Square-Enix Approval Rating

[Wolf Kanno]

How do you feel about Square-Enix's job performance? Are they doing great? Hit some rough patches but still overall pretty good? Or do you wonder why they even bother anymore?

[Freya]

Not good. I still enjoy some of their stuff but ugh as of late.

[Formalhaut]

'Mixed' seems to be how I'd assess. Very mixed.

[Del Murder]

Yeah I would have gone with mixed too. Some bright things on the horizon (VII Remake, KH3), but that's a pretty far horizon.

The delivered FFXV finally and it was received well but just not the type of game I want right now. They have delivered with the Bravely Default series. Their remakes (like DQVII) have also been pretty good and I liked Theatrhythm, but I can't remember the last console game I thought was really great from them. I guess FFXII? XIII was OK and I liked XIII-2 better but too many fatal flaws from each of them.

[Karifean]

I can sum up my feelings on SE in one word:

*shrug*

[FFNut]

I get more excited about other titles not SE related now. Before I would search anything I could find on them to try and find hidden games back in the Squaresoft days.

[KleinerKiller]

I want to have hope for their future, but meh. XV was good, but I hate that so much of what should have been in the game has to be DLC, and everything they're doing for the "Universe" fills me with uneasy boredom. If I were to compile a list of my favorite game developers and publishers right now, they would certainly not be high up in the ranks.

[Vyk]

More of the same from me. And they need to crack the whip on their London branch, because those guys are just plain ridiculous. They've become EA and Activision, and I worry about them bloating unchecked and tarnishing SE in ways they may have trouble ever recovering from

As for the main branch, I like that they're researching and trying out new ideas with Setsuna and Bravely and stuff, and I like that they're finally kinda sorta but not really focusing on things fans actually want with KH3 and FFVIII, but they're also not really doing anything note-worthy in the industry anymore

I think they're stable, but I don't think they're in a position where they can easily maintain that stability in the long term and I hope they can pick things up, because I think they're starting to have the right attitude, and I would hate for them to fall on their face at this point, and move Konami one step closer to being the biggest Japanese publishing house. That'd be gross

[Pumpkin]

I am so very conflicted because no, I haven't been impressed or happy with them lately, but they made two of my three fave games ever and it's hard to negate that

[Vermachtnis]

I'm going to hold off judgement until after Stormblood.

[Aulayna]

I still have faith. I enjoyed FFXV even though it had a lot of flaws, FFXIV has provided me with a lot of entertainment, same with Deus Ex.

However I won't deny that they really are teetering on the brink right now in my mind. They've redeemed themselves somewhat after the absolute slap in the face that was All the Bravest and Airborne Brigade - but if they end up botching FFVIIR and KHIII I don't think I'll hold them in high regard anymore. Especially given how ludicrous some of their pricing is these days.

So I still have faith, but it's faltering.

EDIT: Honestly I just think they don't understand their western market in the slightest. I mean during their E3 shows they've been hyping up stuff that's going to be happening in Tokyo... Tokyo... YOU'RE AT A smurfING SHOW IN AMERICA FFS SHOW SOMETHING FOR YOUR NORTH AMERICAN FANS. But I think that's also because their NA and EU regional offices seem to be purely marketing driven when it comes to SEJ and just looking to make money (hello all those FFXV Amazon promotions). I get the feeling SE has a lot of internal struggles/communication problems between regions when I look at some of the bizarre actions they take sometimes.

[Jinx]

I'm going to hold off judgement until after Stormblood.

I said good, but basically what Rem said. If they changes to FFXIV wow me, they're definitely seeing positive marks from me. But I don't really play any of their other games.

[Wolf Kanno]

I still haven't voted myself. I have nothing against their Western studios but they just don't really make games that catch my eye, and it just feels like the internal studio is only good for MMOs, which again, is not my type of genre.

