Fav SquareSoft game?

[kiyosuki]

Oh, well I'm glad about SMB3. It shouldn't be forgotten because it really is a true classic. I got the impression it did alright during the rerelease, but maybe I just didn't look hard enough.

There's a lot of games like that. I guess its not just gameplay innovations that make the classic alone, it could be presentation as well as storyline that has a certain appeal. But I've never played this game so I can't say really. Some are gems but just get overlooked in the long run, I guess through a mix of limited exposure or a presentation that doesn't have too wide appeal, its usually the former. I don't know if its necessarilly neglected, but Phantasy Star's definitely underappreaciated imo. I mean like, the original. It actually did a lot of very different things at that time, and the second was really the first game where a party member who's with you for a very long time, and has a deep part in the storyline ends up dying tragically. (at least 10 years before Aeris gets run through. XD Though that was pretty damn sad too.)It sounds minor but not a whole lot of RPG's did that, kill off a character (usually female) that gets very close to you.

Since this is a thread on Square games, I gotta interject this though.I know I've talked a lot but I have to put one more thing in. Looking at all these great series's over the years, my one gripe with Square over the years is how much they've ignored some of they're other series' in favor of Final Fantasy mania. I mean, it does make sense since its so popular. But series' like Seiksen Densetsu, Bushido Blade, and ofcourse the Chrono series I feel have just gotten almost sub par treatment in comparison when there's jsut so much more that could be done with those names.

I mean, Legend and Sword of Mana were nice to look at, but you couldn't help but feel that there was just a lot that could of been done but wasn't (especially in comparison to the quality of 2 and 3. Note, 2 was called Secret of Mana in the states. 3 was never localized. ; And Chrono ofcourse, is the prime example of this. Trigger is a classic for good reasons. In my opinion as far as the SNES RPG's go it made even more of an impression on me than FF6 did, which was a lot. Story wasn't nearly on the surface, as deep as 6's was ofcourse (unless you look at just how complicated the Chrono timeline really is.) But its atmosphere and presentation were just so unbelievable.

Chrono Cross is a great game, but I felt like it was at only roughly 40% of what it could of been. So many great characters, but no time for development because there were just too many filler characters joining you (I just laughed when some random plant started talking out of nowhere and joined your team for no reason. lol What next, rocks? Guile should of been Magus!)and the general feel was that it felt unfinished to me. Pity, because its such a beautiful enviornment it takes place in. FF8 was being released around the same time so its obvious most of the effort was going there.

I guess any other developer can be accused of doing this, Konami with MGS, Capcom with Resident Evil. But SE's got a lot of great titles that all really have immense potential, but are rarely looked at. The FF series is a great flagship title, don't get me wrong. Its they're trumpet call, but the other series' really do deserve much more attention than they get now.

This next console generation's going to be all about innovation and new things, I predict that while long going series's like Zelda (which is gonna be insanely huge again with the new look. I liked the cel shading.. it does look really cool though..) Final Fantasy, and if 128 is ever released Mario will endure, but I don't think developer's will be able to get away with ramming one particular title over and over with endless sequels this time around. Zelda's viewed as a once in a while thing, as is Metroid and Mario, and FF can be like that too (and also since every game is different), but generally I think having a mentality of digging up less looked at franchises and really playing around with them head on is going to be what its all about pretty soon, for a bit anyways.

[muffin]

For me FFX, FFVII and Kingdom Hearts!

[numbuheightbitstar]

Kiyosuki said:

There's a lot of games like that. I guess its not just gameplay innovations that make the classic alone, it could be presentation as well as storyline that has a certain appeal. But I've never played this game so I can't say really. Some are gems but just get overlooked in the long run, I guess through a mix of limited exposure or a presentation that doesn't have too wide appeal, its usually the former. I don't know if its necessarilly neglected, but Phantasy Star's definitely underappreaciated imo.

I'll say. The GBA Collection doesn't even include Phantasy Star 4 and PS1 has game-damaging bugs!

