Some of you may or may not agree with what I am about to say but I'll put it out there anyway: Enix have killed the quality we used to expect from Square.
Square(Soft) brought us tons of great titles but I will be using the Final Fantasy series for the sake of a timeline.
So from 1 through to XI they were all developed by the Square I used to know and love. Sure, a few have the SquareEnix name on the cover, but weren't created by the same team that rubs its ****-stick all over what we're left with now-a-days.
Since the merger with Enix, they've churned out crap. I honestly can't think of a good Square*ENIX* game at all.
FFX was created by Squaresoft and was the last good offline Final Fantasy.
FFX-2: Atomic Kitten Vs Evil. This (rather shamefully) was also created by Squaresoft, despite having the SquareEnix name on it in Western countries as the merger happened between the Japanese and North American releases.
FFXI has the dirty Enix brand written all over my box. But again, it was developed and released (in Japan) before the merger took place. You could argue that some of the expansions have been created by the SquareEnix team, rather than Square alone, but it's not particularly difficult to when you've got a firm foundation to work on.
FFXII is the first Final Fantasy I never completed in the numbered FF series. It's also the first to be created entirely by the SquareEnix team. I was running around as a bleach-blonde Michael Jackson acting camp and being extremely whiney. My friends in the game were a rabbit and a snob that looked like Posh Spice and David Beckham and I'm sure there were a few more too, but I honestly don't want to try to remember too much.
FFXIII I hear is actually quite good. But then I also hear that you have to sit through 20 hours to get to the good bit. Frankly, I sat through about six and decided enough was enough. The characters were the worst I had encountered for a long, lo-- since FFXII. I wasn't too bothered when I died in that game. I actually felt like I was doing the world a favour. Utter tripe.
FFXIV is the reason I'm on the forum. I played XI on and off for six years and enjoyed it so much when I did. SquareEnix seems to have taken everything we disliked about XI and put more emphasis on it now. Example: Rangers crying out for an auto-shoot button in XI. Come XIV and they've taken out auto-hitting things completely! Now you'll struggle to have a chat with your pals whilst attempting anything at all. Brilliant. I'm not even going to mention the new trading system and lack of Auction Hous-- Oops. Well, I won't go in to it anymore.
So, to summarize. Enix, the company which bought you the SUPER-DUPER-FABULOUSLY-BRILL Dragon Quest series has kicked the door off the hinges, stamped into my world and trashed all I loved about Squaresoft in the process. And I hate them.
Thanks.
Edited, Oct 3rd 2010 7:57am by Unohana