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."

Comments

Wow...

[motardo]

I never saw that one coming. Maybe we'll get some of the great Enix RPG's coming here from Japan.*

*yeah right.

Re:Wow...

[Daetrin]

We might, actually. It really depends on how Electronic Arts' deal with Square to handle distribution in the US gets handled. I'm suprised EA stock hasn't reacted to this news at all (down 55 cents at $67.75 at the moment) they might have just gained an whole new set of games to sell.

I'm also interested to know how much stock Sony will end up owning in the new company. I can't find any figures for how much stock Enix and Square have, but if we assume (for no good reason) that it will be equal amounts, and there will be no stock created independantly of the input from Enix and Square, Sony will end up owning about 8.3% of the new company.

and the name of the new organization is...

[sczimme]

Squenix.

In other news, rumor has it that "Square's current CEO Yoichi Wada" will now be called 'Yoda' for short.

So will the next game be called....

[Audity]

Final Saga or 7th Fantasy?

What next?

[Castolari]

"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.

Re:What next?

[Space Coyote]

What exactly did Enix have to do with Chrono Trigger?

Quite a bit actually, according to this site.

It even takes you through some of the names you come across in the developers' ending and lists which people came from Enix and which from Square.

Re:What next?

[Grahf666]

Given that whoever wrote that website has no idea what he's talking about, I'm a bit skeptical.

I quote:
Chrono and Marle are from Secret of Mana

Moreover he claims that Yasunori Mitsuda did the music for FF7 and FF8, which is entirely false.

In my eyes, Chrono Trigger was made by Square with help from some good talent from Enix (and elsewhere perhaps? I dunno), but not exactly an even collaboration.

Re:What next?

[be-fan]

Chrono Trigger was the coolest game ever. I hope we see more stuff like that as a result of this merger. I might just have to get into gaming again...

Re:What next?

[colmore]

Chrono Trigger is by far and away the best RPG that square ever put out, and I'll say even further the best RPG in the linear, console style (as opposed to say Ultima, which has far more exploring but a less driven story) Why, you ask? 1- the story made sense. I can't emphasize this enough. The game threw no curve balls. There were no 11th hour magical items, supernatural dieties, or sudden revelations required to make the plot make sense. By about 10 hours into the game, the major story device (time travel), the major enemy (lavos), and most of the main characters had all been revealed. The framework was set, and while the plot was gripping and surprising, the game never "broke character." Compare this to the senseless twists and turns of FF7 and FF8 and the slow descent into incomprehensible philosophizing in FF10. 2- small cast of well-developed characters. Chrono Cross was such a dissapointment. Great battle system, yes. Best Graphics on PSX, yes. Shitty, shitty RPG. What I would really like to see is a game that mixes the event map system of chrono trigger (walk around environments, see enemies walking around, fight them in place, no cut to battle) with the battle system of FF Tactics or Ogre Battle (turn based, tactical combat with a strong emphasis on movement and positioning, rich class system with a LOT of customization potential) with a more exploration based design similar to metriod or castlevania, yet without losing the epic story arc. an easy design to pull off? probably not. but there seems to be some talent behind this new entity. oh and 3 - The Kingdom of Zeal was just plain friggin' cool. best reinterperetation of the Fall of Rome/Dark Ages theme I've ever seen. Schala Lives! opinionated nerdy fanboy signing off.

Hopefully

[Rik Sweeney]

Square and Enix will skip the next 18 Final Fantasy games and give us the one we're all waiting for:

Final Fantasy XXX

Did you read the article ?

[sweede]

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

Re:Did you read the article ?

[analog_line]

This isn't uncommon. I take for example, my perennial example in such instances, the Digital/Compaq merger and the HP/Compaq merger. When Digital was bought by Compaq, there was some low key but intense infighting in which many of the former Digital management people gained the upper hand, making many at Compaq HQ that I knew when I was working as a consultant there joke that Digital bought Compaq with Compaq's money.

As well with HP, many of those in HP were none too please about the atmosphere that was coming into HP with all the merger talk and post-merger layoffs. From everything I've seen, it sounds much more like Compaq than HP these days.

