Square's Last Chance

by Mattgamerr

      I've seen the Chrono Cross movie that came with Vagrant Story. It was by far the most beautiful thing I've seen from Square in quite a long time. ... Why aren't I more excited then? It just seems as though there's a potential masterpiece arriving in the stores soon, and I feel I'm just not quite as motivated to go out and buy it as I should be. I remember when Chrono Trigger came out 5 years ago. It was all I could do not to think about owning it until I finally did. This time around I've even seen a trailer movie proving to me that the game is probably something special. Still, I feel there's something missing.

      Let's start with the Super Nintendo. That's where I became a hard-core RPGer. What company do I have to thank for that? Square, of course. Games like FF4, FF6, Chrono Trigger and SMRPG weren't hyped, and were barely advertised outside of magazines like Nintendo Power. I also had no internet back then. Needless to say, obtaining information on upcoming games wasn't nearly as easy to obtain or abundant as it is today. Still, what little I saw of these games made me want them BAD. One article about Chrono Trigger in Nintedo Power drove me to save money like crazy until I could buy it. Nowadays, it seems Square's games are always hyped up and then when I actually play them, there's nothing really that great about them.

      For me, the whole problem started with Final Fantasy Tactics. I found the game exceedingly difficult, and the story too convuluted and poorly translated to hold up to other Final Fantasy's. I mean, after playing games translated by Ted Woolsey on the SNES, who wants to try to read through and understand FFT? The gameplay and soundtrack definately made up for it, but I was used to Square having excellent translations. I figured a minor glitch in a game not really part of the actual Final Fantasy series was acceptable. Everyone makes a bad game now and then, right?

      For Square, 'now and then' apparently was getting more frequent. Parasite Eve was the next big thing I saw from Square. It sported a decent plot, more than adequate graphics AND plot coherency. However, this game lacked a decent (or difficult for that matter) battle system and once again, the translation was not that great. The dialogue was actually kind of stale. It was an improvement over FFT though, where I could barely follow what was going on due to the over-emphasis on number of characters rather than quality development of individuals. However, Parasite Eve took the exact opposite approach and failed to develop any of the 4 main characters very definitively. The only real mystery in the game is what exactly 'Parasite Eve' is. I still had faith that maybe next time around Square would pull off an understandable and complex plot with a good translation to boot.

      And that it seemed, because their next big project was Xenogears. However, I was sadly mistaken about the 'understandable translation' bit. This game was majorly hyped and like the poor sucker I am, I bought into it. The first 20 minutes of the game were incredible. I really felt sorry for Fei and the townspeople. The characters reacted to events with emotion and talked to each other like they were real people. However, what happens after you meet Elly? Slowly but surely, the plot starts to loose coherency. More and more pointless facts are thrown into a jumbled mass of confusing dialogue, poorly dubbed FMV and low-level character interaction. Few locations anywhere in the game are really interesting (I remember an orphanage and a floating town that moves around the world map and that's it; no names). As for story and character development, most of the first disc is everyone boo-hooing about how they're being (*XG SPOILER*) used by Solaris, while the 2nd disc is everyone boo-hooing about how their being used by "God." I spent most of my time in the game either nearly falling asleep while desparatly trying to hang on to the monotonous dialogue or shouting at the screen, "TRY EXPRESSING SOME REAL EMOTIONS AND STOP YOUR WHINING! YOU'RE POORLY WRITTEN FLAT PEOPLE!" Then there was the core of that final deus thing (Yes, I DID play NEARLY all the way through it). There is NO beating it. One time, I finally drew the battle out SOMEHOW, and just when I thought I might finally have him he casts some super spell that does 80,000 points of damage to all gears, effectively annihilating what little life I was hanging onto. Someone has yet to tell me how my characters are supposed to survive that AFTER taking heavy damage from the rest of the battle. Is there some sort of "anti-80000-points-of-damage" accessory I was supposed to have found somewhere? Personally, I think anyone who thinks they've beaten this game without using GameShark is delusional. Needless to say, I was thoroughly disappointed with Xenogears. So disappointed I took a hammer to it. Well, the case anyway (for those of you who think I'm being too hard on this game, there are people on certain IRC channels who will tell you that for me, I'm going easy on it).

      You probably think that after what I thought of Xenogears, I wasn't in the mood to buy more Square games. Actually, that couldn't have been further from the truth. Square made me appreciate good stories in good RPGs in the first place. They wouldn't be where they were today if it wasn't for their awesome games before like FF6 and CT, right? How could I abandon them now? I wrote a letter, telling them I was very disappointed in storyline and translation quality in their games recently, but otherwise they were doing fine. I was very polite, and got a polite responce, thanking me for my input. Alas, my efforts were in vain.

      Final Fantasy 8. People said that FF7 ruined the series. No, FF7 expanded and changed. FF8 did not. There was nothing new or innovative about this game. Square had basically rehashed FF7, added better graphics, threw in "real-looking" characters (we play games because they differ from reality, not because they're the same), and a complicated new Job syste- oops, I mean "junction system." The game lacked any real plot or character development and was driven forward solely by it's FMV's and well-designed 3D battles. Once again, Square had disappointed me. I still had hope. I still felt that Square could do something cool.

      Yet they disappointed me AGAIN. Chocobo's Dungeon 2 was by far the worst game that Square had ever made. Until that game came out, I was proud to say I owned all of Square's games. I could no longer say that. I rented this horrible abomination and returned it the same day. It was like someone at Square had taken Azure Dreams, made the graphics WORSE, thrown in a few corny FMVs, sloppily translated dialogue and put together an entirly new "game." I'm using that in the loosest sense of the word, because this was hardly a game; more like something you use to torture people.

      The terror continued with SaGa Frontier 2. I know the original SaGa Frontier was highly unpopular, but I for one, found it enjoyable. Although there was nothing particularly special about it, it was a nice diversion for awhile. However, part 2, despite it's beautiful graphics, was a mass of small plots that didn't really fit together to form any real sort of story at all. My characters would suddenly appear in dungeons for no apparent reason and be expected to go find... something. I just sort of found out when I got there. Then there was the horribly designed menu system, which wasn't hard to get sick of. It wasn't long before I returned this one too the video store either.

      That was nothing compared to the horror that befell me when I rented Legend of Mana though. I swear, Square must have taken the same engine SaGa Frontier 2 ran on, altered the battle system, changed the graphics and music, and added the STUPID landmake system. You may be wondering why I'm being even harder on this game than SF2. Well, it's because you don't screw with the Seiken Densetu series!!! This game should never even have had the word "Mana" in the title. For God's sake, the FMV when you start a new game is a FLYING MAILBOX! Square has really sunk to a new low.

      That brings us to the present. I'm no longer in the mood for polite letters. In fact, I'm almost scared to play CC for fear that they'll have abominated yet another series. In fact, it's all they've got left to work off of from the SNES. Nintendo owns the rights to Mario, so an SMRPG sequel from Square is out of the question (Nintendo's actually doing a fine job of ruining that one themselves), Mana's been ruined, and the FF series has already been watered down the point where even the least common denominator in mental intelligence can play it.

      Even after all these disappointments, however, I'm going to buy CC when it comes out. I owe it to myself to see how the game's turned out. Even after all the crap I've put up with from Square for the past 2 years, I still have faith that they might prove me wrong. Maybe, by some act of God, they'll show me that there's still a good plotline, a good story SOMEWHERE left in their company! Because to me, Chrono Cross really is Square's last chance. If CC sucks too, then I'll have to re-examine my view about all of Square's games, and that's one question I'd really rather not face.