The Current State of Every Square Enix Franchise

[Music] oh boy I hope you guys enjoy RPGs because if not this is going to be one long ass video okay who am I kidding this video is just long regardless but if I were to ask you which company comes to mind when considering RPGs I don't think many answers would surprise me and yes that goes for those trying to think outside the box here but for the majority of us there's probably no other game company in the world that dominates a specific genre as much as Square Enix does with RPGs now some of you may not agree with that kind of statement and that's completely fine but even the biggest Square Enix haters can't undermine their impact on the genre within the gaming ecosystem but while Square Enix holds the RPG genre by the balls this hasn't stopped them from coping a light feel from some other genres like fighting games Platformers action games and even some Shooters there probably a better analogy to use there but it's too late now regardless we'll be going through and discussing each and every one of them now as I do with all the videos in this series I will be placing them in a list that I must stress is not a tier list nor is it based on how good I think the franchises are they're merely placed based on how they're doing currently as a franchise I should also mention that only franchises with more than one game will be discussed and they must have been released in the west at some point now without further Ado oh wait hold on let's wait our turn here all right as I was saying without further ado let's find out the current state of every Square Enix franchise now when it comes to square enix's Origins their name should be a dead giveaway because it's not a single word like Nintendo Sega or Capcom it must mean that they're merged company just like Beno ner right okay obviously that has no relation to whether or not a company has merged but in this case it holds true the first of these two companies started all the way back in 1975 when founder yasuhiro Fukushima an architect turned business entrepreneur started a publishing company called Idan bosu service center which focused on Advertising tapids for Real Estate after failing to find a solid foothold here Fukushima switched tactics and instead look to invest in the emerging video game Market it was around this point that the company would take on the name Enix corporation which was a play on both the mythical Phoenix as well as an early computer known as the eniac from here Fukushima would host a competition dubbed the Enix game hobby program contest where contestants would show off game prototypes with the winners being awarded a prize of 1 million yen as well as having their game published by Enix it was kind of a give and take relationship upcoming developers and artists could have their Games published while being paid for it and Enix could build their name in the very new but thriving gaming industry in fact it was through this very competition that the likes of Yuji Hari and kuichi nakamuro were discovered having won the competition with their own games love match tennis and dor now some of you may be wondering why I've singled these two out and the reason I did was because following discussions surrounding a port of another game that they had already worked on discussions began regarding the idea of developing their very own role playing game during the development of this particular game they would be joined by composer kichi sugiyama and then by Akira Toriyama the artist of the very popular Dragon Ball series who would work on the game's art Direction and design the name of the game these Legends were working on came to be known as Dragon Quest a few years prior to this in 1983 another company known simply as Square had been established as a software subsidary of den yha an electric power conglomerate led by kichi mamoto his son masafumi mamoto had no interest in following after his father and instead found him self drawn towards the development of video games the following years saw mamoto offering jobs to exceptional programmers writers and graphic designers who would go on to developed many of Square's earlier titles in 1986 mamoto broke off Square from its parent company and moved with a small team down to Ginza which would be noted as one of the most expensive areas to operate from the high cost of rent in the area p with the numerous commercial fails they' had been putting out put the company in a very tight position leading mamoto to together the company's four directors and asked for gain proposals out of the many suggestions there was one in particular that had been proposed by sakauchi that caught everyone's eye funnily enough upon witnessing the success of enix's Dragon Quest sakauchi proposed that the team work on their very own RPG and despite some push back from mamoto initially production began on what would eventually become known as Final Fantasy now you've most likely heard of these two games they were essentially the breakout hits that cemented both Enix and Square's names in gaming history and to this day have remained each company's Flagship franchise that isn't to say they were the only game series developed by them both companies were going on to develop numerous fan favorite series all of which we will get to throughout this video during this period though Enix and square were essentially Rivals both fing for a spot at top the gaming industry as the king of RPGs but as the famous saying goes if you can't beat them join them discussions regarding a merger between the two had begun as early as the year 2000 but following the commercial failure of Square's first movie Final Fantasy the spirits within Enix actually pulled back for a bit not wanting to risk a merger with a company that was now experiencing its second year straight of Financial losses thankfully Square managed to survive with the help of Sony allowing them to develop and publish more games which in turn proved successful enough to stabilize their finances it was at this point that Square's President yoi W stated that the merger would be going ahead and just like that on the 1st of April 2003 Square Enix was born all right now that we've discussed how Square Enix came to be let's spend the next 10 minutes talking about franchise of another company Tio wait hold on isn't this a video about Square Enix franchises I hear you asking and yes you're correct The Mention Of yet another company may sound strange but Tito despite its influence during the earlier days of arcade gaming did in fact get purchased by Square Enix in 2005 becoming a wholly owned subsidiary by 2006 this means that all of their old IPS are now property of Square Enix and it's here where we'll begin now before being purchased by Square Enix Tito was at the Forefront of the gaming industry crafting some of the most influential arcade games of the time some of which single-handedly carried the industry to the point of stardom the first of these games which also became its own franchise was speed race which was released all the way back in 1974 the goal of speed race was simple players would navigate a car using the attached steering wheel alongside a fast scrolling Road on this road were other cars that players had to avoid and doing so would grant them points with more points being awarded the faster you were driving now despite its apparent Simplicity this was a huge deal back then and the game went on to become a worldwide hit the hardware used to play this game was so complex the Tio released speed rates at a price point of 100 genen per play now while this may just sound like some arbit number its significance comes into play when you realize that before speed race the standard arcade game only cost 50 yen to play due to its popularity though speed race seemingly shifted this amount to 100 yen per play wheels and Wheels 2 which were the North American iterations of the same series would go on to sell over 10,000 arcade units making it the bestselling game of 1975 the success led to the production of countless sequels variations and updates over the next decade ending with super speed R 64 which was released back in 1998 unfortunately this means that it's it's most likely a dead franchise by today's standards but no one can deny the impact and influence it had during its peak now despite the success of speed race Tito weren't done yet not even close and if we're talking influence and impact in the gaming scene then very few if any can top what Tito had in store next using atari's breakout hit fittingly named well breakout as the blueprint alongside science fiction narratives derived from media such as Star Wars and Space Battleship Yamato designer Tomah Hero nishikado set out to develop one of the most ambitious games of its time time with them having to design custom hardware and development tools just to get it running the final product would feature rows of pixelated aliens and a moving Laser cannon the name of this game was Space Invaders with the goal being to continuously shoot down the rows of aliens with each clearance bringing in another wave that not only started lower but moved slightly faster now like many early arcade games Space Invaders doesn't end and will continue on indefinitely now to say this game was successful would be like saying this YouTube channel makes mediocre content in other words a massive statement as I mentioned earlier this game single-handedly ushered in the Golden Age of arcade games and is often considered one of the most influential video games of all time by 1982 barely 4 years after its release it had already shipped out over 750,000 cabinets and gross $3.8 billion making it not only the bestselling video game but also the highest grossing video game of all time to help put those numbers into perspective it's been stated that whole arcades were dedicated and stocked nothing but space invader cabinets and that the game Saw over 8 million daily players in Japan alone which even by today's stands would make for an extremely successful and active Gaming Community let alone back in the Awakening stage of the industry the franchise is expanded to include countless remakes sequels and spin-offs the latest of which being Space Invaders World defense which was actually released earlier this year and incorporates AR core geospatial API technology to allow for immersive gaming now I say this in quotation marks because let's be real this is about as immersive as eating Ramen while watching I don't know Naruto eat ramen like it's it's not immersive at all that's what I'm trying to say regardless as was the case with speed race no one can deny the influence Space Invaders had on the gaming industry when you have Legends like shiru mioto hideio koima and John Romero referencing it as their introduction to video games you know it's a big deal I think G to its Legacy and because it's still being released somewhat frequently even to this day Space Invaders has to hold a spot in the flagship tier following up after such a Monumental title was never going to be easy but that wouldn't stop husband and wife team Randy and Sandy who gone to develop kicks a unique puzzle game that was released back in 1981 now despite how it looks the game was fairly simple essentially players were tasked with filling up pots of the territory by drawing lines that made up close shapes the cabinet came with a four- direction joystick as well as two buttons allowing for both a slow draw and a fast draw the slow draw would be marked with a different color and also awarded double points the titular character kicks who was the geometric figure would move around the space randomly and should it collide with the player's marker the player would lose a life now in order to complete a level players would have to claim 75% % of the Playfield with subsequent levels increasing the number of kicks that must be avoided now while it wasn't as popular as Tito's Space Invaders the game was said to be a commercial success exceeding Tio's expectations and quickly rising to become one of the most popular titles of the Year numerous sequels ports and clones would follow ending with kicks Plus+ which was released for Xbox live in 2009 unfortunately following this release the franchis has entered a drought period one that I don't see ending anytime soon if ever coming into 1982 Tito was laxa on their C activity and instead released birdie King a set of golf arcade games that released between 1982 and 1984 these games were your typical T arcade units and were very simplistic in nature despite being decently popular for the time the frenchise wouldn't see a new release following birdie King in 1984 meaning this is yet another dead franchise now Tito would follow up birdie King with elevator action a series of platform shooters that were first released back in 1983 plays would assume the role of agent 17 code named Otto as the end enters a 30-story building from the rooftops the goal was to get Auto down to the basement floor while collecting all the secret documents hidden behind the Red Doors players would do this by using the building's elevators and escalator systems or while killing or avoiding enemy agents on each floor some of the more interesting features in this game are the sections where the lights go out adding an extra layer of difficulty to the experience much like kicks elevator action would go on to become a commercial success exceeding Titus expectations once again the franchise would bore numerous sequels with elevator action returns and elevator action ex all the way up to elevator action Invasion which was actually released recently in arcades back in 2021 now due to this recent release it's only fair that it's place within the it exist here as it's very clearly a franchise Square Enix still remembers to some extent now funnily enough despite Square coming into existence nearly a decade after Enix they were the first of the two to start a franchise I should iterate this means a series of games and not the first one to develop a