Day 29: Favorite video game developer.
It is with intense annoyance that I have to say Square Enix or as I like to call them Squeenix. Beginning as Squaresoft, the company nearly became defunct and on the verge of declaring bankruptcy back in the 80s when they released what they thought would be their last game, aptly titled Final Fantasy. Fortunately for them (but unfortunately for avoiding irony), the title was a huge success and not only for saving the company, but also defined/redefined the genre of (J)RPG.
More than thirty years later, now as Square Enix, they’re still going strong at least in terms of still being active and relevant. I believe a good fan should also be a good critic, and I have been quite critical of some of Squeenix’s decisions.
This. They decided to make this into a VR game.
But like Nintendo, we keep getting caught…hook, line, and sinker.
I’m so sorry…
Though I do have to admit, I’ve fallen victim to the fad of judging based on other’s accounts, which is what I did with Final Fantasy XIII. I’ve never played it, but not long after it came out, I hopped on the bashing bandwagon due to listening to people whose opinion I thought was worth something, since they, too, were huge Final Fantasy (especially VII) fans, but I should have known better, based on the derisive things they said about Final Fantasy IX Thankfully, I’ve met people (and one specific person) who’ve shown me the error of my ways, and though I’ve yet to play XIII, I’m at least going to give a chance. You’d think by this point in my life I would’ve learned not to judge things entirely on other’s opinions until I try them myself, but that pesky “J” in INFJ likes to rear its head in all instances even when it is most inopportune.
I love to judge, but I need to make sure when I do so, I have all the facts.
So while Squeenix might annoy the hell out of me at times, I still have to begrudgingly admit that they’re my favorite developer.
Honorable mentions to Nintendo and BioWare.
Who is your favorite developer? Do you have as complicated a history as I do with mine?
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
Capcom maybe? As controversial as a lot of their games seem to be these days, they’ve been bringing me amazing games for 30 years or so and don’t seem like they’re going to be stopping any time soon. Crossing my fingers that they never end up like Konami…
I was the same way about FF13 too until I picked it up for sale on a whim. It happens.
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I will have to go with Blizzard since they are who I’ve played the most video games by. By most I mean 8 years+ of World Of Warcraft and dabbled in Diablo 3.
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WoW is still going strong and not leaving anytime soon!
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True. I reached a point though where I wasn’t having fun anymore and much rather spend my extra time reading and baking. 🙂
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Feed the mind, feed the tummy!
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Feed it full of fries and frosties!
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I dunno… The more I think about sitting in a VR boat with VR Gladi-oh-my, the more this fishing game doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to me… 😀 (Don’t hurt me!)
But yeah, it’s so easy to get caught up in the hate mobs. And hell hath no fury like the internet’s hatred for FFXIII. I can’t figure out why so many people hate it with such passion. For a long time I refused to admit I liked the games online, for fear of getting trolled into oblivion. I’m so glad I didn’t know about the hate before I played it, else I may have jumped on the bashing bandwagon too. I had picked it up in a discount bin (it was cheap, it looked cool, and had “Final Fantasy” in the title) and forgot about it for months. During a dark time in my life when I was struggling alone with panic attacks/depression/intense fear of death/unhealthy lifestyle, it just randomly popped in my messed up head that I should try it out. The moment I first saw that cranky L’Cie smash her way through everything, my mind settled completely and I became absorbed in her story. She looked so badass and I wanted to be strong like her, haha. The more I saw the more I noticed she seemed to think like I did, and made the same mistakes I did. Watching Lightning grow into the Savior of her entire world inspired me to become someone better in the real world. With Lightning charging my heart, I was able to turn my life around. Whenever those dark feelings start creeping up on me again, she reminds me that “I control my fate”. I’m honestly not sure where I’d be today without this epic trilogy. Oh and it was after I beat the games that I learned what MBTI & INFJs are (whole life = explained, haha)
Uh sorry…. Anyway, my whole point is that I have a very special emotional connection to this game world, which could very well be clouding my judgement of it (and why I get so upset when I see people mindlessly bash it). Even considering that, I don’t think the games deserve all the hate they get. All 3 of the games offer radically different (and IMO fun) gameplay styles, pretty graphics, and a very interesting story. Everyone sees things differently though, and I can totally understand why veteran FF fans don’t like this direction. I’m glad my ramblings have at least convinced you to give XIII a fair chance! I hope you like it, and please don’t hate me if the games do indeed suck for you, haha.
