TGS is around the corner... what do you look forward to?

[Lard]

They are still releasing an average of one or two titles per month in Japan (if you count cellphone-based releases the number is even higher).  

I don't, since I can't play them.

The thing is, for the current fiscal year they have decided to focus on handheld-based remakes and handheld-based sequels.

And that's exactly my complaint.

And then obviously, there is the standard criticism of them focusing too much on Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and possibly Kingdom Hearts.

Which, at this point, is legitimate.

However, this is not a recent trend, but has been ongoing for a couple of years, as they try to keep their profitability as high as it has been during the last couple of fiscal years. If you look at their releases now, in terms of sales (not gameplay) there is far less hit and miss right now than during the PlayStation years.  

PS1 or PS2?

Square back then certainly had a much more varied and perhaps (arguably) more exciting line-up, but several high profile games apparently did not live up to the lofty expectations (Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve II), while other games (mostly non-RPG stuff) only sold a very limited amount of copies (Racing Lagoon, Chocobo Racing, Ehrgeiz, various sports games).  

Whose expectations didn't they live up to? That's certainly debatable, unless you're talking about sales. In that case, Chrono Cross certainly lived up to them.

My point is that, while I realise it's more expensive to produce games now, it certainly seemed that Squaresoft were willing to take risks. Now, it's gotten to the point of parody the number of times they've released the same games. I used to bitch about Ninendo doing it, but I think Squeenix has firmly and decisively taken that crown.

[Dice]

I'm actually kinda worried about the 3 new Kingdom Hearts... especially if they go the path of the Final Fantasy 7 spin-offs (style > substance).  


I can understand the hand-held approach, seeing as how it feels the sytems arn't really too stable so to speak (Wii is weak, JRPG'ers won't really focus on an X360, and the PS3 is a pricey motherfucker for both parties).

As for the CHrono Cross bit.  I suppose it lived up to its expectations but it also depends on who you ask...  I think most people still prefer the old-school love for CT than CC.

And while small-but-solid cult titles might be fucken wicked, I don't think companies are too interested in catering to the small cult fanbases.  Later Ergheiz.

ANd yeah, making cash-cows of titles isn't old, Capcom knows all too well.   Less risk I suppose.  I dunno, it seems hard to please people nowadays.  If its too old-school people complain, if its too innovative, it tends to flop.

[macirex]

It´s just that they don´t do their job in terms of marketing... If Chrono cross received the attention that FFVII had in hose days then it would have been much more succesfull... Now... let´s blame Sony for FFVII success

[Eusis]

Chrono Cross seemed to have fairly good marketing. In fact, it DID do pretty well, but the team's all over the place now and SE simply doesn't want to do a game unless they can reassemble most of the cast. Honestly, probably for the best. Even the best games may lose something or be different in a way that just isn't quite right when given to different developers. Case in point: Metroid Prime.

I wouldn't mind this kind of whoring if we had plenty of good new games as well, even Nintendo accomplished this to some degree with introducing games like Warioware and publishing stuff like Eternal Darkness and Odama. SE? Infinite Undiscovery is being copublished with Microsoft and tri-Ace seems to have more freedom there anyway with Radiata Stories, and aside from them It's a Wonderful World and Last Remnant really seem to be the only two new things not from a pre-established series in years.

[macirex]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[Eusis]

If you don't try to improve it you'll never make progress.

[Professor Gast]

Which, at this point, is legitimate.

If it makes you feel better, I have heard industry folks complain about this issue as well.  

PS1 or PS2

The original PlayStation, of course.

Whose expectations didn't they live up to? That's certainly debatable, unless you're talking about sales. In that case, Chrono Cross certainly lived up to them.

Actually, I'm probably the guy who is mostly talking about sales around here. In fact, sales of Chrono Cross did not reach the one million mark in Japan, which certainly was a disappointment for Square. The game faired well enough in the US, partially because of better marketing (as Eusis mentioned). It still did not even come close to Chrono Trigger in overall sales. Now from a business point of view, Chrono Cross probably cost a lot of money to make, given how the game's production values, etc. If the game had been called Final Fantasy: The Misadventures of Lynx it might have sold better :P. The return you get for releasing a Final Fantasy game is usually much higher than releasing a big budget release of any other series (that is not Dragon Quest or Kingdom Hearts-related), simply because of the brand's power. In order to improve its profitability, Square decided in 2000 or 2001 (partially due to the financial troubles initially caused by Final Fantasy The Movie and the investment in PlayOnline) to do exactly that, re-focus more on RPG development, in particular the Final Fantasy series. If you look at release lists, you will see that they (the old Square and now the Square part of Square Enix) basically ceased to develop non-RPG stuff in 2001 or 2002, after releasing several sports games for PlayStation 2 early on.

[everluck]

Parasite Eve 3.

Anyone hear?

[macirex]

Parasite Eve 3.

Anyone hear?

Mm... I think is a cellphone game... sadly it seems it will only be released in japan...

[everluck]

Are you sure?

From what I've seen on other forums, a full-on CG intro was shown.

[Professor Gast]

It's indeed "just" a cellphone game.

[AJR]

Well, the last I heard was that it was a Japan-only mobile phone game. Unless things have drastically changed.

[Losfer]

...Gast just said that!

[jj984jj]

I've been looking forward to seeing all the 360 and DS RPGs, the DS has an insane amount of RPGs coming out, especially in Japan this holiday.

[AJR]

...Gast just said that!

Well yeah, I noticed that after I posted it. I was actually checking to make sure it hadn’t been announced for anything else while I wrote that message, so I didn’t realise Gast had already posted what I was going to say while I typed.

I was actually going to go back and edit it, but I didn’t think anyone would care.