FF Anthology: Proof of Square's Dark Side

by Asmodean Es

Original Editorial: See? Squaresoft does listen!

In response to the editorial "See? Squaresoft does listen!", I must say that although the writer's view is interesting, his support is flawed.

The example Squall Fong Wong uses is Final Fantasy Anthology. He argues that Squaresoft is listening, and is nice enough to translate the game. This is where the flaw lies.

Final Fantasy Anthology is the perfect target for the average "Square is becoming evil" believer. This much-maligned little package is the embodiment of what many people hate about Squaresoft.

Squall states that, "Square tried to make-up for the loading times by adding amazing FMV sequences and many more hidden features, but that didn't please most of the people who played it."

This shows Squaresoft's recent obsession with flashy graphics, and their desire to make a quick buck whenever they can. Once they realized that a lot of people would buy this thing, they quickly translated Final Fantasy 5. Then, they released it without giving any thought to fixing some of the bugs in the Japanese version. On top of that, Squaresoft seemed compelled to protect their image of being huge, wealthy, and technologically advanced. They refused to pack in FF4. Were they afraid of being embarrassed if the ugly graphics of FF4 were seen by the mainstream public? The graphically superior FF5 and FF6, supported by FMV, was enough to rake in heaps of cash.

And, by the way, I don't think that employees over at Squaresoft cry themselves to sleep at night because a small percentage of their consumer base hates one of their games. This is capitalism. I highly doubt that the brass over at Square are going refuse to release a game simply because people might yell at them. Money itself is enough incentive to release a game in this world.

Now, I'm certainly not an anti-Square type. I'm just saying that this was a bad example, and that our favourite company is not so innocent as some make it out to be.