And to finally just answer the damn question, other than Squeenix, definitely old school Rare when they were owned by Nintendo. That team created Banjo Kazooie, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker’s Bad Fur Day (don’t tell my parents I played that at a friend’s house 🙂 ), Donkey Kong Country, etc. Their games got me hooked on gaming as a child. I must also give a shout out to Blizzard for WoW. I spent literally months of my life over 8 years in that beautiful world. I haven’t played it since 2015, but I still get the urge to go back every once in a while.
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I’ve seen Gladiolus. Would not kick out of bed for eating crackers mmm lol!
I wouldn’t admit my love for VII/Sephiroth for years. I know it seems like now I’m constantly shouting it loud enough to pierce the clouds (pun intended and yes I AM that evil 😈), but it’s blogging and the support I’ve received through that that’s brought that out. It, too, came to me at a dark point in my life. We have very similar FF stories! Just for a different FF and bad ass character ❤️
The franchise is going to change with the times, and I think it’s something we need to accept. But can I just get turn based. Come on! Lol.
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He could very well sell me on this Final Fantasy Fishing game!
Yeah sorry… I didn’t mean to go all emotional in my comment, haha. No one I know IRL has any idea how special Lightning is to me. They just know she’s my favourite video game character. Blogging is a great way to express how I truly feel about everything, and I’m eternally grateful for the supportive folks I found here! Oh and I just about died laughing at that pun! The more trolls compare my shero to Cloud boy, the more I want to see him get impaled by the Great General. 🙂
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You can get as emotional as you want! When something draws out your passion, don’t stifle it; it’s there for a reason 🙂 I’m always at the risk of getting emotional whenever I talk about FFVII (hence the puppy in that one post. It got super intense whew). I…think a few people know my true feelings about Sephiroth, but many just assume he’s my favorite character and villain without knowing the deeper details, and well it’s not like I don’t have it all over my blog for the world to see. I’m of the opinion of if you want to know me, you’ll figure out that I express myself better in writing, read my blog, and know the truth lol. I’m not going for the mysterious angle, and tbh if I’m asked point blank pretty much anything, I’ll answer honestly, but I feel as though in real life I can’t just go gushing about my fictional character love, but on a blog, well, people *choose* to read blogs, so I can write what I want, people can choose to read it, and there you go.
The makers of Final Fantasy do a great job of not making their main characters the same. Even though Cloud and Squall are moody-broody, they still have distinctive personalities and distinctive reasons for being like that. It’s like some players can’t differentiate and/or don’t care. Lightning (what is with the weather names and melancholy?? Hm, I may have a theory about this. Stormy skies. Bad weather, dreary mood) has other reasons for being the way she is. Soooo if they can see the difference between Cloud and Squall, why is it so hard to see it between Cloud and Lightning. Oh yeah, sexism *fumes*
I was reading an article about how in medicine women are often treated as doctors would treat men, which you can guess goes over REALLY well. I really think this extends in a way to everything. People look at a female character and they HAVE to compare them to a male character. Like Rey in Star Wars: TFA was CONSTANTLY compared to Luke and came up short. Like people were bitching about how she was such a Mary Sue, but it’s totally okay for Luke who has never left his home planet to be some ace pilot and fighter? Because he shot at whomp rats? Which makes him sound like he’s disturbed? Really?? But Rey who’s been living on her own for most of her life can’t be skilled with a sword even though it’s not that different from the staff she’s been using. It’s like men are allowed to have their own narratives and being distinct entities, but women have to constantly be compared to them. It’s so irritating.
Well…there’s MY rant of the day lol.