single game I know I said I wasn't going to mention games that were only released in Japan and not the west but I felt in this case it was warranted as this was the first game ever developed by square the game went by the name the death trap and was a silent text passer Adventure game where players would issue command lines through their own input as a means to progress through the game unlike many text Adventures at the time the death trap provided graphical feedback through full screen still images instead of just relying on text for the output now while the game garnered few Impressions upon its release it must have been successful enough the SC would push out a further two sequels in the following years ending with Alpha in 1986 which interestingly now followed a female protagonist while adding a touch of arog which if you don't know what that is it's just it's let's just say fan service this would end up being Square's last text Adventure game and outside of a few re-releases the series unfortunately has to join the dead tier now Enix must have heard that slight dig I gave them just before as a year later in 1985 development began on a game that would go on to lay the foundation of an entire [Music] franchise the original Dragon Quest would be released a year later in 1986 and have players take on the role of a hero who was task with retrieving a sacred artifact that had been stolen by an evil warlord by today's standards the original game was very simplistic the game had players exploring Open Fields while using tan the tail Castle as their Hub players would encounter monsters while out in the field in Random Encounters and from here you typical turn-based combat would play out an interesting thing to note is the fact that during combat monsters would be seen from a first person's perspective rather than a third person's perspective as you see these days there was also no party system at this point with players taking on the role of a lone character the further you got from the castle the stronger the monsters would get and defeating these monsters would award experience points and gold which could then be used in the shops to upgrade your gear now during development one of the focal points was to have the player associate themselves with the hero this was achieved through emotional storytelling and a Coming of Age tale that audiences couldn't help but relate to it also started to brew this idea of power fantasies as players would feel significantly stronger as they work their way through the game these features all culminated in a game that was extremely well received in Japan selling over 1.5 million copies the American release which had been titled Dragon Warrior didn't Fair as well but still managed to sell over 500,000 copies from here the Dragon Quest franchise exploded producing countless sequels at a consistent rate to this day each new iteration would add something new like new items and characters and Dragon Quest 2 or new character classes in Dragon Quest 3 Dragon Quest 5 even added the ability to recruit monsters into your party these additions paired with expanded Quest and stories elevated Dragon Quest to Legendary status in Japan unfortunately Dragon Quest lagged behind in the west though for reasons we'll get into when we talk about our another Juggernaut even so the franchise would go on to sell over 88 million copies making it not only one of the biggest RPG franchises in the world but also one of the most successful franchises in general the series has branched off to include animated shows manga series and plenty of merchandise the release of Dragon Quest 11 also broke through to the West more than any other title and I must say is one of the best jrpgs I have ever personally played with Dragon Quest 12 in development the future of Dragon Quest looks brighter than ever and it is without a doubt a flagship franchise but back to title with these next few franchises the first of which being aroid now arcanoid may look familiar to a game I mentioned earlier I'm sure you can see the similarities that's essentially what aroid was it was an improved version of breakout Now featuring powerups that could increase the length of vce slow the ball down or even Grant an extra life aroids addictive nature propelled it to commercial stardom where it became the most successful Table arcade cabinet of 1987 in Japan interestingly though when it comes to sequels and the like this franchise follows a strange pattern the franchise would see a sequel developed and released almost immediately following the success of its predecessor but following this the franchise wouldn't see another entry until a decade later with arcanoid do it again and aroid returns which were both released in 1997 following arcanoid r2000 in 1999 the franchise went back into hibernation until 2007 with arcanoid DS I'm sure you see the pattern I'm talking about as the same thing would happen in the 2000s but after a spree of games were released in 2009 the franchise would enter another hibernation phase just to come back in 2017 every time this franchise comes out of hibernation it's always on the seventh year of the decade it's like some kind of conspiracy theory maybe I'm reading too much into it but I thought it was a strange coincidence aroids latest release dates back to just last year with arcanoid eternal battle I guess we'll have to wait until 2027 to see another game but for now this fr can sit within the it exist here now Tito was arguably in its prime during this period as the next release would perform just as well as arcanoid Bubble Bobble were a set of platform games that followed two adorable dragons Bob and Bob as they set out to save their girlfriends from the cave of Monsters the birth child of designer fuku MTG mitsuji bubble bubble had been developed as a means to rejuvenate tiu's presence in the industry as mitsuji believed a lot of Tios games were mediocre at best he thought it best to have focused on Cooperative gameplay as it would allow for more Dynamic and fun instances between players now as you'd expect each dragon is controlled by a separate player with the goal being to trap enemies in bubbles that you blow out before popping them each level consisted of a single screen with no scrolling and players would work their way through each one until level 100 where they would face off against the boss now bubble bubble was one of the very first games ever to feature multiple endings as beating the boss in single player would reveal a message saying that the game hadn't truly ended yet and that they' need to come back with a friend should two players complete the game they would be rewarded with with a happy ending as stated bubble bubble was extremely popular quickly becoming the second most successful arcade cabinet of the month with the most successful being Tito's own arcanoid this resulted in the franchise expanding to Monumental levels with over 30 official ports being issued to every console you could ever think of as well as over 20 sequels remakes and spin-offs released throughout the years the franchise still pumps out games to this day with both puzzle bubble VR and puzzle Bobble every bubble releasing within the last 2 years while I can't say this makes it a flagship franchise I do believe you could argue that it is a Mainstay Tito's next franchise went by the name Kiki Kai or Pocky and Rocky outside of Japan these were a series of sidescrolling Shooters where you would play as Pocky a young Shinto Shrine maiden and a Tanuki companion Rocky as you fought your way through a variety of monsters as seen in the gameplay these games pulled a lot from Japanese mythology ofing featuring many Japanese legendary creatures the series first began with Kiki Kai in 1986 which remains a Japanese exclusive after being licensed out to natsume in the early 19 '90s and renamed to Pocky and Rocky the series would make its way over to the west but it was well received and got a further two sequels most recently the franchise would get a new game titled Pocky and Rocky res Shrine in 2022 which loely followed on from the ending of the first Pocky and Rocky game in saying this the game featured a mix of revamped stages from the original game as well as a number of original stages and while it wasn't a Smash Hit it did manage to sell over 100,000 copies which is impressive seeing that it's been nearly two decades since the previous title with this new release pocking Rocky has managed to slot itself into the it exist here Tito would start off 1987 with Darius a horizontal scrolling shooter game that had players control a Starship named the Silver Hawk their goal was to destroy the Bell Empire before they could Wipe Out the planet Darius in order to make the game stand out from the crowd the cabinet itself used three individual monitors placed beside each other this made the game appear much wider than your typical horizontal shooter in clever use of M effects made sure these monitors look like they were seamlessly connected now as for the gam playay it was your typical spacecraft SHO players would be equipped with numerous weapons like front firing missiles aerial bombs and a protective force field all of which could be upgraded with powerups darus would go on to become quite successful securing a spot as the third most popular arcade game of 1987 in Japan the franchise has had its fair share of sequels throughout the years with many even releasing within the last decade darus burst and its arcade counterpart Darius burst and another Chronicle seem to have breathed new life into the franchise and have since become the main release titles with both darus Cosmic Revelation and Darius burst under the chronicle ex Plus plus releasing in 2021 I must say I'm impressed that franchises as old as these are still kicking and I'll happily place them within the it exist TI titto without a doubt had a strong foothold within the arcade industry during this period in their next franchise operation wolf continues to prove that the operation wolf franchise was a set of light gun shooters centered around military themed missions like rescuing hostages and taking out enemy Soldiers the original would go on to receive critical Acclaim quickly becoming one of the highest grossing arcade games of 1988 a further three sequels would follow until operation Target in 1998 with each iteration being commercially successful following operation Target though it seemed as if the franchise had died off one decade passed with nothing and then another with no new news it was seemingly another arcade classic that was lost to time well that wasn't until miraculously the franchise would be revived following the release of operation wolf returns first mission in 2023 this remake would introduce a new survival mode as well as the ability to play with a friend in a co-op mode amazingly this means yet again a franchise that was seemingly die dive bombing towards the dead tier has managed to take a detour into the it exist tier but if there was one franchise though they wouldn't have to worry about dive bombing anywhere near the dead tier it would without a doubt be this next [Music] [Music] one what's there say about this franchise that hasn't been said a million times already when people hear the words role playing game this is the franchise that comes to mind this is what J RPGs are and it wouldn't be wrong to say that this franchise single-handedly popularized the genre in the west beginning as a series pushed the Rival enix's Dragon Quest Final Fantasy quickly exploded in popularity quickly becoming one of the biggest media franchises in gaming history across all its games the franchise has sold over 185 million units an unbelievable number of copies a genre that going into the 21st century wasn't necessarily the most popular with Western audiences for many the series peaked with Final Fantasy 7 it released as the very first entry to feature both full motion video and 3D graphics and while the gameplay in battle system remained relatively similar to its predecessors the massive improvements in graphics as well as the more widespread focus on science fiction and steampunk elements added a realistic touch to an otherwise Fantasy game that did exceptionally well in the west now here's my hot take of the day Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9 are better than Final Fantasy 7 yep I said it I personally enjoy the characters and their stories a lot more so in the latter games than in Final Fantasy 7 feel free to leave a dislike now the franchise has spawned numerous remakes remasters and even a whole spin-off series that performs well in its own right what's not to love about these games the fact that each and every game explores its own worlds with its own unique set of characters and story lines means that no matter who you are there's probably a game in this franchise that would resonate with you oh and the music the godamn music some of the most emotional impactful tunes that I've ever heard have come from from these games and I don't know about you guys but I've spent hours on end just listening to the victory Fanfare jues on repeat at the end of the day you know it I know it this franchise is Square Enix it's the first franchise anyone thinks of when their name gets brought up and it therefore deserves the top spot within the flagship tier we're back with ti for this next one honestly for a video titled the current state of every Square Enix franchise there's an awful lot of well not Square Enix sorry guys I I guess you've been click baited now while Enix and square were beginning to opiz the RPG genre Tito on the other hand still had a strong grasp on the arcade industry the next franchise Chase would continue this trend becoming Japan's highest Crossing arcade game of 1989 as well as becoming a hit overseas Chase was a series of vehicle combat racing games where you would have to chase down a criminal who started miles away before time ran out this meant that players who drove too slowly or crashed too frequently