By Kalila 2013-09-01 23:48:46
I keep Square and SE separate. Square worked on everything up to midway into XII, then they lost millions on the movie almost bankrupting them. Enix "teamed" up with them, but owned more of the company, where they then started making every Kingdom Hearts game on every handheld. They took over XII, and ruined what amazing potential it had. XII's fundamentals were still in place, but SE ruined the story and other parts of the game by rushing it out to make some money. Understandable I guess, if you're just picking up a company almost dying, you're going to want to make some money off of your risk.
They mooched off of XI's profits, and started making their own FF game, but split it up into 3 different parts. Again, to make money off of the name. I have very mixed feelings over XIII, but after going over the story again it wasn't all that bad. I don't prefer it over previous games though.
I honestly think that XII could have been the best Final Fantasy game if square could have just finished it. The potential it had was absolutely amazing, and is still great to play. The directors of Final Fantasy Tactics and FFIX worked on it, and you feel both influences very heavily while playing it. Just the story... meh.
I'm rooting for Yoshi-P, the new director. They are having a very rough time right now, not that they don't deserve it, but again the project was obviously rushed out before it was ready. By having investors fund your project delaying it isn't exactly an option, so I get it, it just wasn't ready. It's been very emotional for them and I was hoping that it would be working during release, and for the most part it is, except the server issues. They're fixing it soon, and if it actually solves it then I'm okay with it, if it doesn't then there is serious problems for the future of XIV.