Sega More Open to New Ideas Than Square, Says JRPG Dev

[Keane Ng]

Sega More Open to New Ideas Than Square, Says JRPG Dev

JRPG developer tri-Ace has had almost every one of its games published by Square, but it's lumped in with Sega for its newest game. Why? Because Square's less open to new ideas, tri-Ace says.

JRPGs have been in something of a creative rut for sometime, and though gamers have been vocal about laying the blame on certain publishers at times, rarely do we ever hear of a developer being open about who might have a hand in the drought of new ideas in the JRPG landscape.

Tri-Ace, a JRPG developer best known for the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile games, has been entirely faithful to a single publisher up until now: Square-Enix. For its newest game, End of Eternity [http://eoe.sega.jp/], however, the studio has decided to switch sides and head over to Sega, a company that recently showed that it can do some interesting things with the JRPG paradigm with Valkyria Chronicles. Why tri-Ace switched to Sega might have less to do with what Sega does than what Square-Enix doesn't, however.

"Because SEGA has a more open attitude towards accepting new RPG ideas than Square Enix, we'd decided to have SEGA release End of Eternity," director Takayuki Suguro said.

That's not something I buy entirely. Tri-Ace has had shots at doing new things with Square - last year's Infinite Undiscovery was relatively off the beaten path for a JRPG, though that's not really saying much. And it's not like End of Eternity is breaking the mold, either, from what I've heard about it. There are guns and hex-based battles, certainly different from your standard JRPG, but nothing really novel.

Maybe there's some trouble in this developer-publisher JRPG paradise?

[Via Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5334414/sega-is-more-open-to-new-rpgs-than-square-enix]]

Permalink

 

[AboveUp]

Well, SEGA is open to new ideas. Just look at all the new characters they dare to introduce in every Sonic game. Hard to disagree with that.

Now if only they'd have new characters appear in new games, rather than having them ruin a game that should only have one character running at full speed without being stopped by Knuckles searching for emeralds, Tails shooting robots, a bunch of tamagocchi like creatures and a cat trying to fish and god knows what else...
But that's a different story entirely.

 

[LaBambaMan]

It seems all I ever see with Square's logo on it is another shitty Final Fantasy game these days, anyway. I like that someone in the loop is calling them out on their lack of creativity these days.

 

[thatstheguy]

Well, you'd have to try to be not as open to new ideas than square considering all the Final Fantasy games out. Then again, there's also Capcom.

 

[not a zaar]

There's new ideas in jRPGs? Since when? It's all exp grinding and min-maxing.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I like Tri-Ace game, generally speaking. But I'm somewhat confused by there decision does publisher REALLY make that much of a difference? I guess if Square said no they'd have to go with some one else, but why preemptively change publisher.

On a side note, am I the only person confused as to why publishers name and logo get greater prominence in games rather than the developer. Many people I've talked to still believe that square made the various Tri-Ace games.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

I just realized this, but SEGA and Square Enix are practically evil twins.

SEGA makes good new IPs, while it butchers it's old franchises.
Square doesn't make any new IPs, but constantly improves their old franchises.

I just hope that a battle escalates between these two companies; such conflict is just what they need to produce some great games.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, let me be honest. Only a fool knocks Final Fantasy which is a huge franchise that continuously pulls down epic sales numbers. Like any top dog they of course have their fair share of critics, but at the end of the day they set THE standard despite all of the similarities between the titles (though in their defense every game features a new set of battle mechanics and such, even if the storyline and battle mechanics oftentimes exist totally seperate from each other).

With Final Fantasy's success, why take risks and change the general formula? There is no incentive to do so until interest starts to signifigantly wane and they aren't going to make mondo profits with the formula anymore.

Tri-Ace on the other hand doesn't seem to really want to keep to a single formula at all and let's be honest, their last experiment "Infinite Undiscovery" was hardly a resounding success. I can see why their publisher might have very mixed opinion of further experiments at this point until they get another big success or two under their belt.

Speaking for myself, I kind of felt Tri-Ace needs some electroshock, since they strike me as totally insane. To be brutally honest the original "Valkyrie Profile" was an awesome game with a battle system that remains fun to this day. It also left some questions open, and the final comments after the credits between Loki and Lezard left things open for a sequel (though admittedly what you do AFTER Ragnarok was probably a challenge they might not have been up to). Rather than doing justice to a good series they have generally been stuck in doing prequels (which I don't care for) and instead of polishing a GOOD game engine it seems like they get progressively worse with each installment. Valkyrie Profile had an awesome combat engine, Valkyrie Profile 2 had one that was decent, but made me miss the first one. Covenant Of The Plume struck me as a generic SRPG with an unusually glacial pace and very limited RPG elements since you couldn't really power up your characters as much as I would have liked.