would most often than not fail to apprehend the criminals car upon reaching that Target the time limit would be extended and players would need to collide with the enemy car enough to bring it to a stop the franchise would get numerous sequels and spin-off over the years ending with Chase hq2 which was released in 2007 following the release of this arcade game the franchise has seemingly tap it off unfortunately it's unlikely to ever return but hey you never know as we've seen so far Tito's franchises have a knack for coming back now following the immense success of Final Fantasy Square made sure to capitalize on the name they had built for themselves now I mean that in a literal sense The Saga franchise first began in 1989 with the release of the final Fantasy legend now despite its name this game was the start of a wholly new franchise while its gameplay may have mimicked earlier Final Fantasy titles as the franchise expanded over the years it took on an identity of its own unlike the streamlined linear Final Fantasy games the SAA series emphasizes nonlinear gameplay through its open worlds that incorporate an open-ended branch and plot many consider it to be ahead of its time and extremely Innovative with a lot of focus being placed on the replayability of each game most often highlighted by the fact that players could go through the game as numerous characters all while while having a completely different experience with each one the first Romancing Saga game which was released in 1992 would also step away from Final Fantasy by removing Random Encounters now allowing players to engage in battles they wanted while also engaging in what was dubbed the free scenario system unlike Final Fantasy there were no experience points to be had here with each character's statistics being raised based on the actions they performed in battle lady games would adopt a more intuitive turn-based combat system now relying more on Battle Points to complete actions within their designated moves these unique differences helped Saga break away from its initial Affliction with Final Fantasy and it has since become a fairly successful and popular franchise in its own right the series has become one of square enix's most successful franchises selling over 10 million copies and has continued to release consistently to this day with the latest game Saga Emerald Beyond looking to release in 2024 taking all of this into account Saga definitely deserves a spot amongst the Main Stays now at this point in time square and tyto were going back and forth with their franchises but in saying this the games they made couldn't have been any more different in fact every new release developed by Tio seemed to be completely different from the one they had developed previously power blade which was Tio's next franchise proves this as players would take control of Nova who was armed with a boomerang of all things as he looked to recover data tapes from six different databases in a similar sense to the Mega Man series Power blade allowed players to choose to play any of six levels meaning you can complete them in any order the boom rang itself could also be fired in eight different directions which was indeed a rarity during this period of time especially for 2D platformer games the game would go on to receive decent reviews and even get its own sequel a year later with power Blade 2 which played very similarly to its predecessor unfortunately power Blade 2 didn't live up to the expectations of titto and was hit with mediocre reviews it's most likely due to this underwhelming performance that we haven't seen a new game since now if you ever wanted to learn about Evolution through a video game then this next franchise would be your best bet the Evo franchise of evolution were a set of action adventure games that Drew elements from Platformers and RPGs these games really took take taking control of your own destiny to heart and had players work their way up the food champ by starting off as a small fish they would then have to fight their way through numerous sides scrolling levels many of which would translate to different periods of time or while undergoing bodily evolution by eating the smaller prey players would learn Evolution points which could be spent to evolve certain parts of their body meaning that no two players experiences would be the same when playing through this game as silly as it sounds almost like your Magikarp looking to become Gyarados these games truly were ahead of their time the series unfortunately only ever got two entries ending with EVO search for Eden in 1992 and seeing as we haven't heard any news regarding this lost gem since it's most likely a dead franchise by now now any guesses on what Tao's next franchise would Encompass well for those of you who guessed a series of football games I congratulate you as Tao's next franchise was football champ or hattick hero as it came to be known later on there's not too much to say about this short lineup of games they were your standard arcade football simulation games with a few neat differences some of these included the option to choose a star player from a choice of four and also giving players has the ability to partake in some violent acts such as throwing punches using Flying Kicks and even shirt pulling overall though this franchise is most likely a dead one as there hasn't been a new edition since hatrick hero 95 which yep he guessed it released all the way back in 1995 now this next franchise is definitely an interesting one and really goes to show just how expansive Tito's imagination was when it came to developing new unique games Sonic Blast man was a beat them up that you would essentially play in real life what I mean by this is that players would the role of titular superhero Sonic Blast man with the goal being to hit enemies and targets that had different sets of resistances the most interesting aspect though was the cabinet that this game utilized on it was a pad that players had to hit and as painful as that sounds thankfully the cabinet also came with a pair of gloves that players would wear when punching that pad unfortunately this still didn't stop numerous players from hurting themselves and in 1995 tiu had to recall all the Sonic Blast machines because of this the following year they were asked to pay a find of $50,000 for failing to disclose what exactly these injuries were fortunately for the franchise though the series did get its very own SNES version which featured very different gameplay both the arcade and SNES versions got their own sequels before Tito revealed at aoou 2010 a third sequel titled Sonic B Heroes that game would go on to be released a year later in 2011 and also marks the latest title in the Sonic boss man franchise in saying this it's most likely on its last legs for now now interestingly enough this next franchise was not developed by Tito or Enix but instead by a smaller company called quintet at at the time quintet had a strong partnership with Enix actrazer being one of the many games Enix published from them actrazer was a jack of all trades incorporating platforming city building RPG and God game aspects all into one players would play as the master however due to the master itself never being directly controlled players would instead interact with the world through an angel and a statue the idea was to build a new civilization and allow them to prosper players could build roads control the weather and use miracles to help with all of this alongside this players could take control of the Angel to to take out monsters in the area as well as interact with action sequences by controlling a statue that's tasked with destroying monsters on specific platforms it's honestly quite an impressive and complex game all things considered especially for the time the game would go on to Garner very positive reviews and sell incredibly well having over 600,000 units shipped worldwide the success led to the development of a sequel titled actor Razer 2 which was released 3 years later in 1993 the sequel unlike its predecessor took the form of a simple platform game with many believing it to be inferior due to this fact following a few failed attempts at a third sequel the franchise would be revived in 2021 when an enhanced remake titled actr of Renaissance would release on all modern consoles once again Square Enix has proven that they're willing to show some of their oldest franchise some love no matter how long it's been if you saw Dragon Quest Final Fantasy and Nintendo characters playing each other in Monopoly who do you think would win well the answer is Square Enix because they're the ones making all the money from itadaki Street the next franchise on this list now from my knowledge the series remained a Japanese exclusive for years and was developed By Yuji Hari the same one who had worked on Dragon Quest in its Inception after a number of title releases har stated that he wanted to bring the games to the west and soon after Fortune Street would be released for the Wii in 2011 this set of party games played an awful lot like Monopoly with players moving around a board by rolling a die all while purchasing unowned property and earning money when opponents landed on their spaces there were also mini games to play and a simplified version of a stock market that more advanced players could tap into as simple as the game sounds the selling power came from the characters included even though most people can probably admit that these characters added nothing to the actual gameplay experience the series has been released somewhat consistently over the last three decades with the latest iteration dating back to 2017 while it's hard to gauge the likelihood of the franchise continuing I think based on the consistent sales across its games we'll most likely see a new addition eventually in saying that I can't really warrant putting it into it exists at the moment as there hasn't been a new release in years so far we've covered two of square enix's three pillars and this next franchise isn't that third one although if you were to get me to rank it among those other three I would probably say it's better than one of them I'm not going to say which one in fear that I'm going to be assassinated but I truly do think that the Mana franchise is underappreciated when compared to the other three [Music] Titans oops messed up my editing there I meant to show Mana wait what do you mean that's the first entry in the franchise yeah so Square really was milking the Final Fantasy name first with the Saga franchise and now with the Mana franchise it honestly think these games were spin-off franchises of the mainline series but at one point they shifted to become their own Standalone franchises following its first entry the series really spun off into its own identity with the release of Secret of Mana which not only broke away from Final Fantasy but also from the large majority of RPG titles at the time secret of M used a real-time battle system as well as its own unique ring command system that allowed players to pause in the middle of battles to allow for any adjustments they needed to make it also featured cooperative play where a second or third player could drop in and out of the game at any time pack on an expansive story an exceptional OST and a Charming yet simple graphical style and you've got a game that was praised to the High Heavens it success bir numerous sequels and spin-offs that were released throughout the decades these days however the franchise has formed victim to the Remake curse while I thoroughly enjoyed the trials of Man remake from 2020 it does hurt to see no new original entries being developed and released the franchis has managed to sell over 12 million copies across its games making it one of square enix's most successful Series in my eyes it is without a doubt a Square Enix main stay if it had some newer releases in the recent years I would definitely consider it even a flagship Thunder walk huh doesn't sound like a franchise Square Enix would develop does it and that's because well it wasn't here is where things get somewhat confusing but I'll try my best to lay out the groundwork for it see Thunderhawk was initially developed by a company known as Core Design who at the time were their own independent developer eventually though they would be bought out by [ __ ] interactive in 1996 and despite most of their personnel and assets going to Rebellion developments in 2006 [ __ ] managed to hold on to their IPs but hold on [ __ ] interactive isn't Square Enix or at least they weren't yet adus was actually a subsidary of another combined company known as SCI Entertainment Group which was then taken over by the combined Square Enix in 2009 finally completing the merger between all these companies so yes Core Design the original developers of Thunderhawk are no longer with us but their IP lives on well not not really the Thunderhawk franchise were a set of combat flight simulation games where players piloted and attack helicopter as they work their way through several campaigns the original game remains one of the very few on this entire list that is never released in Japan even so the franchise sold well enough to Garner two sequels Thunderhawk 2 in 1995 and Thunderhawk operation Phoenix in 2001 unfortunately with core design in a dead tier of its own it seems very unlikely that Square Enix will be Reviving this specific franchise this next franchise is an interesting one Championship manager as you'd expect were a set of football management games designed by Brothers Paul and Oliver Kier who believe it or not wrote the whole game from their bedrooms in saying this the initial games weren't breakout hits or anything but they did Garner their own set of fans in the UK each new release would build on top of the previous and with each the popularity of the series would rise again though this doesn't sound like anything Square Enix would get involved with but in a strange twist of fate Square Enix themselves were said