Slashdot Mirror
Square To Merge With Enix
SquareAMP writes "The makers of the 'Final Fantasy' video game series will be merging with the makers of the 'Dragon Quest' series to produce an RPG powerhouse to be re-named Enix Square Co. Reuters has all the details of the planned merger, that includes the dismantling of Square's assets and absorption into Enix. For Square fanboys fearing that this may ruin their favorite RPG company, Square's current CEO Yoichi Wada will be running the combined entity."
I never saw that one coming. Maybe we'll get some of the great Enix RPG's coming here from Japan.*
*yeah right.
Squenix.
In other news, rumor has it that "Square's current CEO Yoichi Wada" will now be called 'Yoda' for short.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
It has been a long time since we've seen a phenomenal, ground-breaking RPG. I am anxious to see what these guys can turn out.
Final Saga or 7th Fantasy?
"PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS, FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, CATS AND DOGS, LIVING TOGETHER!!!"
I mean, wow. That's my response. Just consider that the last time member from both companies really collaborated, it resulted in Chrono Trigger.
Square and Enix will skip the next 18 Final Fantasy games and give us the one we're all waiting for:
Final Fantasy XXX
Summation 2
w00t! Of course, the puzzliing thing i saw was that according to RPGamer.com, that this would make them more competitive with 3rd party publishers such as EA... Isn't EA the publisher of Square games in the states 0_o? Anyways, great news for both sides of the fan-boy wars... Yahoo!
Insert Sig Here
Here's the story from Yahoo
"Under the accord, 0.81 Enix share will be exchanged for one Square share, with Enix emerging as the surviving entity. "
and
"The postmerger entity, to be called Square Enix, "
while you where correct in that Enix is going to absorb square assets,
"Square, in its current company structure, will be disbanded, and (on paper, anyway) Enix will absorb Square's assets and liabilities. However, Yoichi Wada, current president of Square, will head up the new company, suggesting that Square will have more power than Enix in the merger's final structure. "
all of this was also repeated here
I follow the SDK and GDN principles.. Spelling Dont Kount, Grammer Dont Neither
And this has to do with SquareEnix How ?
I follow the SDK and GDN principles.. Spelling Dont Kount, Grammer Dont Neither
What ever happend to Dragon Warrior? I loved that game back in the day of NES!
:)
It would be nice to see a good revival of that series, I can only hope
I resemble that. I'm Square, but not a fanboy.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
>>Square, which lost 16.6 billion yen after an unsuccessful foray into movie-making last year
Man, that sucks that that was such a big risk for Square. To this day I'm still surprised at just how crappy the Spirits Withins' script was, I mean it was surprising, I think they simply got caught up in the visuals, and were "oohhhhh" and "ahhhhhhhh"-ing themselves......
Both companies have made great games in the past so to have them combine could be a very good thing. I just would have never thought "SQUARE" to have to merge with anyone
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
"For Square fanboys fearing that this may ruin their favorite RPG company" I thought all fanboys were square?
Didn't the two companies work together on Chrono Trigger? Perhaps we'll see more RPGs along those lines now.
Personally, I just hope the people from the Enix side explain to the people from the Square side that role playing games should actually include some interactive elements rather than being a ten hour cut scene. I miss the days of old school RPGs where you actually had a chance to play.
Brendan
[insert witty quote here]
What'll that be, some sort of dodecahedron? How many sides in an enix again?
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
What about us Enix fanboys? I know I'm terrified that now my favorite RPG company will be ruined. I'm not the greatest fan of the FF series. I really did enjoy the Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) series though.
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
However, I know Microsoft was talking to both Enix and Square about bringing games over to the Xbox. I also know that Sony owns a big chunk of Square. Is Sony circling the wagons to protect their assets from falling into the hands of the enemy? Do the big gaming companies have anything to do with this merger?
