[kurahador]

MEANWHILE AT SQUARE JAPAN

Need to be first post.

[AlphaDragoon]

Somewhere, a programmer at Square Enix saw this trailer and wept himself to sleep.

SE should cry themselves to sleep, considering they've got that clown Toriyama and his crappy Lightning games digging them a hole, while Monolith Soft and Takahashi (you know, the guy they let go of after making one of their greatest games ever, Xenogears) has styled on them with Xenoblade and seems prepared to do it again.

[DXB-KNIGHT]

Don't a number of people from the SquareSoft era work at Monolith Soft now and Nintendo in general?

Thats why Nintendo emphasises acquiring talent over IP

[guek]

Square Enix is irrelevant.

As a developer, they're definitely on a downward spiral.

As a publisher? They're making strides.

[jorgeton]

I'd say their flagship game is XIV: ARR actually. And I don't know why anyone is pumping up Atlus. Would be nice if they even manage to put out a single console RPG this gen. It's nearly over. They don't even really do much on the publishing side. XSEED, Aksys and Gung Ho are all doing a lot more lately.

Yeah, FF14 is their flagship. But I don't play MMO's, so I'm considering their single player output. That game looks good, but not 9.95 a month good.

The goodness Atlus is delivering on handhelds is just as good as any product on consoles. Different experiences, but I find Atlus RPGs play better on a ds or vita than on the big screen (p3p, p4, etrian odyssey etc). And Catherine was excellent.

I forgot to mention Namco, who is now our Ps3 jrpg savior.

[Malvingt2]

X man... X!!!

[jj984jj]

Versus has better character designs and aesthetics, as in I prefer it :P but technically I think X is far better than what square enix managed in that 2 year old video, maybe magically it's different now, not holding my breath considering how incompetent they've been. there is real open world in X, versus wasn't like that. the combat looks janky in both, I take it it's early.

But we haven't seen any character designs from this new game yet, just a part of one model.

[ponpo]

X man... X!!!

Tail cutoff is cool but that 'shoot in the face' moment looks off.

[Rpgmonkey]

I'm sure Versus will at least be worth playing, even if I don't feel it will "justify" the long wait, the gif posted earlier is pretty cool and I'm looking forward to running around in locations like that. But I can't care much until it stops being a no-show.

Lightning Returns looks bland to me from what they've shown so far, so I don't really care about that either right now (even if I'll probably buy it once it hits the appropriate low price). FFXIV 2.0 is looking good for what it is, even if it's very unlikely I'll ever play it myself.

The combat seems a little wonky but it managed to be more interesting to me than the few seconds worth of combat they've shown so far in Versus, and what they've shown of Lightning Returns.

[Darryl]

Tail cutoff is cool but that 'shoot in the face' moment looks off.

it looks like it'd make sense if you got the full context of being in the mech

[Malvingt2]

Tail cutoff is cool but that 'shoot in the face' moment looks off.

first person view? shooting with weapons locate on the side?

[VGChampion]

I don't think Versus XIII will be bad. In fact, I think I'll love it. I don't think I'll forget about the wait though. Just like a few other games that went with that "once it's released you don't care about the past" but when I think back to other games like XIII, GT5, and Duke I will remember it felt like forever versus slight delays by other companies.

[Shinta]

But we haven't seen any character designs from this new game yet, just a part of one model.

They showed at least 3 characters in the video, including one up close at the end.

[ponpo]

it looks like it'd make sense if you got the full context of being in the mech

first person view? shooting with weapons locate on the side?

It just looks stiff in comparison. Maybe it's a cinematic or something since all the UI is gone.

[Toth]

Not quite yet considering we have no idea when this X game is supposed to release and SE has at least two big FF releases this year for sure (if we count FFXIV reboot as a new game, which it is). Also, as much as Xenoblade was a fantastic RPG, it did not exactly light up the sales ; ; I believe it made a nice profit but I wonder what game can ignite RPG sales not named FF or Tales. This could the game if it comes together well.

