Waiting for Squeenix

When one thinks of video games, surely one thinks of a particular company. That would be Nintendo. If you were to continue on, you'd probably list Capcom, Konami, Sega, Data East, Sunsoft, Rare, Grasshopper, Activison, Acclaim, and the list goes on....

....oh! and you might think of another company. First Square, then Squaresoft, and finally Square-Enix.

Unless you bought a Nintendo 64 or a Gamecube, you'd be hard pressed to NOT find a multitude of Square games.

The NES was given Final Fantasy I, II, & III among other Square products.

The SNES got Final Fantasy IV, V, & VI, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, etc.

The PSX got an assload of Square with Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, & Tactics, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Bushido Blade 1 & 2, Parasite Eve 1 & 2, Brave Fencer Musashi, plus various Final Fantasy/Chrono Trigger remakes/re-releases, Japanese wrestling games, and other products.

The PS2 continued the assloading with Final Fantasy X & XII, Dragon Quest 8, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Grandia 3, Radiata Stories, Musashi: Samurai Legend, Drakengard 1 & 2, and the list goes on.

But something happened. Once considered progressive and infallible, Square merged with Enix in 2003 to become an assumed megapower.....but that hasn't really happened.

Once content to not revisit past franchise installments, Squuenix has continually re-released old games on new formats often with little enhancements. See the many Final Fantasy re-releases on the PS1, Gameboy Advance, and DS.

Considering the lasting popularity of Final Fantasy 7, fanboys happily rioted when Squeenix announced the "Compilation of Final Fantasy 7", games that would revisit and explore the Final Fantasy 7 universe and characters. Fanboys rioted again when these games sucked. There were two cellphone games (ugh!), a 3rd person shooter starring Vincent, a CGI film Advent Children (that forgot to render a plot along with its flashy visuals), and an animated OVA. A prequel FF7 game was released for the PSP following Zack Fair recently, and it's considered to be the sole good product to come of this compilation, but it's also considered too little too late. Nearly four years ago, Squeenix showed off a PS3 tech demo of Final Fantasy 7. The hype flood began until Squeenix killed it off announcing that the tech demo was JUST a tech demo and that FF7 was not being remade. Since a remake of FF7 is the only thing anyone has ever been asking for, kinda lame one must settle for shooters and cellphone games that "expand" the FF7 universe.

And now I find myself waiting..........waiting for Squeenix who seems yet to have caught up with the next (now current) generation of hardware with exciting, must have, Square-quality games.

There's Final Fantasy XIII & Final Fantasy Versus XIII which we've seen videos of for the past couple years. These are set for release God knows when, maybe next year.

If you're a WiiBoy, you only have Final Fantasy Crystal Chonicles: My Life as a King, a downloadable Wiiware title, and Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors, a point click/action RPG lite type thing. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers looks interesting with its steampunk style and the main character being a renowned superhero, but Squeeinx has promoted little of the title. Thought to have been quietly canned, Squeenix confirmed it was still in development, then went right back to showing nothing.

Outside of FF13, the Wii will be home to Squeenix's biggest game if this gen, the recently announced Dragon Quest X. Toasty!

If you're an HD boy, you don't have much to play with on the PS3 or 360. The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery were RPGs meant to satisfy Western gamers, but has shown to have satisfied few.

Star Ocean, the two Final Fantasy XII games, Kingdom Hearts III, and whatever else in the HD-pipeline could and hopefully does change this.

As of now, your home for quality Squeenix is the Nintendo DS. There's the 3D remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV, re-release of Chrono Trigger that can be seen as an "ultimate edition" of sorts, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (a sequel to FF12), The World Ends With You, etc.

I've yet to dive into the FF3 & 4 remakes, but their receptions were positive. With portable gaming possible becoming the most convenient form of gaming for me, I may jump in pretty soon.

On the other hand, I have played the re-released Chrono Trigger and The World Ends With You.

Chrono Trigger didn't get the 3D upgrade, which sucks, but the 2D sprites appear sharper than before. There are many options for this game, providing the best of the SNES & PSX Triggers with the added comfort of the DS's dual screens. There's no enforced touching, which is a plus. Two new dungeons along with a new final boss have been added. These additions provide new backstory to further flesh out the events transpiring between Trigger and Chrono Cross. Though not 3D, it's the best Chrono Trigger release and worth having.

The biggest [positive] Squeenix surprise is a new IP, The World Ends With You (aka "It's A Wonderful World" in Japan). With an interesting artstyle and premise as while as excellent execution, it's the Squeenix game I didn't know I wanted.

Add to that, the DS is also getting Dragon Quest IX this year.

But that's handheld. Where's our console Squeeinx?! Since 2006 we've been promised much. Near three years later, they're delivered little. Hell, hardly any! We're still seeing non-in-game videos of the Final Fantasy XIIIs. Still nothing on Kingdom Hearts III. The Chrono announcement proved not to be a third game nor a 3D remake. Dragon Quest IX was "lost"to the DS. Dragon Quest X has been announced for Wii, but that's still a couple years off at best.

One might as well venture outside and have a social life, maybe even tan, as we wait for Squeenix.


Lastly, anyone have any opinions on Final Fantasy IX? I keep reading that its the best of the PS1 FFs, but also the most overlooked (along with Chrono Cross) as it was released just before the PS2. It's going for $15 new on amazon and I'm probably going to buy it at some point.