Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Toegoff. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
  • Pages:
  • 1
The Mind of Toegoff; The Decline of Squaresoft
Topic Started: Jul 20 2010, 07:21 AM (985 Views)
Toegoff
Member Avatar
Administrator

**Contains MAJOR Spoilers for**
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Tactics


As many of you know, the innovation, storyline, and character development of a video game is VERY important to me. I love playing these games as interactive books. I love just falling into the world and blindly venturing forth exploring everything I can find. One company captured my childhood and beyond better than any other (excluding maybe Bioware).

Squaresoft. The legendary company fabled for creating games that would forever be immortalized as excellent works. Games that could take our imagination anywhere, from the wars of rival kingdoms, to different worlds, and even across time and space. Squaresoft's passion for game designed fueled them to being one of the greatest game companies of all time. But what happened...? Was it the merge with Enix that killed our beloved Square? Allow me to refresh your memory on some of my own personal favorite squaresoft titles. While some games will no doubt be left out, here is a list of some of my favorites (this list does NOT include every game I've played of squares. It's very likely if Squaresoft made it and it was considered great...I played it)...and then their utter decline.

Consider the first time you traveled back in time in Chrono Trigger. The party members you acquired, the innovative multiple endings based on New Game+, even the death of our hero Chrono to Lavos! This game had me coming back time and time again trying different party members, hunting down side quests, and ultimately trying to explore every element of the game I could. It left me truly in awe when I felt I finished everything I could find.

And what of the great Final Fantasy VI! The ninja shadow and his dog interceptor, the story line of the world being destroyed! That's right, remember when Kefka actually destroyed everything? Poisoned kingdoms? Mercilessly attacked? It made for a very interesting story...one that I had to play time and time again. One that I had to find everything I could.

Super Mario RPG. To take Mario...a character with all but the most limited of a story, and create an actual interesting plot with great play control, interesting characters, and fun secrets to fine. A master piece of creating something great out of something so limited.

Then moving into the world of Playstation...more amazingness!

Final Fantasy VII. Hailed as perhaps one of the greatest games of all time. Cloud Strife, Aeris, Sephiroth! When Aeris died ... I was stunned. No...we'll bring her back some point in the game. She isn't gone for good....is she? The fun mini games, the side quested bosses. The music! Everything went right for this classic RPG

Final Fantasy Tactics. Even more innovation! A game with an outstanding storyline, one of the best tactical RPGs out there, and characters that had real depth! And Ramza at the end...is he...dead? What became of our hero? The fate of our protagonist really left me shocked.

Xenogears...although a storyline that took a PHD to understand, this game again was so amazing. I will admit it took me a few playthroughs, but it was still an outstanding work of art. A story line so deep it was incredible.

I began to lose faith at Final Fantasy VII. It was the first Square game I remember struggling to get through. Not due to difficulty..just due to...boredom I suppose. I just didn't enjoy it. But Chrono Cross redeemed it for me. A game with another storyline so incredible I had to play again and again. Including perhaps one of the largest cast of playable characters in any RPG, the battle system and story was truly incredible.

Now Playstation 2! Surely, despite a lack luster FF IX... Playstation 2 will save the company. It was here ... however ... I lost my faith. My deep characters were replaced with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc ... *ugh* Final Fantasy 10 ... a whiney protagonist with daddy issues, a magic casters with boobs drawn so ridiculously huge they were comical, a jaded plot, and some pretty horrible voice acting left me with a knot in my stomach. Oh and let's not forget Rikku, the subject of so many teenager wet dreams...sigh. While many consider Final Fantasy X an incredible game...it was another I could barely muscle through.

Final Fantasy XII was even worse. I wanna be a sky pirate! YAY! Perhaps the worst protagonist in any Final Fantasy game. His voice and whine had me turning the volume down just to stomach through it.

Kingdom Hearts was interesting, granted, but it never really did it for me. It just wasn't interesting. The first was fine...but I really do think they tried to develop WAY to much out of nothing...and yet another annoying protagonist left me bored.

So there you have it folks...many will disagree I'm sure...but what happened? How did a company decline so far? Perhaps it's me...I just feel this game company fell into developing at best mediocrity. Why? Where did the company fall? The merge with Enix? Perhaps. Maybe they just ran out of decent ideas. You'll notice Square spends a great deal of resources RECREATING old games...what other company has recreated near identical ports of their past works like Square? I'm just not sure how it happened. Hope my thoughts didn't bore you too much :)
 
AndMyAxe414
Member Avatar
Chicka Bow!
Well, Kingdom Hearts, granted, had a good and original concept, and the first one was a very good stand alon game. But I do beleive that they became a little lackluster after a while.
 
Sinovera
Member Avatar
Administrator

Waah I can't read it :( Spoilers for Chrono T.T... and FFT -_-
 
AndMyAxe414
Member Avatar
Chicka Bow!
I had the same reaction when Aeris died. "Well, she's coming back..." Right? Right? Still FF7 is one of my favorite games of all time, much like the early Zelda titles.
 
bobtherocket
Member Avatar
COCKAMANCER

Kinda my feeling on FF13, too. I feel like combat in that game is just work to get to the next cutscene. No real innovation, you're punished for trying to customize your attacks, the only real interaction you have is when to summon or paradigm shift.