Square took a HUGE blow after the Final Fantasy movie. They sunk millions into Square Studios and the movie just didn't make any real money (though I'm quite fond of it... one of the greatest pieces of computer animation ever in my opinion and it'll change the way that kind of thing is done). Sony had to come in and bail them out, and in doing so gained a hefty share of Square, so in actuality, Sony may have had a larger hand in this merger than anyone may have realized, seeing as they would get a much firmer hand on one of the best game development houses in Japan (even though we don't see much of it over here...Dragon Quest 7, I believe, is still the largest selling game ever in Japan). With Sony's backing of Square, I'm not surprised to see a Square executive at the top.

RPGs - Dragon Warrior come back!

[in_ur_face]

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 :)

Re:RPGs - Dragon Warrior come back!

[Decimal]

What ever happend to Dragon Warrior? I loved that game back in the day of NES!

The original was re-released for the GBC, with this weird "personality test" at the beginning, and without all the cool medival speak. No more "thou"s and "hath"s, which is a real shame.

In Japan, the Dragon Warrior (aka Dragon Quest) series kept going while the U.S. (What about Europe? Australia?) audience was cut out of the loop. Japan also got a DW1 & 2 combo cart with improved graphics for the SNES.

Hey!

[krinsh]

I resemble that. I'm Square, but not a fanboy.

Stick to games, gang!

[curtisk]

>>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

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[MisterFancypants]

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......

If Spirits Within were a GAME, even with the same plot, it would probably be considered the most amazing RPG ever, story-wise (oooh!! sweeping epic!).

Which is not to say I thought the plot was good for a movie.. it isn't. All I'm saying is games and movies are very different at a core level as far as what story-telling techniques can and should be used, and Square ignored that difference at their own peril.

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[macshit]

Which is not to say I thought the plot was good for a movie.. it isn't. All I'm saying is games and movies are very different at a core level as far as what story-telling techniques can and should be used, and Square ignored that difference at their own peril.

I think it's also the case that standards are simply lower for game (RPG) plots. You often don't notice as much, because the interactivity sort of grabs you and sweeps you along, but really, if you think about them afterwards, the plots are usually very simplistic and overly melodramatic, and the characters crudely drawn (in the story-telling sense, not the art!).

[But -- silly me -- I still seem to play them anyway... :-]

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[Cryptnotic]

Yes, the plot elements, "collect the seven spirits; foil the evil villain; find love," are all basic components of the Final Fantasy games. The comparison with the later games 7, 8, 9, and 10 is especially true.

The story of FF:TSW is somewhat important in the Final Fantasy universe since it shows how the FF world was created, why there are strange creatures walking around, and how there is a mix of magic, technology, and traditional weapons.

It's still not a great movie. They should have made it a game and called it Final Fantasy Zero. Oh well.

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

True, but not always.

Games with good plots:

Final Fantasy VI
Baldur's Gate series
Dragon Warrior IV
Ultima IV (and the whole series in general is pretty good)
Final Fantasy Tactics (borderline good)
Fallout 2 (Never played the first one, heard it was good)

And, of course, the best plot in any game *ever*...

Planescape: Torment

Unfortunately, games are a different storytelling environment and inevitably it degrades into "collect seven stars of wonder and defeat the hooded foozle" - the trick is to have that and a good plot. There are more I haven't mentioned - this is just off the top of my head.

It's basically just like movies and books - some are awesome (Torment == LOTR), some are good (Fallout 2 == Neuromancer), and some are just bad (Some shitty cookie cutter star wars book == the latest final fantasy cookie cutter game -> fun to play/read but hardly groundbreaking)

(Note: My comments are my own - opinions about games are simply that - opinions, so don't flame me cuz I dissed Star Wars or Final Fantasy)

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[Glytch]

I always thought Xenogears would make a rather good book in the hands of the right author.

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[Dave_bsr]

did you really mean FF VI?

Fallout 1 and 2 both rock, yes.

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[Guppy06]

"I think they simply got caught up in the visuals, and were "oohhhhh" and "ahhhhhhhh"-ing themselves......"

They've been doing that to themselves since FF VII. It looked like they were coming out of it when IX came out, but X demonstrated that IX was one last "hurrah" for FF as a game. Which really makes me wonder what the heck they expect to do with an MMORPG. How do you work hours and hours of FMV into an MMORPG?