I mean, Legend and Sword of Mana were nice to look at, but you couldn't help but feel that there was just a lot that could of been done but wasn't (especially in comparison to the quality of 2 and 3. Note, 2 was called Secret of Mana in the states. 3 was never localized. ;

And 1 was a gameboy game released here as The FInal Fantasy Adventure ^__^.

And Chrono ofcourse, is the prime example of this. Trigger is a classic for good reasons. In my opinion as far as the SNES RPG's go it made even more of an impression on me than FF6 did, which was a lot. Story wasn't nearly on the surface, as deep as 6's was ofcourse (unless you look at just how complicated the Chrono timeline really is.) But its atmosphere and presentation were just so unbelievable.

Chrono Cross is a great game,

No, it isn't. Not in my opinion anyway.

Actually, I personally feel CC is the epitome of not only the bad sequel, but also of what the entire gaming industry (let alone Squaresoft) is doing wrong nowadays. Fresh and unique is good, but nowadays they try to hard to do fresh and unique, often for the sake of it. I mean Warriors of the Eternal Sun was fresh, but it was just trying to adapt D&D rules to a video game format. Chrono Cross is trying all sorts of new things, just for the sake of being new, and often those new things aren't executed near as well as they could've been and ended up presenting what I thought was a horribly flawed, broken game.

In all honesty, I tend to usually dislike sequels. Back in the day I used to be a completist, but after awhile realized that most of the time, sequels tend to hurt my overall impression of a series. An example is Zelda--I'm one of the relatively few people who actually disliked A Link to the Past, but unfortunately every game afterwards followed LTTP's precedent instead of trying to be more like the original, so I got bored of it all really quick.

[tofu]

is new company name for Square ^___^
(I guess ppl didn't know or...)

I love Final Fantasy series.
I played 4-X2... I don't think I'll ever play
11 because it doesn't look like FF at all...

Kingdom Hearts is good...
I think most of the Square-Enix's game is
great!

And they will release new title for RPG...
and hopefully release 12 soon ^___^

[numbuhm]

Woah o_0 This thread grew last time I looked at it

[numbuheightbitstar]

Yea. I knew about Square-Enix (some fandoms jokingly refer to it as "Squeenix." ^__^). Enix was a pretty decent little company too. I at least enjoyed the first Dragon Warrior though I wasn't much exposed to the series after, save for DW7 which I used to own, but got rid of because it was needlessly long and thus tedious and boring.

They did some of my favorite SNES games though, including Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, and EVO: The Search For Eden.

[tofu]

>>JamesEightBitStar
well, Enix is not small company...
they relaeased really good games in past.
(But I don't played them....)

Dragon Warrior series are really good.
They have really well story line...
but I think DW6 was really long... ^___^
You should play other seires because they
are more short and more simple...
I'm getting DW7 next month!

[numbuheightbitstar]

Length isn't my problem. It's when a game is long and NOTHING HAPPENS that it's a problem. One of my core issues with DW7 is that you never feel like you're getting anywhere, so what's the point?

[tako]

Kiyosuki said:

I mean, Legend and Sword of Mana were nice to look at, but you couldn't help but feel that there was just a lot that could of been done but wasn't.

I definitely agree here. I haven't played Sword of Mana yet, but I was disappointed with Legend of Mana. They really downplayed the second player and they made the game so... sidescroll-y. I mean, you kill enemies and the experience gems come out and you have to pick them up. That's a little too much like an action side-scroller for me. Also, I would really have liked them to keep in the whole 3-player party thing, because that was one of the funnest part of the Seiken Densetsu games (I loved playing with my 2 siblings, or my brother and his friend). However, even though I was disappointed, I think that Legend of Mana is a really beautiful game. I loved the addition of the Jumi and all the references they had to previous Seiken Densetsu games, and the graphics and music are both really well-done.

Kiyosuki said:

Chrono Cross is a great game, but I felt like it was at only roughly 40% of what it could of been. So many great characters, but no time for development because there were just too many filler characters joining you (I just laughed when some random plant started talking out of nowhere and joined your team for no reason. lol What next, rocks? Guile should of been Magus!)and the general feel was that it felt unfinished to me.