to have revived this franchise the championship manager franchise like most of its competitors often released on a yearly basis at least that was the case until Championship manager 2011 where following its release the franchise would go dark for 3 years Square Enix would then find itself in the picture Reviving the series as champ man and releasing games for it on mobile devices from 2013 to 2018 unfortunately on the 31st of May 2018 s Enix ceased all online services for the games and removed them from IOS and Android App Stores it's bit of sweet seeing them come to the rescue and revive the franchise only to kill it off not long after now before coming into this video I was unaware of just how many subsidiaries company Square Enix had gobbled up over its lifetime but this next franchise continuing to prove just that the ogre battle franchise were a set of tactical role playing and realtime strategy game that had been developed by a company called quest finnally enough in 1995 a few key members actually left quest to join Square only for square did then go and purchase the whole company a bit later in 2002 this does mean though that the ogre franchise is now owned by Square Enix but thankfully this time they haven't left it out to Die the series itself started back in 1993 with the realtime game ogre battle the march of the black queen it wasn't until the release of its successor Tactics Ogre that the franchise finally G some recognition though tactics OG was a tactical RPG that unlike its predecessor used a turn-based battle system dubbed the non-alternative turn system battles would take place on one map that was viewed from an overhead diagonal perspective the map itself was split up using a grid with characters being able to move a certain number of grid spaces each turn the game also featured branching story passs which were laid out based on the players's decisions when it came to accepting or rejecting the commands of of authority figures the game would sell incredibly well especially for the genre which not only led to the development of a third game but also a remake which was released in 20110 this game was so good though that a single remake wouldn't suffice and just like that Tactics Ogre would go on to get a remaster title Tactics Ogre reborn which was released last year in 2022 this is yet another franchise that has escaped the lower tiers by seemingly being revived in recent years the seventh Saga was the next RPG series to be released by Enix and it added a few notable Innovations to the genre the game at itself is widely interesting to me as players get to choose one of seven playable characters who all embark on their own quest to locate Seven magical ruins throughout the game you would often come across these other playable characters and would be able to partner up with them and fight as a team the addition of a crystal ball radar allowed players to see where enemies would approach from essentially killing off Random Encounters entirely if you were paying enough attention as for the gam playay itself it played like your typical turn-based RPG where you would talk to NPCs with Quest and trade with them to upgrade your gear defeating monsters would Garner you experience points which could then be used to level up skills for the most part it was a solid game and Garner decently positive reviews upon its release the franchise would see a Japanese sequel in the form of Mystic Ark which was released 2 years later in 1995 while plans to localize the game to the West existed at the time they never came to fruition regardless this franchise hasn't seen any entry since Mystic Ark and is therefore another dead franchise up next on the ever growing list of RPG franchises we have luffa much like the Dragon Quest series of games the player takes control of the hero and is comp canons as they ventur through a fantasy world on a quest to prevent the resurrection of the four superpowered beings called cinat trols this series very obviously Drew inspiration from Dragon Quest as alongside the typical Random Encounters the game also viewed its turn-based combat system through a first person's perspective the game was generally well received resulting in multiple sequels up until Luffy urse of the cin trols which was released back in 2010 for the Nintendo DS unfortunately this title was a financial bomb which most likely deterred squ Enix from continuing the franchise as there hasn't been a new game since Eclipse was a series of space flight simulation games developed by Crystal Dynamics a subsidary of [ __ ] interactive and Square Enix before being sold to in Bracy group in 2022 as we'll discuss very soon this deal resulted in numerous franchises shifting ownership in this case Eclipse wasn't one of them now despite being described as spaceflight simulation games the actual gameplay had players flying their ships across stages that mimicked planetary surfaces and tunnels and not so much the vast open emptiness of space players would collect powerups by navigating these tunnels which were essential when looking to with the boss at the end of each world now despite the game receiving mediocre reviews it did end up getting its very own sequel called solar eclipse which took its flight simulation and put it on some rails in a similar sense to the Star Fox series of games following the sequel though the franchise would die out aimlessly drifting in the vast expanses of space never to be seen again now it's been a while but we're back with Tito for this next franchise the race series was a set of vertical scroller Shooters where players would take the Reigns of a ship called the yeah no no sh I'm saying that the gamees played very much like your typical old school vertical Shooters where you'd blast your way through numerous stages in typical Tito fashion though the game went on to become an arcade hit securing a spot as a third most popular arcade unit at the time the franchise would see the release of a sequel in 1996 as well as a prequel in 1998 the sequel in particular differentiated itself from the rest with its usage of polygon based ships instead of Sprites this seemingly worked out for the better though as race storm would become one of the most popular arcade games in Japan ranking just behind The fabled Star Fox 64 when it came to shooty Game of the Year despite its success the franchise hasn't seen a new release in decades and is therefore most likely a dead one The Front Mission franchise is a collection of turn-based tactical RPGs that pretty much hit on every other genre possible with its spin-offs I'm talking sides crawling Shooters realtime strategy games MMOs and even third person shooters all contained into one franchise for the most part the mainland entries followed a similar pattern where players control meccas known as Bas unlike typical meccas in other games though these units were made up of four separate parts Parts the body left arm right arm and the legs with each offering its own set of unique abilities while also having its own health bars destroying specific parts of each unit would hinder its capabilities in a multitude of ways so it's up to the player to customize their mechas in a way that would allow them to shred through the competition while taking minimal damage the series has expanded to include a ton of sequels and spin-offs these spin-offs like I've mentioned pretty much hit every other genre possible and while they weren't necessarily popular releases they all added to the 3 million units this franchise has sold during its early years Front Mission released quite frequently with games coming out every few years after Front Mission evolved in 2010 however this trend seemed to die down and for the next 9 years fans of the franchise were left out to dry no updates no new releases nothing for all intents and purposes it seemed as if the franchise was dead at least that was the case until 2019 when a new game set in the very same univers as Front Mission would be released that game was Left Alive which unlike its preceding titles focused more on Stealth likee gameplay with the goal was to survive and evade enemies rather than and engage them full on Left Alive would be barely left alive following rough reviews but thankfully its release led to the development of a further stream of remakes that have consistently been released since 2022 I'm torn on where to place this one in particular but seeing as it's just come back from the grave I think it'll have to slot into the it exist here we've arrived at one of the best franchises in gaming history and if you don't agree with me then well you're either wrong or you haven't played Crona trigger developed by The Dream Team Corona trigger was released to Universal Acclaim and is often considered one of the greatest RP games of all time in an era where jrpgs were on the rise crony trigger managed to incorporate fresh ideas many of which went on to become revolutionary aspects that would shape the genre going forward in terms of its gameplay crony trigger used the active Time battle system that been used in previous Final Fantasy games and for the most part it played like your typical RPG you take control of krono and his companions As You Adventure through a world that resembles Earth to some degree while fighting monsters completing quests and solving puzzles where the game starts to deviate though is with its use of story elements and and how they shape a player's experience see chrona Trigger deals with time travel so much so that it becomes an integral part of the game as you play it you will travel from the Middle Ages to the prehistoric past and then even to the post-apocalyptic future with each time period involving different elements quests and even enemies one of the biggest things implemented into this game were the Hidden Side Quests that not only fleshed out the side characters and gave them a lot of background story but also allowed you to unlock their ultimate weapons the game was truly ahead of its time featuring 13 possible endings depending on when and how you dealt with the game's final battle not only did this add a ridiculous amount of replayability but opened up a whole new experience the second or third time you played it more often than not you discover wholly hidden and secret eras you never knew existed on your first playthrough oh and did I mention it was the first game ever to use the term new game plus you know the one that's become Staple in all modern day RPGs the game was an instant hit in Japan selling over 2 million copies and while it's two follow-ups radical dreams and cron across didn't reach that same level they two were considered exceptional titles for the time the question then becomes then why hasn't this legendary set of games received any new Titles since 1999 the series has seen its fair share of reports in remasters the latest of which being the Chona cross radical dreamers Edition remaster which was released last year in 2022 but when it comes to a new original game there hasn't been any news regarding one for decades now many speculate that Square Enix doesn't want to touch the series as they don't have the Dream Team anymore whereas others believe it's because it's not financially viable considering the sales of the franchise as a whole either way it's unlikely will get a new game anytime soon but I am holding out hope for a Chrono Trigger remaster at least at some point for now and this is my bias showing I think it can sit in the it exist tier due to the recent remaster of chrona cross if not it would Place much much lower most likely even in the dead tier we go from one iconic franchise to another with this one having its very own mascot gex like the eclipse series was a franchise developed by Crystal Dynamics the gex games followed the ti character gex who was an anthropomorphic gecko that was obsessed with television this session is incorporated into the game's well and has gex traveled through numerous Sid scrolling levels that were contained within different TV channels as he was a gecko gex had access to some interesting abilities like being able to attach himself to walls and crawl across ceilings to access areas that would normally be out of reach the original game would Garner very positive reviews and sell incredibly well with some reports stating it to have sold over 1 million copies the success led to the development of two sequels 3D platform of gex enter the gecko in 1998 and gex 3 Deep Cover gecko which was released a year later in in 1999 now with regards to new releases unfortunately this is where the franchise ends this isn't to say there's no hope at all as both Sony and Square Enix have published the set of games on multiple Platforms in recent years interestingly Square Enix announced in 2013 that they would be holding a Square Enix Collective program where they would give upcoming developers a chance to develop a new game on one of their series gex being one of them unfortunately it seems as if nothing came from this program once again placing gex in a tight spot limited run games would shine some light on the Fran after announcing the gex trilogy earlier this year this was merely a compilation release of the first three games however and while it's appreciated it's not necessarily pushing the franchise to new heights for a franchise that has sold over 15 million copies it's sad that it hasn't been expanded upon in recent decades the re-releases and emulation upgrades are nice and just barely keeping it from the lower tiers but I would like to see gex return in fashion for real sometime in the near future it feels like I'm jumping all over the place here but I guess that's what happens when one company has a billion subsidi is working for them Cleopatra Fortune was a 1995 arcade game that functioned just like Tetris players would direct blocks of stone and create closures which would eliminate the treasure and add to the player score the game was fairly simple but it still managed to Garner a few ports sequels the latest of which being