The day I realized that there would never be any more Final Fantasy games like IX again is the day I put my PlayStation 2 up for auction on eBay.

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[Genom]

Actually, Xenogears is (IIRC) part 6 of a much longer storyline. Xenosaga (already out in Japan, coming to the US sometime early next year) is going to be part 1. (but not produced by Square - which makes me wonder if they will "remake" Xenogears in a few years when they get that far...)

I do agree though - Xenogears in a more cinematic format would definitely be cool - although I almost think there's too much content for one movie...

Re:Stick to games, gang!

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Yep, I found it quite interesting - yeah, it has all the staple elements of any Final Fantasy game, but that one also had some interesting twists and turns. I would give the story a 7/10.

I forgot Chrono Trigger too - i'd give that one about the same.

These games stories could have been a lot better, but they lost a lot in the translation. FFV on the playstation had that problem too - the free translation on the Internet was actually better.

wow

[tps12]

What'll that be, some sort of dodecahedron? How many sides in an enix again?

Square fanboys worried?

[molog]

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.

Re:Square fanboys worried?

[Dalroth]

No kidding. Square did Einhander. Now that was a great game, but the Final Fantasy series is like a broken record (and a bad one at that). All pretty graphics, no gameplay.

Hell, the last Final Fantasy (what was it, 10 or 11? I don't even know anymore) was basically a 12 hour animated movie. In fact, the only gameplay I remember at all was that stupid sports game and one REALLY long path through the mountains where you actually got to FIGHT stuff. Too bad the combat hasn't really changed since Final Fantasy 2 and that only served to bore me further.

I hate being a PC bigot, but man, if you want a good RPG Squaresoft isn't the company, Bioware is. I'm scared to see what Squaresoft is going to do with the Enix franchises.

Re:Square fanboys worried?

[13Echo]

Square didn't really "make" Einhander. It was done by Dream Factory, a smaller studio that had some ties with Square. They also did The Bouncer, Tobal, and "Ehrgeiz". Among other titles, they did the UFC: Tapout games for XBox.

Same with things like Bushido Blade, a Lightweight game. Another example: Quest Software members were also contracted for other things, like the FF Tactics games.

Square hasn't really made a whole lot of games in-house, aside from the Final Fantasy Franchise. They mostly do publication or contract other developers to make games for them.

Re:Square fanboys worried?

[MoneyT]

I don't know what FFX you were playing, but I thought is was a great one. There were plenty of battles and I thought the level up system was a very interesting twist to the game. I also liked the new way of handling turns. In general, I thought FFX was a very good FF game (doesn't quite compare with VI or IV (IV was 2 in the US right?) But then again, I'm also one of those people that actualy enjoyed FF VIII

Re:Square fanboys worried?

[chefren]

Yeah, I've got a friend with (I know, we should be taking better care of him) well over 150 hours of FFX gameplay (one game).

Paranoia Alert

[Saxerman]

My first thought at any news into the video game industry is, "What does this have to do with Microsoft?" I've been attempting to advise my friends against buying DOA3 machines, pointing at recent gaming acquisition by Microsoft. I ask them, "How many game companies will Microsoft have to buy before you realize the problem in supporting them?" They just think I'm a Paranoid Linux Zealot. They're probably right.

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?

Re:Paranoia Alert

[Guppy06]

"My first thought at any news into the video game industry is, "What does this have to do with Microsoft?""

Of course, that's the question most Slashdotters ask themselves whenever they see a new article on here...

The state of the game industry.

[Bethor]

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?
--

Re:The state of the game industry.

[Obsequious]

Yeah, I've been pondering this myself. To be considered a "great game" today you have to have dazzling graphics, great video cut-scenes, detailed in-game models and physics, etc. Oh, and of course you have to have great game-play.

The problem with this is that only the game play can really be done by "one person with a vision." Everything else takes real human blood, sweat, and tears to produce. That is a huge cost, and is a heavy burden to bear.

The gaming industry as it currently exists has been based on a studio model as you point out. That worked fine when a small team could realistically accomplish all the work to make a game. Unfortunately, that model doesn't work as well when you have huge teams, it seems, because the cost outruns the productivity gains. Or something, anyway; maybe I'm talking out of my arse.