*nod nod* Yeah, I agree. The thing that frustrated me about the game the most was the storyline, and how it seemed like they were trying to make it deeper and more confusing, but it ended up just being kind of... eh... ill-thought-out. Also, what frustrated me was... 44 characters, and Dario wasn't one of them! Agh!!! *bangs head on wall* Oh, also, I have this weird theory about Guile/Magus. I think that Guile, whose Japanese name is "Alf," is in actuality, Magus's cat, Alfador, turned human. Or something. Alf... Alfador. Well, they both have light purple hair. ^^;;; Anyway, I think that Chrono Cross, like Legend of Mana, was disappointing, but a good game in its own right. The characters are all really interesting and the music is so good.

Kiyosuki said:

I predict that while long going series's like Zelda (which is gonna be insanely huge again with the new look. I liked the cel shading.. it does look really cool though..)

I liked the cel shading too. Oh well, I don't mind the newer style either.




Oh, and favorite Squaresoft game (<--being on topic now ^^;;; ) - right now, either Final Fantasy Tactics or Seiken Densetsu 3.

[numbuheightbitstar]

So far I'm finding Sword of Mana to not be such a bad game.

[cybra]

I'm sort of a newbie when it comes to Square games. So far all I've played is FFVIII, FFX, and Kingdom Hearts. (I've only managed to finish Kingdom Hearts.)

Kingdom Hearts -- Love it. Worship it. I'm going to stalk the people at Wal-Mart for the very moment they open the boxes when the two sequels come out.

FFX -- I've just re-started my game since it's been a while since I played and I forgot the controls. It's really pretty and cool, but I hate the system it uses for unlocking new abilities.

FFVIII -- I haven't played much of this one. I probably should, but it hasn't really sparked my attention that much.

~Cybra

[kiyosuki]

Enix is quite famous in Japan.

Did you know that its now against the law in Japan to release games on work days now? Its because when a certain Dragon Quest (Warrior in the us) game was released the expectation for it was so great, that a lot of people actually skipped work just to buy it, and since so many people skipped work there was actually a rather major problem among businesses that day because so many employee's weren't there to keep the business running properly. Ever since then at first, it was Dragon Quest games that were forbidden to be released on a work day, but I think now its all games.

That, and the Dragon Quest word for the "cure" spell in Japanese (I can't remember it off the bat) was actually made a real word in the Japanese language.

So yeah...Enix has had quite a history in Japan. XD lol

I loved the Illusion of Gaia, still one of my favorite games.

And as for Chrono Cross, I liked it but its mostly because I liked certain things about it. The fighting system was an itneresting experiment, although I think it was too restricting so I don't think we'll see it again in that form anyways. But the thing about Cross, is from wha I could gather of it the story was actually genuinly facinating to me. The thing that saddens me about Cross is that the story could of been fleshed out so much better to be incredible if it wasn't for one thing.

The 40 character's. Sooooooooooo many character's meant very little time to properly develop the story, so thus the most complete storyline was Kid and Serge's. But the rest, storylines that could of really helped specify the story a lot more, weren't given the spotlight they deserved so um..."Mamacha" and the like could join you.

The whole Viper Manner/Diva's storyline was insanely cool, but was almost criminally underexplored because there just wasn't enough time or room. How about Glenn's reaction to all this? And his actions? We never get to see that because he's a "3rd" character, just there and easilly exchangable. >< IF it wasn't for the other character's Glenn could of been fleshed out to be a really cool character, with cool scenes and reactions to things like Dario (Come on, the guy doesn't even get to say a word in that fight! Let alone when the Two Einahnder's are aquired.)
Then there's the pirates, that whole storyline is just mentioned and isn't even looked at again. I could do without Nikki and the father (as cool as he was), but the little sister Marcy Could of joined you and taken part in that whole story.

