View Full Version : Square-Enix party(FF12, KH2, etc..)
The Square-Enix party is held over the weekend for 2 days as I type. 1st major announcemnet:
FF12 release: 16th March 2006 Japan
Mefisutoferesu
30-Jul-2005, 04:29
Dunno how old this news is, but I imagine it was part of the SE party.
Utada is gonna do the theme song for KH2, not too much of a surprise. I'm more than happy though. ^^
EDIT:: By the way, the Theme song's entitled "Passion".
EDIT:: Disney Castle will be a stage in Kingdom Hearts II.
DigitalSoul
30-Jul-2005, 04:51
FF12 release: 16th March 2006 Japan
Arrghhh!!!.......Well I hope the North American release isn't too far off.
AlgebraicRing
30-Jul-2005, 05:13
If it's going to be that late, co-release a PS3 version with better graphics...
Shark Sandwich
30-Jul-2005, 05:15
Any word on whether FF XII will have turn-based combat?
For those who don't know, when it was playable at E3 (2004! they only showed videos at E3 2005), FF XII featured realtime combat similar to FF Online. The opinions of those who played it were pretty much universally negative. Some have speculated that the huge delays FF XII have underwent were in part to implement a turn-based combat system. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Just gimme my World of Mana and I'll be happy!
SanGreal
30-Jul-2005, 05:22
Just gimme my World of Mana and I'll be happy!
They are supposed to show video of it at the event
And damn well better be 2d :)
The release date is dissapointing, although not surprising. Rumors on GAF about a major retooling of the game seem to be only that rumors, the new FFXII pictures on Famitsu show the exact same game we have all seen before.
Speculating, the team making this must be a ton of unproductive people that have no concept of the word efficiency. Nice way to insult the fans, making us wait far too long for a new, proper Final Fantasy, 5 years exactly.
Hopefully the game fails to meet their sales expectations. That will hopefully teach them about the importance of management skills and how teasing for far too long can harm a product.
Mefisutoferesu
30-Jul-2005, 05:53
SE also showed off a number of game related paraphanelia that you can buy at the event. Some nice stuff. Link to the SE shopping place... thing... site...
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/se-shop/
Shark Sandwich
30-Jul-2005, 06:31
The release date is dissapointing, although not surprising. Rumors on GAF about a major retooling of the game seem to be only that rumors, the new FFXII pictures on Famitsu show the exact same game we have all seen before.
Speculating, the team making this must be a ton of unproductive people that have no concept of the word efficiency. Nice way to insult the fans, making us wait far too long for a new, proper Final Fantasy, 5 years exactly.
Hopefully the game fails to meet their sales expectations. That will hopefully teach them about the importance of management skills and how teasing for far too long can harm a product.
Those are some harsh words, but unfortunately I agree. To be honest, I think Square's work in general has been a disappointment this generation. Square have been relying more on hype, flash, and brand loyalty than ever before.
For contrast, just look at Square's PS1 games. FF VII-IX, Xenogears (possibly the best console RPG ever), Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Saga Frontier (although some hated it), Einhander, Tobal 1 & 2, Legend of Mana (this one again is debatable), etc. With the exceptions of Saga Frontier 2 and Ergheiz, Square had the golden touch. They cranked out an insane number of excellent, original games. Geeks like myself were the first in line to buy every new Squaresoft game the day it came out, because you could count on it being one of the best games you'd play that year.
IMO, the only games Square will be remembered for this generation are FFX and Kingdom Hearts (possibly FF XII and KH2), and even those games are just "pretty good". Now they have 4 FFVII sequels, FF X-2 (quite possibly the worst game I've ever played), and a handfull of others that were so mediocre I can hardly remember them.
Something obviously happened to Square. My guess is they had to focus on less risky projects after they lost 100 million on the FF movie. Regardless, I wish Square could return to their former glory. I used to count the days until their next game would come out, now I just groan and keep my fingers crossed that it won't be that bad.
Mefisutoferesu
30-Jul-2005, 06:41
Well, I'd disagree with you pretty heavily as to Square being mediocre this gen, but I will say they're definately having trouble.
Part of the problem is definately coding for the PS2, part of it is the fact the economics went south after the movie, and part of it is they've lost a number of talents. For instance nautilus, monolithsoft, and tri-ace consist of a number of EX Square employees. Also, from I hear a lot of hubbub about grating ideaologies between Square and Enix, so much so that it's basically as if the development teams are completely seperate -- no interaction or help. However, square is still subject to Enix's production work flow. Essentially, they're getting pushed around by enix upper management and it's causing problems.