But the key insight to me is that people have been saying for years that eventually games and movies will "merge" into some kind of interactive entertainment. Well, maybe, maybe not, but I do think that it is obvious that games are becoming more like movies. Consequently they are sooner or later going to develop movie-like budgets.

Only large organizations can fund that kind of thing (indie film community aside for the moment.) As a result I can't see anything in the future of gaming communities except consolidation to the point where the companies ARE large enough to fund high-end games.

Maybe it'll turn out something like the (primarily European) auto industry (which to a degree it already is:) a number of studios work on concept and prototype contracts, and large corporations productize the prototypes.

Today, the game studios make entire games while the publishers (like EA) handle distribution. I suspect that the balance will shift a bit, so that instead of producing entire completed games, the smaller studios will produce an upgrade game engine, or a new set of character models, or whatever. Compare this with car studios that produce new engine upgrades and tweaks, aggressive new body styles, and so on. The studios then sort of sell this technology and art to the large manufacturers/publishers.

This also sounds somewhat like what Nintendo is trying to do with their small groups: let the groups focus on innovation and new ideas while the large institutional development shops actually make games. I think it's a model that can work, although I don't think it'll be quite the same atmosphere that the industry has enjoyed up until now.

I'm also not sure how I feel about it. The best games I've seen have been really works of art created by a single group. Grand Theft Auto, StarCraft/WarCraft, Final Fantasy, etc., and of course the classic games from years past. There are some mainstream movies that I've enjoyed as much that clearly have the same kind of hand-crafted feel, but they are few and far between. I am afraid that as the game industry "matures," it will go along a similar route.

But, maybe not. Who knows, really? I guess we will have to wait to find out.

Re:The state of the game industry.

[taxman_10m]

Yeah, I've been pondering this myself. To be considered a "great game" today you have to have dazzling graphics, great video cut-scenes, detailed in-game models and physics, etc. Oh, and of course you have to have great game-play.

I'm sure that hold true for the computer and various consoles, but what about the GBA?

Re:The state of the game industry.

[Obsequious]

Hmm, good point. In my hypothetical future world, the GBA would still be a simple enough device to allow small creative teams to build entire games. So maybe the GBA (and similar devices, like cell phones and whatnot) will remain a sort of playground for "indie" game developers.

I still think that the big consoles and PC games will continue to migrate in the direction of movies, with the bigger == better mentality. Heh... maybe we'll find that pound for pound, the GBA has better games that may not be as flashy but are more creative and fun.

For example... Mario Sunshine is quite cool, but I am still hard-pressed to say it's a better game than Super Mario World (aka Super Mario Advance 2 on the GBA.)

Re:The state of the game industry.

[Alcimedes]

to me, it seems that the biggest problem is time.

there is only so much time you can spend developing a game. eventually you have to publish it. this is dictated mainly by console life and the fact that if you spend years in development, what was groundbreaking in the beginning is blase when it publishes.

so say you have 2 years to create your game. rule #1 at this point. can't have a great game unless it looks great. so better get working on those graphics. and it better have some nice movies. this that and the other, and eventually gameplay gets tossed in there as well.

now look back 10 years to the original nintendo. (best gaming platform even IMO)

your main character is 12 pixels. the enemy is 10 pixels. you have midi sound. no cut scenes.

the same time frame now has almost no costs associated with graphics and sound, so more time and effort can be pourted into GAMEPLAY. for FUCK'S sake, get me gameplay!

some of my favorite games look like ass but are tons of fun. and isn't that really the point?

Re:The state of the game industry.

[Obsequious]

Heh heh...

Man, the Counterexample Hits just keep on coming!

Yeah, DDR is also a good point. Now that you mention it, I also remember some Japanese game that involves kicking some kind of prosthetic butt mounted on the cabinet. It was like some kind of twisted "test your strength" game that judged you by how hard you kicked butt vs. how hard you swung a hammer or something.

So, maybe my whole point is just so much overanalysis. Maybe the industry is stagnating just because of the almighty buck: the truly innovative games aren't surefire hits, and companies are too risk-averse to fund them. They'd rather take the more "straightforward" route and compete on how much money they dump into eye and ear candy.

Final Fantasy X certainly felt that way, when compared to FF7.

Re:The state of the game industry.

