Will Square Enix ever make a good game again?

For those of you that don't know Squaresoft or square if now a defunct company that merged with Enix in 2003 now known as Square Enix.

Squaresoft was best known for games such as FF VII, Breath of Fire, Xenogears, Parasite Eve 1 & 2, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger and a plethora of other if not great but very decent RPGs.

When the merger happened these Squaresoft still brought over all their properties to Enix the two companies combined have a very strong library of video game history especially coming from japan. What could go wrong? Am I right?

Now to the point. After recently dipping my toes into some old squaresoft games I couldn't help but think "What the hell happened" Parasite eve 2 while clunky and a mid game difficulty spike that's a bit crazy is still a ton of fun to me. After beating it I booted up the third birthday. Not hoping for the best I was pleasantly surprised it's ok but not as good or as compelling as the previous games. Though the story is absolute shit and square needs to re-hire their whole writing staff.

My overall question is what the hell happened to these companies. The now Squeenix makes un-compelling trash most of the time. Granted these were two different entities at the time but where did all the heart go when they merged? With FF15 on the loom and it looking pretty craptacular are square games completely out of the western audience mindset? Granted glory days end, will square enix ever get back to what made their early games so great? Decent stories, good gameplay and sometimes compelling characters?

They have all these awesome properties sitting there and ain't doing anything with em.

Or are JRPGs just a thing of the past?

It's not only square, it's the japanese gaming industry/culture that has changed a lot over the last years.

Read an interesting article about it, some time ago. I'll try to find it.

Sounds great thanks!

Well child of light came out recently and it's very reminiscent of those old style games. If that's successful why can't square realize that and do smaller more compact games such as that.

Also I think Eidos is failing for them because of their insane sales quotas

I'm sure the Bravely Default sequel will be good.

They just made / remade Final Fantasy 14, which has gotten some great reviews...

Hopefully KH3 will be good. Dont SE publish a bunch of great games though? DE HR, Hitman, Tomb Raider, Batman AA ect ect?

Well that's an MMO I guess in the context of things you're right. But do you remember what they originally launched?

I wasn't aware that they were making bad games. From what I understand, the only bad game they made recently was Lightning Returns. Everything else has been generally well liked from them.

Nope, they're done.

Yeah garbage. I personally would give them credit for fixing it up though. Albeit I hate MMOs so doesn't really affect me. They are definitely in decline but I don't think quite gone. I cannot wait for Kingdom Hearts 3

Was never a KH fan and never understood the fervor. But A LOT of people love that franchise.

They publish a lot of good games, but most of the games they create lately are hot garbage. The Last Remnant was their only console-centric title from all of last gen that I really enjoyed, but it was good enough that I continue to support them.

When did they ever not make a good game? to me they still make great games i enjoyed all the Japanese games they released ( didnt enjoy any of their Western games like Hitman, tomb raider, etc ).

Dragoon 3 is coming tomorrow ( PS3 exclusive ) and i been hearing great things about it.

im sure Final Fantasy 15 will bring a lot of people into the FF world as it looks like a solid game but once again SE havent disappointed me one bit when it comes to the games they released and at the same time they disappointed me big time in regards to how long they take to produce a game ( Ex. FF15 ) and not releasing FF Type-0 in the West.

They do publish a lot of a good games thankfully.

kingdom hearts franchise was a squeenix franchise that was well received. publishing a lot of good (if not great) games like deus ex,tomb raider, sleeping dogs etc....

but i think what you are complaining about is the state of jrpgs in general. any jrpg made gets bashed for something unless its a pokemon game or persona

I want another Parasite Eve!

Play Bravely Default.

Idiots will suggest Bravely Default.

They made Dissidia recently.

@Animal-Mother:

dude look at all those titles you just said. then find out the directors/creators of those titles. those people are not working at square enix anymore. its kinda funny that just because its a square enix title then it must be triple A quality. those days died as soon as FFXIII came out. old school RPG"S still came out but due them to not being square enix titles they didn't do that well. Lost odyssey damn near sold a million on xbox 360 and I think that is the best RPG of last gen

Who knows?

Probably no, they will never be as good as their former selves.

Breath of Fire is from Capcom BTW. But Square-Enix has a few good games under their belt like:

-Valkyrie Profile 2 - Tri-Ace dev, Square publisher

-Final Fantasy XII even if its story is boring and sucks ballz.

-The World Ends with You - Nomura

-Kingdom Hearts 2 - Nomura

-Dragon Quest 8, easily one of the best JRPG ever made but the developer was Level-5 not Square. Square was only the publisher.

-and many say that Bravely Default is good. I played it and it felt archaic as ****, like a blast from the past. Silicon Studio dev

They have not made or published a single good game on last gen consoles though, beside those made by Eidos.

ermm square enix published deus ex hr. enough said

They didn't make it though.....

So yeah.

Isn't Bravely Default considered to be a good game? I thought FF XIII and, to a lesser extent XIII-2, where pretty good as well.

Final Fantasy's realm reborn good. All over JRPG waste of time.

FF14 is dope.

SE has put out a number of notable, well received, AAA developed games in the last couple years (FF XIV, Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, Bravely Default, Sleeping Dogs, DE:HR,...) across platforms, so your title makes no sense. As far as JRPGS, Bravely Default came out out just a few months ago. Hardly the dry spell you're alluding to.