I liked FFXV, it was better to me than XIII, but it certainly had it's fair share of problems and really should have been released next year cause a few more years of development would have done it wonders. Yet some recent events have turned the situation into something else for me.

I remember watching a made-for-TV biographical movie about The Monkees (just google them, I don't have time to explain) and the group had this moment in their history where they tried to prove their critics wrong and show the music industry that they were relevant, so they fought to have an album made where they all wrote and performed on it, they hired professionals to help them make the album, and in the end, it was a pretty good album overall and they proved they weren't a one-note commercial boy band. Then the Beatles released the White album a week later and everyone stopped caring because the White album was a magnum opus for the Beatles and The Monkees foray was quickly swept under the rug and they didn't last much longer as a group after that.

To bring this back to relevance, Persona 5 is the White Album. FFXV was a pretty good show for a company that I felt had been struggling since FFXII to remain actually relevant in the world of RPGs. While it wasn't exactly a revolutionary experiences, it at least showed people they could still make a game that is more than cutscenes and half baked combat systems, well maybe more of the first part than the second. Yet Persona 5 is an unapologetic wrecking ball of an RPG that basically shook it's head at SE's years of lame excuses about moving farther away from turn based combat because "kids love the action-shooty stuff now" and Turn Based is antiquated nonsense only old timers have the patience for. Instead Atlus was like, "No SE, you've just spent so long watering down the mechanics that it got stale and boring, you just need to work your ass off and you'll see people will have no problem with the battle system, you just have to make it fun" . After years of SE making excuses about how their plots target young tweens and older fans should just move on, and then proceeding to go out of their way to write boring and predictable plots with no teeth to it, Atlus turns around and gives us a politically charged behemoth of a plot with sex scandals, attempted suicides that actually do something in the plot instead of just being a fake out drama moment, characters being conflicted and debating the very meaning of justice and social reform. XV had a plot, Persona 5 had a message. You can guess which is more memorable.

FFXV, like the Monkees album, is a pretty decent piece of work and really captures the essence of what everyone was doing at the time, but Persona 5 is like the White album and subverting our expectations and what the genre can be; and it's here that I'm left with curious question of how this happened. Once upon a time, it was Square-Enix transcending the genre with Final Fantasy and now here I am watching as Final Fantasy has fallen behind the times and racing it's little heart out to catch up with everyone else, while Persona 5 just dropped the mic and some of us are still trying to pick our jaws off the floor. So I'm conflicted here.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Some bright things on the horizon (VII Remake, KH3),more like EVENT horizon cuz time disappears into that shiz

[Scruffington]

I still haven't voted myself. I have nothing against their Western studios but they just don't really make games that catch my eye, and it just feels like the internal studio is only good for MMOs, which again, is not my type of genre.

I liked FFXV, it was better to me than XIII, but it certainly had it's fair share of problems and really should have been released next year cause a few more years of development would have done it wonders. Yet some recent events have turned the situation into something else for me.

I remember watching a made-for-TV biographical movie about The Monkees (just google them, I don't have time to explain) and the group had this moment in their history where they tried to prove their critics wrong and show the music industry that they were relevant, so they fought to have an album made where they all wrote and performed on it, they hired professionals to help them make the album, and in the end, it was a pretty good album overall and they proved they weren't a one-note commercial boy band. Then the Beatles released the White album a week later and everyone stopped caring because the White album was a magnum opus for the Beatles and The Monkees foray was quickly swept under the rug and they didn't last much longer as a group after that.

