Should I even join the Square-Enix group? Half of the people have already pointed this out, but here it goes again. Instead, I'll focus on Squaresoft only. I never really fancied Enix or whatever their name was before the merge.
I love Squaresoft because:
-They provide me with Final Fantasy; the games that have a beautiful plot and graphics according to me.
-They gave me Kingdom Hearts which has a great plot but not as serious as FF (I don't really care about the Disney cameos.
-They come up with beautiful soundtracks.
-The games have well thought of settings.
-The characters are original in their own way (Not to be confused with cliched. Yes, there's a difference).
I hate Squaresoft because:
-I miss the overwhelmingly good FF games from yesteryear. You know, the ones with the great plot that made me feel like I was part of the story. For me, that'd be FFVIII and FFIX.
-I applaud them for wanting to try new things but I also hate them for that.
?FFXII was confusing in the sense that you had no idea who the protagonist was. At first, I thought this was innovative but then it just plain annoyed me.
?Getting rid of the main romantic plot was also a horrible idea as I figured out once I finished FFXII. I got used to them so why are you snatching them away from me now?
?It seems in an attempt to come up with non-cliched (?) characters, they're trying to come up with mild character personalities. That is, characters have a personality that border between boring/bland and different. They don't want to cross the line because then you get characters like Yuffie or Riku or Quina. But then don't wanna make them ordinary looking. The thing is, though, that annoying characters are still memorable. Now, does anyone remember who Basch is? Sadly, no. To me, Basch was a great character that had much more to offer but never quite got there.
-I'm tired of this company trying to "fit in" in today's society by making their games more action based and flashier than usual. Screw what the new kids want. If they want something like Gears of War or Halo or whatever, they can go play it. You don't have to make FF look like that; it just doesn't work! (-coughFFXIIIcough-)
-Square-Enix needs to stop trolling us with the idea of new games coming out...in about 10 years! There's FF XIII Versus (Or Crystal or whatever), Kingdom hearts 3, Kingdom hearts Deep Drop...whatever and so on. Was it really necessary to get a FFXIII sequel one year after its release? What about FF Versus? it's been on development for ages now.
And most importantly...what's with releasing sequels and prequels for different handheld systems?! Do they think we're all sitting on top of a gold mountain or what? I'm referring specifically about Kingdom Hearts; Crisis Core and FFIV and below for the DS are still a pretty low blow, though. In order to own all the KH games out there therefore, understand the plot, I would have to own a:
-PS2
-GBA
-PSP
-DS
-A japanese phone?
-A 3DS (Because 3DS are not backwards compatible)
-Possibly a PS3 if KH3 ever comes out.
Actually, for all we know, KH3 might be released for the Wii. Disney seems quite fond of it and Square Enix sure likes to troll people. So who knows?
I'm still a big fan and yes, I like the overly exaggerated characters and the great graphics, music and awesome plots. But it hurts to see them dig their own grave. And at the same time, it's their own fault.
As a side note, I also hate developers who deliver a great saga, then decide they don't want it anymore and sell it to someone else who tries to revive it/keep at it but it ends up being nothing like the original games. I'm mostly thinking about Naughty Dog and games like Crash and Jak and Daxter. I don't know if it was because I was younger or what, but the first Crash games were awfully fun. Then a new developer got the franchise and started to literally milk the series and then it sucked badly. Same with Jak and Daxter. The first 3 games were fun. Daxter was alright. Jak X was a fun, fresh spin-off, if you will. But then we got the Lost Frontier and it just made me wanna punch the screen. The game felt nothing like a Jak game. The only way I could tell I was playing a Jak game was because Jak was there...but that's all.
So a piece of advice: If you have a good franchise, have the dignity to let it die peacefully. Don't sell it off, don't try to revive it. Let it remain as a good memory in people's minds. Because as much as I liked The Legend of Dragoon, I'm glad I haven't see a sequel...
I love Squaresoft because:
-They provide me with Final Fantasy; the games that have a beautiful plot and graphics according to me.
-They gave me Kingdom Hearts which has a great plot but not as serious as FF (I don't really care about the Disney cameos.
-They come up with beautiful soundtracks.
-The games have well thought of settings.
-The characters are original in their own way (Not to be confused with cliched. Yes, there's a difference).
I hate Squaresoft because:
-I miss the overwhelmingly good FF games from yesteryear. You know, the ones with the great plot that made me feel like I was part of the story. For me, that'd be FFVIII and FFIX.
-I applaud them for wanting to try new things but I also hate them for that.
?FFXII was confusing in the sense that you had no idea who the protagonist was. At first, I thought this was innovative but then it just plain annoyed me.
?Getting rid of the main romantic plot was also a horrible idea as I figured out once I finished FFXII. I got used to them so why are you snatching them away from me now?
?It seems in an attempt to come up with non-cliched (?) characters, they're trying to come up with mild character personalities. That is, characters have a personality that border between boring/bland and different. They don't want to cross the line because then you get characters like Yuffie or Riku or Quina. But then don't wanna make them ordinary looking. The thing is, though, that annoying characters are still memorable. Now, does anyone remember who Basch is? Sadly, no. To me, Basch was a great character that had much more to offer but never quite got there.
-I'm tired of this company trying to "fit in" in today's society by making their games more action based and flashier than usual. Screw what the new kids want. If they want something like Gears of War or Halo or whatever, they can go play it. You don't have to make FF look like that; it just doesn't work! (-coughFFXIIIcough-)
-Square-Enix needs to stop trolling us with the idea of new games coming out...in about 10 years! There's FF XIII Versus (Or Crystal or whatever), Kingdom hearts 3, Kingdom hearts Deep Drop...whatever and so on. Was it really necessary to get a FFXIII sequel one year after its release? What about FF Versus? it's been on development for ages now.
And most importantly...what's with releasing sequels and prequels for different handheld systems?! Do they think we're all sitting on top of a gold mountain or what? I'm referring specifically about Kingdom Hearts; Crisis Core and FFIV and below for the DS are still a pretty low blow, though. In order to own all the KH games out there therefore, understand the plot, I would have to own a:
-PS2
-GBA
-PSP
-DS
-A japanese phone?
-A 3DS (Because 3DS are not backwards compatible)
-Possibly a PS3 if KH3 ever comes out.
Actually, for all we know, KH3 might be released for the Wii. Disney seems quite fond of it and Square Enix sure likes to troll people. So who knows?
I'm still a big fan and yes, I like the overly exaggerated characters and the great graphics, music and awesome plots. But it hurts to see them dig their own grave. And at the same time, it's their own fault.
As a side note, I also hate developers who deliver a great saga, then decide they don't want it anymore and sell it to someone else who tries to revive it/keep at it but it ends up being nothing like the original games. I'm mostly thinking about Naughty Dog and games like Crash and Jak and Daxter. I don't know if it was because I was younger or what, but the first Crash games were awfully fun. Then a new developer got the franchise and started to literally milk the series and then it sucked badly. Same with Jak and Daxter. The first 3 games were fun. Daxter was alright. Jak X was a fun, fresh spin-off, if you will. But then we got the Lost Frontier and it just made me wanna punch the screen. The game felt nothing like a Jak game. The only way I could tell I was playing a Jak game was because Jak was there...but that's all.
So a piece of advice: If you have a good franchise, have the dignity to let it die peacefully. Don't sell it off, don't try to revive it. Let it remain as a good memory in people's minds. Because as much as I liked The Legend of Dragoon, I'm glad I haven't see a sequel...
