SQUARESOFT was something else especially in the late 90's - early 2000's. If it wasn't for the PS1, Squaresoft, Konami, Capcom, and Working Designs idk if I would've ever got into gaming. A1 video as usual 👍
100% agree. Square, or should I say Enix's games aren't quite the same since Sakaguchi left. People like Nobuo Uematsu filled imaginations with nostalgic A* soundtracks too. What we have now is a former shadow of what they were. They got what they wanted though, mainstream success and revenue!
Square got me into jrpgs so I always associated them with amazing games...I personally think Nomura ruined the company with his jpop designs which started effecting the storys
ok... this is why I have to explain why I prefer SNES and NES Square to Playstation and modern Squaresoft / SquareEnix games. Cause so many people just don't enjoy 2D games for not being modern enough in looks. It's just a reality we have to explain, why 2D FF games are better than 3D ones
There's a reason why the PS2 is the best selling console of all time. After the massive success of the PS1, fans were very excited for the new console.
Chrono Trigger was so good; it had the dream team. Yuji Hori (DQ), Hironobu (FF), Toriyama (DB/Z), and Uematsu. I may be a 90s enix fan but I would drop all their other games to play Chrono Trigger on release (I'll play anything Hori touches). (still a big DQ fan though)
Chrono trigger was so ahead of its time I got into rpgs in the playstation 1 era and played the port and I was still impressed that it was made for snes from the battle mechanics, graphics, story, and replay value, it was so original I could only imagine a remake of it.
Awesome video! Something I think you should have pointed out though since you brought up Square's success over Enix in the west a lot is how, despite how lauded they were in the west, Square was never quite able to beat Enix in the east. Despite the juggernaut that the Final Fantasy trilogy of games became on the Playstation in the west (especially FFVII) not a single one of those games sold more copies than Dragon Quest VII in Japan.
Interesting... because in early 2000s in my country nobody played 2D games. We do NOW, but specifically that time period was when even crappy 3D was considered hip and cartoony games were frowned upon. I'm in Eastern Europe so might be different in the West.
Enix thriving because of Wizardry, and Ultima. That topic alone is a wild ride... How Enix a Japanese company took inspiration from a genre invented in North America, and beat North America to popularizing the genre...
To this day, I can't even fathom just how amazing this company used to be. ❤️ Literally everything they touched turned to gold and they were constantly raising the bar and challenging humans and Pokémon expectations on what video games could (and should) be.❤️ From masterpieces like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, to incredibly soulful and endearing gems like Super Mario RPG and Secret of Mana... to complex and ingenious game changers like Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross... no other company released as many incredible and mind-blowing games in a span of 10 years that Square did... not even prime Rareware. "Giggle!" ❤
What I find most interesting is the variety of games that people seem to think is their best. I guess their methodology of always changing the formula really is a good idea, when you want to make money anyway.
facts. They even dipped their toes into the fighting game Genre with Tobal No. 1, Tobal 2, and Ehrgeiz. I've only tried a small handful of their games after the merger, but every one was medicore at best, usually just plain bad.
9:30 My (now deceased) Grandfather received one of those free Dragon Warrior copies. Every weekend him, my Dad, & myself would all sit down to take turns playing between saves. My Dad went on to buy DW2, 3, & 4 there began our addiction to Dragon Warrior. Decades later I began my quest to #stopgaming thoroughly enjoying an abundance of time to spend elsewhere while I am still completely enamored with the fantasy monster art genre I simply can't resist but think about these beautiful games time to time I may very well begin learning to draw this style to earn some cash on the side!
Don't know why it took so long for me to see this comment, but that's a great story dude! I feel like many of us have hay-day stories like this one that can tug on the heart strings and fuel the nostalgia just a bit. I've always loved the look of what you call "Fantasy Monster art." Whether it be in JRPGs, some more eldritch stuff, or even just the look of the monsters on card games like Magic the Gathering or even Yu-gi-oh. They just spark the imagination and inspire wonder. For me it probably started with a picture of a chinese-ish dragon my father had drawn and framed when I was really young. Always wanted to be as good an artist as him but eventually turned my interest to music instead of drawing.
This video was so well-researched and well made! It was a great watch, and splitting it into the 6 parts that you did allowed for a good focus on specific parts of the history instead of jumping back and forth all over the place. Great job, I really enjoyed this!
great video, although i’m surprised that you didn’t mention the collaboration between Hori and Sakaguchi on Chrono Trigger. it seems like a stepping stone towards the two companies eventual merge.
wow, what a story! i knew a very tldr version of why square's last ditch effort to stay alive by releasing final fantasy, now i know the full story. and now i now the reason behind the merger. thank you!
Thank you very much for the strategic advertisement placement. It was very much appreciated. Also, great video, your gathering of all of this information while allowing it to remain interesting is truly incredible.
Not only they merged together, but Eidos Interactive, best known for the Tomb Raider and Just Cause series, is now “Square Enix Limited” (but trading as “Square Enix Europe”) and owned by Square Enix since 2009
Awesome video man, didn't expect something this large scale out of no where, but I really enjoyed it. I can only imagine how long this took to produce, so I hope it does well for you
Well... The scripts started in March and then stopped until September. In September I picked up and finished the scripting while also working on my October video's. The rest was done through out all of October while the Halloween stuff I prepared early was airing haha. Legitimately one of the biggest challenges was finding a way to clear my schedule to make this haha.
Wow this was some colossal work!!! Really detailed and documented thoroughly! How you were able to accomplished this level of production with this video on your own is astonishing! This will become the go to video for video games history nuts! Very well done! Great video and keep up the good work!
Took a lot of time lol. I cleared pretty much all of october to work on it, and started my scripts back in march. Finding time was definitely the hardest part. Thanks for the kind words as always! Glad you enjoyed it!
Square Soft's productivity was mind boggling in mid 90's. Final Fantasy IV - VII, Chrono Trigger, Mana Series, Saga Series, Front Mission Series, Mario RPG, Live A Live, Bahamut Lagoon, and Breath of Fire. It felt like they had a big RPG game released every 3 months. And their games visual quality improved every time. Back then I was more of a Dragon Quest fan but also enjoyed Square Soft games, so seeing Square Soft taking over Enix by that pace and margin was rough. Enix couldn't leverage their Dragon Quest brand on their other games, and each Dragon Quest game took forever to develop.
Multiple staff members have recounted working themselves nearly to death during that period. Work/life balance was not a thing back then. Great games resulted, but at the cost of their creators’ health.
Enjoy the video and want to show support? ko-fi.com/tarksgauntlet Support the show with a 1 time donation on Ko-Fi! (Shameless e-begging over) -------------------------------- Inb4 200 experts chime in with "UHHH ACHTUALLY-" and "That's not how you pronounce x" comments... Unique video sources are credited on screen. Research sources for the "Less common" knowledge/Less documented and the really early history is credited in the video description. Additional notes and time codes for individual chunks of the video can be found there as well. Shares are appreciated. Try to remember I'm also only 1 person, my resources and abilities are (Shockingly) quite limited. Somebody expressed interest in a new history video, so here it is, as best as I can compile some of this really really muddy history! There was so much more we could have got into but felt it best to limit the scope where I did. Besides, this video was torture to get through at this length alone haha.
