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Square-Enix Last Straw: They Out-Asshole Capcom

#1

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

This company has been circling the toliet for me for many years. Once one of my all time favorite RPG series and companies of amazing games, now they are this kind of company:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413955,00.asp

There aren't words.


#2

Gared

Gared

Well, there are words, their usage is just generally frowned upon in company that may be even loosely considered 'polite'.


#3

Calleja

Calleja

Damn those multiple-page articles. Is there a TL:DR?


#4

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Calleja said:
Damn those multiple-page articles. Is there a TL:DR?
Click to expand...
Square Enix released a iOS game called Final Fantasy: All The Bravest. It costs $4 to get the game, but over $50 to get all the content and areas unlocked. The article then goes on to rage about always online DRM, uPlay, and excessive micro-transactions for either low-value content or, in the case of one game, not even allowing one to see the ending without paying more.


#5

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Calleja said:
Damn those multiple-page articles. Is there a TL:DR?
Click to expand...
The new Final Fantasy for IoS is $4.

If your character dies, you can't use it for 4hrs unless you pay a fast $0.33
You only get a few classes, if you want to unlock more classes, you pay $1 and a roulette wheel picks from the classes you haven't bought yet and gives you one at random. You cannot choose the one you buy.
If you want special extra quest areas, you pay $4 per area.


#6

Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

Pay 4 bucks to buy it, and 50 bucks to enjoy it! That's capitalism for ya!

Also, you can only play the new Sim City online? That is the opposite of sense making.


#7

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Yoshimickster said:
Pay 4 bucks to buy it, and 50 bucks to enjoy it! That's capitalism for ya!

Also, you can only play the new Sim City online? That is the opposite of sense making.
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It's worse than just being $50 for the full game (which is on a phone/tablet only). See my post above yours.


#8

Calleja

Calleja

Yoshimickster said:
Pay 4 bucks to buy it, and 50 bucks to enjoy it! That's capitalism for ya!

Also, you can only play the new Sim City online? That is the opposite of sense making.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna torrent the cracked offline version of it SO HARD


#9

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

That's total bullshit, pretty much making an argument against having micro-transactions.


#10

Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

So on average for this clearly cheaply made game that uses sprites made more than ten years ago, could cost somebody more than 50 bucks? That is fucking ludicrous! What the hell is with game companies these days?


#11

Gared

Gared

Yoshimickster said:
So on average for this clearly cheaply made game that uses sprites made more than ten years ago, could cost somebody more than 50 bucks? That is fucking ludicrous! What the hell is with game companies these days?
Click to expand...
Shareholders.


#12

GasBandit

GasBandit

Gared said:
Shareholders.
Click to expand...
Often a decent litmus test about whether a company makes decent games or not: are they publicly traded?

It's like that Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage about EA said - the difference between:
"We want to make games, and to do that we'll need to make money"
and
"We want to make money, and to do that we'll need to make games."


#13

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Gilgamesh said:
The new Final Fantasy for IoS is $4.

If your character dies, you can't use it for 4hrs unless you pay a fast $0.33
You only get a few classes, if you want to unlock more classes, you pay $1 and a roulette wheel picks from the classes you haven't bought yet and gives you one at random. You cannot choose the one you buy.
If you want special extra quest areas, you pay $4 per area.
Click to expand...
It's not even just random classes, it's named characters from other FF games. If you wanted, say, Cloud and Cecil, you'd have to hope the roulette worked in your favor and didn't leave you with other characters you didn't want.

Also, the other kick in the balls is All The Bravest was the tagline that most fans were hoping would be used as the imported/localized name of Bravely Default, a 3DS FF Tactics-style game that's supposed to be amazing. SE had touted this big fat juicy announcement they had waiting for CES, and this iOS crap was it. It's the same thing they did to fans with The World Ends With You last year.

On top of all that, there's still no news on the games people really want, FFXIII Versus and Kingdom Hearts III. Ever since SE merged into one big company, they've got no real competition. There's no drive to make something special to out-do the other company anymore.


