Squaresoft released FF VII, VIII, IX and X within just 4 years

>Squaresoft released FF VII, VIII, IX and X within just 4 years.

How?

Other urls found in this thread:

gamingunion.net/features/5250/the-history-of-square-enix-the-formation/
escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/3700-Two-Rules-For-Square-Enix
shmuplations.com/ff6/
ca.ign.com/articles/2002/11/25/square-and-enix-merge
rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2003/042503e.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

Better days. Better times.

Reuse of assets. They are the assassin's creed of jrpgs.

/thread

Aren't most of the areas pre-rendered 2D backgrounds?

Considering how IX is the only good game out of that bunch, maybe they shouldn't have rushed out those games. Or make them to begin with.

this desu
FF7 was mediocre as hell while FF8 is FF2 tier in terms of broken shit

Thanks for the sick opinion, Captain Shittaste.

4x the staff they had in like 2006

the staff they have now is maybe 30% of 2006

Go look at the artbook for FF7 alone,
there are AAA studios who put in less work today than those japs did in 1997

9 was another project they branded mainline during development.

What this guy says And keep in mind, they weren't trying to reinvent the wheel every game for no reason. They knew what they were best at and stuck to trying to enhance it each he while providing a huge stellar game and world.

You forgot about Vagrant Story and FF Tactics in that time too.

Name a single reused asset from any of those 4 games.

Chocobo melody.

>You oughta get that paternity test, Davey.jpg

>I was 7 years old when those games came out
There was no reused assets between those 4 games. Retarded children should fuck off back to 9fag.

>forgetting about the best games square made
Man I gotta replay Assley Riot Adventures soon

oh boi dat sure speed up development hey boi? :^)
>talking about squaresoft outside /vr/
it's like you want retarded posts

final bait 8

> Retards don't realize how much more advanced video game technology is these days
> Retards don't understand how much more investment and risk is involved in putting out triple A games these days compared to a decade or more ago

Please

Final Fantasy VIII was basically a bunch of the unused ideas from FFVII. And it obviously had a hastily written story. FFVIII also had a bunch of people from other teams come to work on it. Most famously they took people away from the production of Xenogears and Chrono Cross.

Final Fantasy IX was done by a different team. FFX was being made by the FFVII/VIII team while FFIX was being made.

Basically, you didn't have just one team working on one game.

Driven by an honest motivation, not greed

Reusing assets
also development of VII started in 1994 or something

Why do you think they went bankrupt afterwards?

what a retard

maybe if you weren't a 8 year old fuckwit at the time you would know.

what? you could release four games at once and it means nothing if you don't take development time into account
faggot

Because they spend all their money on The Spirits Within.

Except that's bullshit. They were already negotiating the Enix merger long before the release of the movie.

Hahaha, Square fans really think this?

Stop posting

They didn't.

>it's a "underage Sup Forums tries to discuss pre 2010 vidya" episode

Glory days.

Now they overthink it and I think the team is divided or certain people no longer work on the series.

>Source: my ass

stop accepting phallic objects into your throat

please do show us those reused assets from VII, VIII, IX and X that speed up development so much.
underage retard

>mfw whole last gen was marked by FF13

Maybe you should stop posting. Because he's right. FFXV wasn't developed and released in the same year. Neither was FFVII.

>dat feel when Vagrant Story was probably Square's best written game ever

give final fantasy back to hawaii

Not that guy, but while FFVIII and beyond did have a lot of unique assets, that's not saying much. You can hire more artists and speed up development time of a game. FFVIII and IX did however use a modified version of the FFVII engine. Programming and story takes far more time than making textures and models. And FFVIII clearly shows that programming and story was an afterthought.

Exactly.
They were in negotiations for the merger because it was profitable for both companies.

The fiasco that was The Spirits Within actually delayed the merge. Both Square and Enix waited for a commercial success after that to continue the merge. It was after the commercial success of FFX and KH1 that both companies decided they were at their high.

Jesus fuck I should fuck of back to /vr/.

>tfw they never made a sequel
I wanted to go on Trenchcoat Riot adventures so bad.

it's really matsuno. he clearly doesn't write the same type of stories as other jrpgs writers and inspired by western stuff.

Who are you arguing with? Nobody said they were developed in 4 years, nor brought up XV.

What's your problem?

That's not what I asked.

The post I quoted mentioned reused assets.
I asked which assets were reused because it's the simplest way to shut up an underage retard parroting bullshit.

Copy paste like CoD, Farcry and Ass creed. Take off them nostalgia goggles.