Cleopatra Fortune plus which was released back in 2002 now I say this but in 2022 City Connection actually published a port of the Sega satin version to modern day consoles titled clear Patra Fortune s tribute now I'm un sure if this has any relation to Square Enix or if it's just more of a tribute considering its name but either way it does add some life back into the franchise whether it's enough to push it out of life support I don't think so now I think it's about time we discuss the elephant in the room why haven't you subscribed yet I mean you've already listened to me ramble on for quite a while now so you might as well just hit the Subscribe button all right with that Shameless plug out of the way what I did want to touch on was the relationship between Square Enix and Embraer group as I mentioned before Square acquired [ __ ] interactive back in 2009 and with that came numerous IP as Tomb Raider Hitman and DSX among others early last year though Square Enix announced that it would sell several Square Enix assets to ESS a group these assets included several development Studios like Crystal Dynamics Square Enix Montreal and [ __ ] Montreal as well as a few IPS those being funly enough Tomb Raider DX Thief Legacy of cane and Hitman alongside 50 back catalog games Square Enix therefore no longer holds the rights to these franchises and as such they won't be included on this list I thought I should at least mention them though as they make pick up some fairly influential and popular franchises anyway back to Square Enix owned franchises like psychic Force which was developed by titto now psychic force was a series of fighting games that while appearing in 3D actually played in 2D while the gaml was that of your typical Fighters psychic Force switched things up with you guessed it psychic powers that allowed players to float inside the battle space and move in all directions the force field that makes up the arena also plays into the strategy of players as characters that are forced into it by their opposition take damage and are then susceptible to a followup attack that will stun them causing them to plummet through the air the game did well in arcades and secured itself a sequel which was released a few years later in 1998 psychic Force 2012 used the same system as its predecessor while adding a plora of new playable characters the game was originally released in arcades but we get a port to the Dreamcast becoming one of the console's earliest titles the success of the sequel led to the creation of an anniversary pack that included both the original game as well as a remixed version of 12 titled psychic Force 2012 ex this pack was released back in 2006 and also marks the latest entry into the franchise as of the current day in saying this it's highly unlikely we will see The Return of psychic Force considering Square enix's current Focus areas now if you thought the 13 possible endings from Chrono Trigger were impressive wait till you see how many are in this next franchise Star Ocean was enix's latest RPG franchise and was arguably one of the earliest to allow players to alter the story's outcomes through play actions and dialogue choices see these games introduced a social relationship system often referred to as private actions these were instances where the protagonists relationships with other characters would be affected by certain player choices these would in turn affect the direction of the story line which leads to branching p and yep you guessed it multiple endings if we expand this to include the franchise's second entry fittingly titled Star Ocean the Second Story you'll find that the number of possible endings could go as high as 86 yeah talk about replayability now these relationships didn't just affect the storyline but also expanded to affect the way in which characters behave towards each other in battle speaking of battles start Ocean mixed this up as well whereas the topof the line RPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest use turn-based systems Star Ocean opted to have its battles play out in real time but players would take control of one member of the party with the choice to switch between any of them at any time by the time the franchise reached its third entry additional aspects had been added like a fury and bonus battle gauge and with the release of the Remake first departure the game introduced a combo attack system where special attack stacked on top of each other and became more powerful as a whole the franchise has released numerous titles with multiple REM makes spin-offs and ports for the most part the mainland entries are released on a consistent schedule with the latest Star Ocean the Second Story R releasing earlier this year with over 4 million units shipped sty ocean remains one of square enix's most successful franchises and taking that into account as well as its consistent release schedule I do believe Star Ocean has done enough to Warrant a spot in the main stay here we have one of the few non RPG titles released by square now I can only assume that square saw the massive rise of fighting games during the '90s and wanted to capitalize on the hype as the next franchise released happened to be a set of fighting games called topal now you'd expect a fighting game especially in the '90s to play somewhat like all your other standard Fighters but this is square we're talking about so while the battle system and fighting gameplay followed the traditional route Square added their own tweaks through a quest mode where players would explore 3D dungeons while avoiding traps and engaging in a number of enemies along the way I mean you have to hand it to them they somehow implemented RPG elements into a fighting game with enemies sometimes dropping items that could restore your HP or even lower it back down to one point by defeating certain characters in this Quest mode it would then unlock them as playable characters in The Game's other modes the characters and art Direction were once again designed by Dragon Ball Legend Akira Toriyama who by this point must be a super human like where does he find all the time to do all these things upon its release the game topped Japanese sale chart selling well over 850,000 copies in its lifetime which honestly is extraordinary considering it's a fighting game and not an RPG by square these sales however were most likely inflated due to the fact that tobo number one actually came packaged with a pre released demo of Final Fantasy 7 as well as video previews of numerous other games even so Square had seemingly found a jackpot outside of the RPG market and immediately started development on a squl which was released just a year later titled tobal 2 now tobal 2 used the same fighting system as its predecessor but heavily expanded its Quest mode now including numerous Dungeons and even a hub Zone at town where players could eat sleep and shop for new items the game also held the record for the largest roster of playable characters with an astronomical grand total of 200 now despite critics praising and believing it to be superior to its predecessor they also went on to mention that it fell short when compared to the other Titans of the genre like Tekken or Mortal Kombat Square must have felt the same as there hasn't been a new entry since unfortunately this unique fighter has us to slot Into the Dead tier we've arrived at another one of Crystal dynamics's long lost franchises or at least one of the franchises that wasn't sold off to embrace a group the franchise in question went by the name pandemonium these were a series of platform games that merged 3D environments with 2D gameplay this meant that stages had Pathways that branched out allowing players to choose their course throughout an interesting addition to this game was the ability to choose which character you wanted to play before each level the two characters each had their own special abilities with fargus the Joker being able to perform a special spinning attack and Nikki the Sorceress having the magical ability to double jump this added both replay ability and some light strategy to each stage when deciding who would best suit that level the game went on to receive mixed reviews beged a sequel nonetheless in pandemonium 2 the sequel like its predecessor follow the same two characters but this time their abilities had been expanded upon now allowing them to climb ropes and pull themselves up Ledges pandemonium 2 performed slightly better than its predecessor however this didn't appear to be enough to Warrant the continuation of this franchise as following pandemonium 2 the series seemingly died [Music] out yep who'd have thought another fighting game from Square I know my draw is just as low as yours right now but bisha blade much like too wasn't your typical fighting game while its gameplay May somewhat mimic that of a standard fighting game the method by which you win is entirely unique to bashid Blade these games had no time limit or health bar instead used a body damage system where even a single precise hit could result in instant death now instead of depleting a health bar hitting opponents would slow their attack and running speed or even [ __ ] their legs entirely depending on where you hit because of these lethal attacks characters were able to run jump and even climb around the 3D Arenas during the fight adding a lot of depth to the combat in a more creative and open-ended way like tobo these titles were received positively and even sold decently well for a fighting series not produced by b n am or Capcom unfortunately following the release of bito Blade 2 in 1998 the franchise seemingly died off as well fighting force was a set of beat mops developed by Core Design during the late '90s the game played like your typical beat him up with players choosing one of four characters before fighting their way through Urban and science fiction environments the biggest draw for these games was their characters each came with their own special mve and had their own strengths and weaknesses Jackson for for example was a large slow Bruiser that had immense strength being able to lift and throw large objects at enemies Alana on the other hand was a fast but weaker hitting teenager who could also make use of jump kicks outside of that though that was pretty much all this game had going for it upon receiving mixed reviews Core Design decided to somehow make the sequel worse it removed Corp play completely as well as limiting players to only one playable character not sure what was going through their minds here these changes resulted in even worse scores for the sequel and despite a third game being planned it was eventually canceled following the departure of many key members from the team in 2003 this seems to be yet another franchise left out to die I honestly can't believe this next one is a franchise but you have to admit Square Enix knows how to capitalize on their popular franchises yes that's a chocoo the same one that appears throughout the final fantasy series except this time he's the one in the spotlight so what's a chocobo doing around these parts you ask well apparently everything and I mean that first he's exploring a dungeon and a Rog like next thing you know he's in a cart racing around a track and then he's he's back in his natural habitat taking on monsters in card games I'm not really sure how else to summarize this franchise it's pretty much a collection of games that are based on different genres and the only thing bundling them all together is the fact that a chocobo is the main character even so this franchise has consistently been released to this day with both a recent remaster of chocobo's dungeon in 2019 as well as a new entry in the cart racing sector in 2022 now I can't say it deserves Mainstay status because of these games one's just a remaster of an existing title and the other while holy original game is just a knockoff Mario Kart that if I'm being honest just isn't very good it most likely deserves to be in the it exist here for now now prior to the emerg discussions with Enix gr was in full force pumping out new IPS like it was no one else's business the next one went by the name Brave fena Musashi an action RPG that involved realtime sword based combat in a 3D environment rather than the usual turnbas system seen in most other RPGs at the time players took control of the game's titular character Musashi as he fought his way through enemies with his two swords which not only had their own unique abilities but could also be used in conjunction with each other for Unique techniques the game would also feature its very own day and night cycle which not only affected the towns folk and monsters out in the field but also mhi's fatigue rating as the longer players went without sleep the more it would impact his combat ability these elements were praised by critics and the game went on to sell decently well especially for a new IP this would result in the game getting its very own sequel 7 years later titled Musashi Samurai Legend now while the sequel played a lot like its predecessor with real time combat and 3D environment it didn't do enough to distinguish itself and went on to guard a mediocre reviews this is where the franchise has been left to this day and seeing as there hasn't been any new updates it most likely means it's slipping towards the dead tier oh boy what have it happened to this franchise oh yeah never mind God talking about this series brings back some deep rooted memories I've personally only ever played the original Parasite Eve and it was such a surreal experience at the time this game was actually the sequel to the novel Parasite Eve which had been written by hideaki Senna and it was interesting in the way that meshed together unique aspects of the RPG genre with survival horror elements it was also squaresoft's first m-rated game and followed police officer a as she attempted to stop Eve a woman looking to destroy the human race through human combustion which finally enough enough sounds