Richie Branson is a rapper who is also proud to call himself a gamer – and a pretty ticked off one at that. He proves his gamer cred not by rapping about popping bottles in clubs, or mackin’ babes, oh no, no; Branson drops an open letter to SqareSoft (note: not Square-Enix) about how he misses the games of yesteryear.
Titled ‘Letter To SquareSoft,’ the song praises older RPGs like Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts, and Chrono Trigger, all the while scrutinizing Square’s last few years as a studio with lyrics like “I want the old SquareSoft back, I really mean it. That’s why I never called you guys Square-Enix.”
Saad from eXputer: "After suffering from massive financial hits, Square Enix & Bandai Namco appear to be turning over a new leaf but I'm still unconvinced."
I was talking about games with some Japanese guys here in Japan, and it seems like around here Bandai Namco has a fame of making low-quality games, with the occasional gem.
About Square Enix, I believe they lack the capacity to improve. They should learn with Capcom (although even Capcom still makes some bad mistakes), but I don't think they ever will. They keep chasing whatever is new at the time (blockchain, AI...) to say "we innovate", without considering the public perception and if these things actually improve the games or not. Them releasing too many small games with no advertising also shows a lack of trust in its own products. Even with their biggest games, like turning FF into an action game with XVI and the very divisive plot changes regarding whispers and timelines in VII Remake, shows them trying to attract a new generation of gamers without understanding what made the series so big in the first place.
I want a true ff7 remake. With thatcsaid I'm way happier with 7 remake then I was with ff16. I'd still prefer turn based but square keep chasing these Lil kids
Man, it is perfectly fine to prefer turn based. Turn based is amazing. But there's zero reason to call anyone who likes action games "lil kids". Liking one gameplay system over another does not make you more mature in any way.
People love the new FF's overall...the problem is the abundance of 7's they release that lose money or make very little like diofield, star ocean divine force, Valkyrie asylum, harvestella, foam stars, etc. Advertising wouldn't have saved those games. Apparently Forespoken had a big Advertising budget but we saw how that went.
Star ocean divine force actually sold well from what I've read not ff type numbers but well enough. Was a dope game to.
Bandai Namco is going to Bandai Namco, I do believe that Square Enix can't change without changing the entire management, they've had these issues for more than a decade and haven't learnt, I have very little faith they can course correct. I'll still buy their better remasters/remakes like Star Ocean 2 though (not FF7R).
I don’t know why NOW they decide on this, but I guess later is better than never.
Saad from eXputer: "I'm glad I don't have to choose between Square Enix, Atlus, and FromSoftware due to bad release windows and Shadow of the Erdtree."
Atlus is releasing their game one week before Erdtree, SE is releasing theirs one week after.
HZD released four days before Zelda, HFW released one week before Elden Ring.
It seems to me like they are still releasing their games too close to Erdtree.
What a word vomit, rambling, turd of an article that simply states the obvious. Classic exputer.
Yuji Naka was fined $1.2 million and given a suspended jail sentence for the crime.
I find his comments around how Balan turned out to be very insightful as to why the game is trash. He basically apologises for its existence
can you please give some of us who don't know anything about this, a summary of what happened?
Balan was knowingly rushed out by S-E, it had an extremely short dev cycle and was fairly low budget.
Naka was the game's director until near the end when he was fired or perhaps he quit, I forgot.
@Chocoburger Yeah they did fire and replace him which caused him to unload a bunch of rants about the company. The project only existed because of Naka in the first place, he convinced Square to give him one shot at making a platformer. They gave him an opportunity but pulled the rug out before he was done for reasons not explained.
Agree!!!
yeah I hate the company thats given me dragon quest joker 2, ff type zero, ff rythm over the last few months..........NOT
I also loathe the company thats brining out draogn quest X,bravely default, kingdomhearts, dq monster 1 remake and more this year
This whole thing feels like a catch-22: Sqaure needs to do something right to fix themselves, only they seem incapable of doing anything right. Anything that they do comes off as a horrible imitation of the Western approach to current consoles, and those have been utter crap.
Sad to say, but the best thing Square-Enix has done lately is re-release old Squaresoft games. Their new stuff just isn't as great. Instead of trying to innovate while also catering to its existing fan-base, Square-Enix is completely ignoring the fans that grew up playing their games. I want them to make new original stuff, but they need to innovate in the same way they did back in the day. These days, it seems like their "innovation" is just a soul-less attempt at making a profit.
Here's an idea. Instead of bitching how they don't make games how they used to then buying their games, why not just not buy them? Money means a lot more to companies than your personal opinion.