Posted June 21, 2015
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.
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.