[Ryan Amos]

The state of the industry is such now that only those with the money to promote their games will make any money off them. And that's not even enough. Part of the problem is the price of games; most gamers can't afford to drop $50 on every game that comes out. But it's kind of a cyclical problem, that $50 pays for the development of the game and the development of the other games the company produced that didn't make it big. But now video game development costs are approaching hollywood figures and the margin for error is much less, so fewer of those less successful games get made. Which is a shame, a lot of them are very good but their appeal is too narrow to ever draw a broad audience.

It's eventually going to get so expensive that only a few companies can afford to do it, which is what is happening right now in the industry. With colossal companies like Nintendo, Electronic Arts, and now Square Enix, there's little room for the smaller developer. I see the video game industry (at least in the console world, but it's happening on the PC side of things too) becoming much like the movie industry. The big companies make most of the games with an occaisional breakout hit by a smaller company (think indie films.)

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like things are going to get better. Consumer attitudes are also to blame for this, but it's somewhat understandable that if someone is going to drop $50 on a game, they want to KNOW it's good before they buy it. The problem is the standards are set so high that only companies with a mammoth budget can hire good artists and designers while having enough money left over for an army of coders to get the damn thing out on schedule.

This situation really isn't too big a problem so long as the large companies continue to put out quality product, because if they should stop, the market is not yet prohibitive to smaller developers (hell, 3 years ago, Square looked invincible) They'll continue to milk their flagship series because, well, it sells. That's why we have so many Zeldas, Metroids, Final Fantasys, Dragon Quests, Madden NFL games and the like. Big developers will always be able to count on these to make a profit, but if the margins on each game are decreasing, there will be less room for experimentation. There's really not much that can be done here; consolidation is a reality in pretty much every industry. Let's just hope it doesn't decrease the quality of the games.

Hopefully this means..

[Deathlizard]

..Square RPG's on other systems besides Sony.

Re:Hopefully this means..

[Deathlizard]

The GBA doesn't count here. When it comes to Portable gaming, your either on GBA or not at all and besides, the GBA is in basicially a Miniture SNES. Guess where Squaresoft resided during the 16 bit era.

As for the Cube. as Quoted from the IGN Article

"It was announced that Nintendo would loan Square money from its Q Fund to start a new development house called Game Designer's Studio. In turn, the new studio would develop a Final Fantasy title for GameCube and Game Boy Advance."

Basicially, Nintendo is Paying them to make a game for the cube. They most likely wouldn't be making this game if Nintendo didn't walk into Cash Strapped Squaresoft with Bags of money and said "You shall make a game for the Gamecube"

Re:And the information for this is where?

[generic-man]

I searched Google, and I found a news story about the merger. Please read it.

Squarenix

[jokercito]

Sounds like some sort of distro.

hazaah!

[Jacer]

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!

Re:hazaah!

[Psmylie]

If you're going to fight to the death... er... again, you'd best make sure you have some phoenix down.

Re:hazaah!

[Kintanon]

Don't you mean "excluding FFVIII" ?!?! X wasn't that bad. VIII was a steaming pile of monkey shit! The story collapsed halfway through the game, the magic and levelling system SUCKED... Ugh. The only good thing in the game was that card game subgame thing... I just CRINGE thinking about it...

Kintanon

A Fiscal Joke

[ParnBR]

April 1st is when the fiscal year in Japan begins. Really! :)

Enix is the bigger company?

[mao che minh]

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.

How this affects the industry

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Square

[SlamMan]

naw. Usually they're just really round.

Re:Who knew . . .

[Dreddamo]

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!

SquEnix and the Land Downunder...

[MrSquiddy]

Being from the land down under, (Australia for those of you who don't get out much), I'm sincerely hoping that this will boost the amount of Role Playing Games coming from Japan...

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.

I wonder...

[mao che minh]

How will this effect Square's torrent relationship with Nintendo? I want a new FF for my 'Cube dangit.

Enix not my first choice, but...

[Winterblink]

Hopefully this will be a beneficial collaboration for both companies. As many have pointed out so far, the last bunch of Square efforts for the Final Fantasy series have been more of an achievement in technical prowess than anything else, the last "great" Final Fantasy game being FF7 in my humble opinion. While I haven't been impressed with many of Enix's games per se, they're pretty imaginative and will hopefully bring a lot to the creative table for Square to work with.