[Famassu]

I always felt like that after FF14's collapse and the general distaste towards FF13, despite not outright being a sales disaster forced them to put Versus to the side and focus on fixing those two products. Which I think was a bad idea. Versus has hype behind it. Sure it's not easy to spot now because like 70% of the people interested in it are convinced it's never coming out, but people still want it. While I'm not interested in Versus myself, I admit that what was shown from it looked pretty impressive, and I think it would have really helped to clean up whatever damage FF13/14 did to the brand's image. But instead of doing that, they just continue to push things that people feel lethargic about. FF13-2 fell off the radar incredibly quick after release. I don't think the 13-3 scenario will go any differently. Square Enix is looking bad because they are still stuck on FF13 while the rest of the JRPG industry is moving forward and has been since FF13 came out. We're getting ready to shift generations and they are still stuck back in 2010.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. I do see Square Enix has kind of given up with the PS360 generation stuff and I see them as just trying to tie the loose ends with fixing XIV, ending Toriyama's crazy shit and giving Versus XIII all the time it needs to be all that Nomura has visioned it to be, instead of still investing heavily on completely new PS360 development. Otherwise their gaze is in the future generation.

Not to mention their localization practices, which are absolutely dismal to virtually non-existent.

Umm... They've done a much better job with localizations within the past few years than ever before and are pretty much one of the BEST Japanese publishers in that regards. Type-0 & Bravely Default are the exceptions to the rule (in addition to some obscure titles no one in the west would buy), otherwise they've released games worldwide usually within 1-5 months after the Japanese release (Tactics Ogre, Dissidias, Kingdom Hearts games, Theatrhythm, 3rd Birthday, FFXIII & XIII-2, XIV etc. etc. etc.). Konami doesn't even bother anymore, and neither does SEGA or Capcom (other than Dragon's Dogma). Namco Bandai brings some stuff over (not nearly everything), but they take forever. If it wasn't for XSeed & the like, we'd also be missing lots of stuff from smaller publishers.

It's just really frustrating to watch this happen to a beloved company, and it's almost entirely all their own fault.

PSP's death and Vita & 3DS's bad sales in the West aren't really Square Enix's fault.

Besides, no need to be so dramatic. Square Enix Japan really did kind of semi-miss this home console generation (in-house, don't mean the mediocre at best publishing agreements with Tri-Ace), but they are well on track to recovery, if Agni's Philosophy is anything to go by.

[Wiz]

After seeing that trailer, I don't even know what a SquareEnix is anymore.

[Eidan]

Because it's not a decade long development cycle. The game was announced prematurely. That's it.

That wasn't a comment on how long the development cycle has been. It's a comment on how long the development cycle WILL be.

[jj984jj]

They showed at least 3 characters in the video, including one up close at the end.

The one close up is the one relevant one at this point, and we don't see him entirely.

[sn00zer]

MEANWHILE AT SQUARE JAPAN

Normally I dont like mean spirited posts...but lol

[Colonel Mustard]

The relevant part of SquareEnix is Eidos. (Eidos [With Avalanche] does some awesome stuff. Just Cause 2 is probably one of my favorite games...ever.)

Edit: Sorry, SE's handheld teams are pretty awesome. (Not counting garbage cell phone games.)

[Shinta]

The one close up is the one relevant one at this point, and we don't see him entirely.

I don't know why. You can see another guy with black hair quite a bit, and a girl. They listed the character design as the 2nd in the credits roll. You can see them pretty well.

None of them look very impressive. Standard Star Ocean/Phantasy Star sci-fi stuff.

[CorvoSol]

I don't think Versus XIII will be bad. In fact, I think I'll love it. I don't think I'll forget about the wait though. Just like a few other games that went with that "once it's released you don't care about the past" but when I think back to other games like XIII, GT5, and Duke I will remember it felt like forever versus slight delays by other companies.