That's not how you pronounce Enix. It's Eh-nix, not Ee-nix. :p Also someone will probably point out your pronunciation of manga is wrong too, but honestly outside of Enix most of your pronunciaitons weren't bad.
@@ssjevot The worst part is... I know how to pronounce Manga right, I just never do it haha. Like teaching an old dog new tricks I guess. The proper pronunciation just feels so foreign to my tongue.
20:14 those recomendations are pretty much the same that i usually get, so i thought that i went out of full screen for a moment, you have good taste sir
A few years late, but still a great video! I love looking back on the history of the RPG genre, and you can’t ignore these two juggernaut companies when you talk RPGs!
most ppl know this stuff and dont really need geeks to break it down to them, ppl mostly watch to hear someone else talk about stuff they already know. it feels like a community of like minded ppl so it feels good.
I also would like to add that the mirge with Enix between 2002 - 2003 cause the cancellation of Parasite Eve : Rebirth .. a remake that was mean to be made for PS2 / GC ... this HURTS SO MUCH as a huge PE fan :(
Hey there, new subscriber here. Just wanted to say I love your channel and your dedication to all these wonderful games. I couldn't believe it when I saw you only have just over 5k subs. Your videos are fantastic and you have so much content on so many games that are quite long and must have taken a really long time to make. Your review of Labyrnth of Refrain sold me on the game! Anyway, thanks for the videos and have a great day!
People underestimate how much PlayStation changed: before it people only could see big, impressive games in arcades, sure there was Mortal Kombat on Sega Mega Drive and PacMan on your local Famicom clone, but in Arcades there was Tekken, Time Crisis, fully 3D racing games... getting a third dimension was the biggest shift in gaming, forever. Nothing ever will be such a great leap, and the fact it came with CD audio and FMVs meant other 3D-capable consoles would lose on Sony's new toy. Yes, there was a big graphical jump after but it was just that, graphical, the core gameplay and systems evolved on PS1 and you can see from early clumsy games to later era stuff how controls, camera, gameplay, all modernized and got perfected.
I've never had an SNES but I've heard that after Enix America closed Terranigma was released in Europe in, at least, three or four different languages. In the 90's there it was a Dragon Ball Fever in Spain, France and Italy (I don't know about UK) and many Japanese games about this series were localised and released on NES and SNES (European SNES has better design than American SNES). So imagine if Dragon Quest 3, 4 or even 5 (or Dragon Warrior/Journey if there's copyright) were localised at that date...
I wonder what would have happened if Enix localized the game for the latin american market (which was unheard at the time, we played all the games in english and only english until like the DS, wii, 360 era) Dragon Ball was HUUGE in the 90s and i mean HUUGEE, heck its still huge today.
Another great video exploring video game history. Its really intriguing to me mostly because I never even knew they used to be separate companies haha. I heard of Squaresoft at one point but not Enix. And as others already said the portioning was used very well for this video. Made it easier to digest so much info. On another note, will you be doing any reviews on the souls games in the future?
I don't plan on reviewing the souls series, but I love them all to death. Done a nearly 8 hour live stream when Dark Souls 1 remastered released. Only one that's hard to go back to is Demon Souls as it runs noticeably worse than the others and feels quite stiff. Still worth playing for the epic design alone though.
@@TarksGauntlet Aww well I guess there's enough reviews of them around. But yea I have the same feelings about the entire genre of games demons souls spawned, they have quite easily been my favorite type of games for a long time now. Wish they would do a remake of Demon's Souls like they did with Dark Souls, would buy it in an instant.
I got Dragon Warrior for Christmas when I was kid. Later when I saw Dragon Warrior IV on shelves, I jumped at it and played the heck out of it. It was one of my favorite games on the system. I liked it so much that I bought Dragon Warrior III after completing it. Another great game, but by progressing backward, I did miss quality of life improvement put into IV that didn’t exist in III. After beating III, I was not able to find II on store shelves, so I didn’t get to play more Dragon Quest/Warrior until they started releasing them again many years later. Those were good times.
and many years later the company established an ethics department to stop developers from programming jiggle physics, rather than designing abusive pay to win schemes or avoiding crunch
TBH mistwalker could have been square soft 2.0 since it already have two of the big three IMO it had Nobuo Uematsu for music, and Sakaguchi him self for story/writer all they needed was a good programmer for battle systems if only Sakaguchi could convinced Hiroyuki Ito to join as well.
Star Ocean 2 Second Story was an amazing feat of a game, on its own just behind ff7, possibly for me as good as ff8 (remastered HD) and chrono trigger. I'd have to revisit S.O. 2 but shoutout to Lunar Silver story as well as far as Jrpg discussion. Star Ocean 2 is rumored for a remake on this acclaim as well.
When talking about the failure of FF The Spirits Within and the subsequent merger, the 'splash' headline they supposedly needed to make was the termination of Sakaguchi. Sadly, the man who arguably built Square, along w/ his hubris, like you stated, really killed the Squaresoft we all loved. That huge box office bungle forced Square to merge. And Square, and especially Final Fantasy, has never been the same. If only that movie had never been made...
Final Fantasy "wasn't the same" since the second game came out, it ALWAYS changed. I still see people kneejerk screeching when hearing about FFVIII because it was "too different" despite reusing plot points and systems from 6 & 7 (young supersoldiers junctioning with Espers as part of human experiments end up with memory loss), and 13 was 8's style with 4th's streamlining and Grandia's gameplay, now they keep changing as much as they changed back then with new FF7 using a mix of 12 and 13 systems.
What is really sad is alot of IPs from enix and squaresoft are lost and most people have no idea how many different games and series are no longer made, both company's had alot of different games not just final fantasy and dragon quest
Yes. I recently have played Front Mission Gun Hazard, which was an action spin-off of the regular Front Mission series. While that series got the conclusion the producer wanted, I would love to see more Gun Hazard sequels. Square also had rond of other lesser known IPs and little one-entry games like Treasure Conflix, a Satellaview game I would not mind seeing expanded into a full game. I am kind of surprised to see that LiveaLive got a remake as I thought Squarenix had forgotten about it. I think the company still does the occasional one off game but not as much as they used to before.
Square keep SaGa and Mana relevant with remakes, Grandia briefly shown here was only published by Enix but made by Game Arts (3 was released post-merger and it wasn't popular as it used a different story writer and it showed), and now is held by another publisher, it's been tons of remakes and new old school style RPGs recently from either's backlog so we might get something eventually.
OMG! That creepy guy at 42:50 looks like he has ALOT more on his mind than just listening to that woman talking about her role in that movie. It's hilarious!