Star Ocean still has potential but the last installment seemed like a rushjob of just throwing all the Star Ocean cliques into a giant pile and releasing it as a game.

 

[Chilliman]

Well, SEGA is open to new ideas. Just look at all the new characters they dare to introduce in every Sonic game. Hard to disagree with that.

Now if only they'd have new characters appear in new games, rather than having them ruin a game that should only have one character running at full speed without being stopped by Knuckles searching for emeralds, Tails shooting robots, a bunch of tamagocchi like creatures and a cat trying to fish and god knows what else...
But that's a different story entirely.

Doesn't Sonic Team make those characters?

 

[oliveira8]

Well, SEGA is open to new ideas. Just look at all the new characters they dare to introduce in every Sonic game. Hard to disagree with that.

Now if only they'd have new characters appear in new games, rather than having them ruin a game that should only have one character running at full speed without being stopped by Knuckles searching for emeralds, Tails shooting robots, a bunch of tamagocchi like creatures and a cat trying to fish and god knows what else...
But that's a different story entirely.

Doesn't Sonic Team make those characters?

Who funds Sonic Team? SEGA...and the idiot fans.

 

[hansari]

That's not something I buy entirely. Tri-Ace has had shots at doing new things with Square - last year's Infinite Undiscovery was relatively off the beaten path for a JRPG, though that's not really saying much. And it's not like End of Eternity is breaking the mold, either, from what I've heard about it. There are guns and hex-based battles, certainly different from your standard JRPG, but nothing really novel

So why don't they just come out and say it? Sega offered them more money...

 

[Jman1236]

Sega? Want to make money? Think this over: "Sonic Satam RPG", think about it.

 

[Simalacrum]

well, it does make sense... With the rather big exception of Team Sonic, Sega have consistently published unique, good quality games... I mean, look at Valkyria Chronicles, for one.

I don't know much about Square's adaptability and whatnot, but I respect Sega's abilities in the gaming industry. I just run a mile when they mention the name "Sonic", and run a thousand more when they release a game with the same word in it. You know, just like every other gamer on the planet.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

I wouldn't be surprised if the truth is Square dumped them after the utter failure of Star Ocean 4. I have a lot of respect for Tri-Ace, they're responsible for most of my favorite JRPGs, but SO4 was utter garbage.

 

[Krakyn]

You know what? Good! I don't WANT Square to be open to new ideas. They last time the tried something new with Final Fantasy XII, I loathed it. I just want my plain old-school Final Fantasies that I love.

Screw change.

 

[Nateman742]

I try not to think of Sonic when I think of Sega. As long as Sonic Team's not involved the games are usually astounding. Valkyria Chronicles, while not without its faults, reminded me that not all of Sega's staff, nor the third-party developers associated with them, are absolutely insane.

Square seems to be taking off in a different direction with the Kingdom Hearts games and FF: Dissidia, it's at least evident in the art style. Check this out: http://www.creativeuncut.com/art_dissidia-final-fantasy_a.html

I'd personally like to see where they go, and I don't see why there has to be a big hullabaloo about it.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Throughout their history Sega has always been open to new ideas, look at Rez, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Space Harrier, Virtua Figher / Cop / Racing (first real leaps at 3D), Shenmue and so on. The trouble with Sega is that their application is inconsistent so the quality in execution varies wildly.
In comparison Square/Enix seem to just be adding extra coats of lacquer to their nicely built wheel.

 

[FloodOne]

I try not to think of Sonic when I think of Sega. As long as Sonic Team's not involved the games are usually astounding. Valkyria Chronicles, while not without its faults, reminded me that not all of Sega's staff, nor the third-party developers associated with them, are absolutely insane.

Square seems to be taking off in a different direction with the Kingdom Hearts games and FF: Dissidia, it's at least evident in the art style. Check this out: http://www.creativeuncut.com/art_dissidia-final-fantasy_a.html

I'd personally like to see where they go, and I don't see why there has to be a big hullabaloo about it.

That all looks like Tetsuya Nomura's work to me. Nothing all that new about it.

OT, tri-Ace hasn't had a good and unique RPG since Radiata Stories. I haven't played SO4, but I heard it was trash, and Infinite Undiscovery was a game that had me excited to own a 360 and it disappointed me to no end.

SE may not be the most innovative bunch, but they are far from a garbage publisher.