KezraPlanes
Just some dood
"The Big Wigs" is a small opinion article from an aspiring Game Designer, giving is take on the state of the industry through the reading of current popular (and up and coming) IP and major game companies. This is part of the MfM Analysis Series by me and eldiablov
[FIELDSET="The past, present, and future of Square-Enix"]
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET="BioWare - One of the bastions of the West"]
[/FIELDSET]
[This article is just the opinion of one man and an opinion is worth just that. All feedback is welcome, any suggestions or correction can be stated in the comments or via PM]
[FIELDSET="The past, present, and future of Square-Enix"]
The target of my first article is Square-Enix:
This popped up into my mind while checking out the details of the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, X360). But I'll get into that a little later. Now let's start with the analysis itself.
Past: Origins and the Rise of Squaresoft
Square was formed in 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto, and their first great hit was Final Fantasy, which later would become one of the greatest RPG IP's (even though their first two projects were The Death Trap and Will: The Death Trap II).
Curious Fact 1: Square released 18 games between 1984 and 1987 before the release of the original Final Fantasy.
"Final Fantasy I" was designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and was supposed to be his last project for Squaresoft, and the series name came from just that, it was the his last title design to save the company from financial ruin. As fate would have it, the game was so successful that Sakaguchi kept designing Final Fantasy games until the "V". After that designing passed on to Yoshinori Kitase, while Sakaguchi served only as director until he left in 2001.
A screenshot of the game that shot Square into greatness
With the Final Fantasy games, Square pretty much revolutionized the CRPG-genre, bringing innovation, and above all great storytelling. Of the First five games, my personal favorite in Final Fantasy II. The leveling up system pleased me quite a bit and the story wasn't all bad in itself, but the following four installments would show what Square could do.
Final Fantasy VI, my favorite Final Fantasy game ever came out in 1994 on the SNES was the warm-up to the one that most consider a milestone in videogaming history: Final Fantasy VII. VII was the first numbered Final Fantasy game to come on a non-Nintendo platform and the first one in 3D. The tale of Cloud and friends sold to this date almost 10 million copies.
Following that came Final Fantasy VIII and IX, all under Sony jurisdiction and for a while it seemed everything would be well as gamers would have a company that they could count on to deliever complex and engaging storylines and compelling gameplay.
Honorable Mentions from the Past: It would be a crime to end the past section without mentioning a few titles like Chrono Trigger (1994) and Chrono Cross (2000) or the 'Mana' Saga that are considered by a few to be superior to Final Fantasy games and also brought a lot to the CRPG genre.
Curious Fact 2: My favorite Square game (Chrono Cross) feature over 50 playable characters and 27 different endings. How's that for replayability?
Curious Fact 3: Many of the Final Fantasy (series) fans argue over which is the best game of the series and usually the two candidates are VI and VII.
The Enix Merger and the growth to Industry Giant
Over the years, Square and its Final Fantasy IP had a huge rivalry with Enix and its Dragon Quest IP, but in April 2003, that would come to an end thanks to the Square and Enix merger that would form the industry giant: Square-Enix.
To be quite honest Square had started to dissapoint with its IP's, mainly with Final Fantasy X and the extremely girly (also considered pure fan-service) Final Fantasy X-2.
Many thought that the merger with Enix would turn the tide around, but unfortunately, that would not be so. Square Enix (which from now on I will refer to as SE) started milking it's Final Fantasy IP for all it's worth while the Enix part of the company started re-making its Dragon Quest IP's - quite successfully to.
In my point of view, Final Fantasy XII was a huge disappointment in both terms of story and originality. Sure it was astounding graphically, but the rest didn't impress. It did nothing to separate itself from the rest of the CRPGs.
More recently SE tried to explore new IPs in the form of: "Infinite Undiscovery" and "The Last Remnant" but again failed to impress.
Honorable Mention in this Section: I mentioned the famed Dragon Quest IP from Enix, but could not end without mentioning the Star Ocean IP which has delievered very solid games over the years.
The future...
Now SE has acquired the dying Eidos Int. and gained a few new IP's in the process, if they will correctly cash in on them or not remains to be seen.
As for what's to come, no one can really tell... Final Fantasy XIII, although graphically astounding, seems to follow in the blandness of Final Fantasy XII and that can never be good. The MIA Final Fantasy Versus XIII keeps me more hoping than XIII for the series. But then again, I can always be wrong. Still, as long as Dragon Quest remakes continue to sell like hotcakes, I don't think SE will be in any trouble soon.
The rest is up to them, and we will watch it unfold as gamers we are.
This popped up into my mind while checking out the details of the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, X360). But I'll get into that a little later. Now let's start with the analysis itself.