Dang! This was such a nice and extremely well done work. So much detail put into this video of square enix. It clearly reflects the importance these two companies had and how the RPGs as we know today may have been very different without them. Its really appreciated all the care put into this, man Thank you, Really. Note: 48:00 Okay can someone confirm if the song it's from The last Story?? Im gettin crazy just trying to remember where this is from
@@TarksGauntlet I knew it! ty haha Yeah i played the Wii's RPGs so much that pretty much i instantly recognize all their OST. IDK why, maybe the composers or the inspiration they had, But for me They have a 'feel' to them, the only ost that doesn't share this Wii feel it's Pandoras Tower cuz how dark and ambient the ost it's on that game.
I liked the last story, it was one of those jrpg of the wii with pandora's tower that i enjoyed when i was a kid. Hope sakaguchi can develope more cool games like that one.
Nintendo of America should've been more fair to Enix during the NES days. Had NoA been more open to Enix during that time, we possibly could've seen Dragon Quest V and VI and even Terranigma come to the SNES here in the States!
I mean, the fact that Nintendo helped published the first 4 Dragon Quest games in the U.S. was quite a huge task, but it seems like DQ, or Dragon Warrior as it was known in the West until the release of VIII, couldn't compete with other JRPGs that already appeared in the market. Still, there were plenty of other Enix published games on the Super NES, like Illusion of Gaia, E.V.O and Terranigma It also seems like Enix didn't have a grudge against Nintendo like Squaresoft had due to the N64 using cartridges, since there were a couple of Enix published games on the N64 like Mischief Makers and Ogre Battle 64, not to mention that Enix gave a lot of support to the Game Boy Color. Perhaps it was Enix's influence that made it easier for Square to start developing games for Nintendo consoles during the Game Boy Advance era
This was an interesting video. I wanted to point out that the video title was a bit misleading because it seemed like the video was going to explain why Squaresoft had produced better games before the merger and point fingers at Enix being behind all the cynicism since the beginning of Enix were very terrible. I thought those two elements were connected somehow. However, I believe Square was still trying to make up for the huge failure of "The Spirit Within" and that the new holders of Square Enix, after Sakaguchi had left, continued to see Final Fantasy as nothing but a cash cow and also making sure that something like "The Spirit Within" doesn't happen ever again. To be honest, I feel also like Tetsuya Nomura will wind up killing Square again while Enix will still keep going because of how cautious they have always seemed over the years and pretty cheapskate. There's also a key detail that I wish to point out too. Sakaguchi's Mist walker seemed to utter some return to form for the style of Final Fantasy that everyone loves but ended up debuting with the infamous "Blue Dragon" series that came out exclusively on the 360. It gained no true following for the company because it was a terrible game devoid of any charm and substance, despite how promising Sakaguchi and Toriyama's collaboration seemed on paper. After that, all his other works have continued on a mediocre quality that was laid down by their predecessor to no avail, other than a few notable JRPGS like "The Last Story". For some reason, Sakaguchi couldn't create a new JRPG series to compete, sadly.
Were gamers really looking for a full final fantasy movie? I know I wasn't, but I guess the mass-market demand and interest was (and remains) something I just wasn't aware of (nor interested in). I also did not enjoy FFVIII, FFX, and FFXI, and as a result I have not played a FF game since. All that said this video is incredible and got some genuine nostalgia-emotions out of me while you were retelling history I lived through as a kid, as well as your excellent use of music from the companies' games. Well fucking done Tarks.
Amazing storytelling, the video is 50 minutes long but each minute feels interesting and important. Indeed that after merger, there are some quality downgrade. But let's be honest, without the merger there probably won't exist a single Japanese company that could produce AAA jrpg games. And also with their budget, they could support smaller companies such as Platinumgames to create fans favourite's Nier Automata.
If you were a gamer at the time, actually, these companies FELT like they were doing the same thing so much, it felt weird and surreal that they were 2 different companies. So when they announced the merger, everyone was like "Ahhhh, yes. At last. Why didn't this happen sooner?" It was like the catharsis you get after watching a long time running "will they? won't they?" rom-com.
Yeah it felt like a personal vanity project instead of being a movie with ANY relation to the games. It was also DULL, the main character is unlikeable, she's not a badass nor romantic. Feels like you are watching someone's psychoanalysis ramblings about his mother on insane budget.
Square changed for the worse and Enix pretty much went from strength to strength. Like, the only negative thing I had to say about Dragon Quest XI is I wish the world map hadn't been segmented off so starkly. I wish it had been like DQVIII which I'm sure segmented the map, but they did it more cleverly to make it feel like it was all one open space. Like, there was no obvious screen transition when you went from the Farebury region to the Alexandria region. And it was a fun map to explore because the treasure chests usually had good stuff and you gained tons of exp and gold from all the extra enemies you fought while checking out every nook and cranny for treasure as opposed to making a beeline right to the next cutscenes. Speaking of beeline corridors and cutscenes, that brings me to Final Fantasy post-merger...
Ok but here on the other side of FF7 Remake.. this feels like a great chance at maybe a TV series? There’s too much cutscene for a movie but maybe with a little extra work on animating up some of the combat sections it could be an excellent tv mini series because my goodness do those cutscenes bring some amazing action and incredibly heartfelt character moments and drama. Waifu ears might make that an impossibility however.. given the multiple choice we have at certain junctions.
I feel people exaggerate when they say "ohhh, they merged and they ruined both companies!!", I feel like it's mostly Final Fantasy fans who say it. As you know, Final Fantasy has been trying to reinvent themselves with each title; while Dragon Quest has been way more conservative with their formula. I do agree, that when they used to be rivals, they tried to "outdo" each other, and in consequence they made far more innovations....we'll have to wait and see how Final Fantasy XVI and Dragon Quest XII turn out to be.
History has 3 stages for RPGs IMO : before 1990s, FF1 rules. SNES era : Chrono Trigger Playstation to 2023 : Suikoden 1 & 2 rule as the new king. FF9 the best 3D JRPG cannot touch Suikoden so... here we are!
Ahh yes, back when Enix could continue to produce crap without destroying Squaresofts reputation. Not a fan of how Square changed after Enix entered the picture, if you couldn't tell.
Great video, The last FF games I ever played were 7 and Tactics, for the very reason the ending of this video talks about. I felt the FF franchise was going off course from its roots. While the first DW was the first RPG I ever played I just feel that the DQ series has stayed to it roots in a way, not going on modern and things like cars, and the such. I have no real desire to play any FF past 7 and T. Though if I ever get through my backlog I may try one of them some day, just not sure which, I hear good things about X and XII though
FFIX was a return to form for Sakaguchi and his FF team. A celebration of the series history. If you got back for any older ones thats definitely one to look into. But then, I also understand the horror of a backlog haha.