I would point out how wrong you are but From faggots using expressions like """""reused assets""""" and believing square went bankrupt and that another company would want to MERGE with a bankrupt company this shithole is clearly ridden with retarded 20 year old faggots that grew up playing minecraft.

OP started this thread implying its an amazing feat that Square released four big games within four years. But those games weren't made in a four year period.

Note, I'm not saying it isn't amazing. In fact, its even more amazing when you factor in all the side games Square had like Legend of Mana, FFTactics, Bushido Blade, Musashi, etc. Not to mention Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve and Xenogears were arguably high cost productions as well. But you still need to measure these games based on development time, not just the year it was released. Just like you need to look at FFXV being a 10 year game, not just a 2016 game.

oh look another retard.

gamingunion.net/features/5250/the-history-of-square-enix-the-formation/

>The merger between Square Co. and Enix is now history, but it was originally considered as much as three years before it became a reality.

There are some more sources in that article, but they're mostly old news bits from RPG fan sites. Those in turn link to even older sources, many of which you won't access without the Wayback Machine.

Not the guy you're replying to, but squeeeenix can't delegate and prioritize. they love more to announce shit than actually make it.

the fat cuck actually was on point about this
escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/3700-Two-Rules-For-Square-Enix

You know there is a massive difference between "considering" and "negotiating" something, right?

two of them were shit.

read
Square didn't went bankrupt and the merger was a win-win situation for both companies.
The spirits within flop actually DELAYED the merge because guess what fucktard, no company wants to merge with a dying company.

God you're retarded as fuck.

It's funny how literally anything with turn into an argument on Sup Forums.

Even if that's the case, the fact that a company like Squaresoft would even attempting to make a deal should have raised some red flags. Remember, they were Enix's biggest competitor as a publisher in those days. Why would they want to merge if business was going well for them - especially before The Spirits Within even came out?

this
/thread

VIII and X, obviously.

Fags will refute this.

read
You're so stupid it hurts.
It physically hurts.

As they say, never change a winning team.
This was a bunch of dudes being on a roll, doing what they do best. I can only imagine what it must be like to be so good at your craft that you just keep producing. Hope I'll get there someday.

"If I say something that sounds plausible, it must be true!" Fuck off

shmuplations.com/ff6/

>What were some of the challenges you faced in terms of creating a new Final Fantasy, distinct from the previous entries?

Oota: Well, for our systems, we didn’t use any of the data or routines from FFV. No one told us we couldn’t, but we all decided we wanted to make our own. So although the visuals may resemble FFV, everything under the hood is completely different.

> That's kind of a staple of the Final Fantasy series, isn't it? Each game looks similar, but the content is very different.

Oota: I think it’s because the team changes for each game. It isn’t really about pressure from fans; rather, everyone has a certain pride about not wanting to do the same thing as others. We all hate thought of resting on someone else’s laurels, so the next Final Fantasy is always something new.

Inazawa: It’s a bunch of B blood types, as you can see. (laughs)

You clearly have no concept of what a merge is.

The business was going well for square.
THE MERGE GOT DELAYED BECAUSE OF SPIRITS WITHIN, can you understand that you retard fuck? Enix backed on the merge because no one wants to merge with a bad company. They decided to merge after the commercial success of FFX and KH1.

Well, son, games use to be a lot easier to make back in the day.

Bullshit senpai

>Planning sessions for Final Fantasy VII began in 1994 after the release of Final Fantasy VI. At the time, the game was planned to be another 2D project for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi intended the story to take place in modern New York City in the year 1999. Several of the staff members were working in parallel on Chrono Trigger, and development for Final Fantasy VII was interrupted when the other project became important enough to require the help of Yoshinori Kitase and other designers.
>ome of the ideas originally considered for Final Fantasy VII ended up in Chrono Trigger instead. Other ideas, such as the New York setting, were kept unused until the later project Parasite Eve.
>Development of Final Fantasy VII resumed in late 1995, and required the efforts of approximately 120 artists and programmers, using PowerAnimator and Softimage|3D software and a budget of more than US$30 million. Final Fantasy VI’s co-director and scenario writer, Kitase, returned to direct and co-write Final Fantasy VII and was concerned the franchise might be left behind if it did not catch up to the 3D computer graphics used in other games at the time. Production began after the making of a short, experimental tech demo called “Final Fantasy SGI” for Silicon Graphics, Inc. Onyx workstations. The demo featured polygon-based 3D renderings of characters from Final Fantasy VI in a real time battle.

>AAA games from a decade ago weren't also at the peak of technology and development practices
>Retards think that it was somehow less difficult to make mirrors work in old games which also pushed the limits of their hardware compared to in new games where devs just don't bother

End yourself.

