RipTen Videogame Blog » Square

A Brief History of First Impressions

Gavin Bard — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:30:48 +0000

Depending on who you ask, first impressions can either be incredibly important or just very important. There really aren’t a lot of people who will tell you a first impression doesn’t matter. For example, once a long time ago I went to send a resume and portfolio to a site I wanted to work for. I copy and pasted the website where my portfolio was located and sent it to the editor post haste. Only after I irrevocably hit send did I realize that the link I included was not to my portfolio, but instead was a link to award winning transsexual porn star Bailey Jay’s website.

Two days later I had the job- and that is the story of how I got hired by RipTen.

So, clearly, first impressions matter in the real world to real people, but do they matter to gamers? The almost ethereal and mystical creatures that we are? I’m sure this is something that 38 Studios is thinking about right now. With the first game that 38 Studios has had its hands in, Kingdoms of Amalur, less than 24 hours away, 38 Studios is probably crossing their fingers that the gaming public considers their debut a good one. Big Huge Games, the other half involved in Amalur’s development, already has made their first impression with the critically acclaimed semi-historical real-time-strategy Rise of Nations.

It is interesting to look back on companies in our little hobby and see what kind of first impression they made, especially since many of them were pretty inauspicious. At least I hope it is interesting, because I spent like two hours Googling this stuff when I should have been thinking of what I was going to write about today and was kind of hoping to make some lemonade out of my internet ADD. I hope my editor doesn’t read that last part. [Ed. - Sigh.]

Square – The Death Trap
In 1984, while Ronald Reagan was saving punk rock by doing all kinds of dreadful things in America, Japan saw the seeds sown that would eventually grow into one of most iconic game companies of all time. Before Square was their own independently operated company, they were the software division of Denyūsha Electric Company. I couldn’t find any confirmation if “Fargo North, Decoder” was involved in Death Trap’s production though.

The Death Trap was an interactive fiction game with adventure game mechanics for the PC-88. It involved the player inputting some simple commands and making some decisions in order to navigate the plot. A plot that, since it was the 80s, was of course related to the cold war.

The game sold so well that less than a year later, Square developed their a direct sequel to it named Will: The Death Trap II. Even in those early days, Square loved themselves some sequels. While Will didn’t sell as much as the original, it was still a commercial success. By the time Square developed their third game, the awesomely titled Cruise Chaser Blassty, they had become their own company. Now, you may not know this, but Square went on to develop a couple other games since then. You may have even heard of a couple of them!

Enix & Chunsoft – Door Door
Enix- the current ying to Square’s, well, other ying I guess- was established as a publisher of home computer games in 1982. They then employed the rather unusual, and eventually quite successful, tactic of holding design contests where they offered a whopping million yen for people who submitted the winning games. Enix used these contests to find talented developers and began to hire them for projects, many of which included polishing the chosen winners from those very same contests.

The very first winner, and thus the first game officially published by Enix, was a game called Door Door by Koichi Nakumura. Originally released on the PC-88 but eventually given a Famicom port, Door Door is a puzzle game with heavy reliance on platforming and strategy. You control a small creature in a baseball hat named Chun and try to keep him from being killed by a bunch of colorful aliens. In order to keep that from happening, you need to trap them by opening doors and then closing them after the aliens enter them. This is much more difficult than it sounds those, as doors can only be used once and then they are locked for good. Door Door is the literal definition of “Japan hard.” It was also wildly popular.

While Door Door was quite successful, a few short years later Nakumura would go on to found Chunsoft and, with another winner of Enix’s design contests by the name of Yuji Horii. would create a little game by the name of Dragon Quest. I’m pretty sure Japan has built statues in their honor because of that.

Capcom – Vulgus
Vulgus, aka Deadpool’s favorite Capcom game, was released for the arcades in 1984. Like a large amount of Capcom’s early titles, it is a vertical scrolling shooter. Comparatively to later games in the genre, it is very basic. There are no power ups, only a few levels, and even the difficulty isn’t as challenging as you would expect from a game like this. Eventually, Capcom would branch away from shooters and find their arcade success in other genres, namely fighting. Also I guess Mega Man is pretty cool too.

