To be fair to Enix, the real issue concerning the merger is that Square lost some key employees and restructured their development into several studios which largely took the really talented people who made all the games loved in the pre-merger and place them in positions where they are somewhat out of their element. Granted, much of this was happening before the merger even happened so it's very likely had the merger not happened, we would still be feeling the same way now. The main thing to focus on is that while many prominent designers still work there, most of them are doing upper management BS instead of all the stuff they were good at. While I consider some of his contributions to the franchise a bit overrated, I would still love to see Kitase step back into the director's chair for a new title but he's pretty much stuck as Executive Producer for the brand, which gives him some creative control but it feels like he hardly uses it.

The other issue here is the combination of factors which was Spirits Within failure (bankrupted the company), Yoichi Wada being promoted to SE President (Not a game designer, he's more of a financial expert) and the success of X-2 (proved that SE could easily make back their money by taking advantage of the FF Brand and seriously expanding the franchise) which all accumulated into a scenario where SE needed money and took the most logical avenue to gain it. While many fans (myself included) have not said many nice things about the direction Wada took the company when he took over, you can't argue that his policies of placing all of SE's financial burden on the successful marketing and branching out of its three pillar flagship titles (FF, DQ, and KH) were able to turn the company around from financial ruin to one of the more prominent Japanese developers still relevant today.

The success of X-2 and the merger was kind of the beginning of the end of Square as a creative game design studio and in turned fueled its transformation into a powerful financial gaming company, yet I feel it's safe to say Square was probably heading into this direction regardless. It was just the fact the financial pitfall the Spirits Within placed on the company rushed what would have likely been a slow process into something more tangible and quick. Yet I feel the bigger issue here is still many of Square's top talent were already making plans to leave the company to start their own creative ventures before the merger. Of anything, it's more of an annoying coincidence a lot of these factors came into play around the same time.