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Thank you! My instinct is always to stifle emotions and I always regret letting them out when I do. I seem to forget how well that usually works out for me… The way you talk about FFVII and the Great General is so inspiring to me 🙂
I noticed the “moody” weather triangle with Squall, Lightning, and Cloud. There’s a design on redbubble I’m trying really hard not to buy on a shirt. I’ll DM it to you on Twitter!
Lightning is most definitely the victim of this stupid sexism thing that makes me very angry! I had an interesting conversation with my tattoo artist about this yesterday actually. She had noticed all the hate while she was researching Lightning’s character. She has similar discouraging experiences and even thanked me for giving her the opportunity to meet Lightning and tattoo her on someone. 😀
If FFXIII came out today, I can guarantee you there would not be as much of a shitstorm. I know Aloy is better at showing how she feels, but she is very similar to Light. Everyone loves her though because society is more accepting of a strong-willed female lead. There’s still a long way to go though. I really need to watch Star Wars TFA soon. Gaming is always my primary form of entertainment so I neglect other mediums. That rant was epic though! You go, girl! 🙂
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I saw the shirt! I love it. FF loves its weather names. There’s also Snow, and I think there’s another one, but I’m blanking on it.
Ugh, your tattoo artist probably wondered what dank part of the internet she wandered into.
I think you’re right. Lightning was a female MC after a long line of dudes. FFVI is the only one that could *possibly* have a female MC (or MCs), though there are some people who think it’s still a guy (Locke), which I think is hysterical. The focus of the story is on Terra, the magic girl, and then Celes later on. Locke has this protective connection to both of them (and in fact Celes and Locke are a canon couple), but he’s not the main character. I’ll probably have a nice argument for this when I replay and review FFVI.
So I just did some googling to see dates to corroborate my argument. FFXIII came out in 2009 (almost ten years ago!), and Hunger Games came out in 2012. Katniss’s whole motivation is to save her sister, too, and she’s an aloof, seemingly cold female protagonist who’s not really interested in either of the guys who are supposed to be her love interest, but she’s quite beloved so played by Jennifer Lawrence.
If XIII came out today, I don’t think it would be nearly as big of a deal. Lightning helped establish that motif, but it really does baffle me how guys can have have acted like that forever and are afforded all kinds of concessions. I can even bring Sephiroth into this, because him being sympathetic at all has a great deal to do with people being willing to look below the surface. They couldn’t do that with Lightning?
Once you watch Star Wars: TFA and look at some of the comments about Rey, you will totally rage.
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I think Rain from Brave Exvius counts too!
Hopefully I’ll have played FFVI by then so I can appreciate your argument! Having read Hunger Games, I can tell you Katniss and Lightning could be sisters they are so similar. But yeah, it’s been almost 10 years and trolls still won’t shut up about how much they hate FFXIII. Get over it, seriously. Let me have one FF trilogy with a shero I look up to in it. It’s back to the dudes with FFXV so why keep bashing my girl just because you don’t understand her? Sigh… 🙄
I think I’ll watch Star Wars TFA this weekend. I want to watch Steven Universe too but I can’t find a good way to watch here in Canada, the streaming media dead zone, haha.
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I think he does. He’s not that moody-broody, unless his father comes up *cough cough* Tidus *cough* Hm, Tidus sounds a LOT like “tide,” so he might count, too. It’s not a weather event so much as a natural event, but it’s a sliding scale/continuum.
If we ever happen to be in a discussion about FFXIII/Lightning on Facebook and any friends of mine say anything (one particular one comes to mind), I have the smite hammer at the ready. I may not have played the game yet, but I know Lightning and FFXIII mean the same thing to you as Sephiroth and FFVII to me. I’m not having it.
