Square Enix Xbox RPGs Fall Short of Hype
Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant Too Flawed to be RPG Classics
Dec 13, 2008
Square Enix rocked as well as shocked the role-playing game fanbase when it announced at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo that it would produce a few of its role-playing games for the Xbox 360. The developer is very well known for its high quality RPGs, as well as its loyalty to the Japanese consoles, so this announcement excited Xbox owners as much as it disappointed PlayStation and Nintendo fans.
The first RPG, Infinite Undiscovery, was released in October, and the second, The Last Remnant, followed suit in November. JRPG fans had high hopes for these games, and unfortunately, underneath all of the glitz and glamor Square Enix bestowed on them from the Microsoft stage, both fell rather flat in the reviews and for the fans. Both of these games briefly touch on the greatness of a typical Square Enix JRPG, but the rest is unpolished, shallow, and feels like it was rushed in development.
Infinite Undiscovery -- The Title is the Only Deep Element
Infinite Undiscovery was Square Enix's first exclusive for the Xbox 360 console. Since the console is rather lacking in the role-playing games department, one would think Square Enix would come in blazing, with all of its typical JRPG glory, especially with the intriguing title.
Instead, they gave Xbox owners a game with dubbing that doesn't fit the characters' lip-synching, around eighteen characters a player is never going to know but has to organize into parties, and a relatively short (approximately 20 hours) amount of game time for a RPG.
The reviewers didn't hit it hard, but they all said about the same things.
- IGN gave the game a 7.1 out of 10, calling it "Decent." The reviewer summed up the game with, "You probably shouldn't judge a game by its title, but in all honestly, Infinite Undiscovery tells you everything you need to know. It only half makes sense -- and only when you squint your brain. That is the design approach in a nutshell."
- Gamestop gave it a 6.5 out of 10, "Fair," and said, "Infinite Undiscovery feeds your need for narrative, but it's ultimately a shallow, flawed experience."
- Kombo also rated Infinite Undiscovery a 6.5, "Okay," saying that "Undiscovery does indeed lay a solid foundation but the structure built on top of that doesn't go much beyond the second story. It feels like the developers held back in a number of areas that would have made Undiscovery a modern JRPG classic."
The Last Remnant -- Too Many Remnants of Technical Flaws
The Last Remnant is not an Xbox exclusive, but the PlayStation 3 version will not be out for a few more months. With the amount of technical issues and bugs the Xbox version has, perhaps its release should have also been pushed back to April, 2009. It's understandable that maybe one Xbox RPG was a bit rushed and thrown out to the public, but two?
The Last Remnant has done almost everything right: beautiful graphics, an incredible musical score, innovative combat system, and intriguing story. But on top of the perfect formula for a glorious RPG, it's plagued with technical issues that a next-generation game on a very powerful console should not have. It's an incredible waste.
The reviewers did not let up on these technical bugs either.
- Gamespot gave The Last Remnant a 6.5, "Fair," and said that "Had developer Square Enix not rushed an unfinished product to shelves, The Last Remnant could have been an instant classic," and "It's downright depressing that this inner beauty is so heavily diminished by a totally broken technical framework."
- Kombo also gave the game a 6.5, "Okay," and echoes Gamespot's sentiments with, "The Last Remnant is a mixed bag. The battle system, musical score, and just magnitude the game gives off are simply amazing. Even though on a fundamental standpoint the game sounds like an instant classic, the game is plagued with nonsensical technical problems."
- IGN on the other hand, was rather harsh with its review. The reviewer gave the game a 5.3, calling it "Mediocre," and said that "While playing I occasionally found myself having fun, only to run into frustration, technical flaws, and confused game design. This is not a good JRPG."
For The Last Remnant to ever have hope at becoming a successful RPG, the developers better have all of these kinks ironed out before the PlayStation 3 April release.
Low Scores Atypical for Square Enix RPGs
Comparing these scores to some of Square Enix's RPGs drives the point further. IGN and Gamespot gave Final Fantasy XII a 9.5 and 9.0, Kingdom Hearts 2 a 7.6 and 8.7, and Dragon Quest VIII a 9.0 from each (Kombo does not review PlayStation 2 games). The World Ends with You racked up a solid 9.0 from IGN, Gamespot, and Kombo.
For a game developer who has come out with classics like the Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest series, it's almost heartbreaking to watch two games that bend the JRPG party-system fall so hard, especially when both games have so much potential.
However, potential without solid execution is not success; it's only possible success, and possible success obviously does not make great games. Hopefully it will learn from this (especially with the spring PS3 release of The Last Remnant) and not rush any more releases.
Hardcore RPG fans everywhere are willing to wait longer for a game release (such as Final Fantasy XIII) if it means they will play a polished product.
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