Of all the debut games here, this one might be the one the average gamer is most likely to have played. Vulgus has been included in numerous Capcom collections on everything from the Saturn to the PSP, as well as being name dropped in at least two Vs. Capcom games that I can think of. No idea if Deadpool will ever convince them to make that sequel though.

BioWare – Shattered Steel
Before BioWare found their fame in the wild world of RPGs, they started with Shattered Steel in 1996. Shattered Steel had far more in common with Mechwarrior than it did D&D, but it did still show the sparks of BioWare’s attention to detail within their games. Then again, you can’t really do a mech simulator game without having a pretty intricate attention to detail. They don’t make controllers with eight hundred buttons for those games just to be ironic, after all.

Shattered Steel wasn’t enormously popular or anything, but it sold well enough and thanks to its unique deformable terrain and zone based damage mechanics- two things that weren’t very common in 1996- it developed a cult following. BioWare would begin talking about a sequel to the game, but not before they created Baldur’s Gate, which would end up setting them down the path to becoming the developer we know and love them as today. I wonder how different the gaming landscape would have been if Shattered Steel would have been an immense hit? Probably a lot more Battletech games everywhere.

Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad.

UbiSoft – Zombi
In 1986 the gaming world wasn’t as super-saturated by zombie games as it is today. It also wasn’t as saturated by UbiSoft, as they had just popped into existence in the realm of wine and fine cheeses that we refer to as France. Those two Venn circles met and gave birth to Ubi’s first game, a piece of Romero worship by the name of Zombi for the Amstrad CPC. A brief piece of horror history for you- Zombi was the Italian name of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. The late great Lucio Fulci would direct Zombi 2 in 1979, although it really wasn’t a sequel at all. I’d have greatly preferred a Zombi 2 game, mostly for a “press A to pierce a girls eyeball with a wood splinter” scene.

This particular Zombi shares a lot in common with Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. By a lot, I mean literally everything. It is a first person adventure game that plays much like a dungeon craw and takes place in a mall. Most of its major plot points are directly related to things that happened in Dawn of the Dead. It isn’t a bad game, but it is certainly majorly forgettable- and with the hundreds of games Ubi has published or developed since, it is no wonder.

Bethesda – Gridiron!
So, what kind of game do you think Bethesda opened up with? Did you say an American football game? No? Well you should have, because that is the right answer. Bethesda created the first physics based sports game and released it on the Amiga. It wasn’t pretty, even by 1986 standards. The players were crudely represented by dots and there wasn’t much else to the game, but it wasn’t supposed to look like a game of football- it was supposed to play like one. For the first time, the players had mass and speed. Dots would bounce off each other and break tackles in as realistic a way as possible in ’86.

EA would eventually notice and sign Bethesda on to create a follow up to the game. This partnership was not a friendly one though, as Gridiron! 2 Electric Boogaloo was never meant to see the shelves at your local Babbages. Bethesda suspected EA only wanted to get their hands on the physics in order to use them for their own upcoming Madden-related football game and would sue EA for $7 million. It seems that sometimes things never change.

Although I don’t think Gridiron! needed any patches, so maybe things do change sometimes.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Playable Demo Available Now

Catherine Cai — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:00:24 +0000

Final Fantasy XIII fans who demanded a sequel… rejoice. Square Enix has made a playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII-2 available to you on both Xbox Live and the PSN.

The sequel’s demo takes place in Bresha Ruins. You will take control of Serah and Noel and fight Atlas, who has appeared as a result of some space-time dimension bendy weirdness. The demo will also feature the new Paradigm Pack System, which will allow you to enlist defeated enemies to aid you.

What are you waiting for? Get playing.

Behold Square’s Photorealistic New Game Tech (Video/Screens)

Dave Oshry — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:30:06 +0000

Looks as if Crytek may have some competition on the horizon.

Square Enix has detailed their new “Luminous” technology and has been kind enough to bestow some video and screens upon the world as well.

They’re going for maximum DX 11 realism and are pulling out all the stops to create lifelike environments. So far all we’ve seen are urban environments, but they do look quite “real” thus far.

Check out these comparison screens and video below:

Looking good… so far. Only time will tell what Square uses this engine for, but I’d like to throw out a Deus Ex 1 remake as a suggestion ^__^

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Square Enix and their “Luminous” possibilities.

via [Develop]

Chrono Trigger Available Now on PSN

Stephanie Gutowski — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:00:43 +0000

Nostalgia alert!