a lot like what Square Enix did to this franchise with the third birthday in an era where every new RPG game looked to incorporate unique additions to their system Parasite Eve stood a top the rest with its unique battle system that allows you to pause time for a short period of time while you align your thoughts and strategies I remember thinking being able to encounter enemies out in the same field that you'd just been walking around in in real time as well was such a cool feature and made it really feel like one cohesive World unlike other RPGs where once you entered battle it would just be like a static background being that it was a survival horror game many compared it to the Resident Evil series of games and while it's hard to rate Parasite Eve over such an important franchise I'd say the first Parasite Eve was definitely up there alongside them the original was met with very positive reviews and sold incredibly well for the time shipping over 1 million copies I can't say too much about the sequels but there were two the first of which was released a year later in 1999 and the other after a long draft period in 2010 I can however say with confidence after watching a few Parasite Eve retrospectives that not many people like this one with some believing it to be the sole reason why there hasn't been a new entry or any remakes for the franchise since unfortunately I have to place Parasite Eve into the life support tier but it could potentially go even lower I'd do anything to see even a remake of the original but I guess that's up to S Unix at this point we go from one survival horror franchise to another with chaos heat if you didn't know that the late '90s also marked the Resurgence of Japanese horror well now you do it was the latest fix not only in the gaming industry but also in cinema with some of the greatest Japanese horror films being released during that period getting back on topic though Tito wanted to capitalize on this new boom in the market and in doing so would develop and release the survival horror game chaos heat unlike parasite evow these games were very Bare Bones and played like your typical Survivor horror ganses without adding too many new features or Innovative playoffs options I don't believe they were ever released in the US either as the sequel chaos break only ever got a EU release in the year 2000 now while I am silently hopeful with regards to A Parasite Eve remake I don't think anyone should be holding their breath waiting for a new game from this franchise the gangsters franchise is a strange one for one it originated in the west and never made it over to the east in any form and they also remained PC exclusives while this may sound like a series destined for failure it actually performed extremely well now I have held some information here the these games weren't developed by square or Enix although based on the title I'm sure many of you already figured that out no these games were developed by Hot House Creations on the [ __ ] interactive while they were still separate from Square Enix the games themselves were essentially strategy games and were rather complex for the time players would need to assign task to the gangsters under the control who would then go out and act them out in the realtime aspect of the game which was often referred to as the working week in order to win these games players would need to keep expanding their territory this could be done in numerous ways you could purchase both legal and legal businesses lawn the money through them you could raid other businesses and bribe appropriate figureheads to help you with deals honly you could pretty much do whatever you wanted as long as you stayed out of trouble and weren't caught in the act the first entry into this franchise exceeded expectations selling well over 500,000 copies this success led to the development of its sequel which was released a few years later in 2001 unfortunately following the mix reception and lackluster sales of its sequel this franchise most likely was dropped meaning we can slot it into the dead tier with the ever popular Final Fantasy 7 in full effect as well as a unique and interesting Direction with Parasite Eve Enix was seemingly falling behind Square now Star Ocean was a step on the right direction but it wasn't nearly as popular as Square's latest releases If Only They had a game with Innovative World movement emotionally driven character sequences and a unique battle system that could keep up with Square's creative Endeavors oh looks like they did just that Valkyrie Profile was the latest RPG game released by Enix in 1999 and while it follows traditional RPG Logic the game actually plays more like a platform in certain segments for one the titular character lenith has the ability to jump Slide Attack and shoot ice crystals while outside of combat upon contact with an enemy the usual battle sequence starts but instead of your typical turn base system Valkyrie Profile has the players whole party share one turn with each character being able to attack simultaneously during that one turn this means you can string attacks together as combos making it extremely hard for enemies to gain their footing the most interesting aspect of this game though comes into play when you recruit fellow I hanar which were those Souls of deceased Warriors now upon recruiting them you would often get to see the circumstances in which they died through cutscenes these were usually very emotional moments steeped in symbolism and training them as part of your party afterwards just to send them off to Valhalla really pulled at your heartstrings the game also offered three difficulty options with each one including different characters to recruit Dungeons and quests like Chrono trick a Valkyrie Profile offered multiple endings one of which could only be viewed by completing certain objectives on a specific difficulty now Valkyrie Profile went on to become extremely successful garnering very positive reviews and selling extremely well it would then be followed by two prequels that also performed decently well but after that the series entered a long drought period the franchise would get a slight Revival with the reveal of Valkyrie anatomia on IOS and Android but after a few years this two would end miraculously though Square Enix would actually fully revive the franchise after 15 years when they released Valkyrie elesium in 2022 the game remained faithful to the groundwork laid out by previous installments but shifted more towards a action-based system this entry was met with mediocre reviews and sold relatively poorly in comparison the series as a whole has sold over 2.2 million copies and while it may not be one of the most popular franchises in the world it's nice to see Square Enix keeping it alive we've come across one of the more obscure titles with Urban chaos these were a set of action adventure games that had players roam through small Maps as they engaged in a rather complex fighting system you could kick punch throw slide tackle and even arrest enemies which have done would make the populace more friendly towards the player honestly there's not really too much information on this game apart from it being nominated at one point for the worst game of the year which it won runner up for so it baffles me how it got its own sequel years later in 2007 with Urban chaos Riot response the sequel did perform slightly better but once again it didn't seem to do enough for Square Enix to want to continue it now after developing and releasing Urban chaos [ __ ] interactive went straight back into development and a year later they would release the first game in the fear Effect series as you can probably guess from its title these were a series of survival horror games that had a few unique differences to them for one the player was able to shoot and move simultaneously which was rare for the time as most survival horror games would require the player to stand still while shooting as a means to add suspense players would also be able to dual wield guns and in doing so would allow them to shoot multiple enemies at once the most interesting concept though in my opinion was the unique take on the players's health bar players would lose Health upon being hit as usual but the method in which you were able to gain it back was very unique essentially you had to perform tasks that would calm your character's heart rate things like solving a puzzle or sneaking up behind an enemy and performing a stealth kill would reward the player by giving them a small Health boost following some exceptional reviews the franchise would see the release of a further two games a prequel in 2001 titled fear Effect 2 retro Helix as well as an indie isometric title called fear effect sna which was released in 2018 Square Enix would go on to announce a remake of fear effect titled fear effect reinvented in 2017 now this remake was initially left in the hands of French Studio Sushi the same ones that went on to develop for effect sedna but was shifted to megapixel Studio who shifted what was supposed to be a faithful remake into a third person shooter a trailer showcasing this direction would be shown at games col 2022 before ending with a statement that it would be arriving soon coming into this year however it would be rumored that the game had been cancelled this would later be confirmed by staff on the forever entertainment's Discord meaning the six-year wait for the supposed remake never amounted to anything even so with the somewhat recent release of fear effect Sedar I can't say this franchise is completely dead most likely sitting within the it exist or life support tier now coming into the 21st Century Square wasn't looking too hot they' put one too many eggs into the Final Fantasy basket and while their games performed extremely well their next Endeavor using the fabled name would almost take them out completely I'm talking about their Ventures into the filming industry where they spent an astronomical amount on their first film titled Final Fantasy the spirits within yeah it didn't do too well so much so that it scared off Enix from the potential merger that had been planned for years by this point thankfully though a certain game had been development since early 2000 and unbeknownst to everyone at the time this game wouldn't just help Square stabilize their financial situation but also gone to become one of the most beloved franchises in gaming [Music] history Kingdom Hearts where do I even begin I'm sure most people watching this have heard of this fr I would consider it one of the three pillars of Square Enix alongside Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as magical as this series is though it would never be a surreal as the process of how it came to be the original idea for Kingdom Hearts actually began with the discussion between Hashimoto and sakaguchi about Super Mario 64 they wanted to design a game that had free movement in the 3D space just like it but thought no other character apart from maybe Disney ones could rival Mario in terms of popularity the heavens heard them apparently and Hashimoto actually had a chance encounter with the Disney EX in an elevator of all places this only happened because at the time both square and Disney worked in the same building now talk about the stars aligning even with this relationship established Square wanted their own original character though and after much deliberation Sora was born now while Kingdom Hearts plays as an arpg it doesn't exactly follow in the exact same footsteps as many of Square's past franchises with the games incorporating more action and hacken SL elements into their gameplay pack on an exceptional OST recognizable characters that the voiced by an All-Star C past and a Whimsical but Charming narrative and you've got a game series that performed exceptionally well with the immense success of the original game it was only a matter of time before the series would expand exponentially and that it did with countless sequels remasters spin-offs and remakes that have continuously been released to this day the franchise has shipped over 36 million units making it one of the bestselling RPG franchises in history it is without a doubt a Square Enix Flag ship magic Peno the Quest for color or as we true fans like to call it garakuta mesaku k go rakugaki okoku okay who am I kidding I have no idea what this franchise is or at least I hadn't heard of it before making this video and even after doing some research on it I still just don't really know how to talk about this game I'd say it's like a mix between Pokémon and Mario Paint if you can imagine that you essentially paint your own creatures and depending on the amount of Magic ink used and the limbs you attach to your creation specific stats are given to it you can then battle other people's custom designs as a means of training your creatures up the battle mechanic is far more basic than in Pokémon though and follows a rock paper scissors methodology this game was followed up a few years later by a sequel titled graffiti Kingdom which kept most of what made the first game so unique I'm honestly surprised to see this franchise never make it to the Nintendo DS or 3DS in theory it sounds like the perfect console for such a game but alas you most likely won't be seeing it as the franchise hasn't seen a new entry since 2003 Dungeon Siege was a series of action RPGs developed by gas powered games set in the medieval Kingdom of EB and not flow players would fight their way through a large linear world that was split up not by levels but by load screens these games played similarly to the Diablo franchise in a sense but unlike Diablo the games didn't work on the basis of different classes instead players would become more proficient and skilled with weapons or magic abilities that they used often meaning that in theory any character would be able to fill any role following the commercial success of the original which went on to sell over 1.7 million copies the franchise expanded