Square Enix Supports Sony, But Not Too Much 109
Next-Gen reports that Square Enix is throwing just the right amount of support behind Sony. In some fairly non-humble statements, Square Enix senior VP Michihiro Sasaki talked about their positioning in the next generation market. "'We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them,' he said. 'But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much.' Sasaki's comments (which were pulled out of context and dropped into the WSJ article) don't exactly take the humble approach regarding Square Enix's heavy influence on the popularity of the PlayStation brand. The PS2-exclusive FFXII sold over 1.7 million units for a premium $80 equivalent price tag in the first four days after its Japan launch."
Wii.... (Score:1, Insightful)
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You say that as if it hasn't already happened.
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+3 Possibility (Score:2)
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It was almost impossible timing magic. You had three people saying "3.. 2.. 1.. NOW!" to cast complex spells. Now, I'm sure there are teams of people all over that can wipe the floor with their cooperation, but it was very frusterating for my friends and me.
The music got on my nerves about 20 minutes into the game, and about 5 minutes later I just turned on the stereo. I'm not sure
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Don't. You'll be dissapointed. I finished it with two buddies, and it was pretty dissapointing. Lame story, and as you said, boring fight system (not counting how many times we said "Bring the bucket over here, there's a monster tearing me apart offscreen"). And those random "story telling" cutscreens at crossroads... long pointless conversation and in the end, they give you... ... ... a potato! Gawd we laughed on that one.
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Can't speak for the DS', but I can for that one: since the DS doesn't have link cables in the first place (it's all 'bout WiFi bro!) that will never happen.
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Suffered? Using the Gameboy Advances helped the game out immensely. The screen could be used just for action and menus and item selection could be done on your personal screen. Granted, it's slightly expensive to play if everyone doesn't already have the cables and GBAs, but
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What was that? (Score:2)
Funny how that echo rings. Ironically, PSP is the one getting the "spinoff franchise," with a sequal to the sequal of the sequal of Final Fantasy VII [ign.com] coming out. I'm not at all looking forward to it. Final Fantasy III on the DS? YES PLEASE.
You realize, of course, that there IS a confirmed Dragon Quest G [ign.com]
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That said, if you were to ask around, I'm sure you'd find a lot more people who know about, and are excited about, the new FFIII release on the DS than you would people who know about Final Fant
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Uh. The 360 has Final Fantasy XI, actually.
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You: Uh. The 360 has Final Fantasy XI, actually.
Your tone suggests a contradiction, yet I don't see one.
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Actually, I played the same game three years ago without V
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For instance, Final Fantasy Adventure is the first game in what is more commonly known as the Mana series. It even has a remake, Sword of Mana.
Final Fantasy Legend 1-3 are the first three games in the SaGa series.
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Err... (Score:2)
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Final Fantasy is the one RPG series where the combat and character development has never been the same twice.
They don't have to take the humble approach... (Score:2, Insightful)
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I'm sure that FF games accounted for a big chunk of PS game sales, but there are a bunch of other good franchises out there.
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Final Fantasy sold a lot of PSXs and PS2s. Therein lies the difference.
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Re:They don't have to take the humble approach... (Score:5, Insightful)
Mario, Link and Pikachu say hello
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No, they'd still have Sakaguchi who's the reason for this interactive movie trend.
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But the overriding factors were cheaper licensing fees (more money in their pockets), larger media (less compression needed, so their programmers could be lazy and still release games quickly), and the ability to include prerendered FMV (just for fun I assume). It was all these things combined that led to the switchov
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What else is new? (Score:5, Insightful)
Squaresoft always saw themselves as being on par with Nintendo or Sega, able to produce top-rate titles in any genre they choose to grace. They still haven't learned they aren't.
I still feel like Enix is the big loser with this merger. Enix was that good, Squaresoft just thought they were.
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On the subject of being arrogant, Enix did not support Nintendo either in the N64 era. While SQIX might be a significant presence in Japan, they might be surprised to find that the rest of world do not care about them as much as they think, just as Japan does not care about Madden 0X or GTA. However the rest of the world is a
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That's NOT a very good analogy. GTA and Maddan are basically dead in Japan (and never really lived), I don't even know whether Maddan is released over there. On the flip side, Final Fantasy does VERY WELL over here, in fact, moves quite a few more units than in Japan... even though the per-capita offering is much smaller. With the newly revived interest in Dragon Quest, due to the popularity of DQ8, you can bank on them caring a lot more about the US than ever. Japanese RPGs do pretty well over here, they t
Don't go broke (Score:2)
Or did you want good voice acting?
Baten Kaitos (Score:2)
Square isn't a prima donna (Score:3, Informative)
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Oh it didn't bomb... I mean costing 200 million dollars and making back a fraction.. that's just good business? And then Advent Children needed it. how can you say it bombed.
Square is definatly a prima Donna, and you're right, Enix definatly was the big loser. Now we have crap like Dragon Quest Rocket Slime and Dragon Quest monsters? These could be great unique series, but I have to think Squaresoft has spoiled the drinking well.