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.

Could be called the "shaft Sony" merger

[alexhmit01]

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

Re:Could be called the "shaft Sony" merger

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh? The Square and Nintendo fallout came years before The Spirits Within. It actually goes back to the N64 and Nintendo's decision to use cartridges instead of the CD format. Square, who was already planning to make a FF game for the 64 (there were already screenshots), dumped Nintendo and went over to Sony. The feud was only beginning though. Ads for Final Fantasy 7 made the point that a cartridge-based system had no chance of making such a beautiful game. Worse though, and this only became widely known this year, they convinced Enix to dump Nintendo as well. The bad blood lasted until early this year, when Nintendo struck a deal to bring Square games back to Nintendo consoles. Of course, the millions lost on the movie probably had something to do with that, but not everything.

Re:Could be called the "shaft Sony" merger

[GweeDo]

The falling out between Square and Nintendo was based more on Nintendo's not going with a CD format (they want CG's) and that Nintendo basically said they could have done a better job with Super Mario RPG than Square did. Just thought I would mention those points.

Re:Could be called the "shaft Sony" merger

[RickHunter]

Not only that, but Nintendo (IIRC) refused to let Square release games in North America without running them through Nintendo's translators and censors. Ever wondered why the PSX FF4 and SNES FF2 translations are so different? This is why - Nintendo insisted on censoring the games for the kiddie-dominated NA market, while Sony was willing to let Square do their thing. Nintendo, I believe, has since changed their stance on this.

Re:Could be called the "shaft Sony" merger

[Cryptnotic]

Aparrantly it was also Nintendo who insisted that Final Fantasy 4 be released as Final Fantasy 2 in the U.S. (and 6 as FF3). Presumably this is because they skipped the old NES releases of 2 and 3 in the U.S. But apparrantly Nintendo didn't think that Americans could understand non-sequential game numberings? At least when they went and re-released those games for Playstation, they used the original numbers. It caused more confusion than simply skipping 2 and 3 would have done.

Re:Could be called the "shaft Sony" merger

[Guppy06]

Nit-picking.

"It actually goes back to the N64 and Nintendo's decision to use cartridges instead of the CD format."

Actually, it goes back just a tad further. There's been bad blood between Nintendo and Square over the way Nintendo showed favoratism towards Enix. For example, when a bigger Super Famicom cartridge came out, they didn't let Square have it until the next Dragon Quest game came out on it.

Also, Square was unhappy with Nintendo's (ultimately wise) decision not to make a CD add-on for the Super Famicom. They wanted to make Seiken Densetsu 2 (aka "Secret of Mana") much larger than it was.

"Ads for Final Fantasy 7 made the point that a cartridge-based system had no chance of making such a beautiful game."

Not that they knew back then that Zelda: OoT would bitch-slap FF VII's sales soon afterward...

"The bad blood lasted until early this year, when Nintendo struck a deal to bring Square games back to Nintendo consoles."

To be honest, it was more like Square striking a deal, as they were ultimately the ones that had to change their behavior.

Square wanted to re-make the first few Final Fantasy games as handhelds, but there was the slight problem of Nintendo 0wnzoring the handheld market for the past decade or so. Square, with their typical prima-donna attitude (yes, I'm biased) told Nintendo that they would develop for the Game Boy Color but not the GameCube. Yamauchi told them to sit on it and rotate.

Square dropped the idea of using the Game Boy Color and, continuing with their "I'm so pretty" attitude, decided to hitch a ride on Bandai's pending WonderSwan Color. Square ignored the 8 year history of Game Boy putting the smackdown on any and all competitors, seemingly with the attide of "Any system that we publish on will automatically sell well!"

The WonderSwan Color hit the shelves (packaged with Final Fantasy I, no less) not long before the Game Boy Advance came out. Final Fantasy fans bought the WonderSwan Color and Final Fantasy I (and only Final Fantasy I) and oohed and ahhed about how much better it looked than the original Famicom game. Square, on the other hand, was suspiciously silent about how the WonderSwan Color's performance is somewhere between that of a Sega Master System (8-bit hardware, superior to the NES) and the Sega Genesis (16-bit hardware, inferior to the SNES). On the other hand, the Game Boy Advance's 2-D capabilities have been compared to that of the Sega Saturn. Like it or not, if Square wanted to improve on any Final Fantasy games after III (or perhaps even after II... III is a pretty damned impressive game for the Famicom and has yet to be released for the WSC), it most certainly was not going to be on the WonderSwan Color.