A steaming cup of soykaf would be real wiz right now.
this news really surprises me. generally, i'd call it a bad thing. enix and square were the two RPG superhouses, and less players means less competition. i'm just confused about why it happened - was enix having monetary issues? their last dragon quest RPG sold like mad in japan, from what i remember.
smd4985
According to CBS MarketWatch the new company will launch on April 1, 2003...
As a game developer myself, I am quite worried about the state of the industry, and this merger further aggravates the problem.
During the 80s and early 90s we had a healthy number of development houses, and lots of them took risks in order to differentiate themselves. The result was of course innovation. Plenty of it.
Nowadays development costs are absolutely HUGE. Only a few hits actually sell enough to cover their costs. Nobody can afford to take risks, and there is very little innovation going on.
Here in Japan, I know Nintendo has been funding small development teams that come up with interesting ideas, but I havent seen any fruits yet.
What else can be done? Is there any hope?
--
..Square RPG's on other systems besides Sony.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
I searched Google, and I found a news story about the merger. Please read it.
For more information, click here.
Sounds like some sort of distro.
Who else is hoping that this will mean a new rpg/adventure game set in the world of Actraiser? C'mon, you know you wanna play it . . .
I'd suggest you don't use Slashdot as your only news source, or you will suffer permanent brain damage.
The question now is who is right, Jeremiah or I? He claimed Enix was the better game developer, I claimed Square was (excluding FFX) Looks like we'll have to battle to the death with knives again!
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
April 1st is when the fiscal year in Japan begins. Really! :)
My neighbor's
With this new RPG making entity, I hope both companies get out of their dry spell and bring us Chrono Trigger 3. Chrono Cross was good and all, but I really want the Akira Toriyama character designs, and since he usually designs for Enix, we might get what we want for once. But it begs the question: Will they be called Square Enix Electronic Arts in the US and bring us football and hockey RPGS?
www.google.com
This shows you how big Enix must be in Japan. Wasn't Dragon Warrior 7 the highest selling game of all time? Anyways, save for a few picks out of a few titles, Enix never sold well here (not to my knowledge, since I'm not a mega-nerd that knows who the developer or publisher of every game is). Meanwhile, it seemed like Square is all over everything, and sold millions of every title it released. Yet Enix is the bigger company. Weird.
Chrono Trigger, the only game I truly like from Square wasn't even done wholly be them? Figures.
(not to mention their movie)
Their movie is the reason for this merger, I'm sure - they lost tens of millions, if not more, on that ill-concieved venture.
I have been a fan of Square and Enix for many, many years. I still remember playing the very first Dragon Warrior (or, as the Japanese call it, "Dragon Quest") game on my Nintendo Entertainment System, not to mention Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV (which Americans know as "Final Fantasy II"), V, VI (which Americans know as "Final Fantasy III"), VII, VIII, IX, and X! Have you seen Final Fantasy XI yet? It's outstanding.
Here are a few links to the news.For more information, click here.
Uh, no. Square was having money issues. Huge ones.
Without knowing all of the details, this looks like a big win for Nintendo. Sony owns a 19% stake in Square, which suddenly isn't so impressive anymore. If that means Square games will appear on other platforms then the PS2 will certaintly lose some of its appeal. Nintendo had already weaseled around the PS2 exclusive agreement by funding a company that is working with Square to produce Gamecube and GBA games, but this deal is much better from the Nintendo perspective. Enix is the real mystery though. They have a history of only supporting one console, but the target platform of the next Dragon Warrior game has not been announced yet. There are also substantial rumors of an enormous Nintendo announcement coming in December, which many have thought to be Enix related. Time will tell. As for Microsoft, don't expect too much from this for the XBox. It's selling less than the PSX in Japan, so there really isn't a market there for Square Enix to care about.
Just because they're not as big here as Square doesn't mean they're smaller. Star Ocean series Valkyrie Profile (different) Dragon Warrior Series (up to 7, development of #8 is a mystery?) - this series is rumoured to be so powerful in Japan that when a new one is released, it is required by law to be on the weekend - simply because so many people would skip work if it came out during the week. That influence enough for you? Admittedly their recent lineup has been sagging. Maybe this will be a long-awaited revitalization...I'm hoping it'll inject something new and cool to the Final Fantasies...FF6 was the best, it only went downhill from there :)
I mean...it can't be any worse than collaborating with *gasp* Disney!
