Why can't Square make more games like FFIX?

[reinward]

FFIX was the first Final Fantasy game I ever played and my all time favorite game period. The other FF's are great (especially X), but why can't they go back to the romantic, charming setting/atmosphere of 9? there are too many futuristic out there already!!! (im looking at all those first person shooter games out there :0)

[Depression Moon]

Because Sakaguchi left.

[Hot Shot]

FF IX is awesome, its my joint favourite with X. But I have to disagree with you reinward because I think that X is romantic and has a charming setting/atmosphere (ok, not quite charming in the same way, but it's still quite charming) and it did pull you into the game, making the experience the same. But I do know what you mean IX had a sort of 'magical' quality that no other FF following it has (and doubt ever will) match or better. For me, IX is the epitome of fantasy as the world, characters and story is fantastical.

[Jessweeee♪]

I haven't really played it much so feel free to correctly, but wouldn't FFV be kinda like it? And FFVI?

[Zeromus]

Yeah... I Agree... There is too much futuristic games out there... FF series started with a medieval atmosphere... then why they just came and changed that =( ?!!!
It's like if Age Of Empires started to be like Star Craft... I mean... both styles (medieval and futuristic) have their good and their bad things, and it's a thing about personal appreciations... but... hey...! Why do they have to change things?... Pears should always be pears! and should never become apples...! xD

I hate changes in videogame sagas... I hated, in example, the change in Metroid saga when they turned a side-scroll platform game into a first-person shooter >=( ... And things like that...

I mean... it's ok to explore another genres and elements in your work, but people who love your work for what it is is the people who will support your work... if you send that people away by removing the reasons why they started to love your work... you are just condemning yourself...

Square should think about this... they are sending away a lot of people who has been loving the elements of their works since so many years... It's not about evolving... it's about removing the loved things!... But it's true... Sakaguchi left... and that one is one of the main reasons of why things are turning out like this... and... in my personal point of view... that is the death sentence for the series too... =(

[L9999]

Because it's not SquareSoft anymore - it's Square Enix now.
And with the new name, they have a new team, with all the good ones leaving to Mistwlaker (can't blame them), they have a new vision of what a Final Fantasy is, something like a playable-ish Jdrama, they have new market strategies, making remakes and spin offs, they want to "innovate" while taking out of Final Fantasies all the good stuff we used to love - solid story, character interaction, prominent fantasy themes... heck, it's called final FANTASY - I don't want it to be as real-life as possible, I don't want it to be all japanese guys and girls, I want it to be a fantasy. I want my Qus and my Moombas and my Cait Sith and my moogles and all the fantasy stuff. I want the magic. I don't want an anonymous game with Final Fantasy icons thrown in. I want a real, coherent Final Fantasy world - like FFIX was, or FFX, or every other FF before X-2.


(Yes I despise Enix very very very very much )

[Elly]

because IX was a tribute and the Swan Song to all FFs prior to it, it was actualy originaly marketed as a tribute, it was their way of saying goodbye to old outdated conventions while giving what they thaught was the best sendoff they could... of course years later they negated that sentiment by making enhanced ports and remakes of I-VI... ironicly i'm still waiting for those V&VI remakes, i hope they don't mess up the VI remake like they did with the enhanced port by removing the torture scene...

[Breine]

As already said Final Fantasy IX was a tribute to the earlier games in the series. So, if you want FFs that are more like FFIX, you should play the old ones I suppose.

EDIT: Or maybe FFXII - which I don't consider to be futuristic at all.

[Rase]

Because it's not SquareSoft anymore - it's Square Enix now.
And with the new name, they have a new team, with all the good ones leaving to Mistwlaker (can't blame them), they have a new vision of what a Final Fantasy is, something like a playable-ish Jdrama, they have new market strategies, making remakes and spin offs, they want to "innovate" while taking out of Final Fantasies all the good stuff we used to love - solid story, character interaction, prominent fantasy themes... heck, it's called final FANTASY - I don't want it to be as real-life as possible, I don't want it to be all japanese guys and girls, I want it to be a fantasy. I want my Qus and my Moombas and my Cait Sith and my moogles and all the fantasy stuff. I want the magic. I don't want an anonymous game with Final Fantasy icons thrown in. I want a real, coherent Final Fantasy world - like FFIX was, or FFX, or every other FF before X-2.


(Yes I despise Enix very very very very much )

X-2 was Square Co. also if I remember correctly. Also, I feel that since the only noticeable difference in any of the company's combined series is in FF it's safe to say Square freely "screwed up" the series themselves. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the merger was purely business, and the teams in the respective company's remained largely unchanged and free to continue doing as they wished.

I think Square does not have faith in a game like FFIX selling on it's own merits in this current market. They have long been the company of "over-the-top cutscenes" and "games that play themselves", so why stop now when games keep selling?

[seiferalmasy2]

Because making another IX means being original and placing brain power in at the expense of cheap gimmicks for maximum money. And as stated a lot of the talent has disappeared to mist walker, with the enix merger sealing the coffin.

[L9999]

Because making another IX means being original and placing brain power in at the expense of cheap gimmicks for maximum money. And as stated a lot of the talent has disappeared to mist walker, with the enix merger sealing the coffin.