Chrono Trigger, Square’s 1995 SNES hit is finally available for download on the PlayStation Network. Hailed by many as one of the greatest RPG’s of all time, fans can’t seem to get enough of these ports. Nintendo released a Chrono Trigger release on DS in 2008, but the Sony loyal are just now getting their hands on a port of their own.

For $9.99, this game can live forever on your Playstation 3 or PSP.

Cosplay Spotlight: Eve (Parasite Eve)

Stephanie Gutowski — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:00:04 +0000

Ever played a game so creepy that you felt like only the hottest of showers could purge you of its taint? That’s sort of what Parasite Eve did to me, except that I enjoyed it in some sick way. The word “mitochondria” just makes me feel really bad about myself. Thanks a lot, high-school biology. Whatever. Throw out whatever memories you have of that thing on the PSP. This ancient gem emerges from the SquareSoft vault thanks to Kapalaka’s love of the obscure and the messed-up. Lucky for you, she brought enough nostalgia for everyone.

Oh God, don't touch me.

Giant hands and huge hair are certainly going to get you some attention, especially when you look that creepy. Kapalaka used a combination of popsicle sticks, tin foil, and model magic to create the abnormally-large appendages and styled the wig herself. I’m always a fan of gravity-defying hair and this really is just a spectacular tribute to a lesser-known villain within the Square-verse.

Is Square Enix Gunning For A Rebrand?

Catherine Cai — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:18:32 +0000

Square Enix recently applied to trademark everything under “Square”, a name that retains the same publishing rights as “Square Enix.”

See for yourself. WARNING: Wall of text incoming:

“Square” Trademark: Computer game software; video game software; sound recordings in the form of optical discs, magnetic discs and semiconductor ROMs featuring music and fictional stories; audio visual recordings in the form of optical discs, magnetic discs and semiconductor ROMs featuring music and animated fictional stories; prerecorded compact discs featuring music; prerecorded video discs featuring music and animated fictional stories; mouse pads; straps for cellular phones; video game controllers; downloadable musical sound recordings; downloadable ring tones for mobile phones; downloadable wallpaper graphics for mobile phones; downloadable electronic publications in the nature of magazines, journals and newsletters in the field of computer games and video games. Providing on-line computer games; providing on-line video games; providing information on computer game strategies and video game strategies via computer networks and global communication networks; providing information on entertainment in the field of computer games, video games, card games, animated cartoons, comics, novels and magazines; providing on-line non-downloadable comics; providing on-line non-downloadable magazines, journals and newsletters in the field of computer games, video games, cartoons and general entertainment.

Square Enix Trademark: Computer game software; video game software; sound recordings in the form of optical discs, magnetic discs, tapes and semiconductor ROMs featuring music and/or musical entertainment; audiovisual recordings in the form of optical discs, magnetic discs, tapes and semiconductor ROMs featuring music, animation and/or entertainment; prerecorded compact discs featuring music; prerecorded digital video discs featuring music, animation and/or entertainment; prerecorded video cassettes featuring music, animation and/or entertainment; computer software for browsing and navigating through websites on global communication networks; computer software for sending and receiving messages and electronic mail; computer software for personal scheduling; decorative magnets; mouse pads; straps for cellular phones; sunglasses; memory cards; memory card cases; CD cases; computer keyboards; computer and video game joysticks; video game controllers; downloadable computer graphics software, namely, downloadable wallpapers or downloadable screen savers for the screens of computer displays or mobile phone displays; downloadable computer graphic software containing downloadable animated active wallpapers or downloadable animated screen savers for the screens of computer displays or mobile phone displays; downloadable video recordings featuring cartoon characters and/or video game characters; downloadable musical and sound recordings; downloadable game programs; downloadable electronic publications in the nature of magazines, journals, newsletters and manuals in the fields of computer games, video games and general entertainment.

It seems that Square Enix is aiming to move a lot of their video game publishing rights under the “Square” name. Could this be Square Enix’s attempt to take us back to the golden days, when the games we loved and honored with high marks came from team SquareSoft, or “Square?”

