Better company: SquareSoft or Enix, Prior to their Merger?

[James]

This sort of comparison seems to be getting popular lately so I thought it was about time to see what the rest of you guys thought was the better company back in the day.

Enix had: Dragon Warrior/Quest, Star Ocean, The 7th Saga, etc.

Squaresoft had: Final Fantasy, The SaGa series, Chrono Trigger, etc.

Personally I prefered Squaresoft up to the begining of the Playstation era before they let go alot of their good tallent and started releasing sub par Final Fantasy games, etc. Since then I have prefered Enix because they never really lost it until after the Merger. Both companies have offered alot of good software titles over the years and I think this should be a good topic for the community. As of now I no longer have a favourite company from back in the day and the merger shocked me about as much as Sega making games for Nintendo shocked me, maybe we'll see Capcom and Konami get married too. I hope not but who knows.

[link1110]

Enix had the better PS1-era games, but you can't touch Square during their 16-bit golden era.

[DynastyLawyer]

Enix always struck me as a really boring company on their own. Actraiser was fucking badassed, but the Dragon Warrior series always failed to impress me.

Squaresoft, on the meanwhile, was doing well UNTIL Chrono Cross. There was a time where you could buy a game with "Squaresoft" on the front and you'd almost be guaranteed a kick-ass game. That said, Squaresoft probably has the worst record for direct sequels out of anybody. But before the merger, they focused on doing creative shit, like FF Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Xenogears. Even their flagship series, Final Fantasy, was varied to all hell.

What amazes me is the same guys who produced Chrono Trigger 10 years ago merged into one company, and with their fates now permanently financially entertwined, they have yet to produce a fucking decent game.

[PDorr3]

I simply cannot stand square enix, they have yet to release a quality title in MY OPINION. Sure some people like FFX-2, but its just not my cup of tea. Look at what they have released, all the games that have come out from them get horrible (unlimited saga) to OK impressions (full metal alchemist). Heres hoping that FFXII is in the right direction. I really do miss squaresoft and fear we will never see a true traditional FF game ever again.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Square's 16-bit era was IT

I think we would have had a better understanding of Dragon Warrior if it was released more in the USA...I still wonder how DW5 and 6 was like

[GobopopRevisited]

They were both very cool... I lost track of both though when they entered in to the PlayStation Era. Enix was better at releasing original games though. Brain Lord, Dark Half, that Robot one... and I like the Soul Blazer games a Lot better then Seiken Densetsu, same with Dragon Quest / Final Fantasy. I'm going with Enix (...Or maybe Quintet, Westone, Tri-Ace, and Chun-Soft?).

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Enix had the better PS1-era games, but you can't touch Square during their 16-bit golden era.

And there you have it in a nut shell. I really gotta admit that I thought Square drop the ball during the PSX ara. Now, it's not like they didn't come out with some amazing games mind you ( namely Xenogears and FF tactics), but they weren't nearly as good a company as before, atleast not IMO.

[SoulBlazer]

Aperently no one who thinks Square Enix has'nt made any good games has yet to play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories or Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

But the better company before the merger? I like both, but I give the nod to SquareSoft.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Aperently no one who thinks Square Enix has'nt made any good games has yet to play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories or Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

But I have played all those games.

[PDorr3]

Aperently no one who thinks Square Enix has'nt made any good games has yet to play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories or Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

But the better company before the merger? I like both, but I give the nod to SquareSoft.

Well FFT:A was a good game....and I have yet to play the others, but they are mainly an opinion on wether they are good or not, not everyone likes card based battles

[Querjek]

Square, for making the best game ever.

[Dahne]

Eh, I got bored of FFT:A. Most types of games play well with any challenge level. Strategy games have to be hard, or else there's no point. And the race restriction and the skills attached to items annoyed me.

I miss the weird, random games both companies used to make. Robotrek, Illusion of Gaia, Brave Fencer Musashi...

[Daria]

Square's 16-bit era was IT

I think we would have had a better understanding of Dragon Warrior if it was released more in the USA...I still wonder how DW5 and 6 was like

So go play them. 6 is more "pretty" then good, but 5 is right up there with 4.

I've always loved the Dragon Warrior series, and there isn't of game of theres that they've put out that I didn't like. Wait... no I take that back. Torkeno's Last Hope or whatever it was called for the PSX wasn't very good. It was a random dungeon explorer like Azure Dreams or Time Stalkers. Course it helps that I started playing the series when DW1 first came out, so there is that nostalgia factor whenever I pick one of the games up. So as one hopeless fangirl against many, I'll vote Enix.

SoulBlazer: While Square made FFTA they really just bought out Quest who made FFT and had them make the sequal under the Squaresoft name. And Star Ocean is develped by Tri-Ace and only published in the US by Square. And even Kindom Hearts GBA was co-developed in cooperation with Jupiter (they made pokemon pinball and Mario's Picross).

Square mades games, are rarely even made by Square these days. They just throw around enough money to have games made for them. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as long as good games are being made I don't care by whom. But at least credit the right group for a job well done. (:

[SoulBlazer]

I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about the modern situation when most of the large companies just PUBLISH games as opposed to actually MAKING therm.

I don't think Square and Enix have actually MADE a game in their OWN house for quite a while now. But that's no different from all the other large gaming companies. Some 75-80 percent are made by smaller companies working for them.

[Super Mario Fan]

I love me some Super Mario RPG, so I'm going to have to say Squaresoft.

One of, if not the best game I ever played. I don't care what anybody says about, it still makes me feel fuzzy inside to this day.

[MegaDrive20XX]

So go play them.

Make me! :P

[Daria]

So go play them.

Make me! :P

If you'd turn on your aim I would.

*readies the roms*

[MegaDrive20XX]

So go play them.

Make me! :P

If you'd turn on your aim I would.

*readies the roms*

Oh you have AIM? I didnt know that... Sorry I had to close it, because about two months ago, so many spammers kept bugging me, send me a PM and I'll add you ok?

[WanganRunner]

I'll just break it down by system, I guess....

NES: Enix
SNES: Square
PSX: Square (Xenogears is my favorite RPG of all time, and I LIKED FF7, unlike seemingly everyone else on the board)

I'm a big fan of FFT:A, especially with the save-anytime function. It's the perfect portable strategy RPG. I play it sitting at home quite often, even when I could be playing something on a home system.

[Aussie2B]

First off, let me say that I absolutely fucking HATE this merger. God, how I wish things could go back to them being separate companies. I understand that it's smart from a business standpoint, as Enix saved Square's ass and now profits from all the Square titles that sell well in Japan AND in the US, unlike Enix's titles that would usually only appeal to the Japanese.

Anyway, before PlayStation, I was absolutely in love with Square and they could do no wrong in my eyes. However, once Square moved to PlayStation nearly everything about the company and its games changed. I really hated Square in the PlayStation days, and I considered pretty much every game they put out as crap. Once I play Final Fantasy Tactics, though, I realized that they could still release SOME good games, but they're few and far between. That's basically how I still feel about Square.

Enix on the other hand, I really started to appreciate in the PlayStation years. I don't think I played any Enix SNES releases until years after the SNES was dead and I was able to buy many of them used. I guess it was tri-Ace that made Enix for me since they're the only publisher tri-Ace has ever had. I also got into the Wonder Project series, so that was another reason to love Enix. Finally, I found reasons other than games to enjoy Enix once I started buying lots of Enix-published Japanese comics.

So yeah, in conclusion, I have much respect for Enix and very little for Square, so that's why I hate the merger. O_o