Wada: Development has become weaker than expected...

[Wolf Kanno]

Article

So Wada recently admitted, during the forecast of what SE would make this year, that SE has fallen behind in development and has cited issues in communication between departments as a major problem. The situation is apparently so dire to Wada that SE may begin reformation of their development teams.

The question of this thread is twofold:

Doing you agree with Wada that SE has fallen behind?

If Squenix does some internal house cleaning, what do you hope to see from SE after they rework their kinks out?

[VeloZer0]

To try and recover, Square Enix will delve further into social networking games and apps for cell phones.

........

[Flying Arrow]

Doing you agree with Wada that SE has fallen behind?

Yes. They've made one good console game in more than a decade. I get the impression, however, that his definition of "falling behind" is somewhat different than mine.

If Squenix does some internal house cleaning, what do you hope to see from SE after they rework their kinks out?

To make more than one legitimately good game between now and 2020. Only two more to go, guys!

But seriously, SE have been almost nothing but awful since they came into existence. I wish the old magic could come back, but I'm positive they've just lost too much talent and vision from back then.

To try and recover, Square Enix will delve further into social networking games and apps for cell phones.

........

Yoichi, you're killin' me.

[Jiro]

To be honest, I want them to drop the Final Fantasy name and just concentrate on making a game without any of the damn expectations. If XIII didn't have FF attached to it then people would have hated it less. It might not have been as "popular" but arguably the popularity wasn't good anyway.

So far all they're doing is remakes and taking years to develop random ass spin off games and . Just put together a team and say "go make a great game" and let them do it. Everyone else can work on apps and .

[Del Murder]

I feel like we've had many versions of this thread.

Yes, I think SE has fallen behind. I don't think it's due to a lack of vision, but it's more like they are looking in the wrong direction. They need to go back to what got them to where they are instead of trying to be 'cutting edge' and compete with modern action games. And by that I don't mean just remake all the old good games over and over.

[Slothy]

In terms of technology, Square is years behind. Give them five years and they bring us the engine that powered FFXIII which was utterly underwhelming to me. Granted part of the problem was the terrible art style and half assed textures, but it was pretty light on graphical effects that are pretty standard these days.

Meanwhile companies like Epic and id completely obliterate everything coming out of Japan as far as technology is concerned. Mind you I think that trying to make an engine in house for next-gen titles is quickly becoming too expensive to be worth it. Sadly, Square's one attempt at using a licensed engine was a failure as well, making me wonder how much of it had to do with the engine or their not knowing how to modify it.

As far as actual creativity in their games, they really don't have anyone aside from Nomura anymore willing to take charge and at least have some grand vision of where to take a title. Many of their big names who have been driving forces behind a lot of their best titles are gone, and the end result is that you get games that greatly suffered from a lack of strong direction and a cohesive idea for the development teams to get behind. This is very obvious in FFXIII even ignoring the fact that they admitted as much, and from what little I know of FFXIV it seems like it suffered from similar issues as well.

This isn't to say that other developers don't suffer from similar problems, but the better developers out there these days don't have these problems, and it shows.

[Roogle]

It is unsurprising that an announcement like this comes from the executives of Square Enix. Final Fantasy XIV was associated with a profitable forecast for the company, and its lack of popularity and subscription revenue has contributed greatly to its decline. I hope that they find some new talent soon. I feel that their current directors have contributed all that they can right now.

[Loony BoB]

I do wonder sometimes why JRPGs are restricted to the Japanese (and yes, I know the J stands for Japanese, but we all know it's referring to a style, not a country). Have any JRPG-style games been made exclusively by English speaking people? Basically I'm just wondering who their main competition is at the moment when it comes to the JRPG genre. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

I wouldn't say they have only made one good game in a decade. There are a number of games from SE that I have found enjoyable and have also been a commercial success. The problem is that even that number is not enough, and that until very recently they have been content to live in a bubble when it comes to development. They still are largely in that bubble, but hopefully over time they will learn to be far more open than they have been in the past. The more open they are and they more accepting they are of feedback, the earlier they can get feedback and in turn the earlier they can avoid having to completely rework a game (as was the case with FFXIV).

I actually quite like the unique vision that they have for games and how different they like to do things. The problem they have is being sometimes too different, taking the focus off what the gamers are wanting from the game they are intending on buying - in most cases for SE, this is a JRPG. Also, they can focus on the "different thing" so much that they drop the ball on more standard things, such as game stability (for FFXIV) and creativity (linearity, FFXIII).

[Roogle]

I do wonder sometimes why JRPGs are restricted to the Japanese (and yes, I know the J stands for Japanese, but we all know it's referring to a style, not a country). Have any JRPG-style games been made exclusively by English speaking people? Basically I'm just wondering who their main competition is at the moment when it comes to the JRPG genre. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

There was a Lord of the Rings games several years ago produced by an English speaking company that was meant to look and feel like Final Fantasy X, I think, but I couldn't stand it was for what it was. I never finished the game. I think there might be other similar titles that use the Japanese role-playing game formula, but I can't think of any other specific examples, either.

[Hollycat]

the last good thing se made was CC and XII

those were in 2006.
they need a revamp

[Jiro]

There was a Lord of the Rings games several years ago produced by an English speaking company that was meant to look and feel like Final Fantasy X, I think, but I couldn't stand it was for what it was. I never finished the game. I think there might be other similar titles that use the Japanese role-playing game formula, but I can't think of any other specific examples, either.

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. I enjoyed it, actually.

[Loony BoB]

In that case, I wouldn't be surprised if it is the lack of direct competition that is causing SE to stagnate when it comes to standard JRPG games.

[I Don't Need A Name]

Yeah, I really enjoyed The Third Age. And as much as I enjoy a good rant about SE, I felt that this year has been a pretty good year for them. PSP wise at least, the release of The Third Birthday, Dissidia 012, Tactics Ogre and FFIV Complete have all been a credit to them. 4 very solid games which are very worth the money.

[VeloZer0]

I wouldn't say stagnation is SE's problem, it's quality. FF12 & FF13 were clearly attempts at innovation, and even though I didn't really appreciate the finished product I can't exactly say they aren't trying.

SE knows very well that they have to change, adapt and shake things up, but they are just stumbling around in the dark as to how to do it.

[Roogle]

Their development time seems to have increased dramatically over the years. What was the amount of time between the releases of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII? It might be the case that games take longer to make now, in which case they might need to think about consumer expectations and if there is any possible way to deliver what fans have come to expect. It might be time to reassess the entire series, really.