Shark Sandwich, your thoughts echo mine exactly on Square's progress through the years, though I probably would have waxed poetic on their NES/SNES glory as well.
I am looking forward to FFXII though - I'm hoping it will have the 'touch.'
I personally think that part of what made Square so 'great' before had more to do with how bad their competition was rather than how good their games was. After replaying some of the old classics I find myself greatly questioning my own judgement of what a good game is, that's for sure. :)
To me, FF4-6 (which I thought were the bestest thing evar when they were new) aren't even in the same league as their newer offerings (and yes, that includes FF-X2, which I'd take any day of the week over something like, say, FF8). I just think there's way too much nostalgia involved when people talk about the downfall of Square or whatever, and that it rather has to do with the fact that their competition doesn't suck as badly as they did before.
With that said, I'm looking forward to FF12 and Code Age Commanders, along with World of Mana. While they probably won't be leaps and bounds better than other games out there, I'm sure they'll still be good games and far from 'mediocre'. Although I'm unsure if I'll actually bother to get any of them, depending on when they show up and how their release dates relates to PS3 and whatever games might be out for it by that time.
And btw, didn't Square just publish Xenogears and Tobal 1&2?
IMO, the only games Square will be remembered for this generation are FFX and Kingdom Hearts (possibly FF XII and KH2), and even those games are just "pretty good". Now they have 4 FFVII sequels, FF X-2 (quite possibly the worst game I've ever played), and a handfull of others that were so mediocre I can hardly remember them.
'Square' is no more. It's SquareEnix, OK? And the 'Enix' part of the business including publishing magazines and books is bigger than the 'Square' part.
Mefisutoferesu
30-Jul-2005, 08:44
True, but in terms of development teams... square is still square, even if they are a part of square-enix. The teams don't mix. The enix half still farms out all their projects as they always have and Square does everything in house as they always have... what's fused are their financial assests, their management (mostly enix), and their IPs. THe rest is really what it always was.
FWIW, FF9 was actually released AFTER the PS2 launch in Japan, in July of 2000.
blakjedi
30-Jul-2005, 13:35
The Square-Enix party is held over the weekend for 2 days as I type. 1st major announcemnet:
FF12 release: 16th March 2006 Japan
Sounds like PS3 launch day!
AlgebraicRing
30-Jul-2005, 15:27
Part of the problem is definately coding for the PS2
Do you still think that coding for the PS2 is a problem? They've had more than 5 years to develope PS2 specific libraries. Most of the code in a game is game logic. Most of the man-hours goes into the artwork and game design. (doesn't it?) What I want is a good story first and the graphics afterwards. Square has had a reputation for making really good stories and fun games to play. They should be coding within the limits of the console and giving us a good game, not a demonstration of how far the PS2 can be pushed.
Just my thoughts.
Especially with this next-gen of consoles, are we really going to need to see better graphics? Better AI and dynamic environments I can understand. But I really hope that all the middle-ware libraries make everything look pretty so that what the masses begin using to discriminate between games is the gameplay and story, not the glitz. The fun factor, and less the wow factor. After the *WOW* it's all down hill.
DigitalSoul
30-Jul-2005, 15:35
And btw, didn't Square just publish Xenogears and Tobal 1&2?
Xenogears was developed and published by Square, Tobal was developed my DreamFactory but the IP belongs to Square AFAIK....
To clear the air with some of the gameplay questions, Japanese reporters gave the following feedback from the demo booths. They added the disclaimer that this is what is present in the demo, and not official info from SE:
- Combat system similar to FF11
- 2 modes available. In 'wait' mode everything freezes as players selects a character action. In 'active' mode enemies and fellow party members continue their action uninterrupted.
- Summons are not restricted to one character.
- Summons can only be activated with full MP. MP drops to 0 after the summon.
- After a summon all other party members retire from the battlefield. Only the summoner and the summoned creature remains.
- The summoned creature cannot be controlled - it performs its own actions.
- The summoned creature will vanish after a time limit. Previous party members return to the battlefield.
Mefisutoferesu
30-Jul-2005, 16:28
I think I speak for most of us when I say this:
----------______________----------
This is what I expected though... well, I imagined it would be a simplfied Vagrant Story battle system, but if it's more similar to FFXI... ... I'll hold on to hope, even if hope can be cruel.
By the way passby, where did you get your info? Last round I made all that was being reported was FFXII's date.
3 sources of Japanese gaming press info I always refer to:
http://www.famitsu.com
http://watch.impress.co.jp/game
http://www.dengekionline.com
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