I AGREE. I AGREE. I AGREE FOREVER AND EVER.

And @Rase, as far as I know Square had already merged with Enix when they produced FFX-2. My copy has "SquareEnix" slapped on it anyway.
Though I do agree that they stopped going down that way they started with FFIX because they know games like that won't sell. Gamers now are lazier.. and Japan-crazed. They want a movie-like game where whether they have the pad in hand or not doesn't change a thing because you're just there to sit in front of the screen and marvel at the graphics and drool at the bishies... hah. Lazy and Japan crazed, I say.

[ReloadPsi]

Because that would be a good idea. Square-Enix hate those.

[ANGRYWOLF]

Because it's not SquareSoft anymore - it's Square Enix now.
And with the new name, they have a new team, with all the good ones leaving to Mistwlaker (can't blame them), they have a new vision of what a Final Fantasy is, something like a playable-ish Jdrama, they have new market strategies, making remakes and spin offs, they want to "innovate" while taking out of Final Fantasies all the good stuff we used to love - solid story, character interaction, prominent fantasy themes... heck, it's called final FANTASY - I don't want it to be as real-life as possible, I don't want it to be all japanese guys and girls, I want it to be a fantasy. I want my Qus and my Moombas and my Cait Sith and my moogles and all the fantasy stuff. I want the magic. I don't want an anonymous game with Final Fantasy icons thrown in. I want a real, coherent Final Fantasy world - like FFIX was, or FFX, or every other FF before X-2.


(Yes I despise Enix very very very very much )

X-2 was Square Co. also if I remember correctly. Also, I feel that since the only noticeable difference in any of the company's combined series is in FF it's safe to say Square freely "screwed up" the series themselves. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the merger was purely business, and the teams in the respective company's remained largely unchanged and free to continue doing as they wished.

I think Square does not have faith in a game like FFIX selling on it's own merits in this current market. They have long been the company of "over-the-top cutscenes" and "games that play themselves", so why stop now when games keep selling?

any assertion that the companies that make up Square, once they were acquired were free to continue doing as they wished.

I believe Square took steps to curtail games they saw as competing with FF and their Dragon game..the Ogre Battle games are an example of that..and they abandoned other games such as the Chrono and Mana games altogether.



The only way we'll ever see a return to the games like FFIX is a complete collapse at Square and a reshuffling of their developement team.

[Rase]

And @Rase, as far as I know Square had already merged with Enix when they produced FFX-2. My copy has "SquareEnix" slapped on it anyway.

Noted. I don't have a copy, so I was just going by release date vs. date of merger.

[Certainly not true...] any assertion that the companies that make up Square, once they were acquired were free to continue doing as they wished.

I'm assuming you mean teams, not companies. I don't know either way what the teams did when the merger happened, only that there were 10 total: Square 1 (Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts), 2 (Akitoshi Kawazu, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles), 3 (Hiromichi Tanaka, Final Fantasy), 4 (Yasumi Matsuno, Final Fantasy, Ogre Battle), 5 (Yusuke Hirata, All Star Pro-Wrestling), 6 (Toshiro Tsuchida, Front Mission), 7 (Takashi Tokita, Hanjuku Hero), and 8 (Koichi Ishii, Mana), and then Enix 1 (Ari Miyake, Dragon Quest) and 2 (Yosuke Saito, other games). Since then I'm sure things have changed, but I'm also sure that Square Enix didn't stop any franchises they thought they could make a good amount of money on.

I believe Square took steps to curtail games they saw as competing with FF and their Dragon game..the Ogre Battle games are an example of that..and they abandoned other games such as the Chrono and Mana games altogether.

I highly doubt the Ogre Battle games ever did numbers close to those of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, and the last one was on the Neo Geo Pocket Color back on 2000. I'm willing to bet that the team was not able to get a project greenlighted or simply has not had the time before considering any fear of the game "stealing" sales from the companies core franchises. If I remember correctly the key players in the Chrono games have said they would want all people on board before making another, and a few of these people have their own studios now so that isn't likely. Square tried to continue the Mana series but Koichi Ishii screwed up Dawn of Mana so they reined him back to handheld games. Simple business.

The only way we'll ever see a return to the games like FFIX is a complete collapse at Square and a reshuffling of their developement team.

I'm sure fans of FFII back in the day were lamenting the same way when III and IV came out. Final Fantasy games are all unique, so condemning the series because the more recent ones don't grab you seems rather silly.

[ANGRYWOLF]

The Ogre Battle games had quite a loyal following.

As for Dragon Quest I've never played it nor have I ever felt interested in it.

I certainly believe ending certain series was motivated by competitive fears. The last poster is of course free to believe whatever he chooses.

Square seems to be farming out certain gaming...they own the rights to Nier it seems although the graphics for Nier are poor and the game seems dated in certain respects.I wonder why they bothered to allow a subcontractor, it seems, to make a game with their name attached to it that may not do well when they could have done another Ogre battle, mana or chrono game and gotten much better sales than they will ever receive from Nier.

shrugs.

Some questionable decision making being done by Square.