#14

Frank

Frank

And the God awful sales of their games is proof of that.

Without Eidos at this point, they might actually be in danger of going out of business.

FFXII-2 sold 1/5th of what FFX-2 did.


#15

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I'll be honest, I had fun with XIII all in all. I'll never bother to try for the post-game content, but otherwise it was enjoyable and even challenging in parts. XIII-2 got about 5 hours of my life and then I traded it in. I think XII is the last time I really tried to do anything outside the main storyline, and with the way things are going it's the last SE game I'll own. Lightning Returns looks pretty awful so far.


#16

Jay

Jay

Fuck Square


#17

bhamv3

bhamv3

To quote what one of the comments said under that article, vote with your wallet and don't buy this game.


#18

Bowielee

Bowielee

I saw this pop up on Giant Bomb on their new release crawler, so being an old school FF fan, I went to the game page on GB. There was a huge warning post from someone who had bought the game detailing all this. God damn ridiculous.


#19

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

ff-fugum.jpg


#20

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

10 years ago, I never would have believed that by 2013, all Square would know how to do was sell old games for exorbitant prices.


#21

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Honestly, I started losing faith in Square around Final Fantasy 8 (which was good and even great at points, but overall, not fantastic). Then lost a LOT of faith in them after their first cutscene simulator, The Bouncer.


#22

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

ThatNickGuy said:
Honestly, I started losing faith in Square around Final Fantasy 8 (which was good and even great at points, but overall, not fantastic). Then lost a LOT of faith in them after their first cutscene simulator, The Bouncer.
Click to expand...
Fuck you, The Bouncer was awesome. :cry:


#23

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

8 was just not for me, but 9 and 10 were fantastic. The MMO was okay, and 12 is fun. 13 is where they really started losing me and every decision past that has just been piss-poor on their part.


#24

PatrThom

PatrThom

Jay said:
Fuck Square
Click to expand...
Code: 
F U C K
U C K F
C K F U
K F U C
--Patrick


#25

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

CynicismKills said:
8 was just not for me, but 9 and 10 were fantastic. The MMO was okay, and 12 is fun. 13 is where they really started losing me and every decision past that has just been piss-poor on their part.
Click to expand...
I never really got into 8 or 9, but I loved 10. Yes, I know a lot of hardcore FF fans like Spoony hate it to death because of Tidus, but it was the last FF I really felt I enjoyed. 11 and 12 pretty much killed most of my love for the franchise, and nothing since has made it recover.


#26

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

12 wasn't interesting to me at first, but I was expecting the old FF battle system. Once I opened up to the idea of Gambits a bit I had a lot more fun with it. 9 I wasn't sure at first thanks to the look of it, but I think it's the strongest story on the PS1 FF's, even over 7. The MMO just wasn't for me, far too grind-heavy.


#27

Bowielee

Bowielee

9 is such an overlooked gem. It's by far one of my favorite games in the series.

vivi.jpg


Best FF character ever.


#28

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Bowielee said:
9 is such an overlooked gem. It's by far one of my favorite games in the series. Best FF character ever.
Click to expand...
Overlooked gem? Yes.
Best FF character? Disagree.


#29

Bowielee

Bowielee

Vivi is the man. Admit it. You can keep your Cecils and your Clouds, I'll take Vivi anyday.


#30

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Bowielee said:
Vivi is the man. Admit it. You can keep your Cecils and your Clouds, I'll take Vivi anyday.
Click to expand...
Auron_Art.png


(I was going to go with a joke answer of a picture of Gilgamesh, but Auron really has to be in my top tier serious favorites)


#31

Bowielee

Bowielee

Auron is awesome, no question, but I still prefer Vivi.


#32

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh



Another character that is just too epic, even in a game of badasses.


#33

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Auron was my favorite of FF10, no doubt there, but my all-time would have to be Cyan of FF6. Baltheir of FF12 is up there also, as well as Edgar of FF6.


#34

David

David

The reason they do this is because there are consumers who will willingly pay for it.