--- www.zengamer.com | www.damodr
I mean, the only good Role Players, are Jap ones, and not many are translated and redone for Pal systems... And if they must be imported, you have to have a deft knowledge for the Japanese language... Sure, we do get Squaresoft's products... but not many Enix products... and, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't actually believe we got Chrono Trigger... Hey, I'm a consumer, i know nothing! But in any case, I'm praying that it brings more RPGs down here.
How will this effect Square's torrent relationship with Nintendo? I want a new FF for my 'Cube dangit.
Right now there isn't much for console markets where RPGs are concerned, at least not in the US market. One game I'm looking foward to seeing brought over the pond is .hack//sign, a game that can only be described as a simulated MMORPG. Sounds intriguing to me, I'd love to try it.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
damn, damn, damn.. someone used the name Squenix already ... mod me down, I deserve it for unintentionally aping a karma-fiver :(
Sony let Square bet the farm, and when Nintendo's President adviced against the movie (based upon their experience with the Super Mario Bros. movie), it caused a huge fight between Square and Nintendo which led to their falling out.
When Square collapsed, Sony picked up the pieces for pennies on the dollar, leaving a HUGE stakehold in the company. This likely also led to some ill will between Square and Sony.
Square likely has some deals in place with Sony that gives Sony some teeth, but selling the assets helps with this. Now Sony gets its share of Square heavily diluted. All of a Sudden, Square Enix has two HUGE RPG assets, a much smaller Sony investor, and free reign to do what they want.
Expect Square Enix to support Nintendo Gamecube more (RPGs are bigger in Japan, and Nintendo is a player in Japan... with Square Enix games, Nintendo is a real player in Japan). I would also expect an American-targetted Xbox RPG with the Final Fantasy name. That game would likely be glitz targetted (the Japanese perception of the American market, not unfounded).
If Square was still directly suffering financially from the Final Fantasy movie, the deal would be a bit differently. You see weird stuff like this in mergers all the time. Merging to survive is always interesting. Expect Enix's senior management was well compensated for the bailout, and acquiring Square assets into the Enix corporate shell was a nice way out of some contractual obligations.
Best example of a similar arrangement, Apple/Next. Apple was a larger, more financially stable company with dead technology. Next was a small, struggling company with good technology. Apple "bought" Next but turned the combined company into Next with the Apple name.
Alex
Nuff said. They wont go near XBox, though. They know how it's trying to ruin the market.
Because the Gamecube adaptor will basically turn the Gameboy Advance into it's own console, which is even larger than the PS2. Just because it's portable doesn't rule it out.. This of it as a full fledged console that can do BOTH .. Work on the TV *and* be portable. Can't do that with a PS2 or an XBox.
... As their dev studio is still in place, and Enix already makes a TON of money off Nintendo systems (Currently GBA, and plans for GC games). This will only bring DW and FF games to GC quicker.
I have to say with this merger they have quite possibly the greatest writers and character creators in video game history. With the two companies no longer competing it may give them more money to work with for development. MMmmm Dragon Warrior (Quest) Online... BUhahaahha! I can see it now they'll release a FF title, then a DW title, and keep rotating.. Edrick lives again! What about the shots Square took at Enix in FF1? Will they re-release it without to pot shots (Look at tombstones and you'll see an RIP Edrick poking fun at Dragon Warrior). I pray we get some excellent titles out of this merger. They have the creative minds to do it. More importantly Enix just Got Nabutso Utsemei (I know I fucked up the spelling!) at a better price I'm sure. My .02
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
What does this mean for Sony's control over Squaresoft? They had a 20% stack in the company but now their stack should be much smaller (since Enix is worth more as a company they don't even have 10% I would assume). Does this basically nullify the pseudo exclusive rights that Sony has on Square? Does this mean we will finally see more development for other platforms from Square/Enix (for my lovely Gamecube please)? I think the options are very interesting!