Considering the recent prequel/sequel poo-nami that Square Enix has generated, many fans have been unhappy with this titan studio and Square Enix has consequently experienced major financial losses. Did Square Enix really think we’d forgive them for the Final Fantasy XIV cluster fuck so quickly? It’s going to take a lot more than a name change to turn the Square Enix image around. Hopefully the upcoming Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, and Hitman all prove to be good enough to bring something positive along with the rebrand.

Nostalgia’s not enough to win me over. I might’ve fallen for it once upon a time with all of the Final Fantasy VII prequels and sequels, Squeenix, but it’s time for you to get more than just a face lift to make things right. Maybe throw in a boob job and some lipo and we’ll talk.

[Via Dual Pixels]

Chrono Trigger Coming To North American Wii Virtual Console May 16th

Justin Berube — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:53:01 +0000

Square Enix, Inc. has just announced that Chrono Trigger, the SNES classic, will be arriving on the Wii’s Virtual Console May 16th, 2011. For more details be sure to check out the official press release below!

Want to stay up to date on the latest Nintendo news, information, editorials, and more? Follow me on Twitter @KingNintendoFan or Like Me on Facebook. Be sure to let me know what you think about Chrono Trigger arriving on the Wii’s Virtual Console.

CHRONO TRIGGER TELEPORTS ONTO NINTENDO’S VIRTUAL CONSOLE

The Past, Present and Future are in Your Hands…

LOS ANGELES (May 12, 2011) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in the Americas, announced today that CHRONO TRIGGER® is headed to Nintendo’s Virtual Console™ service for the Wii™ console on May 16, 2011.

Originally released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System™, CHRONO TRIGGER was created by a talented development team – Yuji Horii (script creator), creator of the DRAGON QUEST® series, Akira Toriyama (character design), creator of Dragon Ball®, and the creators of FINAL FANTASY – all of whom were key contributors to the game’s success.

CHRONO TRIGGER has been hailed as one of the greatest games of all time by critics and fans alike. With a unique and multifaceted storyline, the game revolutionized the world of RPGs with never-before-seen features, including an unprecedented soundtrack and multiple endings determined by side quests and the player’s actions.

In CHRONO TRIGGER, the notion of time is turned upside down as players race against it like never before, while all the decisions made along the way will affect the past, present and future.

STORY

When a newly developed teleportation device malfunctions at the Millennial Fair, young Crono must travel through time to rescue his unfortunate companion from an intricate web of past and present perils. The swashbuckling adventure that ensues soon unveils an evil force set to destroy the world, starting Crono’s race against time to change the course of history and bring about a brighter future.

FEATURES

A masterpiece with an engaging and unparalleled storyline, leading to the discovery of multiple epic conclusions to a journey that transcends time

An inspiring musical score created by Yasunori Mitsuda

An intriguing battle system made possible by the unique combination of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system and Tech skills

Famed character designer Akira Toriyama lends his signature art style to create the vibrant world that has captivated gamers around the world

CHRONO TRIGGER is rated T (Teen). Please visit the Entertainment Software Rating Board website at www.esrb.org for more information about ratings. For more information, please visit the official website: http://dlgames.square-enix.com/na/vc.

About Square Enix, Inc.

Square Enix, Inc. develops, publishes, distributes and licenses SQUARE ENIX®, EIDOS® and TAITO® branded entertainment content throughout the Americas as part of the Square Enix Group. The Square Enix Group operates a global network of leading development studios and boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property, including: FINAL FANTASY®, which has sold over 97 million units worldwide; DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 57 million units worldwide; TOMB RAIDER®, which has sold over 35 million units worldwide; and the legendary SPACE INVADERS®. Square Enix, Inc. is a U.S.-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.

More information on Square Enix, Inc. can be found at http://www.square-enix.com/na.

Mario Sports Mix To Include Final Fantasy Characters

Justin Berube — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:15:00 +0000

The official Mario Sports Mix Japanese website revealed today that the game, which is being developed by Square Enix, will feature several Final Fantasy characters in addition to the traditional Mario roster. On the Mario side we see that playable characters include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, and Toad. The Final Fantasy side of the roster will feature a Ninja, Shirma, Croma, a Moogle, and a Cactuar. In addition it seems that players will be able to select their Mii characters.