If it's more quality JRPGS you're pining for... well, I'm right there with you. SE has made some noise about "finally realizing" the enduring popularity of the genre beyond their own shores, so maybe they'll put more of a focus on JRPG development and releases out West. But SE isn't just a JRPG company anymore. They'll be releasing games across genres from now on, because they have a lot of good properties to develop.

Eidos is one of the development studios that comprise Square Enix.

So yes, they did.

Eidos will be their saving grace, at least in the Western world.

I've never been a fan of JRPG's so can't really comment on what they'll do in that market

Tomb Raider is now considered a success with over 6 million sold(kinda ridiculous expectations). Deus EX:HR was very good and Hitman Absolution did OK. Eidos was a great acquisition for them.

FFXIV is making them a ton of money. Square going to be just fine.

Bravely Default was good.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is fantastic.

Tomb Raider was good.

Dissidia 012 was complete fanservice and was a fantastic game.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts 3DD are all good

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is a freaking masterpiece.

As for Xenogears, the people from Monolith Soft are ex-Squaresoft employees. So Look forward to X and pick up Xenoblade.

I wouldn't expect anything from the Japanese side of that company. All their interesting games seem to come from the western developers they shit on for not selling 10 million copies per game.

And the best part is all of those games you named are best on PC, square loves us :)

IO Interactive

Nixxes Software BV (PC)

Feral Interactive (Mac)^[1]

Wrong these are the companies that developed it.
Square acquired Eidos and IO they have 0 hand in the development and act only as the publisher.

shouldint the title be changed to "when will sqaure enix make a game I like" since I enjoyed the 13 saga and found them to be good games.There are other things like dissdia and crisis core and others that I found good as well.They also helped publish some good games like Human revolution.

When a studio is acquired by a coimpany, it becomes part of the company. I know this is a popular SW argument when talking about SE, but those are SE dev studios making SE games now. You can't have "0 hand in the development" if a studio that you own made the game, because that studio by definition IS SquareEnix now.

Your argument would be the same as saying "Sony didn't make TLoU! They bought ND and Naughty Dog made it. Sony had zero hand in it!!!!" The only difference is time.

It seems like once games got more serious, japan and square anus went by the wayside. They are more suited for 3DS games now.

Does it say developed by SE or developed by IO?

And no Sony didn't make TLOU. Publishers don't make games.

I have a question who wrote Harry potter?

@farrell2k: All 3 games are getting sequels so they must be financially viable.

@santoron

Here I'll make it easier for you.

A video game publisher is a company that publishesvideo games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. As with book publishers or publishers of DVD movies, video game publishers are responsible for their product's manufacturing and marketing, including market research and all aspects of advertising.

They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this external development) and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio. The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any license that the game may utilize; paying for localization; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design.

Nowhere in there does it say that the publisher develops the game.

Also if you read the OP you'd notice i'm heavily talking square japan.

0 stake is a bit harsh but publishers don't develop the games.

If you wanna talk "Square Japan" (not a thing) then limit your discussion, after acknowledging the truth. Right now you're in denial.

A publisher doesn't have to own a studio to publish their games. Activision doesn't own Respawn. EA doesn't own Bungie. Everyone knows that. That's not the case here. SE Owns Eidos and IO. They do Not merely serve as publisher. They pay the bills, greenlight projects, and assign staff just as they do with every other studio they OWN. Not sure if you were confused here, or what, but nothing you just copy/pasted changes that.

The title of the thread is "Will Square Enix ever make a good game again?". So if you believe SE makes any games at all, you're going to have to include Eidos, IO, and any studio owned by SE. Simple as that.

Your opinion =/= fact.

Of course they will, they still do make good games on occasion... will they make straight up bad ass games and be recognized as industry leading developers again? Probably not.

I remember when a Squaresoft release was a real event in gaming, especially when it was a FF title. Those days are long gone.

What happened? They used to be a small team of guys with big dreams creating things that they loved. Even when the team size ramped up in the PS1 era they still had a good vision and proper leadership. The same old guys were still in charge and it was great. Now its just a bunch of hacks burning money and riding the coat tails of famous branding. As long as the CG is good and the story is stupid as **** they feel they have a great game on their hands.

I don't believe JRPGs are a "thing of the past" in such a way that nothing can be done about it. They're only a thing of the past because most of them have been shitty for almost 10 years now.

SE has the money and the man power to turn things around, but the upper level designers, directors and writers just have to go. When you see people name drop Nomura like he's the one who is going to 'save' FF with his J-pop spin on Kingdom Hearts then you know something is terribly wrong.

Kingdom Hearts 3 will save them.

But they don't develop the game itself.

You wanna argue semantics. Fine by me. But in this face you're wrong.

A publisher doesn't sit don't with the game and develop it.
End of story. Period.

And just to make sure the square developed deus ex point again. And to shut the door on this you can read the fine print here. It doesn't say developed by square enix. And while yes publishers foot the bill and so on they do not actually develop the game.

Square may own these companies but certainly do not develop their games. And for those of you who think square is developing these games ask yourselves this. Did square have any hand in the development of call of duty4 ?