The WonderSwan Color fades into history just like so many other worthy (and several unworthy) competitors. Square still wants to re-make those old Final Fantasy games. And Nintendo has all the cards.

So Square capitulated and agreed to publish games for the GameCube (a Final Fantasy spin-off and possibly the pending MMORPG). And Yamauchi laughed all the way to the bank.

They are already working with Nintendo GC and GBA.

[Viewsonic]

Nuff said. They wont go near XBox, though. They know how it's trying to ruin the market.

GBA does count..

[Viewsonic]

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.

Re:GBA does count..

[Babbster]

"This of it as a full fledged console that can do BOTH"

Not to be picking the nits, but since you have to buy an additional $40-50 component for the Gamecube (or an additional $60 component - the GBA), neither actually does "both." I would also not call it a "full fledged console" since it's two generations behind the current crop.

All that aside, I love my GBA and I'll be buying the peripheral for the GC. I'm a gaming whore. :)

Probably end up with a DragonWarrior on the GC now

[Viewsonic]

... 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.

Great Minds

[kenp2002]

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

My two C(omm)ENTS

[killmenow]

1. The name should be Enix Squared and represented as "Enix" followed by a superscripted 2 (which, unfortunately, /. won't let me demonstrate here)
2. I much prefer the battle engine of Star Ocean 2 (never played the first one) to Final Fantasy (any of them)

Sony never had rights....

[Viewsonic]

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.

Quite a shock

[Stonent1]

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.

PGC Coverage

[Omkar]

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).

Re:PGC Coverage

[Brendan Byrd]

What's wrong with Gameplay on FFX? I picked it back up again, and there's a massive amount of stuff to collect and fight. Just look at the FAQs on GameFAQs.

Re:PGC Coverage

[Omkar]

Massive != Fun. Check out Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion for examples of short and sweet games.

Re:PGC Coverage

[Brendan Byrd]

And why would I buy it, when I could rent it and beat it in a day? What's the point of playing it again, when there's nothing new. A game with no replay value is not a game at all. It's a rental, and that's it.

Re:PGC Coverage

[Omkar]

Why would I play an FF game, when I could experience everything novel in an hour? What's the point of continuing, when there's nothing new? A game with no gameplay is not a game at all. It's shovelware, and that's it. Seriously, gameplay matters more than any other quality of a videogame. What's wrong with being a rental game? Also, many people like to replay fun games.

Re:Who knew . . .

[nburtner]

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.

Square Enix on new platforms...

[Alric]

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.

Re:Square Enix on new platforms...

[medeii]

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.

Judging from the graphics in Metroid Prime, Mario Sunshine, or even Starfox versus Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, I somehow don't think that it's the storage limitation that has anything to do with having 'great graphics.' Moreover, the idea of having Metroid Prime as multiplayer makes anyone forget Halo almost instantaneously -- it's that good. Granted, I love both of them, but the PS2 didn't seem to be all that much of an upgrade versus the PS1 graphically -- whereas the Gamecube is miles above the N64.

I also think that many people are forgetting that Square has already started development on Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, which is a Nintendo-exclusive title, and they have not released any plans for Xbox development.

Re:Square Enix on new platforms...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

The actual capcity of CDs over cartridges wasn't the issue.

it was the manufacturing costs of CDs over Carts. You needed to make Carts in BULK, plus the cost of actually making them... It adds up. With optical media you just press and go. The actual media costs a fraction of what a similar cart would cost. Like NeoGeo games. a CD version, while having horrible loadtimes, is far cheaper, roughly 30 bucks than a neogeo homecart, roughly 100 bucks.

As far as Xbox support? Not bloody likely. Square and Enix are both companies that highly pander to the Japanese market. And will pander to that market first, and given the Xbox's sales in japan? See above comment, Not Bloody Likely.

Re:Square Enix on new platforms...