FF7 already went far from high fantasy roots to bikes and cars, tho we had robots and space travel in FF1 and 4... MAJORITY of people actually like ff6-onwards science fantasy with steampunk and robotics more than ones that looked more medieval though. If you liked Tactics, you'd like the look/style of 12, it's in the same universe, Ivalice... Kinda renaissance mix Star Wars with deserts, swordfights, princesses and masked villains. 13 is more like 8 in style but plays like 4 but with better combat. 10 is turn based, as in, completely turn based like 1-3, not ATB style tho with more nuances. It FEELS the most like classic Final Fantasy to me.
stuff has transpired since this vid, about ff12: -SE kept paoching staff from matsuno's team, just like sega did for sonic06, & matsuno got mad, refused to go back to work until they brought his ppl back. he was announced to be 'overworked' & his game given to 2 guys who changed a lot of things in it. -sakaguchi said during a panel that yes he played the game of his friend, ff12: he stopped after the prologue as that's all that remains of it. -the 2 guys had the game playtested, & girls went(still via sakaguchi's recollections on that terra battle panel) "we dont want to play an old guy!" so bash wasnt the main char anymore & van was created; hence why he doesnt have anything to do the whole game also, matsuno wrote stuff for ff14, ivalice, which was taken from bits & pieces of the third that was cut from vagrant story because of hardware limitations. despite nomura hating him & poisoning SE about him, matsuno still has a big, giant fan who joined the company just to work with him: yoshi p.
They should hire Matsuno for proper FFT version for PC after Tactics Ogre remake success, and then make a new game, doesn't matter in what universe, maybe just blatant FF Tactics 2, I'd love another Ivalice game and I feel now is a good time as people are less alienated by complex systems... FF12 was still good. Tho obviously unfinished.
Ironically enough, the merger is what killed Final Fantasy. I still remember those wonderful days of Squaresoft and how incredible they were as a developer. Greatest developer of all time.
Amazing video, having just bought a PS5 exclusively for FFXVI (and ff7r part 2), I cant even begin to think what would have happened with my favorite genre of games (JRPG) if square and enix never merged or if sony didnt gamble on ff7 in the usa.
Seems like Japanese went through their own industrial age or gold fever during the golden era of video games considering how the biggest names in the industry(Sega, Konami, Sony, Nintendo, etc)are actually much older than the industry itself and didn't even start as a video game company. Instead, they came from an entirely different business altogether. Everyone in Japan literally jumped over onto the business, found success and made amazing games along the way. If it was in the US, it would've probably felt like seeing Coca Cola, General Electric, Ford and AT&T all suddenly began developing video games lol.
i remember when they merged. you can see where it all went down hill. Everyone said it was going to be terrible, glad we had magazines like Psm Gamepro etc back in the day, the editors really let game companies have it and expressed their views.
FF7 absolutely made RPGs popular in Europe... Everyone was raving about it. That, and MGS were considered games worth it to buy on multiple CDs. I missed they hype myself and only played it later and was surprised how solid the gameplay systems and progression are. It's less "guide gang it" than FF6 or 8 for sure. Graphics tho... that LEGO style never looked good.
No wonder DQ failed in the west. First of all, Dragon Warrior sounds awfully generic. It's a miracle the name had not been taken already. But the worst is that they replaced the soulful Toriyama art with... whatever that was. No disrespect to the artist, but I think if you had surveyed 10 north american children back in the day, and you got them to choose between the original DQ art and a replacement, I'd say at least 9/10 kids would have chosen Toriyama. It's cartoonish, yet exotic and unknown. It's colorful and stimulates your imagination. Oh well. But what I'm proposing is probably only a miniscule part of the failure. As you point out in the video, they probably just joined the party a little too late. It's a shame but I'm glad that DQ has gained some traction ever since the DS games. Maybe they can bounce off the success of DQ11 and catch their second wind through DQ12. I'd certainly be glad for the franchise. DQ11 was lovely - frankly, it was only my second DQ game. I did not own a super large library of Ps2 games, but DQ8 was one of the few games I owned and I have no idea why I ever bought it. I'm pretty sure it was just the box art, maybe I had seen some more Toriyama art in a kid's games magazine and I figured I'd give it a try. Did not regret it. Hence why I'm saying that the NA localization may have failed in part because of something so simple as the art. I mean, the whole entire world was infatuated with Dragon Ball and even to this day Toriyama's art style remains unique and stands out immediately amongst a million art works.
![The Birth of Final Fantasy | The Complete History of Square (Part 2) [Documentary]](/img/1.gif)
SQUARESOFT was something else especially in the late 90's - early 2000's. If it wasn't for the PS1, Squaresoft, Konami, Capcom, and Working Designs idk if I would've ever got into gaming. A1 video as usual 👍
100% agree. Square, or should I say Enix's games aren't quite the same since Sakaguchi left. People like Nobuo Uematsu filled imaginations with nostalgic A* soundtracks too. What we have now is a former shadow of what they were. They got what they wanted though, mainstream success and revenue!
Very well said
Square got me into jrpgs so I always associated them with amazing games...I personally think Nomura ruined the company with his jpop designs which started effecting the storys
ok... this is why I have to explain why I prefer SNES and NES Square to
Playstation and modern Squaresoft / SquareEnix games.
Cause so many people just don't enjoy 2D games for not being modern enough in looks. It's just a reality we have to explain, why 2D FF games are better than 3D ones
There's a reason why the PS2 is the best selling console of all time. After the massive success of the PS1, fans were very excited for the new console.
This video deserves many more views and a lot more recognition. I feel very lucky that i discovered your channel a year ago!
Chrono Trigger was so good; it had the dream team. Yuji Hori (DQ), Hironobu (FF), Toriyama (DB/Z), and Uematsu. I may be a 90s enix fan but I would drop all their other games to play Chrono Trigger on release (I'll play anything Hori touches). (still a big DQ fan though)
and Yasunori Mitsuda (Who Later Composed the Xenogears Ost)
The music of Chrono Trigger was mainly composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, with a few tracks composed by regular Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.
It was such a magical era. But all good things must end. 😞
Chrono trigger was so ahead of its time I got into rpgs in the playstation 1 era and played the port and I was still impressed that it was made for snes from the battle mechanics, graphics, story, and replay value, it was so original I could only imagine a remake of it.
@@donguapo7862 have you played the jets of time randomizer?
Awesome video! Something I think you should have pointed out though since you brought up Square's success over Enix in the west a lot is how, despite how lauded they were in the west, Square was never quite able to beat Enix in the east. Despite the juggernaut that the Final Fantasy trilogy of games became on the Playstation in the west (especially FFVII) not a single one of those games sold more copies than Dragon Quest VII in Japan.
Interesting... because in early 2000s in my country nobody played 2D games. We do NOW, but specifically that time period was when even crappy 3D was considered hip and cartoony games were frowned upon. I'm in Eastern Europe so might be different in the West.
Enix thriving because of Wizardry, and Ultima.
That topic alone is a wild ride... How Enix a Japanese company took inspiration from a genre invented in North America, and beat North America to popularizing the genre...
