After reading the editorials posted for the past week, I feel the need to comment on some of their content. The topic I would like to address is about our Japanese friends' comment on Square releasing 6 or 7 games per year now, as opposed to 5 or so in the 16 bit era. He believes that the games are being rushed out the door for the sole purpose of Square to make lots of money. I have read numerous articles and interviews with developers who state that by using the CD format they have cut their developement time in half. Thus allowing them to produce more games. So realisticaly it's not impossible for them to produce twice as many games now as they did back then.

He does make a good point about the crap games like Soukagi, but lucky for us Square/EA will probrably never release it here in the states. As for the other games that have been released here the only title I would consider total crap is Saga Frontier. I loved FF7 just as much as FF6, I know a lot of people may think I'm nuts, but I think the story was just as engrossing. Xenogears happens to be my favorite RPG, second only to the FF series. I liked Parasite Eve even though it was a bit of a departure from your typical Square game. FF tactics was also incredible, Tobal, Einhander and even Bushido Blade were good solid games. Brave Fencer was decent, a little on the kiddy side but still enjoyable. The only games missing from this lineup that I personaly would like to be playing right now are sequels to Crono Trigger, and Secret of Mana. With all said and done, Square has tried to expand past the RPG genre to offer gamers a wider variety of titles. Did they succeed? I think so. Is every game perfect? Far from it, but at least they're trying to give us gamers the next best thing, and I can't wait to play every new game they release this year, and next year, and the year after that...

Written by Ken Van Vliet