It’s almost like they went back to the sausage fest in response to the Lightning bashing *grumbles* It’s like the polar opposite like gamer dudes couldn’t handle that a female hero kicked ass, so they had to have FOUR dudes to combat that. Pathetic lol Bashing things you don’t understand seems to be the way the peasants deal with things. I see it with FFVII all the time. Because it’s confusing, some people want to shit on it. It’s like, it’s not the game’s fault that you don’t get it. I’m not mad at astrophysics or string theory because I don’t understand it. I don’t want to start a flame war over coding in C++ because I was inept at it. It’s like using an ad hominem attack when you have no argument, which is pretty close to what they’re doing. I respect people who give me *reasons* for why they don’t like something or it wasn’t their cup of tea, but this goes back to understanding the difference between having something be your favorite and having it be the best Sometimes these are one and the same, but many people don’t realize that what you think is the best can also be subjective. I do agree with the Well-Red Mage that there is a way to distinguish quality from just what you like/enjoy, and we can discuss or even argue the quality and “goodness” of a narrative, but objectivity is still difficult, and people should recognize that biases are hard to ignore. Sephiroth is still the best male character *runs away*
I hope you got to watch TFA! Hm, damn…I know three seasons of SU are on Hulu (accidental rhyme!), but yeah, the rest would be streaming. There’s kiscartoon.io, but it gives you some wonky popups and I don’t know how virus-y it is. It has every cartoon under the sun, but enter at your own risk.
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I thought of “tide” with Tidus too! Especially since the annoying little bugger kind of washes into Spira with the tide at the start of the game.
Aw, I really appreciate your Lightning support! Depending on my state of mind, mindless FFXIII hate has the potential to make me very sad like a wuss, or rage like a cranky fangirl. More often the former 😦 If I ever see anyone badmouth the Great General or the iconic FFVII, you better believe they will witness the full wrath of my Super Snow Punch!
I often worry that Squeenix regrets creating Lightning because of all the hate. 😦 They really broke the traditional JRPG female mould with her. She has no love story, she doesn’t dress to be eye candy (I’m pretending certain outfits in LR don’t exist, haha), she hides her emotions, and she has a protective warrior’s heart. She may be misunderstood by many, but I really connected with her character. And OMG I hated C++ class, but I’m not going to attack it because I don’t understand it either, haha. It’s almost impossible to not have a biased opinion. IMO, the FFXIII trilogy is an easy 20 out of 10 and Lightning is the best protagonist in the history of video games, ever!! 😀
I didn’t get a chance to watch TFA yet. I’m planning to Friday! Canada isn’t good enough to have access to Hulu…
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I’d hope they don’t, because it’s definitely misogyny fueled, and if Squeenix wants to remain relevant, they won’t give into trolls like that *fumes*
Oh what was I watching today about film theory…there’s something. Ah! I remember now. So I was watching this film studies YouTuber Lindsey Ellis who does this awesome videos about well everything. She has this series on Michael Bay’s Transformers that’s quite informative. One of the videos concerns the question of why there are no lady robots in the movie. The half-assed answer one of the film people said had to do with how they’d explain that to movie goers. Soooo you can have alien robots that transform into cars that are all coded and called male, but having a female one is farfetched. Right. The whole idea that it would have to be explained says a lot about our culture. Because them being male doesn’t need explanation, but if you had a female one, then all of a sudden you do.
This pretty much expands to everything. Whenever you have a female character in what people consider a typically male role, because a lot of people seem to have forgotten that FFVI has a female main character though the main is a little ambiguous so there’s argument, people, well, usually male people want an explanation for it. Because you’re playing an RPG where you’re assuming the role of the character your playing, and dudes find it hard to relate to anyone who isn’t a dude, because they’re so often centered whereas women and minorities are so used to seeing people who aren’t their demographic that we have no choice but to relate to them. This is why you get guys completely forgetting what Star Trek is about to bitch about an Asian woman in the pilots seat and scream that PC and diversity are ruining everything, because the things that were always about them are no longer always about them. It’s ridiculous, but it’s also like if you raise a child to be spoiled, then all of a sudden you take away his favorite toys or tell him he has to share to be fair, there’s going to be a tempter tantrum.
More daily rants!