To this day, I can't even fathom just how amazing this company used to be. ❤️ Literally everything they touched turned to gold and they were constantly raising the bar and challenging humans and Pokémon expectations on what video games could (and should) be.❤️
From masterpieces like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, to incredibly soulful and endearing gems like Super Mario RPG and Secret of Mana... to complex and ingenious game changers like Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross... no other company released as many incredible and mind-blowing games in a span of 10 years that Square did... not even prime Rareware. "Giggle!" ❤
At least Nintendo still has their talent; unlike other game companies, especially the likes of Sega!
@@G.L.999 Between the recent Pokémon games, NSO expansion, Joy-Con drift, lawsuits, and everything else in between, that's HIGHLY debatable.
@@zzz43344 Pokémon is not first party, the rest has nothing to do with the talent of the developers.
What I find most interesting is the variety of games that people seem to think is their best. I guess their methodology of always changing the formula really is a good idea, when you want to make money anyway.
facts. They even dipped their toes into the fighting game Genre with Tobal No. 1, Tobal 2, and Ehrgeiz.
I've only tried a small handful of their games after the merger, but every one was medicore at best, usually just plain bad.
9:30 My (now deceased) Grandfather received one of those free Dragon Warrior copies. Every weekend him, my Dad, & myself would all sit down to take turns playing between saves. My Dad went on to buy DW2, 3, & 4 there began our addiction to Dragon Warrior. Decades later I began my quest to #stopgaming thoroughly enjoying an abundance of time to spend elsewhere while I am still completely enamored with the fantasy monster art genre I simply can't resist but think about these beautiful games time to time I may very well begin learning to draw this style to earn some cash on the side!
Don't know why it took so long for me to see this comment, but that's a great story dude!
I feel like many of us have hay-day stories like this one that can tug on the heart strings and fuel the nostalgia just a bit. I've always loved the look of what you call "Fantasy Monster art." Whether it be in JRPGs, some more eldritch stuff, or even just the look of the monsters on card games like Magic the Gathering or even Yu-gi-oh. They just spark the imagination and inspire wonder. For me it probably started with a picture of a chinese-ish dragon my father had drawn and framed when I was really young. Always wanted to be as good an artist as him but eventually turned my interest to music instead of drawing.
This video was so well-researched and well made! It was a great watch, and splitting it into the 6 parts that you did allowed for a good focus on specific parts of the history instead of jumping back and forth all over the place. Great job, I really enjoyed this!
I can't believe I've not found this video of yours til now! Throughly enjoyable, well researched and presented, great work all around!
Thanks! Its definitely one of the videos I'm most proud of haha. If only I found history topics I was interested in more often.
@@TarksGauntlet Well, not many companies have arcs who's ups and downs shape an entire genre!
Fascinating video. I always love watching gaming retrospective vids.
great video, although i’m surprised that you didn’t mention the collaboration between Hori and Sakaguchi on Chrono Trigger. it seems like a stepping stone towards the two companies eventual merge.
wow, what a story! i knew a very tldr version of why square's last ditch effort to stay alive by releasing final fantasy, now i know the full story. and now i now the reason behind the merger. thank you!
Thank you very much for the strategic advertisement placement. It was very much appreciated. Also, great video, your gathering of all of this information while allowing it to remain interesting is truly incredible.
I never watch videos that are over 45 minutes, but this was definitly worth my time. This was a really excellent video man
I loved some of the 90s Enix games like E.V.O. and the Blazer trilogy. Too bad North America never got Terranigma.
I’d give almost anything for an EVO or Soul Blazer remake (even just a facelift) or an Enix 16-bit era compilation release.
This is sick bro how is this video not more popular??
Not only they merged together, but Eidos Interactive, best known for the Tomb Raider and Just Cause series, is now “Square Enix Limited” (but trading as “Square Enix Europe”) and owned by Square Enix since 2009
Square Enix Eidos = Squid-dix.
Yeah it's always a shock remembering Lara Croft is like Cloud or Lightning.
Awesome video man, didn't expect something this large scale out of no where, but I really enjoyed it. I can only imagine how long this took to produce, so I hope it does well for you
Well... The scripts started in March and then stopped until September. In September I picked up and finished the scripting while also working on my October video's. The rest was done through out all of October while the Halloween stuff I prepared early was airing haha. Legitimately one of the biggest challenges was finding a way to clear my schedule to make this haha.
How the hell did I miss this episode, I love learning
Wow this was some colossal work!!! Really detailed and documented thoroughly! How you were able to accomplished this level of production with this video on your own is astonishing! This will become the go to video for video games history nuts! Very well done! Great video and keep up the good work!
Took a lot of time lol. I cleared pretty much all of october to work on it, and started my scripts back in march. Finding time was definitely the hardest part. Thanks for the kind words as always! Glad you enjoyed it!
This video is brilliant. I was surprised at the lack of likes and views - should be in the millions.
This is an excellent video that perfectly showcases the importance of both companies, well done
Square Soft's productivity was mind boggling in mid 90's. Final Fantasy IV - VII, Chrono Trigger, Mana Series, Saga Series, Front Mission Series, Mario RPG, Live A Live, Bahamut Lagoon, and Breath of Fire. It felt like they had a big RPG game released every 3 months. And their games visual quality improved every time. Back then I was more of a Dragon Quest fan but also enjoyed Square Soft games, so seeing Square Soft taking over Enix by that pace and margin was rough. Enix couldn't leverage their Dragon Quest brand on their other games, and each Dragon Quest game took forever to develop.
Breath of Fire is by Capcom tho.
Multiple staff members have recounted working themselves nearly to death during that period. Work/life balance was not a thing back then. Great games resulted, but at the cost of their creators’ health.
Finally had the time to sit down and watch all 50 min of this- well done! Love learning about gaming history like this.
Enjoy the video and want to show support?
ko-fi.com/tarksgauntlet
Support the show with a 1 time donation on Ko-Fi! (Shameless e-begging over)
--------------------------------
Inb4 200 experts chime in with "UHHH ACHTUALLY-" and "That's not how you pronounce x" comments...
Unique video sources are credited on screen. Research sources for the "Less common" knowledge/Less documented and the really early history is credited in the video description. Additional notes and time codes for individual chunks of the video can be found there as well.
Shares are appreciated. Try to remember I'm also only 1 person, my resources and abilities are (Shockingly) quite limited. Somebody expressed interest in a new history video, so here it is, as best as I can compile some of this really really muddy history! There was so much more we could have got into but felt it best to limit the scope where I did.
Besides, this video was torture to get through at this length alone haha.
Can't imagine how long it took you to make this. Excellent work! Growing up, I had never heard of Enix before until the merger.
That's not how you pronounce Enix. It's Eh-nix, not Ee-nix. :p
Also someone will probably point out your pronunciation of manga is wrong too, but honestly outside of Enix most of your pronunciaitons weren't bad.
@@ssjevot The worst part is... I know how to pronounce Manga right, I just never do it haha. Like teaching an old dog new tricks I guess. The proper pronunciation just feels so foreign to my tongue.
20:14 those recomendations are pretty much the same that i usually get, so i thought that i went out of full screen for a moment, you have good taste sir
A few years late, but still a great video! I love looking back on the history of the RPG genre, and you can’t ignore these two juggernaut companies when you talk RPGs!
