Former Squaresoft President Calls SE a "Complete Failure" with "No vision."

[ForceStealer]

With Square Enix posting losses in its latest earnings, former Square Co. boss Hisashi Suzuki thought this would be good a time as any to kick the company while it is down.

Via Twitter, Suzuki didn't hold back, claiming that the total value of publicly traded stock is not higher than it was before Square joined with Enix. According to Suzuki, "The merger was a complete failure. There's no vision for the future." He ended his tweet by pointing to Square Enix's recent losses, adding that development costs were heavy.

Suzuki was the president of Square from 2000 to 2002, before the company merged with Enix to form Square Enix. He was a Director at Square Enix from 2003 to 2005, and he is currently a Director at Sega, a former Rakuten senior exec, and a blunt Twitter user.

Damn. I will say that Sega is a bit of a glass house from which to throw stones at Square, but I suppose Sega has been on a slight up and up lately. Still, I've never heard of this guy before. The headline, of course, made one think of Sakaguchi.

 

[Geostigma]

So Squaresoft was run by Captain Obvious? lol

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Sounds like they could use Captain Obvious again. Or a legacy hero version of him, at least.

 

[AvecAloes]

From what I've found on the web, he stepped down from the Presidency after the major loss that was FF: The Spirits Within, and was only a non-voting board member when the merger happened. I'm guessing he's feeling some bitterness about that whole thing

Spoiler: sauce

http://videogam.in/people/Hisashi_Suzuki

 

[Ⓐaron]

I've never heard of this guy, but I like the cut of his jib.

 

[Carlie]

Every time I hear The Spirits Within this happens:

 

[Tennyo]

Oh come on, Spirits Within wasn't that bad. It's release just wasn't handled properly.

 

[Roger]

It was pretty bad. SE is making better products then friggin' Spirits Within these days. Some crucial ones aren't released outside of Japan or at all but...

 

[Ite]

When the Final Fantasy pedigree had titles I-IX, Tactics and Mystic Quest, you bet your ass Spirits Within was a huge disappointment. And it's not entirely its fault, each title raised the bar higher, the only thing it could have done was lower it. I mean, it didn't have to throw the bar on the ground, give us the finger and say "Just try to anticipate FFX now!"

Nowadays, SE makes games that are worse than their movies. That's fucking baffling to 2001-era me. And no surprise that even the geniuses behind TSW are laughing.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I like TSW a lot for what it is (a 100-minute movie exploring a concept given a lot more attention in FFVII and FFIX, and even a little bit in FFX). As much crap as it is given for being "the beginning of the end," folk nostalgic for Sakaguchi's era forget that TSW's failure was pretty much entirely his fault.

Maybe that's why we never hear him talking junk about their present direction. He must know that his mistake led to the changes within the company that bring it up to the present.

"A brilliant game designer. An ambitious dream -- that became a terrible mistake. Having opened Pandora's Box, he now seeks redemption in exile. Thus -- he walks a lonely road as ... the Mist Walker."

I just created a new 80s TV show.

 

[Shademp]

As much crap as it is given for being "the beginning of the end," folk nostalgic for Sakaguchi's era forget that TSW's failure was pretty much entirely his fault.

Although I don't have enough info about Square's history and economy over the years, my current assessment is that TSW marks when Square became a company rather than a "visionary game design centre". In the 1980's the company almost went into bankruptcy but then Sakaguchi + team saved it with the first Final Fantasy. Vision was yet again rewarded with FFVII when a shitton of money was spent on that; the failure of FFVII might have meant the end of the company.

Then with TSW came the wake-up call. "Holy shit spending money on great vision is dangerous and it would be hubris for us to continue down our old path!" Exit Sakaguchi.

The history of Square is obviously more complex than described above but this is how I like to think of the company's timeline.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It's a good summary, actually. Sakaguchi was regarded as a visionary both within the company and industry. Of course shareholders didn't question him when he wanted to do a CG (people loved the FMVs in the games) movie (movies can make a lot of money) with "western sensibilities" (Hollywood movies can make a whole lot of money).

Cue box office failure, Sakaguchi resigning in disgrace, and the new direction.

 

[ForceStealer]

And if he had only named it differently...it still may very well have lost money, but I can't help but think it wouldn't have been QUITE the bust it was, as we discussed in our commentary.

 

[Cthulhu]

Well, at least you have to give them props for trying; spending hundreds of millions into a cutting-edge fully CGI movie, something which hasn't been seriously attempted on that scale since, targeted at a worldwide audience, as far as I can recall. All-CGI movies are a rare artform, an expensive one, too, and a major financial risk if you don't make it about talking animals or other nonanimate objects and target it mainly at children and families and/or target it on the Japanese market primarily.

So, props for that. And it wasn't a terrible movie either.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Are you guys really saying The Spirits Within is better than recent SE games? I've liked all FF(and KH) games so far, though if you're talking about non-FF or KH games, then you might be right. I don't know about the quality of SE's non-FF and KH games because I've never played any of them.

 

[ForceStealer]

Ite's just difficult.

 

[Geostigma]

I like TSW more then AC.

It actually has color, albeit in mostly sepia tone is much better looking aesthetically then AC's pure grey/blue tones.
They had a lot of great concepts and a real plot imo its probably one of there better films

 

[ForceStealer]

For the record, in case you haven't seen it, Advent Children Complete does have more color. It's palate is the same, but it is more colorful.

 

[Geostigma]

Never saw it.
I became incredibly close minded with SE products after AC came out

 

[looneymoon]

TSW definitely succeeds more as a film than AC does imo.

I find it hard comparing it to games Square released FFX and after though.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

I've never seen The Spirit's Within, though AC was pretty cool. I've heard The Spirits Within is terrible though. Haven't Seen ACC yet, though I do plan to eventually, I've heard it's better than the original. But I'd give AC a 4/5 stars.

 

[Ⓐaron]

The Spirits Within isn't bad. Certainly didn't deserve to be the box office flop that it was. Not exactly a masterpiece (although it set a standard for computer animation that arguably to this day has not been topped), but it still was a lot better than it's usually given credit for being. I personally think if it hadn't had the Final Fantasy name on it, it wouldn't have been judged as harshly as it was. People have certain expectations from the name Final Fantasy that weren't contained in this film, so they probably lashed out at it as a result.

 

[Dawnbreaker]

That.

Had it not been titled (or mis-titled imo) Final Fantasy it would probably have fared a lot better. Final Fantasy has a huge history attached to it, and to have a movie that barely talked about it disappointed me hugely. I know, I know people will scream 'no fanservice!' but if they didn't care to treat with fanservice why even associate it with Final Fantasy at all? They could have done just fine with The Spirits Within. At least some people wouldn't have felt like they were misled (I know at least I felt that way...).

 

[Drax]

Are you guys really saying The Spirits Within is better than recent SE games?

Gameplay-wise, I think it would have been on the lines of X, except really scifi, moreso than VII. It felt like the climax of some *cough* Novela Chrysalis type arc, like there had been a sequence of buildup games/40 hours of gameplay before it took place.

Spoiler

Also really abrupt at the end, could have used some epilogue.

It would have been the scifi survival horror Final Fantasy. Which would have been awesome.

 

[Clourline]

Are you guys really saying The Spirits Within is better than recent SE games? I've liked all FF(and KH) games so far, though if you're talking about non-FF or KH games, then you might be right. I don't know about the quality of SE's non-FF and KH games because I've never played any of them.

That's cause you are stupid. you should try more.