This announcement should come as no surprise to those who have been following Mario and the Mario developed Square Enix games. Final Fantasy characters also found themselves in Mario’s last Square Enix developed tile, Mario Hoops 3-On-3 for the Nintendo DS.

Mario Sports Mix, for the Nintendo Wii, is currently scheduled for a 2011 release in regions outside of Japan.

Source

Square Enix Apologizes for FFXIV

Rangebar Merani — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:51:28 +0000

Square Enix has finally come out to admit that Final Fantasy XIV is a broken game and is now making it up to those who purchased it before October 25 by offering a 60 day free trial instead of 30.

Here’s what Square Enix had to say:

“We would like to assure players that the world of FINAL FANTASY XIV is constantly growing and evolving, and the voices of the community are essential to that process. The development and management teams are carefully considering all player feedback, and working diligently to implement whatever changes and additions will serve to make Eorzea a better home for adventurers. We humbly ask for your continued support to this end.”

I have yet to try Final Fantasy XIV, but after reading some of the reviews on the net, I can understand why all those who bought the game might be a little pissed off. However, it’s nice to see Square Enix come out and admit that the game is broken and then apologize for it. Hopefully they can get all the bugs and defects fixed soon so that fans of the game can really enjoy what they have paid for.

Here are the Free Trial Extension details:

- Eligibility
Only customers who have registered FINAL FANTASY XIV service account and purchased a character by Oct. 25, 2010 will be eligible for the extension of the free trial period. Customers purchasing their first character after that date will be entitled to the standard 30 day free trial period only.

* Character purchase must be done by 23:59 (GMT) on Oct. 25, 2010 / 00:59 BST on Oct.26, 2010.
* Accounts that have been terminated due to violation of the User Agreement are not eligible.
* If multiple service accounts are registered, all service accounts will be eligible.

- Extended Period
The free trial period will be extended by 30 Days (By combining with the initial free trial period, the total will be 60 days.)

* Both the end date of free trial period and billing start date will be extended automatically. There is no change or update that needs to be done manually. A Reminder Notice will be issued before the billing start date.
* Despite the length of the contract period that was selected, whether it be 30 days, 60 days, or 180 days, the extended period will remain 30 days for all eligible players.
After the extended free trial period has come to an end, billing will be processed based on the selected contract period.
* Even in cases where auto-renewable options have been disabled, the free trial period will be extended and players will be allowed to play FINAL FANTASY XIV until the new end date of free trial period.
* Even if you have already received the notification mail on the end of free trial period and the schedule on monthly fee billing, the extension of free trial period will apply.
* The process of extension of the free trial period within the Square Enix Account Management System is scheduled to take place on Oct. 19, 2010. An announcement will be made once the process is complete.
* After the free trial period is extended, the new billing start date will become available on the Square Enix Account Management System.

Source

Stockholder Drops Support for Square-Enix

Danielle Cantrell — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:02:35 +0000

Square-Enix has been on a mediocre game releasing spree, and it’s definitely showing in their stock. One man, who happened to own 1% of the company, sold all of his shares after seeing Final Fantasy XIV’s quality.

“First thing in the morning tomorrow, I intend to instruct those who manage my precious SquareEnix stock (however little it may be) to arrange to sell all of it. To Square, thank you for the enjoyment of your products up until now, with the exception of this last one. Goodbye.”

Five days later, Square-Enix’s stock dropped $26 million. It’s not hard to tell by the numbers that consumers are unhappy with the company, as seen here and here, their value has steadily been dropping. Honestly, considering the poor quality of the games they have released in the past few years, I don’t blame them.

Source

Call of Duty: Black Ops Censored in Japan, Not Balanced for Gore

Gavin Bard — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:00:34 +0000

At least according to Japan’s Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, all while violent tentacle sex exports go unchecked. Although I don’t think they are the board that controls tentacle rape porn, so maybe I’m just being incendiary.