You never said "Squenix" even once. Disliked.
(Good job though. I didn't feel like it was 50 minutes long. It's very well paced)
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENIX
:)
Thanks for the kind words and watch! It's greatly appreciated.
You sound like a bitch. Get over yourself. The video is fine, weirdo.
@@Etridamu He's joking Cory lol. This video doesn't even have any dislikes yet.
"Squenix" sounds like a name to a Pokemon.
You either die a hero or grow old enough to become a villain.
I don't know why it has so low views. It's a great history lesson.
most ppl know this stuff and dont really need geeks to break it down to them, ppl mostly watch to hear someone else talk about stuff they already know. it feels like a community of like minded ppl so it feels good.
me very late at night: 50 minutes about square enix merger??? great
Been looking for a video like this for a long time. Good shit my dude. Thank you for making this
This is so indepth! Thanks for making this
Really interesting and comprehensive. Throw that into a written form and you could present it at an academic conference
It's like Goku and Vegeta final fusing together to make the ULTIMATE warrior 😎🎉 This is really nice work
Finally finished it.
The level of research on this is simply astounding. Very, VERY well made video.
I also would like to add that the mirge with Enix between 2002 - 2003 cause the cancellation of Parasite Eve : Rebirth .. a remake that was mean to be made for PS2 / GC ...
this HURTS SO MUCH as a huge PE fan :(
Does it hurt more or less than the 3rd birthday?
Hey there, new subscriber here. Just wanted to say I love your channel and your dedication to all these wonderful games. I couldn't believe it when I saw you only have just over 5k subs. Your videos are fantastic and you have so much content on so many games that are quite long and must have taken a really long time to make. Your review of Labyrnth of Refrain sold me on the game! Anyway, thanks for the videos and have a great day!
I’m only a couple minutes and I can already tail I watch it through. Good job, looking toward more content.
Brave Fencer Musashi is such a good game that deserves way more recognition.
This video is such high quality. You deserve way more subs!
A good example of how competition creates strength and lack of it fosters stagnation.
People underestimate how much PlayStation changed: before it people only could see big, impressive games in arcades, sure there was Mortal Kombat on Sega Mega Drive and PacMan on your local Famicom clone, but in Arcades there was Tekken, Time Crisis, fully 3D racing games... getting a third dimension was the biggest shift in gaming, forever. Nothing ever will be such a great leap, and the fact it came with CD audio and FMVs meant other 3D-capable consoles would lose on Sony's new toy. Yes, there was a big graphical jump after but it was just that, graphical, the core gameplay and systems evolved on PS1 and you can see from early clumsy games to later era stuff how controls, camera, gameplay, all modernized and got perfected.
I love Square Enix and back then both made wonderful games. I love that they both gave us amazing JRPG's on the PlayStation 1. Cool video. ^_^
I've never had an SNES but I've heard that after Enix America closed Terranigma was released in Europe in, at least, three or four different languages. In the 90's there it was a Dragon Ball Fever in Spain, France and Italy (I don't know about UK) and many Japanese games about this series were localised and released on NES and SNES (European SNES has better design than American SNES). So imagine if Dragon Quest 3, 4 or even 5 (or Dragon Warrior/Journey if there's copyright) were localised at that date...
I wonder what would have happened if Enix localized the game for the latin american market (which was unheard at the time, we played all the games in english and only english until like the DS, wii, 360 era) Dragon Ball was HUUGE in the 90s and i mean HUUGEE, heck its still huge today.
Another great video exploring video game history. Its really intriguing to me mostly because I never even knew they used to be separate companies haha. I heard of Squaresoft at one point but not Enix. And as others already said the portioning was used very well for this video. Made it easier to digest so much info. On another note, will you be doing any reviews on the souls games in the future?
I don't plan on reviewing the souls series, but I love them all to death. Done a nearly 8 hour live stream when Dark Souls 1 remastered released. Only one that's hard to go back to is Demon Souls as it runs noticeably worse than the others and feels quite stiff. Still worth playing for the epic design alone though.
@@TarksGauntlet Aww well I guess there's enough reviews of them around. But yea I have the same feelings about the entire genre of games demons souls spawned, they have quite easily been my favorite type of games for a long time now. Wish they would do a remake of Demon's Souls like they did with Dark Souls, would buy it in an instant.
I got Dragon Warrior for Christmas when I was kid. Later when I saw Dragon Warrior IV on shelves, I jumped at it and played the heck out of it. It was one of my favorite games on the system. I liked it so much that I bought Dragon Warrior III after completing it. Another great game, but by progressing backward, I did miss quality of life improvement put into IV that didn’t exist in III. After beating III, I was not able to find II on store shelves, so I didn’t get to play more Dragon Quest/Warrior until they started releasing them again many years later. Those were good times.
and many years later the company established an ethics department to stop developers from programming jiggle physics, rather than designing abusive pay to win schemes or avoiding crunch
TBH mistwalker could have been square soft 2.0 since it already have two of the big three IMO it had Nobuo Uematsu for music, and Sakaguchi him self for story/writer all they needed was a good programmer for battle systems if only Sakaguchi could convinced Hiroyuki Ito to join as well.
Star Ocean 2 Second Story was an amazing feat of a game, on its own just behind ff7, possibly for me as good as ff8 (remastered HD) and chrono trigger. I'd have to revisit S.O. 2 but shoutout to Lunar Silver story as well as far as Jrpg discussion. Star Ocean 2 is rumored for a remake on this acclaim as well.
This is exactly what I needed before work, thank you kind sir.
When talking about the failure of FF The Spirits Within and the subsequent merger, the 'splash' headline they supposedly needed to make was the termination of Sakaguchi. Sadly, the man who arguably built Square, along w/ his hubris, like you stated, really killed the Squaresoft we all loved. That huge box office bungle forced Square to merge. And Square, and especially Final Fantasy, has never been the same. If only that movie had never been made...
Final Fantasy "wasn't the same" since the second game came out, it ALWAYS changed. I still see people kneejerk screeching when hearing about FFVIII because it was "too different" despite reusing plot points and systems from 6 & 7 (young supersoldiers junctioning with Espers as part of human experiments end up with memory loss), and 13 was 8's style with 4th's streamlining and Grandia's gameplay, now they keep changing as much as they changed back then with new FF7 using a mix of 12 and 13 systems.
Incredible video and very well put together
What is really sad is alot of IPs from enix and squaresoft are lost and most people have no idea how many different games and series are no longer made, both company's had alot of different games not just final fantasy and dragon quest
Yes. I recently have played Front Mission Gun Hazard, which was an action spin-off of the regular Front Mission series.
While that series got the conclusion the producer wanted, I would love to see more Gun Hazard sequels.
Square also had rond of other lesser known IPs and little one-entry games like Treasure Conflix, a Satellaview game I would not mind seeing expanded into a full game.
I am kind of surprised to see that LiveaLive got a remake as I thought Squarenix had forgotten about it.