Past: Origins and the Rise of Squaresoft
Square was formed in 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto, and their first great hit was Final Fantasy, which later would become one of the greatest RPG IP's (even though their first two projects were The Death Trap and Will: The Death Trap II).
Curious Fact 1: Square released 18 games between 1984 and 1987 before the release of the original Final Fantasy.
"Final Fantasy I" was designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and was supposed to be his last project for Squaresoft, and the series name came from just that, it was the his last title design to save the company from financial ruin. As fate would have it, the game was so successful that Sakaguchi kept designing Final Fantasy games until the "V". After that designing passed on to Yoshinori Kitase, while Sakaguchi served only as director until he left in 2001.
A screenshot of the game that shot Square into greatness
With the Final Fantasy games, Square pretty much revolutionized the CRPG-genre, bringing innovation, and above all great storytelling. Of the First five games, my personal favorite in Final Fantasy II. The leveling up system pleased me quite a bit and the story wasn't all bad in itself, but the following four installments would show what Square could do.
Final Fantasy VI, my favorite Final Fantasy game ever came out in 1994 on the SNES was the warm-up to the one that most consider a milestone in videogaming history: Final Fantasy VII. VII was the first numbered Final Fantasy game to come on a non-Nintendo platform and the first one in 3D. The tale of Cloud and friends sold to this date almost 10 million copies.
Following that came Final Fantasy VIII and IX, all under Sony jurisdiction and for a while it seemed everything would be well as gamers would have a company that they could count on to deliever complex and engaging storylines and compelling gameplay.
Honorable Mentions from the Past: It would be a crime to end the past section without mentioning a few titles like Chrono Trigger (1994) and Chrono Cross (2000) or the 'Mana' Saga that are considered by a few to be superior to Final Fantasy games and also brought a lot to the CRPG genre.
Curious Fact 2: My favorite Square game (Chrono Cross) feature over 50 playable characters and 27 different endings. How's that for replayability?
Curious Fact 3: Many of the Final Fantasy (series) fans argue over which is the best game of the series and usually the two candidates are VI and VII.
The Enix Merger and the growth to Industry Giant
Over the years, Square and its Final Fantasy IP had a huge rivalry with Enix and its Dragon Quest IP, but in April 2003, that would come to an end thanks to the Square and Enix merger that would form the industry giant: Square-Enix.
To be quite honest Square had started to dissapoint with its IP's, mainly with Final Fantasy X and the extremely girly (also considered pure fan-service) Final Fantasy X-2.
Many thought that the merger with Enix would turn the tide around, but unfortunately, that would not be so. Square Enix (which from now on I will refer to as SE) started milking it's Final Fantasy IP for all it's worth while the Enix part of the company started re-making its Dragon Quest IP's - quite successfully to.
In my point of view, Final Fantasy XII was a huge disappointment in both terms of story and originality. Sure it was astounding graphically, but the rest didn't impress. It did nothing to separate itself from the rest of the CRPGs.
More recently SE tried to explore new IPs in the form of: "Infinite Undiscovery" and "The Last Remnant" but again failed to impress.
Honorable Mention in this Section: I mentioned the famed Dragon Quest IP from Enix, but could not end without mentioning the Star Ocean IP which has delievered very solid games over the years.
The future...
Now SE has acquired the dying Eidos Int. and gained a few new IP's in the process, if they will correctly cash in on them or not remains to be seen.
As for what's to come, no one can really tell... Final Fantasy XIII, although graphically astounding, seems to follow in the blandness of Final Fantasy XII and that can never be good. The MIA Final Fantasy Versus XIII keeps me more hoping than XIII for the series. But then again, I can always be wrong. Still, as long as Dragon Quest remakes continue to sell like hotcakes, I don't think SE will be in any trouble soon.
The rest is up to them, and we will watch it unfold as gamers we are.
[FIELDSET="BioWare - One of the bastions of the West"]
With the release of Dragon Age: Origins incoming, nothing better than a overview article into their past to celebrate.
1. Origins and Rise.
BioWare was formed by Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, all medicine graduates. BioWare Corp. was formed in 1995, and in 1996 the company released its first game: Shattered Steel. It was a MS-DOS game and according to BioWare it was the first game to feature deformable terrain effects.
The company's first big hit out of many was Baldur's Gate. It was their first RPG and was based on the AD&D rules (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a variation of the original D&D and the root of all RPGs) and drawn on the "Forgotten Realms" which have given us unforgettable world as in the two "Baldur's Gate" games and Neverwinter Nights. Baldur's Gate was incredibly well received as the first game that applied correctly the AD&D rules. Before releasing Baldur's Gate II though, BioWare ventured back into the action genre and released MDK2: a fun, action-packed game. On the same year as MDK2, BioWare released Baldur's Gate II. As expected, the game was a success and a clear improvement on the first game.
