Hey archie4oz, the thread is asking for dissapointments, and I wouldn´t be honest if I said my favorite company hasn´t dissapointed me, at least this gen.
archie4oz said:
Do you realize how expensive it is to produce large scale RPGs for these newer systems? Also, there *has* been a lot of production, just very little of it has come to NA.
Of course I know they´re expensive! However, there just seemed to be a a lot more titles being produced for PSX. There was a continous flow of games coming out, Vagrant Story was a wonderfull game (and whoever made the soundtrack should work more! It´s one of the best I´ve heard in years).
There was Einhander, Front Mission III, Chrono Cross, etc., etc. continously coming out along with the multiple FFs. They´re just great games and so far, there´s only been ONE truly great Square game (at least on this shores): FFX. KH was pretty good, but not what I expect from Square.
Hey now! Take it easy on my former boss!
He's actually pretty great to work under (my favourite of the ones I did work under). As far as Crystal Chronicles goes; so what? Tactics, X-2, Adventure and Legends weren't either yet they got name simply to promote sales (Hell Legends' were SaGa games, and Adventure was a Seiken Densetsu game for crying out loud).
Well, I can just speak from what I know, and so far every single Saga game has sucked. Wouldn´t it be time to let go of the guy? Give Tsuchida (I think that´s the director of FM) the budget to create another SRPG instead or the PE team the resources to make a new one, or start a new ARPG. Even if he´s a cool guy, why does that matter if what he produces is not good games?
Well Chrono really isn't a franchise. The first title was a masterpiece of collaboration, and it was a miracle that the second one was even done (and more so that it turned out as good as it did). I'd always figured that Radical Dreamers would've left it dead and buried. As for Front Mission, you'll have to look to the WonderSwan. As far as Parasite Eve goes, considering the plethora of overdone survival horror out there, I doubt anymore will be done for a long time (I could be wrong though).
Well, the Chrono games are really good, so a new one wouldn´t hurt. I suppose the probability of a new console FM or a new PE is pretty slim then.
I don´t mean to be...well, mean, but who really cares about WS?
Blame Namco, they dictate what goes on at Monolith!
Seriously though, that project has always had unrealistic expectations, and I wonder if the remaining 6 volumes will ever be produced.
They will!
Episode 2 has already been announced, and at least a couple of other Xenosaga´s have been announced. Xenogears is still probably my favorite RPG ever, so I hope Monolith gets in shape with this one.
Times are different. Back in the Playstation days, that's all there really was. Square obviously didn't do anything on Nintendo's platforms, PC dev non-existent, and what little there was was outsourced. In fact there was no hand-held development, and no mobile games development at that time.
Now you've got development on both the PS2 and the GCN, not to mention re-releases on the PSone. PC development has picked up *dramatically*. Hand-held development returned with the WSC, and now the AGB. Plus there's mobile phone development. In fact this is one of those situations where I roll my eyes whenever I hear that "Yay, more platforms == more competition! That's a good thingâ„¢!" NOT!
Yeah, it was much better when everything Square did was on PSX. I don´t know, it just feels like S E is wasting their talent on handhleds and PC. They just don´t feel as....ummm..."special" on those, if you understand what I mean.
Anyways, I also wouldn't go so far to say that Square-Enix isn't producing enough games, there's indeed quite a bit of stuff being made. Personally I'm touched that Hanjuku Hero is making a return on the PS2. Then there's Drag-On Dragoon (also PS2) and I curious to see how Gigantic Drive (PS2) since it's in collaboration with Bones. Crystal Chronicles (GCN), FFT Advance (AGB), Seiken Densetsu (AGB). Then of course there's the really big PS2 titles in development; DQ8, KH2 and FFXII (good lord I was still living in Japan when that project started!)...
Plus if you add up the stuff that was completed last year/ past year; Depth Fantasia (PC), the expansion for it, CrossGate (PC), the expansion for that, FFXI (PC and PS2), Vision of Girarde FFXI expansion (PS2 and PC), Unlimited SaGa (PS2), FFX-2, Star Ocean 3 (which had painful gestation time), Hanjuku Hero (WSC), Romancing SaGA (WSC), Makaitoushi SaGa (WSC), and FFIV (WSC)... Doesn't look very 'unproductive' to me... Of course there's quite a few minor titles that I've left out as well...
I was only talking about what has been released, and for better or for worse, I´m in Mexico and I don´t know japanese, therefore, the only titles that I can count are the ones released in America. So I think it´s very justifiable to say SE just hasn´t made enough good games (FFX, KH and that´s it)...and we´re already in 2003.
It´s great that SE is making something of a comeback, though. There´s a whole bunch of great games that are slated to make it here...even if I have to wait untill November 2003 for the first one of those to hit (Unlimited Saga? Yuck, no thanks). They just take so long to get here.
Anyways, I just needed to get that out of my system. Square just has been absent this generation, or at least close. I´m a huge fan (heck, FFVIII alone turned me into a PSX gamer, it was so good I had to get a PSX to play it), and it´s very sad for me to had seen hardly any games so far (and waiting for the end of the year for another good one to hit frankly sucks).