I think the company still does the occasional one off game but not as much as they used to before.
I hope that we get a Chrono trigger remake for its 30 year anniversary
Square keep SaGa and Mana relevant with remakes, Grandia briefly shown here was only published by Enix but made by Game Arts (3 was released post-merger and it wasn't popular as it used a different story writer and it showed), and now is held by another publisher, it's been tons of remakes and new old school style RPGs recently from either's backlog so we might get something eventually.
OMG! That creepy guy at 42:50 looks like he has ALOT more on his mind than just listening to that woman talking about her role in that movie. It's hilarious!
Did Kingdom Hearts Help Possibly Help potentially Help Square with the Merger
Wish I could've seen this earlier. Fantastic video bro!
Dang! This was such a nice and extremely well done work. So much detail put into this video of square enix.
It clearly reflects the importance these two companies had and how the RPGs as we know today may have been very different without them.
Its really appreciated all the care put into this, man Thank you, Really.
Note: 48:00 Okay can someone confirm if the song it's from The last Story??
Im gettin crazy just trying to remember where this is from
Great ear! I don't think too many people would recognize tunes from that OST, but yes, The song is "Being Congenial" from The Last Story.
@@TarksGauntlet I knew it! ty haha
Yeah i played the Wii's RPGs so much that pretty much i instantly recognize all their OST.
IDK why, maybe the composers or the inspiration they had, But for me They have a 'feel' to them, the only ost that doesn't share this Wii feel it's Pandoras Tower cuz how dark and ambient the ost it's on that game.
Incredible documentary man
I liked the last story, it was one of those jrpg of the wii with pandora's tower that i enjoyed when i was a kid. Hope sakaguchi can develope more cool games like that one.
I just got into dragon quest and this made me appreciate the business aspect of Square Enix a lot more
Square soft is only game company i adore and love there games since childhood, thank you so much for this history
Nintendo of America should've been more fair to Enix during the NES days. Had NoA been more open to Enix during that time, we possibly could've seen Dragon Quest V and VI and even Terranigma come to the SNES here in the States!
I mean, the fact that Nintendo helped published the first 4 Dragon Quest games in the U.S. was quite a huge task, but it seems like DQ, or Dragon Warrior as it was known in the West until the release of VIII, couldn't compete with other JRPGs that already appeared in the market. Still, there were plenty of other Enix published games on the Super NES, like Illusion of Gaia, E.V.O and Terranigma
It also seems like Enix didn't have a grudge against Nintendo like Squaresoft had due to the N64 using cartridges, since there were a couple of Enix published games on the N64 like Mischief Makers and Ogre Battle 64, not to mention that Enix gave a lot of support to the Game Boy Color. Perhaps it was Enix's influence that made it easier for Square to start developing games for Nintendo consoles during the Game Boy Advance era
This was an interesting video. I wanted to point out that the video title was a bit misleading because it seemed like the video was going to explain why Squaresoft had produced better games before the merger and point fingers at Enix being behind all the cynicism since the beginning of Enix were very terrible. I thought those two elements were connected somehow.
However, I believe Square was still trying to make up for the huge failure of "The Spirit Within" and that the new holders of Square Enix, after Sakaguchi had left, continued to see Final Fantasy as nothing but a cash cow and also making sure that something like "The Spirit Within" doesn't happen ever again. To be honest, I feel also like Tetsuya Nomura will wind up killing Square again while Enix will still keep going because of how cautious they have always seemed over the years and pretty cheapskate.
There's also a key detail that I wish to point out too. Sakaguchi's Mist walker seemed to utter some return to form for the style of Final Fantasy that everyone loves but ended up debuting with the infamous "Blue Dragon" series that came out exclusively on the 360. It gained no true following for the company because it was a terrible game devoid of any charm and substance, despite how promising Sakaguchi and Toriyama's collaboration seemed on paper. After that, all his other works have continued on a mediocre quality that was laid down by their predecessor to no avail, other than a few notable JRPGS like "The Last Story". For some reason, Sakaguchi couldn't create a new JRPG series to compete, sadly.
Thanks RUclips algorithm I found another cool channel 😃
smgofdvld - HELL YEAH!!!
Were gamers really looking for a full final fantasy movie? I know I wasn't, but I guess the mass-market demand and interest was (and remains) something I just wasn't aware of (nor interested in). I also did not enjoy FFVIII, FFX, and FFXI, and as a result I have not played a FF game since. All that said this video is incredible and got some genuine nostalgia-emotions out of me while you were retelling history I lived through as a kid, as well as your excellent use of music from the companies' games. Well fucking done Tarks.
remember kids, Unification is not always a good thing.
This vid was so good that I stuck with it all the way despite the constant "Eeenix"ing :P
Kind of how I always knew it growing up. Didn't help that people also say "Squeenix" lol.
Amazing storytelling, the video is 50 minutes long but each minute feels interesting and important.
Indeed that after merger, there are some quality downgrade. But let's be honest, without the merger there probably won't exist a single Japanese company that could produce AAA jrpg games. And also with their budget, they could support smaller companies such as Platinumgames to create fans favourite's Nier Automata.
If you were a gamer at the time, actually, these companies FELT like they were doing the same thing so much, it felt weird and surreal that they were 2 different companies.
So when they announced the merger, everyone was like "Ahhhh, yes. At last. Why didn't this happen sooner?"
It was like the catharsis you get after watching a long time running "will they? won't they?" rom-com.
If only Spirit Within adopted some of the game concept like Advent Children did
Yeah it felt like a personal vanity project instead of being a movie with ANY relation to the games. It was also DULL, the main character is unlikeable, she's not a badass nor romantic. Feels like you are watching someone's psychoanalysis ramblings about his mother on insane budget.
Square-Enix is the company that taught me games could be something truly special. SE made me a gamer ♥️
Square changed for the worse and Enix pretty much went from strength to strength.
Like, the only negative thing I had to say about Dragon Quest XI is I wish the world map hadn't been segmented off so starkly.
I wish it had been like DQVIII which I'm sure segmented the map, but they did it more cleverly to make it feel like it was all one open space.
Like, there was no obvious screen transition when you went from the Farebury region to the Alexandria region.
And it was a fun map to explore because the treasure chests usually had good stuff and you gained tons of exp and gold from all the extra enemies you fought while checking out every nook and cranny for treasure as opposed to making a beeline right to the next cutscenes.
Speaking of beeline corridors and cutscenes, that brings me to Final Fantasy post-merger...
Finally a breakdown of my favorite corporate merger💎📍
Man the trash they been putting out over the last decade is inexcusable! Great Video!
Great video. Deserves more views and likes.
Wow a 50 min video by Tarks??
We are for a treat!
Ok but here on the other side of FF7 Remake.. this feels like a great chance at maybe a TV series?
There’s too much cutscene for a movie but maybe with a little extra work on animating up some of the combat sections it could be an excellent tv mini series because my goodness do those cutscenes bring some amazing action and incredibly heartfelt character moments and drama.