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
Square was already moving its Final Fantasy francise over to the Nintendo again. Just like Oldschool lovin' again! Sony made a fuss when they did this, but their 16% ownership wasn't enough to sway anyones opinions. They made their gold on PS2, now it's time to move on.
I mean.. I haven't heard much from Enix recently and then this... I still thought that Square had some money to kick around. I guess not. Maybe Square can start focusing on what people want again. FF7 and FF9 were excellent games. 8 and 10 were kinda ho-hum.
Planet Gamecube's coverage of the story
Check out their forums for some intelligent discussion. I saw the news there around 11PM Central. Bloomberg's Coverage
Sony's share has been diluted to 10%, so this looks like a win for Nintendo. Remember, Yamauchi's Fund Q let Square develop for Gamecube and GBA when Sony owned a fifth of the company. I couldn't care less, though. DQ might be good, but all Final Fantasy games after FF3 (6 in Japan) sucked. Note to Square: focus more on gameplay, like Miyamoto (IMO, the Mozart of videogames).
I never heard of that Linux distro before? Say, Wasn't Enix called "Round Hole" before their name change?
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
From what I've read and heard, the Dragon Quest games (well, DQ7, at least) were better sellers then the Final Fantasy games. Most of the FF games just got more hype in the US (...Final Fantasy VII, anyone? I'm sure we all remember the commercials).
Of course, that's not to say that both houses aren't good in their own separate ways. Square is, undeniably, the king of FMV goodness (even if they did overdo it a little in recent games), and Enix is just a danged good RPG maker...and besides, remember the last Square/Enix joint venture? Chrono Trigger? That's been touted as one of the BEST RPGs for the Super Nintendo, and many say that it's one of the best ever.
Of course, I personally prefer FF6, but that's just me.
It is my understanding that Square produced games exclusively for Sony for two reasons.
1. Sony helped Square pay off some massive debt after the failing of Spirits. This gave Sony a voice in the company, but there was no contract of exclusivity signed.
2. Square ended the love affair with Nintendo primarily because Nintendo refused to move away from a cartridge based system. Square wanted to move towards games with astounding amounts of high resolution graphics. This began with the N64, but it is still relevant. The GameCube uses optical disks with 1.5GB storage capacity. The PS2 uses DVD's with 4.7GB capacity.
Square Enix will most likely continue to ignore the GameCube. However, with Sony having a smaller voice in the new company (if Sony can ever have a small voice), we can probably expect a few Square Enix games for the XBox. The XBox uses DVD's with 9GB storage capacity and has more powerful graphics processing. But maybe Square Enix will choose to support its fellow Japanese company (Nintendo) and will choose to ignore the American rival (MS). These are exciting times for RPG fans.
As a longtime console RPG gamer, I don't know what to expect from this merge. Will they make good, fun games like Chrono Trigger? Will they kill competition with big eye-candy 3D RPGs with no plot at all?
Well, I don't have money for a modern console anyway.
Prescriptive grammar:linguistics
If you liked Star Ocean 2, try Valkyrie Profile for the PSX. It's also by Enix/Tri-Ace, and a very unique game -- how many RPGs let you start out as a god?? (Aside from maybe Actraiser, another Enix title) The basic plot is: you are Lenneth, recruited by the all-Father Odin as a Valkyrie (battle maiden). Your goal is to recruit fighters (Einherjar) from the troubled souls of the world, to fight in the final battle of Ragnarok which will decide the fate of the world. All the fighters you recruit have some sort of tragic story attached to them that ends up with the character being killed -- and Valkyrie recruiting them into the Einherjar. These characters stay with you until you "send them up" to Asgard to fight against the Vanir. Every so often (the game is divided into chapters) you return to Valhalla and can see the progress of the fighters you sent up, as well as be bitched at or praised by your superiors (primarily Freya and Odin).