to include a further two sequels as well as multiple expansions and a PSP spin-off the popularity of the franchise would also lead to the creation of a movie titled in the Name of the King a Dungeon Siege which was said to be inspired by the original game I'm going to cut straight to the chase it was terrible the movie completely flopped in the same vein as final fantasy's film Against All Odds though this film was followed up by two home video sequels at this point the film franchise was more consistent than the gaming franchise and when I say I wish it stayed that way I mean it it would certainly be the lesser of two evils see Dungeon Siege has actually been revived to some extent with Square Enix announcing its partnership with the box which they attained a patch of land that they themed around Dungeon Siege thing is this isn't really a game and more of a cash grab as players would have to purchase pieces of land as digital nfts yeah honestly looking at this map the only fun I could see coming out of it is playing maybe ice spy on it I mean I don't even know where Square enix's patch of land is I mean you guys can pause and have a look if you want now if you're thinking this place is Dungeon Siege back up in the it exists here then you're solely mistaken if anything this drops it straight into the dead tier this kind of move is unex acceptable and I feel for the fans of the series that were probably excited hearing that the franchise they loved could return just to see this we go from one end of the spectrum to the other with a conflict another series of games developed by a subsidiary of a subsidiary these were your typical tactical shooty games that players enlist in one of two squads each player in these squads had their own unique specialty you'd have a demolition guy a Sniper Elite an assault rifle vet and so on and to succeed in these games you have to use each of their Specialties to your advantage despite its mediocre reviews the game would sell extremely well shipping over 2 million copies by the end of 2003 this would lead to a further four sequels ended with conflict denied Ops in 2008 unfortunately it doesn't seem like we'll be seeing a new entry as the developer of these games pivotal games closed down following denied Ops in 2008 most definitely seems like a dead franchise at this point now I'm going to show you guys two characters and it's up to you to figure out which franchise each one belongs to so here's the first one and here's the second all right got your answers in well the first one is from a friend franchise called draon guard whereas the second image is from a franchise called draon guard yes I tricked you they're from the same franchise in fact the near series of games is actually a spin-off based on the last of draon guard's five possible endings the franchise began all the way back in 2003 with dragon guard an action RPG that featured three types of gameplay ground missions aerial missions and a free Expedition mode it may look Bare Bones by today stands but this game laid the groundwork for the rest of the games in this franchise the mainlight Dragon guard franchise would end up receiving three games to its name with the latest taking us back to 2013 with draon Guard 3 during the long way between draon guard 2 and dra guide 3 fans the franchise were introduced to a somewhat new entry simply titled Nia now Nia did some interesting things mainly drawing elements from a multitude of other game genres in some instances players would find themselves working through a 2d environment while platforming while in other instances the camera would pull up to simulate that of a top down shooter M these interesting additions resulted in the game receiving a fairly mixed response though but despite that the game sold decently well shipping over 500,000 copies both draon guard and the original near were long considered popular in Japan but for the most part remained fairly unknown outside of Japan at least that was the case until the release of one game in [Music] particular like many I'm sure near automata was my first peer into this franchise and honestly it's definitely not a bad place to start this game was Sublime I sunk so many hours into this game and despite it taking place in a post-apocalyptic world that was said to be Barren I somehow spent hours just wandering around and exploring the world but the story the multiple endings and the music my God the music all these things just shot this particular game to worldwide stardom and really opened up this franchise entirely NE would then get its very own remaster called um okay I'm not reading those numbers but it performs significantly better than the original selling much more when it comes to the feuture of this franchise there isn't too much information out there however I did find a statement from IGN which said a Square Enix producer named yoske syto mentioned that as long as near Creator yokaro lives a new entry is Orit guaranteed I guess we'll just have to wait and see if that's the case I honestly believe that near automata essentially kicked dren Guard from an it exist here franchise up to a mainstate franchise we exit out of one post-apocalyptic world into another get it God my puns have to be some of the worst things ever now I'm definitely reaching here calling the series of games a post-apocalyptic Venture in reality you play as Mr Escape yes what a Whimsical playing words but he lives up to that name as he must escape out of hospitals facilities offices uh this segment of the video whatever you can think of this guy was escaping from it there's only one problem though this guy also had the worst luck imaginable this guy had to avoid fires earthquakes floods bloody meteor storms like what and if that wasn't stressful enough sometimes you had to help out others that are stuck and escape with them as well the goal is to strategize a route that will help not only Mr Escape but also the stuck individual to add to the difficulty there are multiple types of individuals like children patients and adults who each had their own strengths and weaknesses one must consider in planning your Escape Route now while the game sounds interesting in design and concept the actual implementation and gameplay didn't quite match up many found the platforming elements to be annoying and unwarranted with many considering the deaths to such things as cheap gimmicks to add artificial difficulty it did Garner enough attention to Warrant a SQL which was released a few years later in 2009 but following exit 2 the franchise seemingly exited the market for good letting us slaughtered Into the Dead tier we've arrived at Square enix's most successful franchise that isn't an RPG just cause was the birth child of avalanche Studios under [ __ ] interactive whil it's described as a third person action adventure game I've always considered them more like sandbox games but maybe that's because I've only played Just scor 2 which I mean it is a Sandbox but each entry takes place on its own fictional island nation that you're free to explore you can do this by any means you want you can run around fight whoever you want pilot helicopters planes drive vehicles as well as more extreme things like par selling and even skydiving the games for the most part were received extremely well with just CS 2 in particular shipping well over 6 million units I can't comment too much on the story of these games because like I said I just played them like sandboxes where I just run around doing whatever I wanted the series as a whole has shipped over 15 million units making it one of square enix's most successful franchises each new entry tends to take a few years to release but the series has continuously pumped out new games to this day the most recent game just C 4 was unfortunately met with mediocre reviews and as stated by Square Enix themselves didn't even break even on its production costs from here the franchise looked to expand to include a mobile release which was set to release in 2022 this would inevitably end end up being cancelled in July of 2023 though leaving the future of this franchise in limbo even so I don't believe this franchise will stop anytime soon maybe the next few games are total flops as well but overall this franchise is far too successful to be anything but a main stay at this point now this next franchise Battle Stations was essentially an experimental franchise that had been worked on by [ __ ] Hungary a subdivision of [ __ ] interactive said during World War II these games combined action and realtime tactics as players were able to not only command their Fleet assets but also control them at any time they wished while the games were received well s Enix would end up shutting down [ __ ] Hungary in 2009 due to the discontinuation of this particular franchise CEO of Square Enix Europe Phil Rogers went on to say that the reason they did this was because they realized that to be first or the best in the RTS genre was going to be extremely challenging and it wasn't necessarily something they were up to this confirms that Battle Stations is without a doubt a dead franchise now despite that quote I just read out the next franchise on this list Supreme Commander was another RTS game but in square enix's defense this one wasn't developed by them rather was created by gas powered games the same people who had handled the Dungeon Siege series one of the coolest aspects of Supreme Commander was the fact that units were built to scale such that smaller units would appear tiny on the field whereas massive experimental units like the cybran monkey Lord towered over units so much so that even the simple Act of stepping on top of smaller units would completely destroy them the game's title comes from the fact that each base is built around a giant bipedal Mech called an armor command unit the general concept and gameplay follow that of your typical RTS games you can choose between three separate factions where your goal is to build up your base and Army and conquer the other factions on the field now Supreme Commander was hyped up well before it even released and it certainly lived up to it garnering very positive reviews once it released the franchise saw the release of a further sequel in 2010 with Supreme Commander 2 as well as an expansion pack titled Supreme Commander forged Alliance at this stage the future of the franchise looked bright but following the shutdown of the multiplayer service in 2012 it was was up to the community to salvage the rest and that's exactly what they did using a server emulator a multiplayer client was created by the forged Alliance forever community and amazingly they've kept this up to this day with an Ever growing player base and continued participation in community hosted tournaments it's nice to see that not all hope has been lost for this franchise in saying this it's hard to say that this equates to the franchise existing as it's pretty clear to me that Square Enix at least doesn't seem to have any interest in continuing the franchise the ones behind the forged Alliance forever have actually been working on an independent spiritual success entitled Sanctuary shattered sun and while it doesn't have a specified release date it's most likely the closest will get to a supreme commander 3 I guess if I take all of this into account it can sit in the it exist here either that or the dead it's one or the other and the award for the most complex battle system goes to the world ends with you honestly what what even is this I didn't realize I needed a degree in Neuroscience to understand what the hell is going on in this game now despite my saying this once mastered this combat system becomes one of the of the most fulfilling in any RPG ever it's one of the most unique and fun experiences to tap into essentially the player had to manage two fights at once these were against the same enemies but the gameplay involved was different between them I'm going to try and simplify this so that those who haven't played the game can understand what I'm trying to say here essentially when you're controlling neku who's the main protagonist you use what are known as pins each one of these had a different ability attached to it and the means in which they were activated were different some required you to tap them quickly to activate others would require you to slasher enemies to activate them and some Grand ones even had you shouting into the microphone on the other hand your partner character would be controlled by the face buttons with each of them having their own card game based mechanic I'm probably not doing a very good job at explaining all this but as you can imagine this made for some extremely hectic gameplay the game was met with critical ACC claim upon its release but sold poorly in comparison to a lot of square enix's other RPG franchises this kind of halted any progress towards a sequel as Square Enix wasn't sure if it was profitable enough to Warrant one they did release enhanced ports throughout the years but following a decade with no new news many he believed it to be a one hit wonder and this continued to hold true for the next few years until 2020 where a weekl long countdown started on the game's official web page The Final Countdown would end with the reveal of a brand new sequel titled Neo the world ends with you which were go to be released in 2021 now sporting a full 3d style the sequel took a lot of what made its predecessor good and fleshed them out more the game would Garner positive reviews but unfortunately sales numbers weren't up to scratch once again but Square Enix themselves stating that it failed to meet their expectations now what the means for the future of the franchise only Square Enix knows but for now this deserves to sit in the it exist here now among the plethora of RPG titles offered by Square Enix you can always count on [ __ ] to supply something slightly different and this time that was Kane and Lynch these were a set of third person shooters that followed titular characters