Blah, blah, blah. I didn't mind the characters, actually, despite Hope's overwhelming whiny factor. He was a normal kid caught in a huge fuckaroo.

I agree with the 'Goff. Square is declining, which is heartbreaking in itself.
 
Fantasy_Freak
Mist Could Not Pass
Once a long time ago When I played and beat FF7 I was left with a rotten taste in my mouth. One that I cannot wash out even to this day. So a few years ago I went online to a forum and posted that even though I had fun with the game. I didn't enjoy it as much as FF6 (Or FF3 if you played it on the SNES) Someone responded quickly with an argument he made of the game. I saved this argument and when I look at it to this day. It helps me understand why I didn't enjoy FF7 as much as the others.

Here is that argument.

Kefka wished for death and destruction. Sephiroth simply wished to traverse the universe through use of a planet, finding The Promised Land. They are two completely different goals and mindsets behind the actions.

As for bland characters, it's not that they're bland, it's that they're not GOOD. They are gloriously developed, given the proper back stories an FF character must have, and last of all, it marks when FF broke out of the traditional hero mindset.

Tifa Lockheart carries the duality of shyness and outgoing personalities, and it plays up the violent aspect of her nature as something to pity, rather than laugh at.

Barret Wallace is a terrorist. He bombed a power plant in the name of "the planet" but still killed hundreds in the attack.

Aerith Gainsborough shows what happens when a street-smart flower seller tries to push her way of doing things into a war.

Red XIII and Cait Sith are the "pets" of the group, going by the general meaning of the word, rather than what they actually are. One is a failed experiment gone both right and wrong, the other is hiding what conscience he has in order to continue a lie.

Cid Highwind is a chain-smoking, lost soul that tries to cover up the fact he FAILED his dreams and desperate clings to them in a vain attempt to feel SOMETHING.

Vincent Valentine almost is as bad as Cloud Strife. Almost. There is nothing to really say about his aloofness. His cold exterior on the other hand, lends to show why he's cold, and how he has a terrible excuse for it.

Yuffie Kisaragi is the youngest, and it shows, with a personality that should not be present in a ninja. And she isn't. She uses a fuma shuriken, which isn't a real ninja weapon, she has a weathering fear of heights. She is a thief that wants to be ninja.

And then there's Cloud Strife. Dear lord Cloud Strife. His last name gives us a good look at where he stands on the Happiness-Sadness scale. He shows what would happen if you saw your childhood hero burn down your town, that same hero injure the closest thing you had to a friend, being injured by your hero nearly fatally, having your friend gunned down in front of you, and finally being left for dead.

As per normal fantasy, the result of this is a roaring rampage of revenge. Cloud, on the other hand, took all this realistically. In repressing his memories, he constructed "Cloud Strife, 1st Class SOLDIER", and, of course, he pays dearly for it.

From what has been said, all of FF VII is deconstruction. The team working on VII was painfully aware of the way the story normally plays out, so they took a page from Garth Ennis and allowed reality to ensue.
Quote:
 


I hate safari and firefox? Did anyone know that. I had a huge rant on the games typed and the browser crashes and fucking deletes everything. ARGGGHH I'll have to type it after work. (Took a half hour to type everything)

Anyway there's the FF7 argument I don't remember who posted it I'm afraid :(
 
Monstarcookie
Member Avatar


Aaaaah....I loved ff7. I loved Tifa, and I was super happy when Aerith died. In my opinion all the final fantasy games that came after were just....bad.....boring...stupid....annoying characters.
 
Nathgrul
Member Avatar
I Just Got Nommed
Monstarcookie
Jul 21 2010, 01:28 AM
Aaaaah....I loved ff7. I loved Tifa, and I was super happy when Aerith died. In my opinion all the final fantasy games that came after were just....bad.....boring...stupid....annoying characters.

I agree..although 12 had more of a solo mmo feel to it which made me happy.
 
Unfie
Member Avatar
Big Sweaty Moose Bleepers
I've never played any of the Final Fantasy games... I feel like that's a crime. :unsure:
 
Colt1245
Member Avatar
Big Sweaty Moose Bleepers
UnimportantFreak
Jul 21 2010, 05:26 PM
I've never played any of the Final Fantasy games... I feel like that's a crime. :unsure:

I'm right there with ya
 
TheMonkZoolbs
I Just Got Nommed
Colt1245
Jul 21 2010, 05:49 PM
UnimportantFreak
Jul 21 2010, 05:26 PM
I've never played any of the Final Fantasy games... I feel like that's a crime.  :unsure:

I'm right there with ya

Haha me too!
 
Monstarcookie
Member Avatar


it's a crime if you havent played the old ones. It's not so much a crime if you haven't played the new ones. It's a crime if you HAVE played ffx-2
 
Nathgrul
Member Avatar
I Just Got Nommed
Never played a final fantasy game??? You should all hang your heads in shame. Your missing out on some pretty awesome gameplay/storylines/characters/pure win and shizz
Oh and Monstarcookie, I bought FFX-2 but never opened it, I think I did it for collection purposes..does that still mean I committed a crime? o.o
 
Monstarcookie
Member Avatar


yes...yes you did...
 
Nathgrul
Member Avatar
I Just Got Nommed
"I just got nommed" ; ;
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
Learn More · Sign-up for Free
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Debates · Next Topic »
  • Pages:
  • 1