Look in the Mirror, My Friend...

by G. Carr 

Yes, Dave Matthews used to be my favorite band. Then, someone told me that he sucked, and I should be ashamed for buying his CD's. Just think; I could have gone through life being confused on that point.

People continue to attack Square, and yet no one seems to be able to provide any support for their assertions, other than: "I don't like the games, and therefore, they are a bad company." Mike Lenzo Expands upon this concept greatly, when he says (paraphrasing) "Not only do I not like Final Fantasy VII, but they don't even release many of their games in America for me not to like." I think many of these complaints are not only absurd in and of themselves, but prove something about the pervasive attitude of Americans in general; Namely, that we are a bunch of egotistical, opinionated, arrogant jerks. Lets explore this concept in terms of Lenzo's most recent editorial.

First off, I am misquoted as having called Square "an anomaly." What I actually said was; Square is a good company. If a good company is, in fact, an anomaly, well, why don't I put it this way: A bad company is a bankrupt company. This is probably one of the few generally agreed upon business rules. Lenzo explains Square's prosperity with the idea that their public ignore all the egregious (according to him) faults in their products, and compares it to the movie Armageddon, which was "generally considered garbage." Contradiction time! If the movie is "generally considered garbage," why do "the general public keep spending money on it"? I've heard the point before, though not phrased as a glaring contradiction, so I'll refute it anyway. Brand name does not do it all; people must be getting some enjoyment from a product, or they stop playing it (unless they are particularly stupid). Sure, I twitched when Ben Affleck climbed out of the burning wreckage on the asteroid- burning, that is, in a total vacuum. However, unless you are an extremely shallow person, this should not be more than mildly irritating. Lenzo teeters on this edge when, later in his editorial, he says: "The translation in Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy VII was so ridiculously bad that I grimace to play the games, if simply because of that." This brings me to the ever-popular topic of Square's release practices.

Lenzo states that Square throws away money with these practices, in almost the exact same words as in his first editorial; however, in this incarnation, the argument is supported with a list of Square games withheld from U.S. audiences. What does this list prove? That the games withheld from U.S. audiences have titles. No one disputes that the games were withheld. The problem with this point is that Lenzo proposes no reasons why Square might have made such decisions, other than to throw away money.

Reason #1: America and Japan are two entirely different cultures. Square can predict how a product of theirs will be accepted by a certain audience. They have people devoted to this task alone (Mr. Lenzo: Look up "Demographer"). Not all games are suited to make the jump through the culture warp, and the company does exhaustive research to determine which ones are.

Reason #2: Many of the games they do translate receive bad responses. While many enjoy the games brought overseas, there is always a vociferous faction denouncing them. For instance, while many people enjoyed FFT, there were several who were outraged about the religious issues in the game; an issue which no one in Japan probably batted an eyelid about. People like Lenzo get in newsgroups, petitions, and other media and cry for Square to translate more games, while they get in those same media and whine and moan about trivial things like grammar errors that you can count on your hands. (that's another thing: if you complain about delays, don't be surprised when they skimp on the translation to get it out sooner). Perhaps this is why they choose only their most ambitious projects to port overseas.

Lenzo then goes on about how horrible Final Fantasy VII is:

"The story of Final Fantasy VII is poorly plotted with horrible character development, a ridiculously one dimensional villain, and numerous plot holes."

"Square needs to hire real writers."

These statements, while being extremely insulting to people who genuinely like the plot and writing of, for instance, FFVII, are only arrogant opinions, and Lenzo doesn't seem to realize that they therefore do not function as proof of anything. He uses statements like these to try to support his contention that "they still feed their customers substandard products."

Here's the bottom line: The fact that Lenzo hates FFVII and the fact that I love it do not prove anything at all. The only proof of anything is the fact that Square profited hugely from the game, and what it proves is that more people love it than don't. Square obviously does not suffer huge losses by their failure to release certain games overseas, because they either make enough from the release to the Japanese public, or because they would lose money on the cost to port it. Square is not in a position where they have to gaze longingly at Working Designs and say "gee whiz, if only we could be as successful as they." They are successful, and they are successful because they make games that people enjoy playing. The quality of their games established their reputation, not the other way around; and if Americans really do buy Square games based solely on the name, than we truly do need to take a close self evaluation, and try not to be such a nation of idiots.