Square-Enix, the Japanese publisher of Call of Duty: Black Ops, has announced on its website that there will be two versions of the game- a dubbed and subbed version. Square assured that there would be no differences between the two games content wise, and also mentioned that the dubbed version had the beautiful art of limb removal excised from it. Thus, using complicated mathematics, we can infer that both versions have been censored from what the rest of the bloodthirsty world will play. This is a direct reaction to the CERO Z rating that was bestowed upon Black Ops. That sounds way more intense than ‘Adult Only.’ Really, that is either the name of a secret spaceship Japan has developed to protect us from aliens, or Katsuhiko Nakajima’s finishing move. Or maybe it was that move Sara Del Rey does before the Royal Butterfly. Either way it sounds like someone is getting their face censored… with a kick.

The thing is, I share the same stereotypical and generally misguided idea that a lot of people do- that Japan is some wild ~~west~~ east of violent and sexual media, where girls in school girl uniforms roll across the landscape like tumbleweeds. I mean, Japan gave us Kite, and it just seems weird that a country that embraces Kite and having sex with body pillows is censoring computer code being blown limb from limb. So this probably means you can’t buy RapeLay in J-WalMart? I thought you just walked in and gave them your dignity and self respect and they gave you video game depravity with a side of flashing colors, they wouldn’t even card you!

Man, it sure is depressing when your misinformed generalizations of other countries and cultures are put into question.

[Source: Square Extreme Edges]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Gets A Gameplay Trailer

Stephanie Gutowski — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:18:53 +0000

It’s been almost two months since the reveal of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s cinematic trailer at E3. Now Eidos Montreal has something new for you to oggle in glorious hi-def. The trailer demonstrates the first person combat perspective as well as a conversation with a shady-looking old man at an equally-shady bar known as “The Hive.” And there’s killing. Lots of it. Two words: elbow blades.

This seems to be a highlight reel of the playable mission that was made available to attendees at this year’s E3, but the majority of the world had to sit at home during that extravaganza. So for the rest of us, this is a rather big deal.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is expected to hit store shelves in early 2011.

New Kane & Lynch 2 Trailer is “Criminal”

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:04:05 +0000

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is right around the corner, hitting North American shelves on August 17th and the rest of the world shortly thereafter. The game will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Check out the latest launch trailer below!!

Lord of Arcana New Footage

Brandon Fenty — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:25:12 +0000

Lord of Arcana is an action RPG game in the vein of God of War. It also closely resembles Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise. A new gameplay video has made it’s way out into the open, and you can view it here:

Looks like an exciting property, and it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for. The game looks like it’s fun to play. While only the Japan release date has been set (October 14), Square has also confirmed a US release. Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long.

Square Still Trying to Get FFXIV on 360

Dylan Duarte — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:42:44 +0000

We ran a story a while back about possible subscription fee demands being the reason why the Xbox 360 has seen so few MMOs. In that post it was mentioned that Hiromichi Tanaka, producer of Final Fantasy XIV, cited Xbox LIVE’s “closed environment” policy as the main reason why FFXIV isn’t coming to Xbox 360.

Tanaka has touched on that again, saying that they’re still trying to get FFXIV on the system through negotiations, and if they can reach an agreement, there will definitely be a 360 version of the game. Again he mentions 360′s “closed system.” He also said that Microsoft’s guidelines “were not so clearly defined” in the past, suggesting that maybe Microsoft is trying to be more cooperative with developers.

As of right now, the 360 version has “stopped” development for the forseeable future, while the PC version comes out in September of this year and the PS3 version following in 2011.

Obsidian Wants To Make New Chrono Trigger

Dave Oshry — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:22:56 +0000

That’s right. None other than everyone’s favorite vault dweller, Feargus Urquhart has stated that Obsidian has been talking with Square for some time and they are hell-bent on making this a reality. Read on to see everything he, as well as other top dogs from Obsidian had to say.

“I think it would be fun to take the setting of a Japanese RPG, which is a weird mix of fantasy and sci-fi mashed together and make a Western RPG out of that . . . I think that would be cool. I mean it’s kind of like Star Wars, that’s kind of what Star Wars is, a fantasy in space. I think that would be interesting.”

Well Star Wars is certainly a more western idea than most, but how would they turn Chrono Trigger, a classic JRPG into a Western RPG? He told SiliconEra:

“It’s tough because a lot of the Japanese RPGs have very specific functions for everything. There is very specific item progression, very specific class progression, very specific everything. I think… I don’t know I’d have to think about it,”

Well he’d better think about it long and hard. If Obsidian gets the green light to do this and doesn’t come through, we may see Godzilla on our shores very soon.

