Square Enix prez sees goals clearly, PS3 fuzzy


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Square Enix prez sees goals clearly, PS3 fuzzy

by James Ransom-Wiley Dec 5th 2007 5:10PM

As Square Enix president Yoichi Wada spoke with CNET Japan, we borrowed Engadget Japan's Ittousai and listened in. While Wada defined the Square Enix vision as a 5-year plan to be a Top 3 worldwide publisher (currently ranked 11th by Game Developer), he's still having trouble seeing where Sony is going with PlayStation 3. "Is it a game console for gamers or a high-performance consumer electronics machine?" Wada wondered. "I really want [sony] to make a clear decision."

As for Square Enix's own business plan, Wada doesn't want loyalists to think the company will water down its franchises to appeal to a broader market, though recent releases would suggest otherwise. When questioned about Square Enix's reliance on Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (including a recycling campaign and string of simplified spin-offs), Wada countered with numbers, claiming that the two franchises accounted for less than half of the company's revenues. His defense suggested that fans' demands for new installments were the reason Square Enix dedicates 60% of development resources to existing IPs. Want something new? Quit with the death threats and love notes.

Source: Joystick

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Wada doesn't want loyalists to think the company will water down its franchises to appeal to a broader market
think the company will water down its franchises to appeal to a broader market
water down its franchises to appeal to a broader market

What. Are they serious.

though recent releases would suggest otherwise.

Oh, there we go. For a minute I thought they were implying that Square wasn't already hard at work ruining RPGs to target the 14-year-old girl demographic. Sorry, Sakura-chan (whose real name is Cheryl and who lives in Montana, not Super Kawaii Crystal X-Dimension S-class Tokyo, Chibi Neko prefecture as her delusions would lead her to believe...and it really is the American teenage fangirls who are the worst about this), Cloud and Sephiroth want to kill each other, not kiss each other. I know, I know, "L" and "S" are both ring-finger keystrokes, but come on, they're on opposite sides of the keyboard. It's really a typo you should work on fixing. All 1400 times you made it, including those fan-fiction stories you posted on iheartshounenai.com.

And I really don't need an entire game dedicated to "See Vincent. See Vincent emo. Emo, Vincent, emo."

It's not about death threats or love notes or whatever. The company needs to innovate, and the sooner they realize it, the better. No more sugary love stories in games. No more "compilation of" series of rehashes and turnip blood-extraction. And for godsakes, tone down the non-interactive cutscenes. You haven't reached "Xenosaga" levels yet. That is not encouragement.

Xenosaga was a happy accident that managed to pull off cutscenes via a cinematic "filming" style and made them work - for the most part (note how extraordinarily polarizing that game is) - through the camerawork and voice-overs.

Xenosaga is not a role model. Especially not for you, Squaresoft. 15-second hi-res FMV glimpses of your androgynous bags of angst heading up the dramatis personae of your games is bad enough. 45 minutes of watching your she-men prance about and cry their hearts out over their lost loves would probably do irreparable psychological damage to most gamers over the age of 20, myself included.

Can we have late-90s Squaresoft back? Please? I want more Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Xenogears. With a sprinkling of Einhander.

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I am lost ... and i mean really lost .. what does it all mean bazzel? .. well .. i am a bit tired of this console war **** ... i am going to wait and see what will happen .. hell ms and sony have enough money and with other **** going on one of them will win .. if not both will bite the dust ... no matter what happens i would still appreciate the effor that went into both consoles since they are both a feat of engineering (good and bad, no1 is perfect)

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Can we have late-90s Squaresoft back? Please? I want more Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Xenogears. With a sprinkling of Einhander.

:yes:

Xenogears.... :drool:

I'm playing through it again on my PSP just now, it's blooming amazing!

In regards to FF, FF7/8/9 > FFX.

FF12 is great (Y), but overall I prefered the older FF games.

ps. Just hurry up and give us FF13, and FF13 Versus Square ;)

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I'm playing through 12 now and it shows promise. It's no Shin Megami Tensei (but then again, what is, except for SMT itself), but it's a far cry from the crapfest that was 10. The voice-overs are a huge step up and I like how serious and actually believable they're making a lot of it.

I'd say my order of (modern) FF titles goes 8 > 7 > 9 > 10-2 > 10.