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I absolutely loved this rant!! You are 100% correct and I’m really sick of reading temper tantrum comments from those whiny idiot trolls. It’s time to share the damn spotlight so just deal with it! I’ll have to check out Lindsey Ellis too. 🙂
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You won’t be surprised with my answer…Bioware.
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BioWare! Woot woot!
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Mine goes to Insomniac. I don’t love everything they do but I am always interested in what their next project is and they created one of my favorite series of all-time.
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It’s like having a beloved radio station! You don’t like every song, but you know the next will probably be good.
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BioWare (surprise), but I’m also quite a fan of Konami 🙂 But wait, you mean to tell me you’re not looking forward to Final Fishing?
…also, at the risk of being “that person,” the “J” in “INFJ” just refers to how folks with that personality interact with the world. Judging means that a person enjoys organization and control over the environment, and can be very systematic in the way they do things. They are appraising (i.e., judging) their environment in an organized, logical manner. It’s confused for being “judgmental” a lot though.
I’m sorry; I’m apparently on a one-woman crusade to annoy people about INFJs. My “J” compels me to be opinionated 😉
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But I LOVE judging people lol. I’ve toned that down quite a bit though in all seriousness and I’m more like the logical organization as you said. I want to get to the root of problems instead of just putting bandaids on wounds.
I’m discovering a lot more INFJs online than ever in real life though I just found out that’s why I am the way I am. All the pieces just fit now.
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I’m a judge-y little punk, too, so no worries there! haha. I think that’s because INFJs have learned that they are usually right about things 😉
(I jest, of course, but shots fired and all that!)
That’s interesting about INFJs being online, although now that I’m thinking about it, that’s not really surprising. Introverts who care about people and want to connect but don’t particularly like always having to go out to do so? Hello, internet! haha But I’m with you, I was so happy when I learned about Myers-Briggs; it explained so much!
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Oh no we are usually right…eventually. It just takes time to get there. And when it finally comes to fruition most people forget, but we remember.
We want to connect! But social interaction is tiring.
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I like Final Fantasy XIII and because I didn’t really care about the Final Fantasy series when I played it, and therefore hadn’t heard anyone say it was bad, I had an unbiased view of it. My sister likes FF a lot more than I do and she really liked XIII too. In fact… This may be a very unpopular opinion and I may have to replay XIII just to double check… but I actually enjoyed XIII more than X *runs for cover*
Also, you’ve inspired me to do this challenge now, I’m running a bit low on blog inspiration at the moment and reading yours has been really interesting so I thought I’d give it a go!
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I think coming into the series with no preconceived notions will do that. Since you don’t know you’re “supposed” to hate it, you just take it at face value, and I’m starting to reply think people just shit on it just because it’s the cool thing to do.
Not unpopular with me! I like X, but Lightning seems like a FAR better MC than Tidus.
Yay! Can’t wait to see your answers 😊
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Nintendo. Square too, if we’re talking overall.
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I was really trying to think of some other devs besides Square and BioWare. I was found of The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther, but that’s just one game. I haven’t played the spiritual sequel to it. I do hope Fireproof Games (makers of The Room Series) keep going with it.
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I really liked the free opening chapter of The Room. Debating on picking it up for $1 lol.
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I hope you went for it! It is well worth that dollar. I’m hoping they continue the series. Whoever conceived of the series just makes each installment better.
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My answer is Nintendo! Surprise! 😛 At least they haven’t made a full VR game where you take Link fishing… yet.
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I’m so shocked 😀 You know…I’d actually like Link fishing! It’s such an integral part of the Zelda games so it would make more sense than Final Fantasy Fishing. I mean don’t they have enough F’s??
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Hahaha! Fishing is only in XV because they needed to give everyone a hobby for some reason. They decided to make Noctis love fishing. And he makes it very clear in-game how much he likes it. He goes from stoic to uncharacteristically excited – it’s so silly!
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Oh my goodness…the more I hear about FFXV, the more I’m afraid I’m going to do nothing but make fun of it when I play :p
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It’s easy to make fun of it. It’s campy, and at the same time it does so many things wrong. I still liked it though. I like campy. 😛
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