Oh no, Enix made Square suck.

[XxSephirothxX]

What's with this attitude, anyway? It doesn't make sense. I've seen countless people say things like "Square sucks now" or "Once they joined Enix Square's plots have been bad" and so on and so forth. This just seems absolutely ridiculous to me. First off, they haven't released that many games at all! Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was an extremely fun and addictive strategy game with a deep system. A few of the other games Square-Enix has published weren't even developed by them, like Drakengard and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Neither of those games was horrible by any means, either. I have no experience with Front Mission 4, but it's not supposed to be complete trash. There's no way to tell how bad any part of the Compilation of FFVII is until it's released, so it's unfair and stupid to say those games are going to be bad when little is known about them. FFXII and Kingdom Hearts II look like they'll both be fine sequels, and it's not like XII is making radical changes to the saga. I mean, given the lack of sophistication in the plot department in some of Squaresoft's early titles, how exactly are they getting worse? They continue to turn out pretty solid products, and since they joined Enix they haven't changed much at all. The two companies work fairly seperately, I believe, so it's not as much of a merging of companies as it could have been. Even Crystal Chronicles was a fun game, though it was much more of an action/party title than an RPG.

So, I've voiced most of my thoughts on the subject. How do you think Square HAS gotten worse since they joined Enix? Someone who's got a decent answer can feel free to smash my opinion into little bits.

[TheAbominatrix]

The reason why people say that? Simple. A scapegoat is needed. Their beloved Square could never do wrong so it obviously must be the fault of Enix. Even though Enix has nothing to do with Square games and vice versa, it's still Enix's fault.

I'm perfectly content with the games they've been releasing, I think they're great.

[Rengori]

Note that I am not blaming Enix for the 'slump'.

I love games from Enix (Seiken Detsu 2 is my favorite) and they worked well with Square in the past (CHRONO TRIGGER!).

[Lon611]

every1 needs something to complain about, even if its the best.
i don't blame the slump on Enix. there were a lotta good things about X-2(not sure if they merged by this time), but lets face it, that game was doomed from the beginning. Star Ocean was great (from what i heard), ppl still play XI, so i mean, everythings been going great. just because they haven't been realising history-shattering games, they feel they're in a slump. tis a shame, cuz they're missing out.

[Constantino]

Note that I am not blaming Enix for the 'slump'.

I love games from Enix (Seiken Detsu 2 is my favorite) and they worked well with Square in the past (CHRONO TRIGGER!).

Enix help made chrono trigger??? Never new that... thing your lying...

[TheAbominatrix]

Yuji Horii of Enix worked with Hironobu Sakaguchi of Square on Chrono Trigger. http://www.answers.com/topic/chrono-trigger

That's far more of a collaberation than any current SquareEnix game.

[Rengori]

Yes, it even said so on the index page of the Chrono Trigger page on the site.

[abrojtm]

Seiken Dentetsu 2 (aka Secret of Mana) was a Square game, unless I'm confused and Seiken Detsu 2 is actually a game.

And as for crappy Square-Enix games? Go play Fullmetal Alchemist, but I don't but the blame for that monstrosity on Enix.

I call for a new Dragon Quest game, yay (or better yet, port those old-school DQ games to GBA).

[Rengori]

I could of sworn that was made by Enix...

[-N-]

Seiken Dentetsu 2 (aka Secret of Mana) was a Square game, unless I'm confused and Seiken Detsu 2 is actually a game.xD
You're correct. SD2 == SoM == Pure Square.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

As TheAbominatrix said, people need a scapegoat and aren't bothered by picky little details like "reality" and "truth".

[Mirage]

As TheAbominatrix said, people need a scapegoat and aren't bothered by picky little details like "reality" and "truth".

[DJZen]

I don't get it either. I haven't noticed any real decline in quality since the merger. I haven't played FFX-2 so I can't comment on that, but I've played FFTA and loved it, I've played FFI&II: DoS and loved it, I've played FFXI and love it, I've played FFCC and I like it a lot, so I really don't understand the complaints.