The most interesting things is they
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That said, Enix invented the spinoff. DQM has been around for a long time, in adition to a few other spinoffs. It also seems you haven't even read about these games, since they are actually quite well-regarded. Why is that? Because unlike most other companies, Enix
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First of all, if the games are good, the Japanese will take notice.
Second of all, Lost Odyssey looks pretty damn interesting. If I don't already have a 360 by then, it will likely be the game I purchase a 360 for (although I'm American, so I can't really speak for the Japanese).
Lastly, Blue Dragon will be out by the end of this year. Sony isn't going to have anything available to counter it that quickly out of the gate. And Nintendo
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I think you overestimate Mistwalker's chances. Earlier today Slashdot ran a story about Next-Gen's top 20 games at the Tokyo Game Show [slashdot.org]. If you read through their article, they list the two Mistwalker games as co-winners of the #1 slot. (I'll try linking to the last page [next-gen.biz] but I have a hunch it won't work without paging through the rest of the article first.)
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Even if Mistwalker does a small amount, Microsoft will start showing the SHIT out of those games, demos, kiosks, and probably events for weeks just for those games. Hell there's probably going to be a parade. FFXII day? Try Mistwalker month.
There is s tremendous amount of buzz about this game, but then again this is their real debut in japan, the japanese public is going to get t
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Last year Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix, announced that Kingdom Hearts II would be, "The best game to ever grace the PS2 [impress.co.jp]" (or tied for best, it's a little ambiguous, but WROONG nonetheless). It's amazing how conceited they are.
Umm, name a game Enix was develop
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That is like saying... (Score:1)
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Who knows how many people bought a PS2 simply for the Grand Thef
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Person A is a FF fanboy, and shell out for a PSX just to play one game. 2-3 other games come along, they get it. Friend comes over, see those games (and would NEVER have seen a PSX in the first place if it hadn't been for the FF fanboy), and decides to buy one too, and so on.
You said it. FF7 jump started the PSX. But without that jump start, it would have suffered the fate of the 3DO. So in a way, the ver
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Side note. Walmart has a really good return policy....
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Same with phones... I had a t
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Not all Consoles are crap (Score:1)
Finally! (Score:2, Funny)
KH3 (Score:2, Funny)
Nintendo has always been known for "kiddie" games. It don't get more kiddie than Disney. And if Square-Enix leaves Sony, well... where else are they gonna go? Microsoft?
Dual-Wielding Keyblades with two wiimotes? Hell, I'd be fine with the one.
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I suggest you check the handheld market and you'll see where Squenix went when they stopped scheduling good games for the PSP (which was about 2 hours after the release of FF3/DS in Japan, when they realized that they could've put twice as many copies on the market and woud've been sold out all the same)
Any different from square's usual position? (Score:2)
The comments though sound like Sony's success depends on Square which if I was Sony would really piss me off
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Two problems with this narrative:
1) Square dumped Nintendo because they felt constricted by Nintendo's licensing and high-handed treatment as well as the decision to stick with a cartridge-based format instead of a CD-based format. The split was very acrimonious and was rumored to involve personal grudges between upper level
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Sorry I thought I had read that both FF11 and Front Mission online had both been announced for the 360. I do re
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Yes. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles were the fruits of the two companies finally burying the hatchet. However, in the mean-time, Square was making many games for the Bandai Wonderswan, a handheld console only found in Japan. I actually have FF1, FF2, Wild Card (blech), and C
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Given that there seems to be stronger 3rd. party support for the Wii, I think Iwata has probably worked hard to restore the relationships with these developers. It has less to do with the technology behind the con
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FFXI's been available on the XBox360 for quite some time now. In fact, it was mentioned on Slashdot, although the article concentrated more on how PlayOnline clashed with XBox Live than on the game itself. (In short you have to sign onto the game three times: first through XBox Live, then through PlayOnline, and then finally you need to sign into FFXI itself. The same BS is done on the PS2 and PC minus the XBox Live part.)
However, the XBox360 port was apparently essentially the PC port of the game, rec
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Translation (Score:2)
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Probably not FF (Score:2)
Considering SE considers Dragon Quest to be the "premier" title in their stable, mostly because they're Japan-centric and DQ owns pretty much the whole country, these statements would be consistent with supporting Sony (FF), but not too much (moving DQ).
Personally, I'd love that. I don't have the cash nor the inclination for a PS3, and although I will get FFXII soon, it will have been
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The PS3 is not the dominant console, so it cannot be supplanted from that position. Both the Wii and the PS3 are currently tied for marketshare at zero. The Wii actually has a much better chance to take the lead from the beginning, since Nintendo will initially be producing far more Wiis than Sony will PS3s. The more units sold, the more enticing the platform becomes for third party
I could care less about Square-Enix (Score:1)
I'm looking forward to Dawn of Mana and Children of Mana... after that I don't see much coming from SE that makes me want to swipe my debit card.
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I got the opposite impression. I thought the gameplay was fun, but the story and setting were a bleh mix of older FFs, Star Wars, and cliches... They could have done a lot better with that. You're right that they have a lot of cutscenes, but unlike Xenosaga those cutscenes don'
Payback for saving thier asses... (Score:2)
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When the "FUD" comes from the company's own president, that's what I call great marketing!