Waifu ears might make that an impossibility however.. given the multiple choice we have at certain junctions.
I feel people exaggerate when they say "ohhh, they merged and they ruined both companies!!", I feel like it's mostly Final Fantasy fans who say it. As you know, Final Fantasy has been trying to reinvent themselves with each title; while Dragon Quest has been way more conservative with their formula.
I do agree, that when they used to be rivals, they tried to "outdo" each other, and in consequence they made far more innovations....we'll have to wait and see how Final Fantasy XVI and Dragon Quest XII turn out to be.
"...they were being destroyed by Squaresoft in the West."
I remember reading about the merger and wondering, "wtf is Enix?"
holy hell, essentially a documentary
History has 3 stages for RPGs IMO :
before 1990s, FF1 rules. SNES era : Chrono Trigger
Playstation to 2023 : Suikoden 1 & 2 rule as the new king. FF9 the best 3D JRPG cannot touch Suikoden so... here we are!
Thank you sir, this is a very very good video i love square enix it is my entire childhood
Nice work. I really enjoyed this!
Ahh yes, back when Enix could continue to produce crap without destroying Squaresofts reputation.
Not a fan of how Square changed after Enix entered the picture, if you couldn't tell.
Great video, The last FF games I ever played were 7 and Tactics, for the very reason the ending of this video talks about. I felt the FF franchise was going off course from its roots. While the first DW was the first RPG I ever played I just feel that the DQ series has stayed to it roots in a way, not going on modern and things like cars, and the such. I have no real desire to play any FF past 7 and T. Though if I ever get through my backlog I may try one of them some day, just not sure which, I hear good things about X and XII though
FFIX was a return to form for Sakaguchi and his FF team. A celebration of the series history.
If you got back for any older ones thats definitely one to look into.
But then, I also understand the horror of a backlog haha.
I'd definitely say FF's 8-10 are still worth playing.
FF7 already went far from high fantasy roots to bikes and cars, tho we had robots and space travel in FF1 and 4... MAJORITY of people actually like ff6-onwards science fantasy with steampunk and robotics more than ones that looked more medieval though. If you liked Tactics, you'd like the look/style of 12, it's in the same universe, Ivalice... Kinda renaissance mix Star Wars with deserts, swordfights, princesses and masked villains. 13 is more like 8 in style but plays like 4 but with better combat. 10 is turn based, as in, completely turn based like 1-3, not ATB style tho with more nuances. It FEELS the most like classic Final Fantasy to me.
stuff has transpired since this vid, about ff12:
-SE kept paoching staff from matsuno's team, just like sega did for sonic06, & matsuno got mad, refused to go back to work until they brought his ppl back. he was announced to be 'overworked' & his game given to 2 guys who changed a lot of things in it.
-sakaguchi said during a panel that yes he played the game of his friend, ff12: he stopped after the prologue as that's all that remains of it.
-the 2 guys had the game playtested, & girls went(still via sakaguchi's recollections on that terra battle panel) "we dont want to play an old guy!" so bash wasnt the main char anymore & van was created; hence why he doesnt have anything to do the whole game
also, matsuno wrote stuff for ff14, ivalice, which was taken from bits & pieces of the third that was cut from vagrant story because of hardware limitations.
despite nomura hating him & poisoning SE about him, matsuno still has a big, giant fan who joined the company just to work with him: yoshi p.
They should hire Matsuno for proper FFT version for PC after Tactics Ogre remake success, and then make a new game, doesn't matter in what universe, maybe just blatant FF Tactics 2, I'd love another Ivalice game and I feel now is a good time as people are less alienated by complex systems... FF12 was still good. Tho obviously unfinished.
Ironically enough, the merger is what killed Final Fantasy. I still remember those wonderful days of Squaresoft and how incredible they were as a developer. Greatest developer of all time.
What a wonderful video thank you for this!
I saw that movie in theatres, absolutely loved it I remember my Dad and I thought it was live action for the longest time! Lmao
Amazing video, having just bought a PS5 exclusively for FFXVI (and ff7r part 2), I cant even begin to think what would have happened with my favorite genre of games (JRPG) if square and enix never merged or if sony didnt gamble on ff7 in the usa.
Came by this video by chance, but definitely deserves a sub and a like. Thank you for exposing those evil Enix dudes :D
Seems like Japanese went through their own industrial age or gold fever during the golden era of video games considering how the biggest names in the industry(Sega, Konami, Sony, Nintendo, etc)are actually much older than the industry itself and didn't even start as a video game company. Instead, they came from an entirely different business altogether. Everyone in Japan literally jumped over onto the business, found success and made amazing games along the way. If it was in the US, it would've probably felt like seeing Coca Cola, General Electric, Ford and AT&T all suddenly began developing video games lol.
I loved that you used the Romancing SaGa battle music track for Final Fantasy.
I mostly tried to use squaresoft music for the squaresoft chapters and enix music for the enix chapters. Lots of great tunes to chose from!
i remember when they merged. you can see where it all went down hill. Everyone said it was going to be terrible, glad we had magazines like Psm Gamepro etc back in the day, the editors really let game companies have it and expressed their views.
FF7 absolutely made RPGs popular in Europe... Everyone was raving about it. That, and MGS were considered games worth it to buy on multiple CDs. I missed they hype myself and only played it later and was surprised how solid the gameplay systems and progression are. It's less "guide gang it" than FF6 or 8 for sure. Graphics tho... that LEGO style never looked good.
From where is the airship seen in minute 18? Sorry for the ignorance, I loved them and I want to know more about it 😍
No wonder DQ failed in the west. First of all, Dragon Warrior sounds awfully generic. It's a miracle the name had not been taken already. But the worst is that they replaced the soulful Toriyama art with... whatever that was. No disrespect to the artist, but I think if you had surveyed 10 north american children back in the day, and you got them to choose between the original DQ art and a replacement, I'd say at least 9/10 kids would have chosen Toriyama. It's cartoonish, yet exotic and unknown. It's colorful and stimulates your imagination. Oh well. But what I'm proposing is probably only a miniscule part of the failure. As you point out in the video, they probably just joined the party a little too late. It's a shame but I'm glad that DQ has gained some traction ever since the DS games. Maybe they can bounce off the success of DQ11 and catch their second wind through DQ12. I'd certainly be glad for the franchise. DQ11 was lovely - frankly, it was only my second DQ game. I did not own a super large library of Ps2 games, but DQ8 was one of the few games I owned and I have no idea why I ever bought it. I'm pretty sure it was just the box art, maybe I had seen some more Toriyama art in a kid's games magazine and I figured I'd give it a try. Did not regret it. Hence why I'm saying that the NA localization may have failed in part because of something so simple as the art. I mean, the whole entire world was infatuated with Dragon Ball and even to this day Toriyama's art style remains unique and stands out immediately amongst a million art works.
28:39 (you said “Final Fantasy four” for both the cancelled FF2 NES localization and renamed “Final Fantasy II” release of FF4 on the SNES)
That was excellent.