Kane and Lynch who were a JW of hired mercenaries there isn't too much to say about these games Unfortunately they failed to stand out from the crowd and received a very average review scores across the board [ __ ] would go on to announce that a sequel titled Kane and Ln 2 dog dates was scheduled for the release in 2010 while it also received average reviews most considered it a slight improvement over its predecessor despite both games having sold over 1 million copies each it seems as so the franchise has beat abandoned there were talks about a film adaption that was in the works from Lion's gate and it was originally slided for a 2011 release but later got pushed back to 2013 only to be silently asked while no one else was looking all of these problems Point towards the franchise dying out completely and even if there was a slight chance of it coming back those odds get lower and lower each day a what a cute game oh hey sorry didn't see you there what's this you ask oh it's just Mini Ninjas the coziest ninja game in existence now some of you may be looking at this gaml and wondering how the hell is a ninja cutting up enemies cozy what about this in the developer mind the ideas when creating this game was to make one that they could play with their kids now tell me that isn't wholesome as [ __ ] Mini Ninjas was a third person action adventure game where players got to pick one of six playable ninjas each with their own unique set of abilities and weapons as they fought their way through the world trying to restore peace its cute and cartoonish art style gave off its own charm and while the game didn't necessarily blow anyone away it did do enough to receive a few spin-offs as well as its own animated series which aired in 2015 on various networks as this game seemed almost like a small title release I can't see it coming back anytime soon the most likely instance is another mobile game but even then I can't see it happening at least for a little while Chaos Rings is an interesting franchise all it takes on the of a Square Enix RPG series they were primarily designed and released on mobile devices the series is made up of four games released from 2010 to 2014 they played like your typical RPG title where you moved your way through separate Dungeons and Landscapes honestly for a mobile title the graphics were very impressive and the gameplay while simplistic was addictive enough to the point where you'd spend hours laying around playing this without even realizing it the games would be downloaded over 1 million times before being removed from both Android and Apple app stores in 2016 the original chaos ring as as well as chaos ring 3 would eventually get ports to the PS VA somewhat preserving the franchise but in the case of Chaos Rings 2 it was looking like a lost scores at least it would have been if the community didn't come to the rescue once again in order to preserve these highly ambitious and original titles the community managed to use offline prepackaged emulators that ran compatible versions of Android on PC even more impressively in 2022 the PlayStation VA emulator vaa 3K achieved playable status on all four chaos ring games meaning that should you ever want to go and have a run through these games you can now now while this is great and all for the preservation of the series it doesn't change the fact that in square enix's eyes this is most likely a dead or zombie tier franchise now I'd be surprised if many knew about this next franchise Million Arthur I'd personally never heard of it before making this video and that's partly due to the fact that the majority of these games have remained Japanese exclusives the franchise itself has expanded to include far more than just video games with whole animated TV shows manga series and even a liveaction adaptation the original game was an online freeto playay C hard battle game and to this day remains one of the few instances where this franchise was made available in the West trying to explain what this franchise is about however is far more complex as each new entry seemingly switched genres such that this franchise has a VR game an arcade game an MMO RPG and finally an action RPG from what I can see this franchise Loosely centers around the legend of King Arthur and the legendary sword Excalibur outside of that though I couldn't tell you the first thing about these games the fact that they've released so many games for it though with one even being announced as recently as this year means that even though it's not well known in the west it does have a place in the it exist here at least as the famous saying goes don't fix what's not broken and Square Enix plus RPGs definitely isn't broken if they release an RPG even if it's completely new IP the chances it'll do well are always going to be high and the bravely franchise continues to prove that theory originally slated to be part of the Final Fantasy franchise as a sequel to Final Fantasy the four Heroes of Light series producer tomoya asano wanted to try out something new so he went on to create Bravely Default a fresh new RPG series for Square Enix they've never done that before all jerking aside though Bravely Default like many of square enix's main RPG series had a few things that helped differentiate itself from the crowd while the game used a turn-based combat system it now featured two new features fittingly named Brave and default Brave points essentially measured the number of actions that were possible each turn these could go into the negatives but would need to be at least zero for the players characters to act Brave points would accumulate at a rate of 1 per turn and that's where the default option comes into play default would allow characters to enter our guards state where they would take reduced damage as well as accumulate additional Brave points there are other things like sleep points that could be used to freeze time and whatnot but the main combat flow centered around the Brave and default options upon its release Bravely Default was met with critical Acclaim it would also sell extremely well shipping over 1 million copies worldwide its success led to a further two sequels both of which have been received well and sold incredibly well for such a new IP following the continued success of the franchise series producer Tomo asano mentioned in 2021 that further entries into the series were almost guaranteed although they would most likely take a further 3 to four years to develop now it should be noted that in this he said ENT trees and not ENT tree meaning that it's likely that this series will continue for a while longer with multiple new releases hearing this I think it may have even earned a spot up in the Main Stays life sure is strange isn't it if you told me 12 months ago that I'd be sitting in my room recording that stupid pun of a line for a YouTube video I'd tell you there's no way that' make such a lame joke yet here we are in a similar sense if you told me 15 years ago that Square Enix would make a series of narrative driven adventure games I'd also probably tell you there was no way they'd end up doing that either but again here we are the life of strange franchise was built on top of developer Don nod's entertainment's previous 2013 game remember me which briefly explored a mechanic where players could rewind time this then went on to become the central mechanic in the first life of strange entry with players being able to rewind conversations between characters to explore the branching dialogue options and shift the outcome of them every new entry into the series would introduce a new main character that had their own specific ability Chloe and before the storm could use her back talk ability to intimidate and persuade other characters in life of strange 2 players must guide Daniel who has the power of telekinesis through various moral and ethical choices the franchise as a whole had released four Mainline games as well as a few remasters and demos for a franchise that has only been out for 8 years this is a pretty impressive showing of development speed and for the most part the franchise has been received well selling over 7.5 million copies between its games now despite it being a relatively new IP I I think it's worked its way up to the point where it can be considered a Mainstay now these next few games aren't necessarily their own franchise more so a series of games by one developer in particular that being Tokyo RPG Factory and yes you guessed it they specialize in developing well RPGs but not just any RPGs see this small team look did focus on developing Games inspired by titles from the Golden Age of RPGs games like Chrono Trigger and the early entries of Final Fantasy were heavily drawn from the three games they went on to develop would each adopt a unique theme I'm set soona their first release would adopt a snow theme while focusing its narrative on sadness their follow-up game would be lost sphere which took on the theme of the Moon while focusing its story and gameplay around memories in the final and most recent release onaki would use the visual theme of flowers and on the toit's guidance would focus more so on mature themes that centered around death and the concept of reincarnation now while these games were received decently well they weren't what you'd consider Smash Hits selling a decent but humble number of copies each even so toky RPG Factory would immediately start work in pre-production on a fourth title which to this day still hasn't been revealed to us like I said I don't think these are considered part of the same franchise and are more spiritual successes of each other with their own Standalone stories I thought they at least deserved a mention though and here is where we witnessed the birth of a new graphical style fittingly named HD 2D the game to introduce us to this visually appealing aesthetic was octopath traveler this game essentially started off a whole new trend with Square Enix titles and seemingly out of nowhere they were pumping games like triangle strategy and live alive so much so that I wouldn't blame you if you got confused as to which one was which I definitely have now outside of its stunning graphical style octopath traveler was at its core an RPG game it had players pick one of eight characters each of whom began their journey in different parts of the World the game also uses its unique turn-based battle system which centers around the break and boost feature essentially all enemies came with a specific number of Shield points these are not shown to the players the first time around but should the player hit an enemy with an attack they were weak to more times than they had Shield points they would break the enemy's defenses causing them to lose their turn during their turn players could exchange up to three of these to unleash a FL of attacks or increase the potency of an ability these types of features add some much needed depth and strategy to the turn-based battle system and were heavily praised alongside the game's Graphics upon its release the series was a commercial success often being referred to as the magical RPG that the Nintendo switch desperately needed the game would go on to sell over 3 million copies making one of square enix's most successful recent releases the franchise's second entry octopath traveler 2 was more of the same with a few added quality of life updates and general polish the game would also sell extremely well selling over 1 million units by June of 2023 at this point I think this is a guaranteed Main's St based on how often this new HD 2D style is used and the popularity of the games themselves I wouldn't be surprised to see numerous entries release over the next decade for this franchise Now voice of cards not to be confused with the heart of the cards takes the spot as Square enix's latest franchise the trilogy first came into existence with the release of its first game voice of cards the a dragon Roars the game's narrative exploration and even battles were all represented in an artistic style using cards players could uncover parts of the map by flipping these cards over which would also sometimes trigger random events or treasure chests for a set of small scale console titles this Trilogy was very positively received both The Forsaken maiden and the Beast of Burden released soon after the original as well as a bundle that included all three titles packaged into one as the series was was originally planned to be a Trilogy you could say that this is a finished franchise looking at how well received the games were I wouldn't be surprised to see a continuation at some point for now I will just place it in the it exist tier and there you have it that is the current state of every Square Enix franchise the biggest thing I took away from this video was the fact that Square Enix while known as this jrpg jugut does in fact have quite a few franchises outside the genre most of which I'd say are decently ambitious and unique and probably worth checking out if they suit your preferences the company as a whole has done a pretty good job at keeping even some of their oldest franchises of FL with most of their recent revivals happening in the last few years once again feel free to grill me on any franchises that I missed I wish I could spend more time talking about certain franchises but when it comes to RPGs it's almost impossible to talk about them in a timely matter without starting to ramble for hours on end even so I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did please do consider subscribing and all those things hope to see you all in the next video

Channel: Legend of Kai

Views: 159,056

Keywords: final fantasy 7 rebirth, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, kingdom hearts 4, video games, rpgs, role-playing games, gaming, popular rpgs, Square Enix, Nier automata, Nier, Mana, Visions of Mana, favorite rpgs, Commantary, Current state of

Id: 3YkNmRHSdaQ

Length: 92min 51sec (5571 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023