Industry in peril: Square Enix President steps down after disappointing sales|General Gaming Discussion|Forum|SNES HUB

Mong,  I believe those were projected sales of the titles for their fiscal year, not actual sales to date (the article wasn’t too clear on that).

Still, you’re on the money about Square Enix having lost their way.  Interestingly enough, they really started to go down hill after the merger (though Square needed to merge after wasting so much money on their terrible FF movie).

Feels like Square Enix was hoping their Western developed games would be a huge cash cow that they could use to finance whatever crazy project they felt like doing.

I honestly don’t see too many missteps by Squaresoft when I look back on their SNES days.  Sure, the FF games lay on the melodrama a little thick, but they’re all quite solid.

Mario RPG was just brilliant and I am surprised they didn’t use that playstyle for another RPG in the Playstation era.

I would point to Final Fantasy VIII as the beginning of the end personally (at least for the FF series).

What’s really sad to me is that they’re sitting on a potential gold mine in the form of an FF7 remake, something fans have been pleading for for years.  They’re also well aware of the demand for this.  Instead, they’d rather make multiple spin-offs of FFXIII and iPhone games with tons of DLC / Premium content.

I wonder how much longer they can continue down this current path.  Looks like they’re still sitting on a decent sized cash pile.

In Square’s defense re: FF MQ and easy FF4, RPGs weren’t selling well in the West (especially relative to Japan) despite the huge and growing game market.  As well, I knew several people who used to scoff at RPGs or just wouldn’t give them a chance.  They had to try SOMETHING.

So I get where they were coming from.  By dumbing everything down they were trying to simplify the mechanics to make it easier for Western gamers to get into a style of game that they actually weren’t familiar with.  Still, Mystic Quest isn’t a game that would convert a non-believer.  As we all know, by dumbing the experience down, the game ended up feeling hollow.  There’s no reason they had to skimp on the story so much.  

Secret of Mana or another action-RPG was probably a better bet, giving gamers the action they’re used to while introducing the story, inventory management, etc. elements of the RPG genre.

There definitely was some arrogance on their part though, as I doubt they consulted with many (or any) Americans or European market experts in the game’s development.

Re: An FF7 remake, SquareEnix has gone on record saying they won’t do it until they make a game that surpasses that game’s experience.  Reading between the lines, they’re saying we want to make the games we want, not give you the remake you’re clamouring for.

I have zero experience managing the development of an HD game (or any game), but I would imagine that an FF7 remake, if competently managed, would have as good a shot as any HD game at turning a profit (especially a JRPG).

You do have a point though; given SquareEnix’s recent track record, a remake could definitely turn into a “be careful what you wished for” situation.

It’s mind boggling how SquareEnix could go from being one of THE hottest publishers to basically being a joke in such a short period of time.

To an extent, what’s happening at SquareEnix is happening throughout all Japanese developers / publishers to varying degrees.  Japan is sadly becoming less and less relevant to the future of gaming with each passing year.

Should also mention that the game plays kind of slow.  Some of the backgrounds take a while to run through and there’s a bit of a delay in transitioning to the battle screen.

Two of my all-time favourite RPGs, Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star IV, really stand out to me because they respect the player’s time.  Both games move along at a brisk pace and are much better for it.

Thinking back on PSIV specifically, it had an amazing feature where you could “talk” to your party and they’d tell you where you were supposed to go and what you were supposed to be doing.  It was a great feature for people who hadn’t played the game in a couple weeks and had forgotten what they were supposed to be doing (probably the number one reason folks don’t finish RPGs).   Strange that no game copied this feature.

The materia system is very similar to the jobs system, though it is a bit more open.  

Basically, weapons and armour have materia slots available in them.  In each slot, you can equip materia, which levels up as you fight and unlocks new abilities.

There are passive materia (e.g. Max HP +50%), magic materia (cure, fire, etc.), summon materia and ability materia (throw, steal, etc.)

You can equip “throw” and a “summon” materia at the same time for example, effectively making a character a ninja-summoner.

That said, the materia does NOTHING to change a characters appearance, so the characters all feel very malleable.  

FF7 in no way makes FF6 obsolete, but that doesn’t mean its not worth playing through.  Super Mario World doesn’t make Super Mario 3 obsolete, but that doesn’t mean one should skip it.

That said, I’d put FF7 lower then every other game I’ve recommended to you so far (SSF4, Valkyria Chronicles, Sonic Generations) by a pretty wide margin.  Its visuals have not aged gracefully.  

If you’re looking for a PS1 RPG, I’d recommend trying the Lunar games well before tackling FF7.  Final Fantasy Tactics is a lot of fun though (it’s got the job system) and still looks good today.