.... This makes me sad.
Squaresoft (as they were known WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back) could do no wrong in the 90s. I bought and loved every single epic RPG, but I even bought the phenomenal experimental games they put out, like Tobal No.1, Bushido Blade, Vagrant Story and Einhander (my favourite side scrolling shooter, besting even all the Darius and R-Type games). The list could go on and on. Anybody who cares about Japanese games would agree that the vast majority of NA localized games on this list are classics:
I struggle to think of a great Square Enix game in the last 10 years which has blown me away the way Square games did on the PS1. Honestly, I can't even think of a single one! Because for the most part it has all been remakes, overpriced iPhone ports and a general resting on laurels. Any original IP developed in the last 10 years has largely been mediocre: The Last Remnant, Nier, even FFXIII. Seriously, this list of games published by Square Enix is largely a bunch of remakes.
The last Square Enix game which came close to greatness was Final Fantasy XII, with its politically charged story line and generally likable characters.... We then got Snow, Hope and Vanille as characters in XIII - the least likable and most annoyingly voiced characters in the history of RPGs.
Anyway, it seems that Square Enix has remade nearly every game output by Square or Enix in the last 20 years. So now they're moving on to the Eidos developed games, releasing a port of Tomb Raider (but calling it the Definitive Edition) less than a year after the original game launched.
In the PS1 days (and even well into the PS2's life cycle) I would have thrown money at this company every time a new game came out - I wouldn't have bothered with reading reviews because the brand 'Squaresoft' indicated high quality. Am I just older and more jaded, or has Squaresoft fallen by the wayside since the loss of so many important people (e.g. Goochy & separately the entire Monolith Software team).
Random thought for the day.
-W
Tomb Raider the original was one of my favorite games ever. I mayyyyy actually buy a remake, but I see your greater point.
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely buy the remake, because I didn't buy the first one. I just didn't want to mention that in my self-rightous post about remakes...
ReplyDelete