40°

What Happened To Square-Enix?

Over the last month, there’s been a lot of news coming out from Square-Enix in the wake of the Tokyo Game Show. The news has mostly been about change, and the change is pretty surprising. This is Square-Enix, after all, formerly known as SquareSoft, or just plain ‘ol Square to its fans of yesteryear. From the NES to the PS2 era they were the undisputed kings of the JRPG, and became synonymous with engaging story and cutting edge production values.

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cgmagonline.com
Serrafina3500d ago

You know when a writer gets really into it and creates a nickname in mere seconds.

"The HD generation with the PS3 and Xbox 360 caught Squenix completely off guard."

SE is fine, but Squenix is pretty unique too! XD

3500d ago
80°

Kingdom Hearts 4 & Earlier Titles May Be Released For Nintendo Switch 2

Square Enix Kingdom Hearts series, including Kingdom Hearts 4, may be set for release on the Nintendo Switch 2.

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twistedvoxel.com
gold_drake23h ago(Edited 23h ago)

absolutely

i feel like if they tweaked the collection a little, it could would been more than enough to run on the switch natively, but alas.

i wonder whos decision that was .... Disneys or Squares.

Dandalandan11723h ago

KH3 I understand but there's no way they couldn't have made the older titles run natively on the og switch instead of that cloud based bullcrap.

70°

The 7 Best Final Fantasy Characters: Unveiling the Legends

While FFVII ranks highly, there's more to the series than one game. Here's Chit Hot's picks for the seven best Final Fantasy characters.

120°

Kingdom Hearts Is Too Hard To Get Into

Trying to break into Kingdom Hearts is a nightmare.

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thegamer.com
wwinterj141d ago

Play the first game. That is a simple enough story to get into the series.

Crows90141d ago

Was going to say the same. It's really not hard to get into.

Hofstaderman141d ago

My advice; play the games in release order. Alot of people say story chronological order but that can be really confusing. Trust me.

Inverno141d ago

Read the manga, story makes more sense there.

-Gespenst-141d ago (Edited 141d ago )

I think a problem that SE is going to run into (or already has run into) with this series is that a lot of the people still following it were kids / teens when they played the first one, and are now much older. I know I'm finding it increasingly hard to tolerate the childishness of some of the stuff in these games, and I'm sure there are plenty of original players who have since just stopped following the series for this reason. I can't count the number of times I was playing KH3 and just feeling like, "What the f*** am I doing?"

SE can keep the series PG-13, and try to get a new audience of kids, but how do they intend to get kids into a series with a story that has been expanding since 2002, and over the course of like a dozen games? Especially when there are already loads of newer franchises out there that have already pretty much cornered the kids / teens market.

Honestly, I think they should either end the series once and for all, or take it in a more mature direction, and ditch the Disney stuff (I know, unpopular opinion, probably). It is a series that hasn't really grown with its audience, I feel. Alternatively, they could try to steer it in a more all-ages Studio Ghibli direction, sort of like Final Fantasy.

banger88141d ago

I felt this way with KH3 as well, ended up dropping it around half way through. I won't even bother with KH4.

CS7140d ago

Same here. Kingdom Hearts 3’s dialog was way to childish for me and I only played just to finish the story and wrap up the near 15 year wait.

I doubt I would be buying any other games unless they go in a more mature (all-ages) direction as OP said.

jambola140d ago

It doesn't help with Sora's loud stretched out constant yelling either

smashman98141d ago

you gotta remember Disney has to sign off on everything they do with KH. Disney is super protective of their IP,

Either way I don't disagree with you on a lot of this stuff becoming more and more of an issue. But it's okay that fans grow out of things like this. But if they do decide to keep it more for the young audience then they will have to solve the problem that the article mentions.

-Gespenst-140d ago

Yeah, I just don't know what they could do to get all the kids invested in it at this stage. The only thing I can think of is a total reboot, but that would be an enormous project, and they clearly have no intention of doing it. I mean, the series has just embarked upon another "saga", which, if it's anything like the last "saga", will take another 2 decades to complete, will consist of 6+ games, and will convolute the overall narrative even further (if that's even possible). It seems to me that, if this is SE's plan, and if they want people to still care about the series in 5-6 years time, then their only real option is to try to appeal more to a non-adolescent audience. Otherwise, the kids won't care because they won't have a clue what's going on, and the adults won't care because the series is too childish.

Having said all that, the Yozora stuff, and the footage we've seen from KH4, does seem to MAYBE indicate that the series is going in the direction I'm talking about, but it's too early to say for sure. KH4 might look completely different the next time we see it, knowing SE.

Crows90141d ago

Kingdom hearts 3 is horrible ..that's why you felt that way. It's the worst in the series by far.

FinalFantasyFanatic141d ago

My issue is with the decline of the writing which has been an issue for Square-Enix games across the board. KH3 should have gone out with a bang and felt very satisfying, but instead it was like a wet tissue and left feeling like I missed a lot of content. Having said that, KH3 was probably the last KH game I'll purchase.

Rainbowcookie140d ago

Im playing 3 as my first one and I got that same feeling. Enjoying the variety and combat but im not into the story...too confusing.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 140d ago
GoodGuy09141d ago

Indeed. If you wanna give it a try, just go with 1-3. The other games are unfortunately needed to know but you can just youtube all the cutscenes by order of release of each game.

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