Versus XIII will likely be good, but never will it live up to its hype. Meanwhile, X is coming out of nowhere and looking great while Square is trying to drum up love for stuff like Lightning Returns and ALL THE BRAVEST.

Just shows what can be done when you don't waste 6 years doing jack all on a game.

[MrKaepora]

They ran over Square-Enix with Xenoblade. This is just them backing over the corpse.

Pretty much this.

I miss the Squersoft days. The only thing that I ask Square Enix these days is that they localize Bravely Default in Europe.

[10k]

FFXIII knocked square down. FFXIII-2 was them gettin run over by their own car. Xenoblade pissed on their face while they were down. X is just tea bagging the corpse.

[jj984jj]

I don't know why. You can see another guy with black hair quite a bit, and a girl. They listed the character design as the 2nd in the credits roll. You can see them pretty well. None of them look very impressive. Stand Star Ocean/Phantasy Star sci-fi stuff.

Because we don't know if those characters are part of the story, but it's not like we even have the art of any of them either. How can anyone tell if it's worse than Versus from this is what I want to know.

[Hero]

Like I said in the ND thread:

RIP Square-Enix, long live Monolith Soft.

[miladesn]

The one close up is the one relevant one at this point, and we don't see him entirely.

overall details and style looked pretty poor on that one, similar to Xenoblade style which I didn't like either (characters I mean).

Square Enix makes better, far more expressive and detailed character models, really. animations as well in cutscenes.

I don't think Monolithsoft focuses on horrible character drama in their games as much SE does, so it makes sense I guess :P

[jj984jj]

overall details and style looked pretty poor on that one, similar to Xenoblade style which I didn't like either (characters I mean). Square Enix makes better, far more expressive and detailed character models, really. animations as well in cutscenes. I don't think Monolithsoft focuses on horrible character drama in their games as much SE does, so it makes sense I guess :P

The character designs for this are being done by Kunihiko Tanaka, so the art will be different from Xenoblade.

[wsippel]

The main difference between Monolith and Square is that Monolith is a lot more focussed. They actually know what's important, whereas SQEX is wasting time and money designing sunglasses and other minor, ultimately irrelevant details. When the dude jumps in the mech in the X trailer, there's no elaborate, motion captured animation or anything. But nobody gives a shit as it would add nothing to the game - what's important is that you can fly a fucking mech!

[fates]

3DS's bad sales in the West

what

[miladesn]

The character designs for this are being done by Kunihiko Tanaka, so the art will be different from Xenoblade.

on a technical level it really didn't look much different (of course there are more polys etc, not that), in that close up in particular which what I was describing.

[jj984jj]

on a technical level it really didn't look much different (of course there are more polys etc, not that), in that close up in particular which what I was describing.

But we only have one partial look at this point, it's not even an in-game cut-scene.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say because we're just going in circles now. I think it's too soon to decide, but clearly you disagree.

[Zeer0id]

I'll have my final closure once they give me Bravely Default

[Famassu]

Square Enix is irrelevant.

Yeeeeeah, no. They are still the biggest JRPG developer and have made some of the best entries in the genre within the last few years (whereas Monolith has only done one, while also being involved in some crap like Disaster: Day of Crisis).

and smaller publishers like Xseed and Atlus bringing over the games we want,

While I love XSeed, it's easy to bring out small games outside Japan that require very little effort in comparison to Square Enix's localization efforts (for example, Type-0 has the largest cast of VAs a FF has ever had, that wouldn't be cheap for Square Enix). Atlus has been a no-show on HD consoles apart from Catherine.

it just paints SE as out of touch and unnecessary.

Maybe stop being blind and look outside the home console market to see that Square Enix has been doing an absolutely marvelous job on handhelds, not to even mention their preparations for the next generation. Whatever their first game for Orbis/Durango is using the Luminous Engine, I'm pretty sure it'll blow this out of the water (as long as they don't let Toriyama anywhere near it).