Meanwhile, Nathan Chapman, Lead Designer at Obsidian had this to say:

“I think we’re going with Chrono Trigger because it has elements of a Western RPG. It’s more open, it’s still mostly linear, but there are parts you can explore more . . . There are lots of differences, like you can beat Lavos at different parts of the game and you get different endings based upon that. There are obvious answers like dialogue trees and all of that good stuff, but the seeds are there for that kind of development.”

We’re going with Chrono Trigger!? Does that mean this is actually happening!? I don’t know about you, but we here at RipTen can’t to see where this story goes!! What do YOU think?

Source: SiliconEra

Square Enix CEO: “Nobody Has Succeeded at Globalisation”

Sam Naylor — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:31:33 +0000

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has stated that he feels the globalisation efforts of the videogames industry have been a failure, thanks to the sharp divide between Eastern and Western cultures.

“We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed. Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalisation,” he told VentureBeat. “But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the western developers to make games.”

“It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans,” he said. “The same goes in Europe and in Japan. These people who are deeply rooted in their own cultures can engage in their own dialogues. The mistakes I have seen so far are when Japanese people try to do everything the Japanese way, using Japanese workers in different areas of the world.”

Wada feels that Square Enix are doing a much better job of creating a global market. “We acquired Eidos,” he said. “By doing this, we have incorporated them in our group. They have become part of our family. It was not like we acquired slaves. In fact, the former CEO of Eidos is the European head of Square Enix. Eidos as a studio is treated as completely equal as the studio in Japan. What I wanted to do is create an environment where completely different ethnic groups can coexist in the same company.”

Of course, he seems to have completely forgotten about Nintendo, who have absolutely cracked the global market. How could he forget about them?

[Via EDGE]

More Pretty Screens From Final Fantasy XIII

Sean Mitchuson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:15:06 +0000

I am a little late getting to this since I have turned off the Internet at my house, but looks like Square Enix has released some new (a month ago, but if you haven’t seen them yet…) shots to get you all excited or upset at the latest Final Fantasy installment.

No real information comes with the screenshots, just names of characters and that is about it. Hope you like looking at pictures, cause that is about all the info there is. That gun the girl is carrying is pretty cool looking though.

Check them out over at Famitsu.

PSP Review — Final Fantasy: Dissidia

Sean Mitchuson — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:15:02 +0000

I decided after getting my Japanese stimulus check that I should use it for something good, like video games. I chose to pick up another new PSP and the games Final Fantasy: Dissidia, and another secret game that I will review at another time. Dissidia turned out to be more than I thought it was, which was great. The game looks beautiful, plays pretty well, has a mediocre story, and lots of extras to keep the player interested.

The Basics

Dissidia lets you control one of ten characters from the first ten Final Fantasy games. Some are main characters and some are not. There are a couple secret characters as well but I won’t be dropping any hints and ruining it, so if you wanna know who they are, sorry! As you complete the game you can unlock the ability to play the bad guys that are also a big part of the game. All in all, though, there are 22 characters to choose from, so it’s a pretty decent selection.

The story is a pretty standard affair. Good, evil, crystals, and fighting. There really isn’t too much to say about it, it’s really just there to keep the game rolling instead of moving constantly from fight to fight for no reason.

The Fighting

The battle system in Dissidia is very action orientated. This is very different from the RPG games that the characters involved in the game are used to, but if you have played Kingdom Hearts or Crisis Core you will pick up on the combat really quick. Combat can become repetitive if you just feel like winning as opposed to trying different things with your character.

As you level up you unlock and master abilities. You can completely change the play style of each character from how they act when you start with them, but it takes so long to get into the interesting abilities, you have already programmed you’re muscle memory to a certain play style so it may make you feel weaker to change it up a lot.

Each character has two modes in battle. One is your regular look which you will see most often. As you beat on your opponent, though, they lose small crystal flashes or something which you collect to fill your EX gauge. When that gauge fills, you can go into “EX mode” which is a buffed version of your character with a different outfit (which is usually a lot flashier). Also, your special attacks get much more interesting in this mode.

