WI: Square doesn't make Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Yes, I have a rather unorthodox cultural POD this time. So as the tin says, what if Squaresoft averts making Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? In OTL, its bombing led to Square being bought out by its rival Enix (which would become Square Enix).

How does this affect the Japanese videogame industry?
 

yourworstnightmare

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The awesome rivalry between Square and Enix continues and both make awesome Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games, instead of shitty ones. (Of course this may butterfly away Enix titles reaching Western markets unfortunately).
 
The awesome rivalry between Square and Enix continues and both make awesome Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games, instead of shitty ones. (Of course this may butterfly away Enix titles reaching Western markets unfortunately).

Not really - the first four Dragon Quest games were released stateside. Without the Final Fantasy franchise to bolster the marketing of DQ internationally, though, Dragon Quest will stay Japan's foremost console RPG franchise, but it will suffer more internationally.

In fact this butterflies away the nearly MMO-like gameplay of Dragon Quest IX and its odd choice of platform for a main-line title.

OTOH you lose FFXII as we know it (perhaps Matsuno stays on?) and FFXIII in its entirety, so there's very little loss for Square. :D
 

yourworstnightmare

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Not really - the first four Dragon Quest games were released stateside. Without the Final Fantasy franchise to bolster the marketing of DQ internationally, though, Dragon Quest will stay Japan's foremost console RPG franchise, but it will suffer more internationally.

In fact this butterflies away the nearly MMO-like gameplay of Dragon Quest IX and its odd choice of platform for a main-line title.

OTOH you lose FFXII as we know it (perhaps Matsuno stays on?) and FFXIII in its entirety, so there's very little loss for Square. :D
DQ 5 and 6 weren't released in the West, while 7 was. One reason Enix decided to fuse with Square was to use the Square name to launch titles outside Japan. Before the fusion Enix games sold poorly in the US (and were never released in the PAL zone), and for every title Enix had to decide whether or not they should bother losing money on a Western localization. Without the fusion with Square they'd still be in that situation, and several of their titles would not see US release (and probably none would see Europe release).
 
Oooh, it could probably mean they don't buy up Eidos either... Though I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing...
 
DQ 5 and 6 weren't released in the West, while 7 was. One reason Enix decided to fuse with Square was to use the Square name to launch titles outside Japan. Before the fusion Enix games sold poorly in the US (and were never released in the PAL zone), and for every title Enix had to decide whether or not they should bother losing money on a Western localization. Without the fusion with Square they'd still be in that situation, and several of their titles would not see US release (and probably none would see Europe release).

They'd still be more successful than Square within Japan though :p

Of course this is due more to Final Fantasy VII catapulting JRPGs into the mainstream - previously FF was leading the pack in the West but only slightly until FFVII blew the lead wide open.
 

yourworstnightmare

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They'd still be more successful than Square within Japan though :p

Of course this is due more to Final Fantasy VII catapulting JRPGs into the mainstream - previously FF was leading the pack in the West but only slightly until FFVII blew the lead wide open.
Yes, in Japan Dragon Quest will always be number one.:D
But this probably means I'd never get my chance to play DQ 8, which introduced me to the series, which is very sad. However the DQ 9 we know would be thankfully butterflied away (not saying DS is the wrong platform, but DQ 9 was just not a very good game).
Also this would force both companies to make good games, instead of shitty ones, which means some horrendous games that have been bearing the Final Fantasy name would be thankfully butterflied away, and hopefully better games would have been created instead.
 
DQ 5 and 6 weren't released in the West, while 7 was. One reason Enix decided to fuse with Square was to use the Square name to launch titles outside Japan. Before the fusion Enix games sold poorly in the US (and were never released in the PAL zone), and for every title Enix had to decide whether or not they should bother losing money on a Western localization. Without the fusion with Square they'd still be in that situation, and several of their titles would not see US release (and probably none would see Europe release).

Umm let me say than in OTL Enix was most popular in Europe than in USA(even some RPG were Traslante to Spanish for Spain like the now classic Terranigma),mostly because Square never competed there.

But the Fusion was in talking pre-POD(but Nintendo was even negotiate with Enix mostly for the Lack of RPG of 64 and the Upcoming Dolphin aka Gamecube) but the catastrophic FF movie make the fusion diferent(was Enix who bought out Square and not viceversa, but Square Name was big in USA and for that was uses first).

Besides maybe Squeenix will have more money without that... that means not Mistwalker and a diferent 'Rainfall'.
 
Yes, in Japan Dragon Quest will always be number one.:D
But this probably means I'd never get my chance to play DQ 8, which introduced me to the series, which is very sad. However the DQ 9 we know would be thankfully butterflied away (not saying DS is the wrong platform, but DQ 9 was just not a very good game).
Also this would force both companies to make good games, instead of shitty ones, which means some horrendous games that have been bearing the Final Fantasy name would be thankfully butterflied away, and hopefully better games would have been created instead.

Square's biggest problem is getting Sakaguchi to stay. After FFVI his role in producing Final Fantasy was gradually reduced except for the nostalgic FFIX.
 
hmm...if Enix stays just Enix, i have to wonder if Enix would try reviving some of its older games. they made some good SNES games which could potentially spawn later games as well, namely ActRaiser and ActRaiser 2, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia, three personal favorites of mine which have alot of potential for expanded universes on 3D consoles

on the other hand, this could mean that there's no Kingdom Hearts.... :(
 
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