As for Xenogears...I'd say it's their best RPG aside from Parasite Eve (which some people apparently hated). It could've been their best hands-down (though I'd still be a huge fan of PE's style and morbid edge) if they hadn't cut funding halfway through development. And if they'd sped up the damn text.

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Remember I said "modern" FF titles.

8 I ranked first for its gameplay. 7 is ahead of 9 due to 9's incredibly bogged-down engine. Seriously, you almost HAVE to play it on an emulator just to get it to run smoothly. 9 is ahead of 10-2 due to 10-2's campiness and the inability to take it seriously (though with a villain like Kuja, who could take 9 seriously either?). Honestly, though, 9 and 10-2 could be swapped and I wouldn't much care as 10-2 has a lot of challenging, fun gameplay. 10 comes in last for its horrible main character and pretentious storyline. I can't take 10 seriously, but at least 10-2 doesn't expect me to take it seriously. Hell, it doesn't take itself seriously. I appreciate the fact that they were pretty much just messing around and made no bones about that fact.

Soundtracks also put 8 and 9 at the top of the list, as 7's synth leaves something to be desired, and 10 & 10-2's soundtracks lack a real defining quality (esp. 10-2, which was largely uninspired techno).

If only Squall had stayed a bitter sonofabitch throughout the entire game, and maybe dropped Rinoa off the top of that transforming radio tower, 8 would be the perfect Final Fantasy.

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How are you playing xenogrars in your psp. I didn't know they released it?

I am playing FF tactics on the psp and I love it!!!

Sony has there own PS1 emulator on PSP, its used when you play PS1 games you bought from the Playstation store. Modding your PSP lets you play other games then just the ones from the Sony store. You can take the disks from your favorite PS1 games and convert them to files the PSP can read. It works great. It's the main reason I bought my PSP, to play all my PS1 classics.

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I didn't know that. I will check it out. I loved Xenogears and will really like to play it again.

Thanks for the advice

Yup, check out the CFW (custom firmware) for the PSP.

^

Vid of Xenogears in action... doesn't start till about 1:30, the guy messes about in the PSP menus for a bit!

Another, shorter, but better quality!

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I'm playing through 12 now and it shows promise. It's no Shin Megami Tensei (but then again, what is, except for SMT itself), but it's a far cry from the crapfest that was 10. The voice-overs are a huge step up and I like how serious and actually believable they're making a lot of it.

I'd say my order of (modern) FF titles goes 8 > 7 > 9 > 10-2 > 10.

As for Xenogears...I'd say it's their best RPG aside from Parasite Eve (which some people apparently hated). It could've been their best hands-down (though I'd still be a huge fan of PE's style and morbid edge) if they hadn't cut funding halfway through development. And if they'd sped up the damn text.

To me FFX is the best FF with FFVI in second close.

10 > 6 > 7 > 12 > 8 > 9 > 5 > 1,2,3,4

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It shows not so great picture for PS3 again.. we've discussed this many times.. developers will essentially start leaving the PS3 platform and the only games you will see for PS3 will be Sony made. This is NOT good if it happens. That most definitely means death of PS3.

Though I pick on PS3, I like the competition as it makes Xbox 360 a better product as well, but if one of the most loyal companies to Playstation brand makes this statement makes you wonder about the state of things doesn't it?

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It shows not so great picture for PS3 again.. we've discussed this many times.. developers will essentially start leaving the PS3 platform and the only games you will see for PS3 will be Sony made. This is NOT good if it happens. That most definitely means death of PS3.

Though I pick on PS3, I like the competition as it makes Xbox 360 a better product as well, but if one of the most loyal companies to Playstation brand makes this statement makes you wonder about the state of things doesn't it?

You know that won't happen like... ever, right?

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It shows not so great picture for PS3 again.. we've discussed this many times.. developers will essentially start leaving the PS3 platform and the only games you will see for PS3 will be Sony made. This is NOT good if it happens. That most definitely means death of PS3.

Though I pick on PS3, I like the competition as it makes Xbox 360 a better product as well, but if one of the most loyal companies to Playstation brand makes this statement makes you wonder about the state of things doesn't it?

That's quite the stretch. Did you take your meds today? :blink:

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