That their flagship game this year is LR:FF13 makes it all sadder. While that title looks ok, it's nowhere near enough to really save face with all their shenanigans these past couple of years. It's sad, but when there is so much awesomeness coming from other devs, who needs them and their vapor ware (ff versus).

Yeah, let's just ignore all the wonderful games they've developed during the past gaming generation and bitch about that one game that has been a no-show for some years.

[fvng]

I think the point here is that X has more chances of coming out in the next two years than Versus, even though it has just been anounced compared to Versus' 6 years or so.

It feels like an arbitrary comparison for the purpose of creating a controversy by op. X looks good but I'm still looking forward more to Versus (assuming it comes out) because of its modern tokyo-esque setting and the fact that it's a welcome return of testosterone to the FF series.

[Juken]

Square ran over themselves this gen on consoles with their initial engine problems and XIV disaster. At this point they're trying to save their MMO and make the best of a bad situation until next gen arrives.

Versus was shown early but has only been in development for a few years, and most of the team was probably moved to XIV. X may have more actual development time and resources than Versus has. It's not a fair comparison. And XIII-2 and LR are both low budget affairs to make a quick buck while 90% of the company saves XIV. Again, it's not a fair comparison.

This will be a lost console generation for Square. But with lessons learned, ARR out the door and a great engine from the start, I wouldn't be surprised if Square makes something much more impressive than X. They still have the talent and resources.

[thetrin]

Really? :lol X looks like XIV btw. And we've seen nothing of the new Versus, so I dont think its correct to judge for now.

If you are actually Nomura, Kitase or Toriyama, blink twice.

[DieH@rd]

Looks low poly and barren... but OK draw distance for terrain is nice. Radeon 4000 shows that can deliver more than X360/PS3 GPUs.

[Easy_D]

They'll probably run Square Enix over with HD towns too. If Xenoblade is anything to go by.

[Snaku]

MEANWHILE AT SQUARE JAPAN

[JokerOfSpades]

:D

Huh, they're called dolls...?

[2San]

Wow this is totally unnecessary(I'm not disputing the existence of this thread). People are acting like Monolith pulled or some voodoo magic or something? This is simply a natural progression from Xenoblade. HD Open world RPG's has already been nailed by both western and eastern developers.

I'm looking forward to X and I think that Versus is vapor ware, but this is just sad.

[bdizzle]

or we could compare Xenoblade to FFXIII. I don't know how most people would vote but my money is on Xenoblade.

I've never even played Xenoblade and I'd pick it. FF13 was a horrible game.

[RagnarokX]

Huh, they're called dolls...?

I wonder what happens when they run out of fuel. Do you just leave them? Is there some method for picking up dolls and transporting them while they refuel? Do you just find random dolls littering the countryside and toss them when you're done?

[Save 'N Quit]

MEANWHILE AT SQUARE JAPAN

lulz

I am seriously hoping the guys in charge of SE at least watch the video and learned something from watching X, because that was amazing.

[Arklite]

Monolith Soft you magnificent bastards.

I can still see the Xenogears/Xenosaga DNA every time they inevitably throw mechs in there, and in some aspects of the art.

[Hedja]

I think Toriyama is the problem with Square-Enix and Final Fantasy. They need a new lead. Even Miyamoto is stepping down from his position.

[GoldandBlue]

I think Toriyama is the problem with Square-Enix and Final Fantasy. They need a new lead. Even Miyamoto is stepping down from his position.

But he didn't work on All The Bravest so...

[KeasbyKnight]

While I'm not sure on the comparisons, and while I'm a huge Square fan, SE does deserve all the shit they've been getting recently. They've done nothing but hurt the fanbase this Gen. Dissidia and Tactics Ogre were great, amazing even, but everything else has been mediocre to shit. Hate FFXIII? Here, have 2 sequels. Want Bravely Default and Type-0, lolno. Hopefully they've got a well deserved kick up the ass with X's trailer.

Not to Versus doesn't look good, but at least we know X will release sometime between now and next year, and weren't waiting over 6 damn years for a speck of info.