II] even though I was/am a Sony-hater.

The FF games are great, like Pokemon for Gboy it helped teach my little brother to read. He loved the gameplay and the graphics, but he learned real quick that you needed to read the dialouge to win.

FFVII, being my first actual FF game, took me at least two work weeks of time to complete. I would sit up and play all night. My friend [who is a FF nut - which I never knew] that turned me onto the game can hear the music and pick it up right away.

I was playing some mp3s and the Sephiroth music came on and he jumped out of the chair. "I know what that is!"

See what these games do to people.

And: Not only graphics, but the sound was awsome in the PSX games. FFVII wasn't the best, but it was great to play.

Final Fantasy The Spirits Within

[EpsCylonB]

Anyone else really like the film ?

I thought it was great, ok the story wasn't perfect but I thought it was enjoyable. And this summer wasn't exactly great for movies was it ?, (the only other summer movie I enjoyed was the planet of the apes remake) I really think this should have done better at the box office.

BTW in the article it says the film only took $80 million and cost $140 million, but that $140 million doesn't include the money spent on publicity which I read was at least another $20 to $30 million worldwide. So the film did very badly (even waterworld made money thru video and tv rights but it is doubtful that FFTSW ever will).

The really sad thing is it will probably put the studios off making cgi films aimed at adults as the only successful ones have been for kids (shrek, toy story, etc.). But I think the potential for a truly great cgi film with an adult film is huge.

Actually, I did find a very signifcant omission...

[Cutriss]

The article gives a brief one-paragraph synopsis of Final Fantasy (NES) just like everything else, but what it fails to mention is this:

Square's games, other than Rad Racer, were *not* selling well at all in the US, and they weren't doing too great in the Japanese market either. Final Fantasy was named as such because it was a last ditch effort by Square to stay in the market. The CEO at the time (I think it was Sakaguchi then...) had stated that if Final Fantasy didn't succeed, they were going to close up shop. So it had the prospect of being literally "final".