[Guppy06]

"Square Enix will most likely continue to ignore the GameCube"

No, they won't. Square wants to get in on the Game Boy Advance in the worst way and Yamauchi won't let them unless they also do something on the GameCube. Unless Square is interested in flushing more money down the tubes on yet another failed hand-held...

Don't know what to think about

[leoboiko]

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.

This deserves our Full Support

[BoBaBrain]

We should encourage all transitions to *nix.

Those who burn their Karma for the good of others

[somethingwicked]

Wow, I mean really, they're Ghostbusters references, people.

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 /. turn out to be things other people misunderstand things and label as trolls.

Roscoe: Enix, get back here you damn fool!

[somethingwicked]

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 can come of this?

[Maul]

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.

Re:What can come of this?

[Stormie]

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).

Actually according to Nintendo's operating results, the numbers are more like 41.6 million PS2s, 6.7 million Gamecubes and 3.9 million Xboxes. So the numbers are even more in favour of the PS2 than you posited.

Re:What can come of this?

[Guppy06]

"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."

Alright, so my posts are beginning to sound like a broken record...

Sony may have console dominance as of now (I'm tempted to say that all bets are off after this Christmas, though), Nintendo does have a wildcard in the form of the Game Boy Advance.

As you mentioned before, Square is getting lazy, which is demonstrated by the way they have been releasing old games again (Anthology, Chronicles, etc...). IIRC, they were even talking about re-releasing VII, VIII and IX as DVD games for the PS2.

However, I through VI are 2-D games, and nobody in their right minds would make 2-D games for a modern console (unless they were Miyamoto or something). Which leaves handhelds.

They re-released I and II for the WonderSwan Color, but the WSC hardware just isn't up to playing SNES games. It may not even be up to an improved version of III. But even if it were equal to or even superior to the Game Boy Advance, the WSC has the major market disadvantage of not having the words "Game Boy" written on it. I'm thinking it will be at least another half-decade until anybody else is foolish enough to go up against the Game Boy legacy again.

Square "needs" to get onto the Game Boy Advance if they still want to milk their old licenses for all they're worth (reminds me a bit of George Lucas). And Yamauchi, being the miserable (yet still lovable) curmudgeon that he is, won't let Square publish on the Game Boy Advance unless they also publish on the GameCube.

Re:What can come of this?

[Aerog]

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

I think any true fan of the FF series would realize that it would have nothing to do with the games, just like the games don't really have anything to do with each other.

not been as crappy as FF10 or Kingdom Hearts.

I can't say anything about Kingdom Hearts, but I personally really enjoyed FFX. I don't know how well the sequel will go over, but that remains to be seen. If it turns out to be a fun game, then by all means go for it.

Re:What can come of this?

[samdu]

Um. As a huge fan of FFX, I, for one, am awaiting X-2 with bated breath. I DO want to play in that universe again. And what of FFXI and XII? They are obviously not ignoring, either financially or developmentally, new games. Hell, I'd assume that they've sunk more money into XI than any other FF ever. It'll be the first online FF (which is one reason I'm not all that interested in it - FF should be a single player experience). Putting everything in place that needs to be there has got to be costing them a fortune in money and programmers. Hell, I even liked Kingdom Hearts, but wish that some aspects of it had been different (I got really tired of turning around and seeing Goofy's mouth-breathing head or Donald Duck's ass - but I figure Disney required they be onscreen all the time).

Re:This sucks.

[Sylver Dragon]

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.

Re:This sucks.

[JebusIsLord]

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.

Errr...that's a load of crap.

[Jayde Stargunner]

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

Re:This sucks.

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

(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.)

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

Re:This sucks.

[Sylver Dragon]

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.

Re:This sucks.

[Daetrin]

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.

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.

Re:This sucks.

[Guppy06]

"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.

Re:Those who burn their Karma for the good of othe

[Alsee]

Those who burn their Karma for the good of others

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 :D

-

In other big console RPG news...

[Guppy06]

Sega just released Phantasy Star Collection (I through III) for the Game Boy Advance.

Re:Um, Kingdom Harts is good

[Guppy06]

"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 ."

You're assuming that people bought it because it was a good game. People bought Kingdom Hearts for the very same reasons people went to go see Phantom Menace. Heck, they were made for the same reason: to whore a profitable IP line for all it's worth.