Square Enix Recommitting to JRPGs After Bravely Default's Success

[StewShearerOld]

Square Enix Recommitting to JRPGs After Bravely Default's Success

Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda says the company has lost its focus in recent years and will be reinvesting in "heavy JRPGs" in the future.

Not too long ago Square Enix committed to an effort to expand its customer base by investing in companies and games that it hoped would appeal to gamers outside of its traditional JRPG fan base. They were efforts that didn't pay off quite as well as the company had hoped. While games like Tomb Raider would eventually <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131446-Tomb-Raider-Made-Money-Despite-Publishers-Early-Disappointment>reach its goals, several other titles <a href=<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123150-Square-Enix-Faces-10-Billion-Yen-Loss-in-Restructuring-Efforts>failed to hit their sales targets.

That being the case, Square Enix recently found itself with an unexpected hit in 200,000 copies within the its first three weeks at retail. The game's success wasn't lost on Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda who, in a recent interview, revealed that the company may take steps in the future to move back closer to its roots.

"In the past, when we developed console games with a worldwide premise, we lost our focus, and not only did they end up being games that weren't for the Japanese, but they ended up being incomplete titles that weren't even fit for a global audience," said Matsuda. "On the other hand, there are games like the JRPG we made for the Japanese audience with the proper elements, Bravely Default, which ended up selling well all around the world."

Matsuda would go on to say that Square Enix, in the past, has failed to recognize that "fans of JRPGS are really spread around the world" and that the information gap limiting fans in the past have pretty much been erased by the advent of the internet. "There's a sense of mass, which loses the image of a niche market." In turn, he said, the company will be refocusing its efforts in the future to produce new and "heavy" JRPGs.

As a devoted fan of Square Enix's classic RPG library, this sounds like music to my ears. That said, what do you think? Will Square Enix find greater success by taking notes from its past, or is it taking steps toward another wrong turn?

Source: Siliconera


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[LittleMikey]

Please let this not be an april fools joke >_<;

 

[Lunar Templar]

sounds like they figured out the problem.

but I'm gonna wait and see if they actually fallow up and deliver good games again, or if this ends up being them just blowing smoke.

 

[Kameburger]

Best news I've heard in a long time.

I am glad that they Finally realized this, even though they practically invented this idea... I kind of feel like this is like a car company remembering that wheels are important to automotive mobility, but yeah I am still psyched.

I always felt their best titles were unashamed inspired titles, and it was the focus tested stuff that came from SE that tends to suck.

 

[dragongit]

good. Just hope they do more then just handheld stuff. Just focus on FF15, Kingdom Hearts 3, and maybe a new IP every once and a while, and you guys might be back on track.

 

[Karadalis]

Interesting seeing how it was their Jrpg department that mostly caused them trouble.. what with the Final fantasy 13 series being the quality disaster that it was and the trouble with their latest mmo (wich after its disastrous start seems to have become quiet good i heard)

Other non Jrpg properties like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex human revolution for example actually where good games. But then again both games werent directly made by square themselves.

I would say they lost their touch for good stories and good game mechanics.. being so desperate to reinvent the wheel with each final fantasy title that it kinda became an atrocity in 13... and people simply lost faith that square could deliver what it was seen as being best at in the past... solid Jrpgs. I mean 10 and 12 where allready questionable... but 13 took the cake.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

I hope this is legit. If so...
C'MON SQUARE ENIX! BRING ON A NEW STAR OCEAN!

 

[-Dragmire-]

I hope this is legit. If so...
C'MON SQUARE ENIX! BRING ON A NEW STAR OCEAN!

I'm mixed on a new Star Ocean, I feel it hit a high point in 2.

I really liked three until a certain plot point...

4 was ok the entire way through. I lost interest right at the end though(last 1-2 hours).

While I would want the series to move forward, I also want to reclaim some of what made 2 so good(which may hold it back depending on the direction they decide on).

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

I feel like the conversation at Square Enix headquarters went something like this:

"Hey guys, we haven't been doing so well. What's wrong?"
"Well, we shifted from making games like this that people like to games like that that people don't like."
"Why are we still making games like that? Is there something wrong with games like this?"
"No, we just made a game like this and it did really well."
"Oh, so should we focus on games like this then?"
"Yes"

Anyway, the only Square Enix-developed games I've really played are the PS2 Kingdom Hearts entries, but still, this sounds like good news for the JRPG fans out there. Hopefully. Cause like they could still make bad games like this. Hopefully they won't.

 

[Grabehn]

HEEEEH... APRIL'S FOOLS ERRBODY, LOVE SQUARE!

Now if it isn't, that they realized people that like JRPS like them being... JRPS and not a bunch of simplified crap THIS quick is a bit astonishing, but let's hope they keep this idea in mind so people that like this stuff can have more good games.

 

[gamegod25]

Their problem has been more to do with shitty writing and shitty gameplay in their rpg's.

 

[EyeReaper]

So, that means I can still have hopes for The Last Remnant 2: Turns out there was another Remnant right? We can have this series be as much the "last" as the fantasies were "final"

However, if this does turn out to be an april hoax, I'mma gonna go cry

 

[weirdee]

Alright! They actually turned around and saw the huge crowd yelling at them to stop being stupid!

this calls for evangeliations

 

[Meinos Kaen]

... So, wait a minute. A company who built its fame because of JRPGs only now realizes that JRPGs also sell out of Japan? After the success of Final Fantasy 7 and 6? ... If anything, this makes me take them even less seriously.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I like the part about their description of games that are trying to appeal to the west. They really are incomplete messes. And no, this isn't applying to FFXIII series because FFXIII series as a whole is anime as fuck and just what the Japanese market wants. It's stuff like Mind Jack and whatnot that they were talking about..

 

[Sonicron]

Oh... well, on the one hand I would enjoy playing a solid classic JRPG again (something in the vein of FFVII or earlier), which I know Square Enix are quite capable of making, but on the other hand I would have really liked playing more titles set in the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. Too bad.

 

[Uratoh]

I am going to be very upset if this turns out to be an April Fools joke.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

I am going to be very upset if this turns out to be an April Fools joke.

same here, bring on star ocean 5 and a hopefully a good ff15. I heard there is, or is gonna be, a bravely default sequel called bravely second in Japan, if this is the case we'd like the sequel here (The West) as well please.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

I mean 10 and 12 where all ready questionable... but 13 took the cake.

Damn right

I heard that! D:<

10 the spear grid system was too complicated (and it changed it's own rules near the end) and the story was pants. 12 same thing with the license board, the story focused on the wrong character and took too long to get into the main story.

13 was crap, looked wonderful, but it was wonderful looking crap. I'm starting to accept anyone liking the 13 games now but i'll defy the souls that says they're good FF games.

 

[Niccolo]

Why does everyone want a new Final Fantasy? I honestly can't see that being a good thing. 6 through 8 were by all accounts pretty good games, I loved X (Bizarre laughing scene aside), but 12 was shite on a stick and 13 wasn't exactly a deep game. Let the series retire. Take a few steps back to the systems that worked and start from there.

I think they should do more like what they did with Bravely Default. It's pretty much an early era FF game with the serials filed off, but because they started pretty much from scratch and kept only the battle system they could try something new. And it rocked. It seriously rocked. They should keep doing that - taking the mechanics that worked and tossing them into entirely new settings, see what happens.