To bring this back to relevance, Persona 5 is the White Album. FFXV was a pretty good show for a company that I felt had been struggling since FFXII to remain actually relevant in the world of RPGs. While it wasn't exactly a revolutionary experiences, it at least showed people they could still make a game that is more than cutscenes and half baked combat systems, well maybe more of the first part than the second. Yet Persona 5 is an unapologetic wrecking ball of an RPG that basically shook it's head at SE's years of lame excuses about moving farther away from turn based combat because "kids love the action-shooty stuff now" and Turn Based is antiquated nonsense only old timers have the patience for. Instead Atlus was like, "No SE, you've just spent so long watering down the mechanics that it got stale and boring, you just need to work your ass off and you'll see people will have no problem with the battle system, you just have to make it fun" . After years of SE making excuses about how their plots target young tweens and older fans should just move on, and then proceeding to go out of their way to write boring and predictable plots with no teeth to it, Atlus turns around and gives us a politically charged behemoth of a plot with sex scandals, attempted suicides that actually do something in the plot instead of just being a fake out drama moment, characters being conflicted and debating the very meaning of justice and social reform. XV had a plot, Persona 5 had a message. You can guess which is more memorable.

FFXV, like the Monkees album, is a pretty decent piece of work and really captures the essence of what everyone was doing at the time, but Persona 5 is like the White album and subverting our expectations and what the genre can be; and it's here that I'm left with curious question of how this happened. Once upon a time, it was Square-Enix transcending the genre with Final Fantasy and now here I am watching as Final Fantasy has fallen behind the times and racing it's little heart out to catch up with everyone else, while Persona 5 just dropped the mic and some of us are still trying to pick our jaws off the floor. So I'm conflicted here.

You've basically echoed some of my thoughts here, and I agree 100%.

One of the things I like about Persona 5 is that it has its own identity. It's a Persona game through and through. You have your social links, your personas, your daily school life activities. It fully embraces all of that while carving a uniqueness for itself through its art style, gameplay, music and setting. It doesn't shy away from being a JRPG game. And it isn't afraid to be a Persona game. The game exudes confidence in what Persona is all about.

In contrast, Final Fantasy seems utterly lost. It never used to be about ultra realistic graphics or realistic combat. It was about playing to your imagination. Immersing you in a fantasy world with interesting characters, unique locations, an engaging story and wonderful music. FFXV seems to suggest that Final Fantasy doesn't feel confident in being a fantasy series anymore. And that makes me sad.

[Jinx]

Stormblood is off the chain and they're back in my good graces.

[Loony BoB]

Latest three SE games I played are FFXIV, World of FF and FFXV. All were well worth the money, definitely better than the majority of AAA games out there. So I absolutely still have faith in them.

[theundeadhero]

They still have amazing talent and the potential to create something great, but I don't like what they are creating with it. I don't expect them to create something I would like anytime soon, either.

[Skyblade]

It's very hard to do. Because I feel like Square's problems aren't a problem with the studio, but with its leadership. Square has some fantastic developers working for it who can churn out some absolutely brilliant projects... When they're allowed to. See: Bravely Default. But the leadership, and the core direction the studio is being led in...

Honestly, it reminds me of some of the famous Kickstarter crews. A handful of solid creative guys who amassed a ton of money, and no accountability, pushing their vision more and more with none of the counterbalance that a studio is supposed to bring. No need to worry about a timetable, or a board demanding changes and compromises. Just do whatever they feel like, and keep making it better and better, in their own little echo chamber.

They don't engage with the community or the fans, they ignore them. We know this from the reports where their community engagement people were telling Square that fans didn't want episodic games, but Square pressed on, convinced that stand alone games wouldn't sell any more, until Witcher 3 proved otherwise. They don't have to listen. They have their vision, and they have basically unlimited money, because their games continue to sell.

It's the Star Wars prequels all over again. A few guys, convinced that they know everything, doing whatever they want. And, yeah, some good can come of it. But nothing as great as the prior works, which pulled the best of a ton of minds all struggling with each other. Compromise and sacrifice are foreign to them. The idea that their ideas aren't perfect is a complete surprise, because they never listen any more.

The best things to come out of Square are games that AREN'T run by their big, famous names. That are ignored, developed by smaller teams with passion, working to deadlines and corporate expectations, not creative ones.


Also, I agree with Scruffington and Wolf.