Now, I know a lot of people absolutely *love* Square. Myself, being european and having access to the brilliant Terranigma, developed by Quintet (early Ys devs) and published by Enix, I've always liked them best, plus, I never really got into the whole Final Fantasy stuff, because I'm an 80s kid and I never really had the patience to play through turn-based stuff -- and, by 'stuff', I honestly mean crap.

This post is to say that when Square (Enix) acquired Eidos, they might as well have stuck with the Eidos label, because, as far as I and a lot other folk care, that's all they have going for them right now. I mean, even GOG's usual "Square Enix" bundles consist of nothing else than Eidos titles. The best things Square announced during this latest E3 were Eidos/Western developed titles, like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Hitman and Just Cause. Barely anyone cares for Final Fantasy and traditional JRPGs anymore, to be honest, lets just take the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, once and for all, and admit that the classic formula for JRPGs is dead. I mean, I love me some good ol' quirky Japanese games, but no one can stand their basic formulaic games anymore -- hence why the Japanese development scene has been grantedly declining in the past few years, in my humble and honest opinion. Let's face it: when Final Fantasy VII comes out no one will like it, whether it is because they made way too many changes to the original, or because they basically redid what was already there. Gamers are a finnicky, whiny bunch, and we never seem to agree with anything developers do -- myself included.

But if they had stuck with the Eidos brand, now, that would have been a different story, I think. Just imagine all of the people that wait for a decent entry in the Legacy of Kain series, for instance (and let's just forget about that 'Nosgoth' crap), I mean a *proper* sequel or remake, focused on story and character development, like the original titles), and how interested and vocal we are, compared to the legion that allegedly await for yet another bland and boring Final Fantasy entry... from my personal experience, the Japanese video game market is saturated and blown, and not that many people care enough about it to sustain itself. I mean... NieR?! Seriously?! Who even cares about a new NieR game, even though it's developed by Platinum Games (which seem to be the JPN dev making all the games for all the studios right now, to be completely honest, from Nintendo to Square Enix)?!

I understand that they had a lot of money and were the ones that bought Eidos out, but, in all honesty, I think they might as well have stuck with the Eidos branding instead of, say, Enix's, since no one really cares about Japanese games anymore, not even Final Fantasy (arguably overrated) titles, Nintendo themselves are struggling hard, let's just face it, as much as we love the guys, whereas the Western developed titles seem to be the ones the public in general craves and wishes for, with the added benefits that most of Western developed games are new franchises or re-imagining of existing ones that are less prone to leave hardcore fans disappointed than the same-old-same-old Square JRPG formula used for most of their "traditional" games (which no one cares about anymore, in spite of the seeming hype during these events).

Having said all this, bring on the hate, bring on the 'meh' or, if you somehow agree, share your thoughts as well.

in other words you dont like square
thought enix was better
the combined company is garbage

and eidos is the best thing about squeenix

that about right ?

Pretty much. You could also point out that I'm being somewhat hypocritical, as a Legacy of Kain fan, by stating the Final Fantasy fanbase will bash whatever product Square Enix puts out as the FF VII remake, while I, too, abhor what they made when they released Nosgoth, which was supposed to be the next entry in the LoK games.

You lost me when you said the sequel to Tomb Raider (2013) was one of the best things from the SE E3. If that's the case, then I guess I have to hate Bayonetta now. =(

That and he thinks all Japanese games are crap because...they're Japanese. And we're all evidently supposed to hate Japanese games/JRPGs and FF games because...he said so.

well i glossed over it
missed that little nuance

As a guy who doesn't really care for Final Fantasy, even I'd have to admit they're more popular than Legacy of Kain. I mean, I've not really played either, but even I know that there is a guy called Cloud and he has goofy hair and an oversized sword hahaha, and somebody called Sephiroth, etc.
Wouldn't be able to tell you the first thing about Legacy of Kain.

So I'm not sure your thesis that they're no longer popular is all that accurate...

I shrug and casually leave your rep alone.

Sure. Just like adventure games, and survival horror, and single player RPGs, and old castlevanias, RTS, and all these genres that are dead because nobody likes them anymore until somebody does release a (good) game and sells a ton.

It's fine to dislike something, and you're probably not alone in your dislike. Going around saying that something is "to be honest, your honest opinion" just to say we have to "admit once and for all" and "no one stands them" as if they were absolute truths... you don't like them. Others do.

I agree with some of the stuff you say, but even that you worded really badly. You should know that the Soul Reaver is the best most fucking cool sword ever. If I ever buy a weapon replica, I'll buy a Soul Reaver.

Classic formula for JPRGs is not dead. It's that just the biggest Japanese companies started to focus more on the average western audience to get sales. And the they act surprised, when they found that Bravely Default on NDS outsold Lightning Returns on PS3, because Bravely Default is the only new SE game, which used the true JRPG formula.

I was alway crazy for Final Fantasy, but from what I have seen on FFXV and played Lightning Returns, I can say, that I am not expecting much out of FFXV and unfortunately even out of FFVII remake after I have read few articles, that they want to alter the gameplay as well :-/

Thankfully, there are still other companies, which cater to the fans like me, which enjoy the classic JRPG gameplay.

Tecmo Koei with Tales of series and Atelier series is now for me the leading flagship for JRPGs in the west. And of course there are smaller western companies which are doing their best to translate japanese games for us. Unfortunately most of them are US companies, so there is lot of censorship involved, which I hate, but well, rather have little bit censored JRPG, than no JRPG at all.

EDIT: The japanese development scene is not declining at all. SE, Capcom and Konami is just a fraction of japanese developers, but unfortunately, some of the biggest gems will never be translated to english. And in my eyes more people care about new Nier than about new FFXV :-/

What shall I do now. I really like Hyperdimension Neptunia Reborn series! And I love to get FF VII remasterd HD whatever version for PC. And I think Enics was a trash company, and that fusion ruined Square.

In his eyes; i must be unnormal. That shall I say .... Fuck his oppinion, he cannot speak for anyone else, than only HIMSELF.

As I can do.

Wait, what? Turn based is crap? I'll have to disagree with you right there.

I dislike Squenix these days too, but for entity rent routing entirely different reasons.

I just don't like their current Steam-only, DRM-only, Windows-only, basegame + buttload of crappy DLC style.

I just question whether the Final Fantasy VII remake is even gonna be FAITHFUL remake.

Are they going to keep almost every single aspect of the game? We all know they are gonna forsake turned based random encounter combat to probably some form of Kingdom Hearts style combat.

All i really play on consoles is jrpgs. If they quit making them in english, I will either learn japanese (haha yeah right) or quit playing console games.

Tomb Raider reboot ruined the franchise for me. I don't want to play some barely pubescent kid with a bow. As far as I'm concerned, Lara died in Last Revelation