The dungeons are a nice platform game/RPG blend, with puzzles and the battle system, while not Star Ocean's, is very unique. Basically each character is assigned a button on your control pad and gets some number of attacks per round (depending on the weapon they have equipped). You can arrange these attacks in any order (outside battle in the character's status screen); some of them have different characteristics like knocking enemies back, or up into the air, or down onto the ground. Hitting a character's button causes that character to execute the next attack in his/her sequence, and you can hit multiple buttons for multiple characters simultaneously or before the previous character's attack has finished. You then get "combos", like in a fighting game, where the enemy cannot recover or block once they have been hit once and you can continue hitting them until they return to a standing state. However these combos will be limited since each character only has some number of attacks per round. Furthermore, there's a meter that counts up while you're comboing an enemy, and if the meter reaches 100 any of your characters that participated in the attack can unleash a special attack.
If you really want to be as good as possible during the game, setting up your order of attacks for battles can be incredibly complex, as there are different bonuses for hitting the enemy while in the air vs. on the ground vs. on-the-ground-and-recovering. Also, attacks do more damage when the number of hits in the combo is high, so it pays to put your characters that have strong, low-hit-number attacks near the end of the combo.
All in all, it's an excellent game, very well-executed and very unique.
I should add that the character voices are great. The battle cries are heroic and passionated.
Prescriptive grammar:linguistics
is it going to be before I play Final Dragon Fantasy Quest 13?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
I sure hope that this merge results in getting some
games for the Gamecube, Square has avoided Nintendo
far too long.
The great times with the Squaresoft games on my SNES will never be forgotten, FF2,FF3,CT,Secret of Mana,
ahhh... orgasm and tears...
We should encourage all transitions to *nix.
I am a Karma Library.
Wow, I mean really, they're Ghostbusters references, people.
/. turn out to be things other people misunderstand things and label as trolls.
The "Dogs and Cats" line is one of my favs, however, even if you don't think its funny, its not a TROLL...
Some of the funniest things I read on
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
Everytime I see/hear the name Enix, I regret that it makes me think of the Dukes of Hazzard...
I know I will lose karma for this, but thats okay, I had to share and karma is crap anyways
Enix: You sure do look purdy today, Daisy.
Cu Cu Cu Cu
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
Indeed, Dragon Warrior VII was released here for the PSOne. It's quite a good game, if you can look past the 16bit quality graphics.
...well, chalk that up to coming out toward the end of the SNES lifespan in North America.
Oddly enough, the main reason why we never got the excellent Dragon Quest V, and VI, was not because Enix deemed them 'too hard' for American players (as often was the case, back then), but because they decided that it would be more costly to translate part V for North America, then it would be to simply ride the wave, and develop part VI. As to why we didn't get part VI?
It's kind of sad really... we missed out on two great games. Here's hoping we're going to see Gameboy Advance ports of them!
First of all, the "Final Fantasy" movie was a huge mistake. Square should have known that they'd only attract fans of the FF series, who would immediately be disappointed that the movie had nothing to do with any of the games AT ALL, but was just a crappy sci-fi movie titled "Final Fantasy" to get them into the theaters. Besides, the track record for video game based movies should have told Square not to make the film.
Second of all, Square is getting pretty sloppy, IMO. Instead of creating a new game, they are getting lazy and making "FF10 Part 2." While Square might spout some PR garbage that FF10 is so popular that they wanted to give players another chance to play in the FF10 world, the real reason for this FF10 side-story is so they don't have to put cash into developing an all new game.
To top it off they are considering "FF7 Part 2." Hopefully plans for at least the second of these will be canned thanks to this merger, but I doubt it.
I don't have very good impressions of this merger because it seems that the "Square" entity of this merger will have more control. I'd rather see Enix on top, since their most recent games have not been as crappy as FF10 or Kingdom Hearts.