Another dimension to that is my history of secretly loving Enix games (Act Raiser, Soul Blazer, Dragon Warrior, 7th Saga, King Arthur & The Knights of Justice...), I'm pretty much incapable of hating on Enix. They put out some amazing games that manage to innovate. A side scrolling action/sim/RPG? HELL YEAH!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I don't get it either. I haven't noticed any real decline in quality since the merger. I haven't played FFX-2 so I can't comment on that, but I've played FFTA and loved it, I've played FFI&II: DoS and loved it, I've played FFXI and love it, I've played FFCC and I like it a lot, so I really don't understand the complaints.FFXI, FFTA, and FFX-2 all preceded the merger anyway.

[DJZen]

Shhhhh! That's a secret! :)

It's the upcoming games that'll be the real litmus test. By upcoming I mean in the US, such as:

Dragon Warrior VIII
Kingdom Hearts 2
Dirge of Cerberus
Final Fantasy XII

If THESE games suck there might be some validity to the argument, but otherwise, it's pretty groundless and opinion based.

[Rengori]

Now I know Dragon Warrior was made by Enix.

[XxSephirothxX]

I imagine FFTA was made before the merger, but it does say SquareEnix on the box. Not that it really matters. It's one of my favorite games in the series. I had forgotten about the Fullmetal Alchemist game--it was supposed to be pretty bad. But, even so, it's not like Square didn't release the occassional bad game in the past.

[abrojtm]

I'm rather sure that the merger was less of a total merger and more of a merger of names. Other than the occasional collaboration (i.e. Idaki Street Special or whatever it's called), I'm pretty sure the series stick with their own design teams. I don't think that they just merged and said ok, you are gonna stop working on _____ and work on _____ now.

[edczxcvbnm]

They sucked before the merger, after the merger and still have not stopped sucking. I know you people just LOOOOOOVE your Huck Fin games and your /xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gifty Emotion Type S racers but lets face facts. Kingdom Hearts just SUCKS!

[Rengori]

This is a perfect example of an Enix blamer. And FYI, Kingdom Hearts was made mostly by Square.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Looks like you didn't actually read ed's post.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Why? Why fight? Why carry on like this? Bickering, quarrelling, when we could band together, when we could build something great. Why destroy the names of these fine developers, when we could build-up their fanbase? Why can't we work out our differences? Why can't we work things out? People, why can't we all just get along?

[edczxcvbnm]

Because...we never got along in the first place :mad2:

And what were you even thinking Rengori? You need to re-read my post as Kawaii has stated. You got everything 1 trillion % ass backwards.

[Rengori]

I see what your saying now. Must have slipped my mind the first time.

[Sephex]

Yeah, it annoyed me when people blammed Enix for anything Square ****ed up in the first place. When I tell them that DQ games kick the crap out of FF games in Japan, not one of them can come with a comeback other than, "Uhhhh....uhhhhh....Cloud has a bigger sword!"

[DJZen]

It's funny, I've never really gotten into any Enix based message boards, but I was an Enix fan before I was a Square fan (I played Act Raiser long before I played Secret of Mana).

Unfounded conjecture of the moment: People who blame Enix for "ruining Square" have never played an Enix game.

[GooeyToast]

I love Illusion of Gaia, which was made by Enix.

So i like both companies.

I think the mergence of 2 could only've helped Square.

[KuRt]

Rubbish, I say. Enix has made very great RPG:s like star ocean 1 and 2 so I really have to say that Enix hasn´t made Square bad.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

It wouldn't matter if Enix made the worst RPGs of all time. Enix people have no effect, good or bad, upon Square projects, and vice versa.

[Aurora_sword]

i cannot see its getting worse, really

[DJZen]

I think the mergence of 2 could only've helped Square.

This is very true. Square benefits more from it than Enix does. Why?

In Japan, the Dragon Quest series outsells the Final Fantasy series by quite a wide margin, meaning that the majority of the (quite substantial) profts will be brought on by Enix's flagship series.

Ah, so wouldn't that mean Enix would be helped out by America's love for all things Final Fantasy? Nope. When the merger happened, S-E decided they only wanted one localization office, and axed Enix of America.

S-E also has yet to release a Dragon Warrior game in the US. There's been quite a few opportunities (Slime Mori Mori, Kenshin Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Hearts, Dragon Quest V reprise...) but they've pretty much neglected them all right up until Dragon Quest VIII.

If anything, Square seems to be ruining Enix, not the other way around.