Holy shit son you're a special kind of dimwit.
Let me explain this to you....Rule: no company wants to merge with another company that's doing bad.
Back then square and enix were both giants doing fine. They decided to merge because they could monopolize the rpg market.
But then square fucked up with spirits within.
Spirits within delayed the merge. Not the other way around. Remember the rule? Good.
So now square needs to be back in shape before they can merge with enix.
They make final fantasy X and kingdom hearts. Get a lot of money and square is again a good business partner. They merge.

Get it now?
> It was announced on November 25, 2002 that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to officially proceed. As described by Yoichi Wada "Square has also fully recovered, meaning this merger is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height."
>ca.ign.com/articles/2002/11/25/square-and-enix-merge

>Youngshits unable to fathom several high tier releases in a short period.

I feel sorry for you guys.

Out of those 4, sure they're the bottom 2

Shame literally over half the story was scrapped.

They were on his prime

I am now sad, thanks OP

>TO's story is 99% human characters, human motivations, and human war
>The last 1% is suddenly WE WUNNA SUMMON DUH OGRE FROM HELL 2 TAKE OVER DUH WORLDZ

Why, Matsuno?

What parts of his argument is bullshit? All the stuff you just quoted doesn't have anything to do with his point. In fact it kind of helps it, as your quotes are pointing out that multiple teams were working on different games at the same time.

>Hand-drawn backgrounds for 3 of those games
>original models for even basic enemies in all 4
>original plots in all 4 that have nothing to do with each other

huh? I guess they use the same terminology like fire,fira,firaga but...

Enix was doing fine, but Squaresoft was already reporting losses for two years straight in 2000 and 2001. FF9 and FF10 were pretty much the only things even remotely sustaining them. A lot of top brass were leaving, their business model was fucked, and they didn't release any good games between 2000 and 2001 that weren't FF9, FF10, and Vagrant Story. Enix merged with them because they saw that their IPs were salvageable, even if the company wasn't.

it was a time before microsoft ruined video games

user, enix and square were doing fine in 1999 when conversations about a merge started.
The only thing that made square bleed money in 2000 and 2001 was the flop that was spirits within and the time during ffx development.

Enix didn't bought square. That would be a case where the IP could be salvageable but not the company.
Enix and square merge. And for that to happen, both companies need to be doing good.

Again, that's why spirits within delayed the merge.
The merge was delayed because square start loosing money.

source
rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2003/042503e.html
ca.ign.com/articles/2002/11/25/square-and-enix-merge

you seem to be implying that the merge was because square was doing bad, when although it's what many believe, it's the complete opposite.

not that guy but it is simple
>companies going great
>merge

>one company doing shit
>no merge

>square and enix wanted to monopolize market
>both printing money
>merge

>square lost money after spirits within
>enix wouldn't touch it with a 20 feet pole

>square makes finaru fantasi x and kingodun hartsu and makes money again
>they merge
It is this simple. At this point I assume you just want to be right and have the last word.

He's right though. Older games were much simpler. They didn't have physics, computed lighting, bone based animation, advanced particle effects or even 3d meshes. The workload has increased substantially for a AAA title, developers employ hundreds of people for a reason.

>you seem to be implying that the merge was because square was doing bad, when although it's what many believe, it's the complete opposite.
Pic related seems to point elsewhere.

>The only thing that made square bleed money in 2000 and 2001 was the flop that was spirits within and the time during ffx development.
And Wada killing half their IPs to focus all in on Final Fantasy. The problem that led to Square needing a bailout wasn't Spirits Within so much as them putting their entire companies future on one IP. The two decades before, Final Fantasy was their leading IP. But they had dozens of other IPs, many of which sold over 1-2 million units. But as the PS1 era went on, more and more money was put into AAA budget FF games and taken away from smaller games. Instead of having a dozen IPs that could sell 10-15 million units, they put everything on one game expected to sell 6-8 million units and a movie. Even with FFX being a massive success, they were making less money than before.

So eventually they merged with Enix. And...proceeded to put Wada in charge of the combined company. Who did the same exact stupid things he did that led to the merger in the first place. Cannibalizing smaller IPs to put more money behind Final Fantasy and its spin offs.

>2000
that's where you're both wrong.

in 2000 square was doing fine.
square reported financial losses in 2001 due to Spirits Within. it was after these losses that the merge was postponed.
square and enix were talking about merging before the spirits within fiasco this in 2000. then in 2001 square fucked up with that movie and enix flees. after square is profitable again because now it's making money with X the merge gets green light.