More than likely things will stay the same for the time being. The new company will continue to develop games from their most popular series for the Playstation 2. The focus will continue to fall away from the story and world and will emphasise more and more on pretty graphics.
Remember that Square was still working on some games for Game Cube and GBA. This might open Square games up a little more for release on multiple platforms, but there is probably going to still be a huge emphasis on Playstation 2.
This has nothing to do with the Sony/Nintendo/Square politics, but rather the fact that there are something like 50+ Million PS2s out there and only like 20 Million X-Box and Game Gubes (combined). While it might benefit them to release a version of FF11 for every console, given it has a subscription, it probably wouldn't be worthwhile for them to abandon the PS2.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
I don't know how you can say Kingdom Hearts was crappy. Have you played it? It's an amazing game. Not too difficult, and it takes maybe 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of time to beat as a typical Square RPG, but it was still fun.
And yeah, I was a little disappointed that the Square characters had smaller parts than the Disney characters (aside from the main character), but what do you expect from the big mouse? Of course they were going to try to steal the spotlight.
And they are just now coming out with Kingdom Hearts International, which is basically the American version but with jap subs. Must not have done too well if they think they can make people buy a second copy .
Great, can we expect 4 hours of FMV in the next Dragon Quest game?
Not only will the next Dragon Quest game have 4 hours of FMVs, there'll be no way to skip the $@#%ing things. Am I the only one that hates sitting through a cut-sceen, getting killed shortly afterwards, before you can save, and then being forced to sit through the damn thing again? Its pretty once or twice, but after that its just annoying.
The other thing that scares the hell out of me with this merger, is that Enix might start to put out that "steam-punk" crap. This is just my opinion, but I'm going to rant about it anyhow, so if you don't want to read it, skip a bit brother.
(Start rant)
What ever happened to good old swords and sorcery fantasy? No technology, no god-damn desert submersable castles (ala FF3, stateside). The only Final Fantasy title that even came close to doing this was the first one, at least the tiny bit of tech in it was truly alien to the world. (mind, I haven't seen all of the ones released in Japan) To this day FF1 is still my favorite of the series. FF2 started getting wierd, FF3 was just too much. I've watched people play 7 and 8 enough to know that I don't want to bother. The series stopped being "fantasy" somewhere in the middle of FF3, and turned more into "sci-fi" with one wierdo, usually the hero, still slinging a sword. Would somone please just shoot the idiot with the sword and be done with it? Afterall, which would you rather have, a magic sword that does shitloads of damage, or a magic mini-gat with each bullet doing shitloads of damage, and no kick. One cuts the enemy open if you can get next to them, the other turns the enemy to hamburger at 100 yards.
(End Rant)
Anyway, I hope that this will lead to more, high quality RPGs. And God willing, they will be more than just eye-candy. I don't care that a game has 5 million hours of FMV with a quadrillion polygons for a character's butt hair, if the game play sucks then the game sucks. Yes, those Final Fantasy magic animations are nice, but it would be nice if the story wasn't just a re-hash of the last Final Fantasy. (Town/Family killed, start self discovery, find other chacaters, more self discovery, have conflicting love interests, get close to figuring self out, discover some relationship to "Big Enemy", play through self doubt sequence, discover mentor, resolve love interest when somone makes a sacrifice, fight "Big Enemy", win for a bit, "Big Enemy" reveals "True Self", get real close to losing, defeat "Big Enemy", listen to "Big Enemy" make inspiring final speech, game end.) That's the plot of almost every FF game after the first. They go for a deep twisting plot, but its the same deep twisting plot every time, no suprises, nothing innovative, just prettier graphics, more FMV, more zeros in the hit points, and longer spell casting sequences. Could we please get a plot that is fresh? Oh well, I'm ranting again, I'll stop.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
With this merger you will have 1 game company that caters to at least 90% of all the RPG fans in both America (sqr. Sft.) and Japan (Enix). You also get a company that has great relations with both Sony (PS2 Sqr. Sft.) and Nintendo (GCube Enix). Not to mention this would weeken any hold/influence Sony has with the new company and might allow Enix-Square-Soft to even make games for the X-Box.