What about Grobyc? He hints to being connected to Robo! But we never hear that again. Norris could of been expanded a ton, What about Leah's insane resemblance to Ayla? And most glaring of all, Guile...was supposed to be Magus. In the original version of this game, Radical Dreamer's, Guile was Magus in disguise. It was going to be the same here but the director himself said in an interview that there just wasn't enough time or room to put his character in there so it wasn't used.

.......How insanely cool would that have been? Having him be a happy go lucky guy who seems to know more than he lets on, then funally Guile unmask himself late in the game telling Kid that he's always been watching out for her? IT would of owned...

But no..instead we get character's like talking weed and a french speaking, sword fighting mushroom person and a giant pink dog...

That serve no purpose in the story whatsoever..

Do not even get me started with how an insanely cool character with much potential like Harle just suddenlly dissapears from the story never to be seen again without any story...

*sigh*.

Instead of 40 character's, it should of been just Serge, Kid, Guile, Glenn, Ridell, Grobyc, Leena (For the triangle. XD), Draggy (Maybe not playable, but maybe as a pet to one of the main characters. Without spoiling the story, you know how he could of been insanely important..)
Karsh, Norris, and Leah.
With Harle as an optional/secret character a la Magus in CT, and possibly Steena or Orhla as another optional character. That 9-10 character's, with a character important to the story but optional, and a side character. Thats a nice round number. I guarantee you the game would of been 20 times better if the cast was more rounded. FF6 pushed the character roster, and games like Suikoden and Fire Emblem can have tons of character's because its that type of game.

But Chrono Trigger and Cross are more personal stories, 40 characters just...doesn't work in a story like that. I mean, come on, the guy's voo doo doll joined you. A Voo Doo Doll!! I expected the bloody ocean to join my party at that point..

So I like it, and at the same time, am dissapointed in it. Underneath this unfinished and overly experimental mess is a genuinly awsome story and world I'd love to have seen fleshed out. But it wasn't. ><

I'll keep an eye out for another Chrono title though, if Break is ever released...



Heh, I'm sorry for the rant. I've been holding that in for years now.

[numbuheightbitstar]

Kiyosuki said:

Enix is quite famous in Japan.

Did you know that its now against the law in Japan to release games on work days now? Its because when a certain Dragon Quest (Warrior in the us) game was released the expectation for it was so great, that a lot of people actually skipped work just to buy it, and since so many people skipped work there was actually a rather major problem among businesses that day because so many employee's weren't there to keep the business running properly. Ever since then at first, it was Dragon Quest games that were forbidden to be released on a work day, but I think now its all games.

Specifically, it was Dragon Quest III which caused this reaction. Yea I knew the story, but I didn't know the law had been extended.

So yeah...Enix has had quite a history in Japan. XD lol

Yea. It's sad that America is probably the only country that doesn't really give art and literature the respect it deserves. Instead we get censoristic nutcases trying to convince us that Doom causes violent behavior (in all honesty, I think they just fear that games make us more rebellious, and we can't have people willing to fight the system now can we?)

Heh, I'm sorry for the rant. I've been holding that in for years now.

It's all right. Even though I didn't understand most of it (I stopped playing Cross after Viper Manor, aka "The part where the game was essentially full of bull.") So I have no idea who half the people you mentioned are. I do agree though. it's part of the reason I no longer like Square--they went from being a serious company full of dreamers (such as the dreamers who almost went under and decided to make Final Fantasy simply on the basis that they had nothing to lose) to being full of pretentious airheads (such as the ones who think a "good Final Fantasy game" will have all sorts of one-dimensional charicatures who angst alot and pretend this makes them "fully developed characters," and then they put a confusing bunch of game mechanics in there just for the heck of it). In all honesty, I've come to hate Square, even though they've made several of my favorite games and were pretty much the company that introduced me to RPGs (they weren't my first experience, but theirs were some of the first I played to completion).

[kawaiilildevil]

I'm sort of new to Square games too. But my favorites are by far Kingdom Hearts, FFX-2, and FFVII.

*bounces in anticipation for Kingdom Hearts 2 and FFVII: Advent Children*