Lately, I have something of a love/hate relationship with SquareEnix.
I wish I didn’t hate it at times. After all, I’ve invested hundreds of hours into its games, and its held an important place in my life since childhood.
I spent endless hours grinding for experience points and immersing myself in its high-fantasy settings well into the wee hours of the morning. But, naturally, the company has changed – as nearly all good things must over time – but its direction leaves me desiring something more.
When one thinks of SquareEnix, which is a video game developer, they probably think of the Final Fantasy series. This series literally saved the company from going out of business. The first of the series was intended to be the last game Square produced, hence the title. It was such a revolutionary game for the time though, that it stuck, and now they’re one of the top dogs when it comes to role-playing games.
Their latest main release in the series, Final Fantasy XIII, struck a sour note for many people, including me. While I do acknowledge that the game definitely has its amazing moments, it was a severe letdown in comparison to the series past releases.
Gone were the towns to explore with the random non-playable characters muttering about how times are hard. Instead, we were presented with a far more streamlined game, which could work in some instances, but was poorly executed for the most part.
Notable standout complaints people had about the game included the battle system, which has an auto-battle command that essentially allows players to keep hitting one button. I’m willing to overlook this as the paradigm shift mechanic and the ability to input commands on one’s own definitely makes for a more strategic game. One can’t simply grind for experience, equip the best weapons and then win. It takes some actual thought process.
But people were also sour over the story, which requires reading back logs for hours to understand what is actually going on, when instead it should have integrated these elements into the story. I’m personally not too keen on the horrible, generic villain and the boring soundtrack. It definitely needed Nobuo Uematsu, who was once the legendary composer for the series.
Why the game was a really sad affair though – at least for me – was that it just didn’t feel like a Final Fantasy game. It was lacking many crucial components that have become a staple of the series. While it is necessary to innovate, the game felt like more of a streamlined disaster for the casual gamer. It tried too hard to appeal to everyone. Truth be told, if it had a different name, I’m sure it wouldn’t have come under such heavy fire.
SquareEnix took criticism well and decided to fix their mistakes in a sequel to the game. The only other canon sequel its made to the main series, Final Fantasy 10-2, was a serious deviation from the original, with a girl-power story and a barrage of horrible clichés. It wasn’t a dismal failure, but the company could have concentrated efforts elsewhere.
And now SquareEnix is concentrating efforts on 13-2. I’m not exactly sure from where this idea came. Not many beat the game and hoped that there would be a sequel. But it’s coming, and there’s nothing we can do about it. However, judging from trailers, the company seems to have made an effort to fix their mistakes. The battle system remains mostly the same, but now has an added monster-taming system to perform combo attacks with random monster allies. It’s not exactly new, but I see it as a welcome addition. There’s also the apparent inclusion of mini-games, a more important bad guy and colossal fights that the first game lacked.
But what has me the most cautiously optimistic is the return of exploration. It’s no longer walking in a straight line. There are side-quests, people to talk to and secret places to explore. That, for me, is the most important factor of a role-playing game.
It’s not exactly the game I was wanting, but I am willing to give the world another shot, just not at full price. I’m still upset about wasting $60.
Here’s another instance of my love for the company. They gave me Kingdom Hearts, an unbelievable juxtaposition of Final Fantasy and Disney that worked surprisingly well. It was an addicting game where one could literally hit Disney villains over the head with a giant key. Flash forward not too much later, and the game has become one of the main series for the company. However, they’ve ruined the series for me and they don’t look like they’re aiming for redemption any time soon.
What many failed to realize was that KH: Chain of Memories, for the Game Boy Advance, which came out before KH2, was actually canon to the story. If one picked up KH2 without knowing about the Game Boy interlude, they would be horribly lost, and that’s what happened to a good deal of people.
The fact that KH: Chain of Memories was only available on a handheld console was annoying. The original was for the Playstation 2. Then, the next canon entry was for the Game Boy Advance. This is a trend that the company beat to death. Not only have we not seen Kingdom Hearts 3, we have gotten a plethora of games that dry this series out.
The shameful part is that they all hold a crucial point to the story, which has become a cluster from the lightheartedness of the original. We’ve seen a prequel, Birth By Sleep on the PlayStation Portable, Re:Coded for the Nintendo Dual Screen – which was actually a cell phone game in Japan – and 365 days/2 for the DS, and soon to be Dream Drop Distance, which will be coming out for the 3DS.
For people who don’t own all of these consoles, it is a horrible move by the company. And don’t fret, because a Birth By Sleep 2 is currently in development. Putting aside whether or not these games are actually good, it angers me that SquareEnix is jumping on the Kingdom Hearts cash cow and running it dry. What was once an awesome series has become a mess of plot twists just to lengthen the story, cliché dialogue about the darkness that grows old and a million visits to Neverland – and I hate Neverland.
Tetsuya Nomura, the creator and designer of the game has stated that the next numbered entry in the series is in development, but it won’t be the end of the series. Because of course they aren’t going to end on a strong note. They’re going to make Sora the Keyblade master until he’s 50, and we’re all in retirement homes or dead.
But I think the one thing I can’t stand about the company is how badly it taunts gamers with Final Fantasy VII. It’s the game that was cool to like, then cool to hate, then cool to like after hating it. Many have disputed it as one of the greatest games of all time. Despite arguable drawbacks, fans have begged for a remake for the PlayStation 3. Despite this, SquareEnix has said they will probably not remake it. This would be fine if they let the series alone. Instead, it has made multiple spinoffs which no one wanted, and threw the characters into other games that don’t receive anywhere near as well. When the PlayStation 3 was first coming out, SquareEnix made a technical demo of FF7 to showcase the processing and graphical power of the PS3. It was a remake of the opening scene with PS3 graphics, and it was received around the world as the announcement of a remake, which it wasn’t.
Several years ago, it released Final Fantasy: Advent Children, a CG movie that takes place after the main game. Both of these showed gamers how impressive a remake could possibly be. But SquareEnix refuses to do so to work on future projects. Constant toying with the original isn’t fan service in my opinion; it’s just a jerk move. Don’t make a technical demo that fans will clamor over if you aren’t going to deliver what they want, it’s really insulting to a fan base.
But when it comes down to it, it’s all about the profit and SquareEnix’s main series always sell no matter what. Perhaps my fond memories should be put to rest, because from the looks of it, they’re the best I’ll have.
Tim Jones can be reached at [email protected]