I just hope they don't get to cocky and start fucking people over. As well as I would be at a lost as to what to expect if they ever discontinued either series (FF or DQ/W) and created a new series Final Quest? Dragon Fantasy?
Ave Molech Setting
This is a glorious day indeed! Gamers who love the RPG genre, rejoyce! Finally, the great company that brought us Final Fantasy, and the other great company that brought us Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, etc. will be one! How I thought this day would never come! Just imagine! Perhaps we will have a game with a Final Fantasy-style story, combined with the awesome gameplay and battle system of something like Star Ocean! This is truly a good day for the RPG world!
Sephiroth, goddamn i want you so bad... ::blushes::
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
A common misperception is that "fantasy" denotes a classic medieval environment with sorcery, and science fiction is futuristic in nature. This is not true. Fantasy is supposed to describe anything whimsical, while sci-fi is supposed to be based in scientific imagining. So for instance, Star Wars is in fact a fantasy, while Star Trek is sci-fi, because Star Wars makes no attempt to explain how or why certain technologies exist. This is an oversimplification I know, there are some explanations in SW, and ST isn't always terribly scientific.
Jeremy
For all the Square bashing and virtual disappearance from Enix in the US game market, I'm really excited to see this.
From Square: Kingdom Hearts was good. Reminded me a lot of the Seiken Densetsu series (number 2 was Secret of Mana) and was leagues better than Legend of Mana. FFX was good, too, though more of a playable movie. I mean, when every scene involves talking to everyone until you talk to the right person and transition to FMV, you feel like you have no part except for slaying monsters. The rest of the Final Fantasies weren't that great. So Enix can put some development effort (which they have a lot of) into Square. There's a reason that their games can only be released on weekends and holidays in Japan. Definitely a good thing.
For Enix: They have so little penetration here anymore, it's ridiculous. How many people bought/played Dragon Warrior 7? (or even 5 and 6, but in Japanese) I did, and they were marvelous. Dragon Warrior 7 took *easily* 80 hours to complete and was a fantastic game. They just need more of an influence here, and more releases, which Square certainly has in abundance.
Everyone's waiting for Enix to bring another great game here, and also waiting for Square to release a great game (to rival FFVI). This merger will hopefully bring this all to fruition, and should usher in a golden age of console RPGs unseen since the days of the SNES.
Final Fantasy is the best game ever No Donkey Kong is best game ever Donkey Kong sucks No YOU Suck
J Moll - PC Load Letter - I know what it means!-
Enix had little to nothing to do with Chrono Trigger. Square hired a character designer that was currently under contract with Enix (who, by and large is msotly known for his Dragon Ball work), therefore Yuji Horii was involved in the approval process.
;-)
Kazuhiko Aoki is an employee of Squaresoft, and has been involved in many Final Fantasy games--the most recent being Final Fantasy IX, I believe.
Many people in the "Dream Team" room are nothing more than a marketing ploy, and had little to nothing to do with the actual content of the game.
Horii and Sakaguchi played little more than "rubber stamp" roles in the production of the game. Nobuo Uematsu, while a talented composer, had almost nothing to do with the soundtrack--only composing 2 songs, if I remember correctly.
The main roles in the production of an RPG are:
Director
Producer
Scenario Writer
Executive Producer or Supervisor titles are usually reserved for company executives which played little role in the development of the game itself.
One of the more integral members of the Chrono Trigger team that was not mention was Masatou Kato, at well... And any site which is doing an analysis of the CT staff and does not mention him at all is questionable at best.
-Jayde
What's a sig?
Dear Mr. S Dragon,
I represent the lawfirm of Felkirk, Anwyn, Kirk, and Enderson. On behalf of our client, SQUARE ENIX, we demand that you cease and desist your blatant copyright infringement by no longer publishing details of the entire plotline of "DragonFantasy 12 - The Widget of Destruction."
