Re:
Nick Hunter said:
IMO, is more since Squaresoft merged with Enix and Nomura became almost the central figure in SquareEnix. Not that I have anything against Tetsuya Nomura, I love his designs.
I get the impression that Sakaguchi left because Square was taking a path that he didn't feel confortable with. Square games have changed a lot overtime, which is not necessarily bad - just different. Truth is, they're squeazing their franchise more and more overtime. Not that I really mind - I'm a big fan of their franchising, after all ;) Although, I really do miss Squaresoft. And I think I understood Sakaguchi better when I played Lost Odyssey.
Lost Odyssey is a classic Final Fantasy in a different console with different character designs. It even has Nobuo Uematsu composing the music. It was conceived by Sakaguchi himself with all his freedoms and we got ourselves a game for those who miss Squaresoft. It doesn't bring anything new to the gaming panorama, but for lovers of classical RPG and old Final Fantasy fans, I believe it might be a treat. If Sakaguchi rebeled away from Square (
) to conceive with such a classical tendencies, it is to be understanded that it was probably because Square was (and clearly is) stepping away from those classical tendencies more and more. It's not necessarily bad, IMO, it's stepping further into inovation. But at which cost?
About Team Square, I'm sincerely looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy XII had huge inovations, starting with a great combat system, but disappointed me immensely because lacked what most defined the series up untill then - a heart. There were good characters, but extremely undeveloped, for instance.
Mistwalker did the extreme opposite. There was little to none innovation whatsoever, and, while Lost Odyssey isn't an
OMFG masterpiece (ran a little cold after the first DVD...), it had a huge heart. It made me cry in several occasions and I, personally, value that quite a lot in my preferences :aww: (hence, perhaps, my flair for Kajiura?).
I prefered Lost Odyssey to Final Fantasy XII. That's why, now, I'm quite curious about Final Fantasy XII! Did our Squeenix managed to mature into their position and give us the game we're hoping for?!
How nice, I planned to write a short paragraph only... How did this happen?!