All that is actually automagically done with modern day engines. Back in the day everything had to be coded from scratch using really autistic programming languages similar to Assembly. It was apparently a pain in the ass which is also the reason why japanese market dominated, they had more experience and talented programmers.

physics, particles, 3d, everything is pretty much easy to make and even outsource as most cheap countries have cheap retards that can do that with minimal education.

Making games is cheaper than ever: you need less people, that people require less experience/knowledge and there's a variety of platform deployment options to make independent companies able to ship retarded 2D games and sell millions.

The current problem is not that videogames are more complex now, the problem is the changes society is suffering. Leftist cucks created a culture of "working hard is for retards", so everyone want to chill, higher salaries are paid to cover positions where people just browse facebook and reddit and stuff. WW3 will fix this shit when all those fucks die and the economy is again kickstarted.

>you seem to be implying that the merge was because square was doing bad, when although it's what many believe, it's the complete opposite.

"The original Square Enix Co., Ltd. was formed as the result of a statutory merger between Enix Corporation and Square Co., Ltd. on April 1, 2003, with Enix legally absorbing Square. Each share of Square's common stock was exchanged for 0.85 shares of Enix's common stock."

Squaresoft was still struggling, though they were making money again. They were still worth less than Enix was. A pretty big blow considering in the PS1 era, Squaresoft had 5x as many games and profit as Enix did.

How does it point elsewhere?

It's just an interview talking about the loses.
Mate, I posted source on how enix backed down on the merge because square was doing bad.
I also posted source on enix and square continuing the merge because square and enix were at their high.

It's a really simple economic concept.
No company doing good merges with a company doing bad.

But jesus fuck take the bike. Believe what you want, god forbid you learn anything today.

in a ratio of 1-0.85. clearly one was more valuable in market than the other. you do realize how that exchange value means both were close in terms of market value right?

While overall baity and stupid, there are many gems of truth hiding in this turd of a post.

>in a ratio of 1-0.85. clearly one was more valuable in market than the other.
Yes? That was part of my point.

>you do realize how that exchange value means both were close in terms of market value right?
No, they weren't? Square's stock was worth 15% less than Enix. That's not close. That could be billions of yen.

this

>Following the success of both Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, the company recovered to stability and the company recorded the highest operating margin in its history in fiscal year 2002. It was announced on November 25, 2002 that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to officially proceed. As described by Yoichi Wada "Square has also fully recovered, meaning this merger is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height."

now get this
>Despite this, some shareholders had doubts about the merger, notably Square's original founder & largest shareholder: Masafumi Miyamoto, who would find himself holding significantly less if the two RPG behemoths go through with the deal. Other criticism came from Takashi Oya of Deutsche Securities who expressed doubts about the benefits of such a merger. "Enix outsources game development and has few in-house creators, while Square does everything by itself. The combination of the two provides no negative factors but would bring little in the way of operational synergies, he said."

And now the financial solution to what was basically a shareholders problem of liquidity
>Masafumi Miyamoto's issue was eventually resolved, by altering the exchange ratio of one Square share for 0.81 Enix shares, thus greenlighting the merger and on April 1, 2003, Square-Enix was founded.

But sure, square was going bankrupt.
enix merged with a bankrupt company because that would make sense somewhere. whatever you want user.

Not the same guy but you're making a huge confusion between a stock market value and a stock exchange liquidity value.
I don't know how you came to the conclusion that square stock market value was inferior in 15% but that's not what a 1 to 0.85 stock-to-stock equivalence means.

btw sameguy here (You)

Nowhere in that sentence does this
>"The original Square Enix Co., Ltd. was formed as the result of a statutory merger between Enix Corporation and Square Co., Ltd. on April 1, 2003, with Enix legally absorbing Square. Each share of Square's common stock was exchanged for 0.85 shares of Enix's common stock."

means that squaresoft was still struggling. When a merge occurs, sure one of the companies will be more valuable than the other but they need to be viable on their own.
Ultimately you're trying to ignore the definition of what a merge is; get this, no company would merge with another company that was struggling. It just wouldn't. It would buy it instead.

they were. being developed much before

The fuck are you doing?

it's fucking crazy that FFX was released only 4 years after IX. 1997 to 2001 felt like a whole decade for vidya

I deleted my original post but copied it first...it's clear.
My English isn't perfect but the lower case letters after the periods were bothering me.

>Square-Enix makes expensive photorealistic movies, call them "games" and sell them 80 USD on release
>user, please understand, technology has progressed since the early 2000s
Come on, now. This isn't a difficult thing to grasp.

This.
I remember magazines at the time saying stuff like "after a long wait this will be the new final fantasy" because a 4 year period was too long.

>Older games were much simpler. They didn't have physics, computed lighting