GAZE UPON THE MONSTROSITY YOU FOOLS YOURSELVES HAVE WROUGHT.


#35

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Final Fantasy Tactics, you sultry minx, you're the only one I need :hump:


#36

David

David

Admittedly, three months worth of my life went into play time for Final Fantasy Online. There were probably better ways I could have spent my high school years.

Once my Tarutaru was wearing a Red Mage pimp hat I finally felt finished. Nowadays I cannot find any MMO I can stand to play long enough to justify a subscription.


#37

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

David said:
Admittedly, three months worth of my life went into play time for Final Fantasy Online. There were probably better ways I could have spent my high school years.

Once my Tarutaru was wearing a Red Mage pimp hat I finally felt finished. Nowadays I cannot find any MMO I can stand to play long enough to justify a subscription.
Click to expand...
Don't you mean months of your life went into waiting for groups in FFXI just to hear (JPN ONLY, ENGLISH NO). ;P


#38

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Gilgamesh said:
Don't you mean months of your life went into waiting for groups in FFXI just to hear (JPN ONLY, ENGLISH NO). ;P
Click to expand...
I'd say that's outrageous, but I actually saw lots of "LF2 H BRC NO KOREENS" in Trade chat when I was still playing WoW.


#39

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

SpecialKO said:
I'd say that's outrageous, but I actually saw lots of "LF2 H BRC NO KOREENS" in Trade chat when I was still playing WoW.
Click to expand...
Except it was very heavy in FFXI for the fact that the game was out in JPN for over an entire year before it was released in America. So JPN players had over a year's worth of experience in running smooth groups (in a game where one death will cost you 9hrs of gameplay, smooth groups were serious business) and they saw American players as detrimental to their success. I know this because I played FFXI from it's release date for 3 years. I ran HNM raids, ran with Linkshell Raids and did alot grouping with both nationalities. Even with a good reputation, alot of JPN ONLY groups will turn down someone if they don't speak JPN. Also because alot of the JPN players ONLY spoke JPN, they didn't want to bother trying to explain to an ENGLISH ONLY American player on how to keep the chain-link xp fights running.


#40

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Gilgamesh said:
Don't you mean months of your life went into waiting for groups in FFXI just to hear (JPN ONLY, ENGLISH NO). ;P
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This was the other reason I quit. Couldn't solo for crap and the Japanese playerbase felt insanely xenophobic most of the time. I'm keeping an eye on the FF14 rebuild, but I'm not expecting anything and have no plans to buy in unless they magically turn things around (though I doubt that).


#41

Tress

Tress

CynicismKills said:
...and the Japanese playerbase felt insanely xenophobic most of the time.
Click to expand...
I'm shocked. :rolleyes:


#42

Bowielee

Bowielee

I played FF XI for about a month. That was about all I could stand.

It still pisses me off that they have the MMOs in the numbered series.


#43

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Well, thanks to this thread, I just bought FF9 for my Vita. Never played it before.


#44

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

I never actually played either FF MMO. I was warned away by almost everyone I know who played them. They said that they exposed the fact that FF games don't actually have very good world-building. Excellent sense of style, fun plots, etc., but poor world-building, and an MMO is pretty much designed around world-building.[DOUBLEPOST=1358742099][/DOUBLEPOST]
Ravenpoe said:
Well, thanks to this thread, I just bought FF9 for my Vita. Never played it before.
Click to expand...
If you like FF6, you will like FF9. It's very much a spiritual successor.

...goddammnit, I'm re-buying it for my Vita, aren't I?


#45

Bowielee

Bowielee

To be honest, other than the cutscenes, FF9 is kind of ugly. I think it's because they're trying to put too much detail on low rez textures and polygons(pretty much the curse of being a game at the end of the dev cycle for the PS1), but I LOVED the way you learned spells by leveling up armor and weapons and such.


