The Company Label

by Richard Dore 

Many people have decided to buy or reject games simply by the company or series labels on the box and this disturbs to me. Most larger companies have several separate development teams working on products. Teams also change even between sequels of a game.

Many of you immediately see the target of my editorial as Square, but they are not my only example. First I would like to shatter a myth about Enix. Though many games come out under Enix's label, they have no actual development teams, but instead publish games by different developers. These developers are not always linked to one company, like Enix either. As an example, Tri-Ace is a developer of both the Star Oceans and the Tales series, but, as some of you probably realize, Star Ocean was published by Enix and Tales of Phantasia was published by Namco. This is a perfect example of why a publisher's name has little meaning, despite that in this example both series are quite good.

Now let us look at the often revered Square, who many RPG fans would risk their life to defend. Square has made some good games in its past, like the favorite of many people on this site, Final Fantasy 6. Yet they have also created many games that most of the RPG community have rejected such as Saga Frontier. Sure most of the games you like are probably from Square, but so are most of the games you have played. Most American gamers have little interest in RPGs by other companies like Y's or the later Dragon Quests, because Square does not make them. So, you will not play a game unless a company you like makes it, and you only like games you have played, and you have only played Square games. Delightful circular logic is it not?

Another foolish practice is following a single series. Sure everyone like blue menus, chocobos, engineers and scientists named Cid, and references to Star Wars, but is that all you want in a game? Often, sequels are not nearly as good as their predecessors. Many members of the development teams that once worked on Final Fantasy four and five are now gone, and the staff of newer final fantasies is several times that of older ones, meaning they have to bring in many new people, meaning it is not even the same talent. Even Nobuo Uematsu, who has composed all Final Fantasy Music, was reluctant to continue. Another problem with many long- standing series is the stagnation that eventually occurs. Few movies, books, or any other media go beyond five in a series because the repetition becomes obvious. Yet series like Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests are continuing to eight and seven games respectively. How many of you will be surprised when FF8 and DQ7 have nearly the same menus, options, flow of storyline, character types, secrets, and battle structure as older ones. Yet you will buy them none the less, like people bought Megaman 8. No company would be stupid enough to stop making something it can sell, no matter are repetitive it seems.

I am not trying saying reject a game because it has a certain label, but, do not buy it because of the label.