BioWare proceeded to cement their name as an RPG-developer with their last "Forgotten Realms" game, Neverwinter Nights. The game was an utter success and spawned 2 extra expansion packs, plus one DLC. Neverwinter Nights was awesome due to the number of classes it had, plus its "Special" Classes that could be unlocked given that your avatar cleared all the pre-requisites. It's still a classic, must-play game nowadays.
2. The Next Step.
By the time BioWare released their next game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, their reputation had grown to the point that everyone was expecting them to deliver another mind-blowing experience. They delivered. KotOR was an awesome RPG, and it finally broke free from the shackles of "Forgotten Realms" showing that BioWare could tell a great story even outside that well established universe. It was the first game in the BioWare/Microsoft deal, and BioWare's releases gave strength to the original XboX.
The second game in the aforementioned deal was Jade Empire. This was the first game in which BioWare created their own universe and gave it life, and again they delievered an awesome experience with lots of replayability. It featured even better graphics than KotOR which was a pretty mean feat in itself, if we consider that KotOR was pretty well looking.
3. BioWare goes Next-Gen.
The XboX 360 arrived and with it, the last game in the Microsoft/Bioware deal was to be published, Mass Effect was the name.
Mass Effect was a huge success, almost like all other games by the company and it took story-telling a step further, just as graphical prowess as one of the best-looking games on the system.
On the same year as Mass Effect was released, EA bought BioWare and made it another of its units. Fear struck BioWare fans that thought this buy-out would spell the end of BioWare's quality seal. Fortunately, it seems those fears were unfounded and BioWare is one of the strongest studios under the EA label.
4. The Future.
BioWare is about to release Dragon Age: Origins on PC/PS3/360 and from the look and early reviews of the game, it seems like the game is another instant classic. After the release of Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 (360/PC) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC) will be released in 2010 and from the looks of it, BioWare is growing to become one of the best studios in videogaming history. Not bad for a bunch of Medicine graduates
1. Origins and Rise.
BioWare was formed by Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, all medicine graduates. BioWare Corp. was formed in 1995, and in 1996 the company released its first game: Shattered Steel. It was a MS-DOS game and according to BioWare it was the first game to feature deformable terrain effects.
The company's first big hit out of many was Baldur's Gate. It was their first RPG and was based on the AD&D rules (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a variation of the original D&D and the root of all RPGs) and drawn on the "Forgotten Realms" which have given us unforgettable world as in the two "Baldur's Gate" games and Neverwinter Nights. Baldur's Gate was incredibly well received as the first game that applied correctly the AD&D rules. Before releasing Baldur's Gate II though, BioWare ventured back into the action genre and released MDK2: a fun, action-packed game. On the same year as MDK2, BioWare released Baldur's Gate II. As expected, the game was a success and a clear improvement on the first game.
BioWare proceeded to cement their name as an RPG-developer with their last "Forgotten Realms" game, Neverwinter Nights. The game was an utter success and spawned 2 extra expansion packs, plus one DLC. Neverwinter Nights was awesome due to the number of classes it had, plus its "Special" Classes that could be unlocked given that your avatar cleared all the pre-requisites. It's still a classic, must-play game nowadays.
2. The Next Step.
By the time BioWare released their next game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, their reputation had grown to the point that everyone was expecting them to deliver another mind-blowing experience. They delivered. KotOR was an awesome RPG, and it finally broke free from the shackles of "Forgotten Realms" showing that BioWare could tell a great story even outside that well established universe. It was the first game in the BioWare/Microsoft deal, and BioWare's releases gave strength to the original XboX.
The second game in the aforementioned deal was Jade Empire. This was the first game in which BioWare created their own universe and gave it life, and again they delievered an awesome experience with lots of replayability. It featured even better graphics than KotOR which was a pretty mean feat in itself, if we consider that KotOR was pretty well looking.
3. BioWare goes Next-Gen.
The XboX 360 arrived and with it, the last game in the Microsoft/Bioware deal was to be published, Mass Effect was the name.
Mass Effect was a huge success, almost like all other games by the company and it took story-telling a step further, just as graphical prowess as one of the best-looking games on the system.
On the same year as Mass Effect was released, EA bought BioWare and made it another of its units. Fear struck BioWare fans that thought this buy-out would spell the end of BioWare's quality seal. Fortunately, it seems those fears were unfounded and BioWare is one of the strongest studios under the EA label.
4. The Future.
BioWare is about to release Dragon Age: Origins on PC/PS3/360 and from the look and early reviews of the game, it seems like the game is another instant classic. After the release of Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 (360/PC) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC) will be released in 2010 and from the looks of it, BioWare is growing to become one of the best studios in videogaming history. Not bad for a bunch of Medicine graduates
[This article is just the opinion of one man and an opinion is worth just that. All feedback is welcome, any suggestions or correction can be stated in the comments or via PM]