#46

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Bowielee said:
To be honest, other than the cutscenes, FF9 is kind of ugly. I think it's because they're trying to put too much detail on low rez textures and polygons(pretty much the curse of being a game at the end of the dev cycle for the PS1), but I LOVED the way you learned spells by leveling up armor and weapons and such.
Click to expand...
Oh, no disagreement. It suffers a bit visually exactly as you say. But I love the game anyway. It was the last game in the series (for me) where the leveling/learning system didn't feel like they were just fucking around for the sake of being different (granted, did not play 12, mostly because I found the Gambit system in the demo annoying).


#47

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

I know I've posted this before, but FF9 is a mess story-wise because it's trying to tell three unrelated stories.


FF9 discs 1 and 2: a fun throw-back to whimsical fantasy.
FF9 disc 3: weird sci-fi trippy portal planetary story (not unlike FF8).
FF9 disc 4: interesting lore-based story with ideas that aren't mentioned or built up to in the previous 45+ hours.

And the graphics were a pixely mess. Though I didn't mind the leveling. It was nice for characters to have defined roles in combat for the first time since FFIV.


#48

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

All this talk of awesome old Square games is making me wish that the second Chrono sequel had gotten made. :(

All this talk of new Square games is making me thankful that the second Chrono sequel isn't being made. :awesome:


#49

Bowielee

Bowielee

It's actually making me want to go back and play Chrono-Cross. I bought it a while ago, but never had a chance to really get into it.


#50

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

It's not as good as Trigger (but what is, really?), but I still spent a huge amount of time on Cross. They're really very different games, and excellent for different reasons.


#51

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I've got Cross sitting on my PS3, I haven't gotten around to playing it. I know I have FF9 discs around here somewhere but I can't find them and that makes me horribly sad.


#52

Bowielee

Bowielee

My FF9 disks are in a box somewhere in the garage.


#53

Frank

Frank

Chrono Cross just shits on anything else on PS1 graphically and aurally too.


#54

Jay

Jay

Quotemander Prime said:
I know I've posted this before, but FF9 is a mess story-wise because it's trying to tell three unrelated stories.


FF9 discs 1 and 2: a fun throw-back to whimsical fantasy.
FF9 disc 3: weird sci-fi trippy portal planetary story (not unlike FF8).
FF9 disc 4: interesting lore-based story with ideas that aren't mentioned or built up to in the previous 45+ hours.

And the graphics were a pixely mess. Though I didn't mind the leveling. It was nice for characters to have defined roles in combat for the first time since FFIV.
Click to expand...
The first two discs were really fun. I really liked the game after a disappoint FF7 and a horrible FF8.

Then I popped in DISC 3 and I got raped in the ass with glass shards. The pain I endured after that 1 hour long cut scene as they ruined the whole game for me was something I'll never forget.

I never made it to Disc 4.

The combat system was pretty enjoyable though. You know, when you actually controlled characters strategically and didn't have to use gambits or "line changes" to win battles.


#55

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Frank said:
Chrono Cross just shits on anything else on PS1 graphically and aurally too.
Click to expand...
If only they'd settled on a handful of characters to flesh out instead of a hundred single-dimensional ones.

And if they hadn't killed off every character but Magus.


#56

Frank

Frank

Quotemander Prime said:
If only they'd settled on a handful of characters to flesh out instead of a hundred single-dimensional ones.

And if they hadn't killed off every character but Magus.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the whole super enormous party thing was pretty lame.


#57

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Frank said:
Yeah, the whole super enormous party thing was pretty lame.
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I also wish the plot had made more sense.

Well, that's unfair. What I should say is the plot made sense, but the little details to make it work didn't make a lot of sense. Of course, 12 years since I spent a summer playing the game over and over to make sense of the mess, I can't remember any of the plotholes I was trying to understand.


#58

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Frank said:
Yeah, the whole super enormous party thing was pretty lame.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't have been if everyone had been useful... but really, there are basically 6-10 people you would ever want to use. Some of the upgrades some people get are just incredibly OP and it makes them broken.
ESPECIALLY Glenn and his god damn double Einlanzers.


#59

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I own Chrono Cross. I tried to play it, but it opens with the world's most annoying character right out of the gate.


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