A Not-So-Perfect Square

If I asked any RPG addict who the best RPG company in the gaming industry is, who do you think would be the company all those gamers gave as an answer? Square, of course. I came to this conclusion by having nice little conversations with plenty of people at Wal-mart this afternoon. But after reading many articles here on RPGamer.com, I can't help but wonder if they just might be slipping in a few departments. Now I'm sure many of you will hate me, but let's just take a look.

I began to think that perhaps Square was falling behind after I finished Chrono Cross. I recall reading a previous editorial about the lack of replayability in that game. One can only wonder what Square was thinking. I still enjoy playing Chrono Trigger to this day (pretty good considering I bought it only a month after it came out). If Square had any real idea what gamers wanted when we cried out for a sequel, they would have made a game that was just a replayable as CT was. They would have given EVERY character more depth and personality, not just four or five good characters and so many more dull idiots. This, as you will see, is just the beginning.

What did you think of the Playstation Final Fantasy's? I honestly enjoyed them all. I loved FF7, felt good about FF8, and still enjoy playing a good hour of FFT everyday. I feel alright about FFA (I already owned FF6/FF3 and FF5 just struck me in an odd way). On top of all that, I am still currently enjoying FF9. But I believed all of these to be Playstation RPGs. Now, as I understand it, FF7, FF8, and FF9 will all be coming to Playstation 2 with plenty of advancements and upgrades. WHY!?! I hate to sound ungrateful, but this is just stupid. A lot of people have negative feelings towards FF8, but Square is still going to spend the time and resources to bring it to the newest system. Now, this isn't the first time I've thought Square was stupid for doing something like this. Chrono Trigger was ported to the Playstation quite a while ago in Japan, but never made it's way stateside. They spent the money to make all the "puppet shows" into anime sequences. Yet again, I must ask why? Square is defacing one of it's own classics for a quick buck. If anything, have the group that made all those movies make one BIG movie and put it in theaters. I'd rather go see a CT anime movie than shell out $50 for a new version of an old game. And if I'm correct, not as many people will be buying these upgraded PS1 games as Square might hope. Another major loss.

A third problem has been the non-Final Fantasy games. It's not that they've been bad. Some of them, including Front Mission 3 and Brave Fencer Musashi are pretty high on my list of favorite games. But these great games are often overshadowed by Square's flagship series to the point where many great games are never discovered by the masses. Yet again, another problem that causes Square some serious losses.

Now I mean no offense to Square. They almost always do a bang up job. But with the way things are going, Sony may not have as big a benefit with having Square's RPGs being exclusive to Playstation 1 and 2 much longer.

But one last thing remains, what can Square do to pull out of this and go back to it's God of RPGs place in the industry? Well, having three or four projects in development at the same time probably isn't a good thing. If anything, they should be totally focused on FFX right now. They should still continue with conceptual design for FFXI, but only if it doesn't cause any problems for FFX. Second of all, stray off the path a bit more. By that I mean, leave your flagship series behind every now and then and come up with totally new games or new series. And, most of all, keep it fun. I mean, in the end, that's why we all buy games, to have fun.

Notes:
A very well written editorial, clear, and nearly without spelling or grammar mistakes. (Just the fact that the apostrophe in final fantasy's as a plural is incorrect... and a better solution could have been a complete rephrase such as "The Final Fantasys on the Playstation?")

There could have been a little more in the way of public opinion - It's hard to believe that most RPG addicts will answer Square, especially with the number of widely acclaimed games from other companies - but that's a minor point. Overall, a very good editorial.