Square really thought about its fans with the EX attack. Each character has their own cut scene-style special attack — you participate in this attack which reminds me of the limit break attacks. You either do a combination button press, or a button mash, etc. to try and get a perfect attack. Those of us that aren’t very good at these sorts of situations, have no fear — there is an ability the characters learn at later levels that does this automatically for you, but as another neat little thing thrown in by Square, until you master the ability, the character can screw up the limit break.

You also get the ability to equip armor and weapons on the characters along with rings that make the character stronger throughout the game. Something I didn’t like about this was nothing changes on the character when you equip new stuff. Something I really liked in FF7 and beyond was seeing a new weapon in the characters hands when I upgraded, not a big deal but it would have been nice to see.

The characters to me are very unbalanced. This is honestly not a con to me. It just means that I will have an unfair advantage against some characters and others will have an unfair advantage against me. This may ruin the multiplayer mode for a lot of people, but really that mode isn’t the point of the game or even really focused. It does make the story mode annoying sometimes when you get stuck on a character that you aren’t good against and they just mash you into the ground for hours at at time.

Some characters are able to easily tear through the game. Onion Knight, for instance, has moves that really don’t require you to get near the enemy if you don’t feel like it, thus winning every match for you easily. Characters like Squall and Cloud seem really weakened and are expected to get in rather close to fight their opponents. Their specials are nice, but working up the combo takes a lot of work. The characters can level up to 99 which I thought would take a very very long time. Luckily, as you level the stuff the character can do scales up so you are always gaining large amounts of experience for them. I took Warrior of Light from level 45 to 89 in about two hours on a lazy Saturday.

Graphics, Music, and Other

The graphics are superb in this game. Models look a little sharp and jagged but as this is a PSP game, this is to be expected. Otherwise the game has very well done cut-scenes and character design in general is rather pretty. The music is all songs taken from the games and some wonderful vocal tracks for important boss battles. Honestly, though, if I have to hear that choir sing about Sephiroth one more time I’ll probably smash the game.

The main point of the game, it seems, is to play until you unlock everything. One of the first things you do when you start the game is tell it what day you will play the most often and how often in general you will play. This will help you get through the game faster and help you unlock more items in the catalog.

The PP catalog is where you unlock all of the goodies that come with the game after you finish the story mode. You can unlock all the “evil” characters to play with them in quick battles, unlock items for the calendar, unlock icons to decorate your multiplayer card, etc. There is a ton of things to unlock, and of course after you unlock a bunch of different things, you unlock the ability to unlock more stuff, so you need to play the game more to pay for the rest of the stuff.

All in all this is a really good game. It is a bit repetitive, though. You fight the same battles over and over for ten stories with five chapters each. I think the average amount of fights per “chapter” is around five so that is 25 fights a story, at 10 basic stories that is 250 fights. Those ten stories, though, aren’t the end of the game, and you have a few more modes to go through to clear all the fights. To even begin to unlock everything, you better be ready to play well more than 1000 matches.

On the Ripten scale I give this an 8. It’s easy to pick up and play whenever, and you get a lot of fan appreciation. It can get boring, but it is just a fighting game, the only reason there is a story seems only to force you into taking a break every few minutes.

Dragon Quest IX Has Wi-Fi Shopping

Sean Mitchuson — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:26:09 +0000

The newest bit of info to be listed over at Famitsu says that with the Wi-fi connection you can go shopping for items online. This is an interesting idea and allows for a lot of modification on the server side. The game may not be coming out for another five months almost but the info keeps on a flowin’.

Every piece of news that comes out for this game makes waiting for July that much harder. When the news came out that you could interact with other people over Wi-fi I was happy that they were using the abilities of the DS but upset that there really wasn’t a reason to do it other than to say hi to people on your DS, and show off what you have done.

Now that you can go shopping this adds another level to even connecting with people. The news states that you should probably access the online shop each day because items will be on rotations and new items will appear in the shop. You should also connect with friends and shop at their store because they might not have the same set of items that you do, causing massive amounts of people to be bouncing between all their friends stores.

If that isn’t enough to get you excited there are still two more little tidbits. The first being that there will more than likely be holiday related items in the stores to buy for your character. Christmas and probably New Year’s being the big ones at first. The second bit is that they are also adding downloadable quests like the Monster Hunter series has had for a while. This should really boost replayability of this title.

Source: Famitsu