Failure to do so will result in immediate legal action.
Sincerely,
I. M. Knotalawyer
Felkirk, Anwyn, Kirk, and Enderson
123 Dick Hertz,
Anytown, USA
90210
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
I remember when I bought NES Dragon Warrior for $80. And so shortly after, my friend had FFII for the SNES. So here we combine two facets: Enix had the guts to release Dragon Warrior first (I'm talking about U.S. sales), and it was well-loved. Square, on the other hand, incorporated the fantastic multi-player facet, as well as gorgeous sweeping melodies for all the different castles, towns, etc. The music is completely what made me a Square fan. If they do anything with this merger, it would be wise to keep their Square music team on board. Anyone agree?
hi, I like pancakes -.-- -.-- --..
Setzer has the world's fastest airship.
hi, I like pancakes -.-- -.-- --..
Anyone else here receive Dragon Warrior with their early subscription to Nintendo Power? (I think around 1990)
Here, I'll take the opportunity to shill for a website my buddy's an editor for, and see if /. can bring the hosting company to it's knees.
Planet GameCube news
I've been called a "Fucking Dick" by better people than you.
Pretty good i think
.81 enix stock so it's over 15%.
For every one stock of square is worth
19% of square versus 15% of Square Enix or Enix Square.
Hmmm... Pie...
Thank you, I needed that laugh.
By the by, "Dragon Fantasy" is it just me or does that sound like a title to a new themed porn? That was one of the first titles that poped into my head when I saw the info on this merger.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
Town/Family killed, start self discovery, find other chacaters, more self discovery, have conflicting love interests, get close to figuring self out, discover some relationship to "Big Enemy", play through self doubt sequence, discover mentor, resolve love interest when somone makes a sacrifice, fight "Big Enemy", win for a bit, "Big Enemy" reveals "True Self", get real close to losing, defeat "Big Enemy", listen to "Big Enemy" make inspiring final speech, game end.
Wow. You just PRECISELY summed up the entire plot of the original Star Wars trilogy.
-Hentai [in vita non pacem est]
I agree, FF2 (FF4J) was the best in the series. FF3 (FF6J) was pretty good too, i was a little bothered by the increasing amount of tech, but the game and story was good enough to let it slide.
FF7 was a good game, but it wasn't really _Final Fantasy_, FF8 wasn't the best of games, and wasn't really Final Fantasy either.
Have you tried out FF9 though? It's crack for the old time FF fans. I only got partway through before my company went into crunch time and i ran out of time to play, but what i've got through so far has been excelent.
Haven't seen enough of FF10 yet to form an opinion of it.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
"The only Final Fantasy title that even came close to doing this was the first one, at least the tiny bit of tech in it was truly alien to the world."
Yeah, that explains that whole space station dungeon, complete with WarMech.
Those who burn their Karma for the good of others
:)
:D
hehe, thanx
I knew I was gonna get slaughtered on moderation. I thought about including an explanation or disclaimer, but hate spoiling a good joke that way.
Offtopic=1, Troll=2, Underrated=1
One out of four got it, better than I expected
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I swear, I have never seen a website for a company/product that has been so poorly maintained than square's I wonder if the new company will be able to find people that notonly reboot the servers, but also ADD CONTENT THAT IS LESS THAN 4 MONTHS OLD!!!!
Alas, poor clippy, I loath him so.
Sega just released Phantasy Star Collection (I through III) for the Game Boy Advance.
Actually, I got your referance, but I didn't get the parent reference. It wasn't until I went back and looked at it again looking for a ghostbusters reference that I remembered the line.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
OC ERAUQS XINE SI DLROW EHT
Doesn't have the same ring to it, sorry.
Well, since MS cant be sure of the username of someone downloading :)
things, they are going to play it safe and have everything dowloaded
and executed by Explorer as suid root. That way, it will run on ANY
system anywhere.
-- George Bonser
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