Wha Happun? (Matt McMuscles)

Black! A game I feel like I should remember. Anyway, EA is involved and you can probably guess the broad strokes of the episode from there

Black was a game I rented back in the day. Lotta fun. Didn't feel like action movie FPS gunplay could get better at the time, but I'd have to play it again to see how it holds up...

Let me guess… The developpers went under?

Nope, from what I've heard, Criterion Games is still around for now.

Edited by IvanovTroping97 on Feb 5th 2024 at 5:17:58 PM

What Happened- The Bouncer

Ah yes, the poster boy for pre-Wii Waggle.

As well as the insane Square character designs.

"Square greenlit three games. A new Final Fantasy, The Bouncer, and a mysterious third game." Now I can't stop wondering what that third game was.

I do miss the Squaresoft era where they are very, very wild with the games they made.

They did try something besides a typical RPG recently.

Remember Forspoken?

Maybe it's for the best if Squeenix sticks in its lane.

Edited by M84 on Feb 18th 2024 at 11:06:06 PM

Oh, in case it was unclear, I'm pretty sure the game Matt referred to at the end when he mentioned Squeenix teaming up with another company to make a beat em up, was The Quiet Man, which, you can say a lot of things about, but you can't say it was predictable or playing things safe.

Edited by WillKeaton on Feb 18th 2024 at 8:15:37 AM

Squaresoft / Squeenix has tried to branch out from the typical RPG genre quite a few times.

Given how those attempts usually turned out, it's not surprising that Square always goes back to making RPG's.

Squeenix is a company that really needs to learn how to outsource more.

They sold off Tomb Raider and Deus Ex.

Can't imagine any company fumbling their ability to expand their horizons out of their specialty more than Squeenix.

Squeenix also tried to make a looter game. Namely Marvel's Avengers. Which also didn't turn out great.

Like 90% of attempts at making that kind of games, really.

There definitely have been one or two games where I felt things turned out pretty well, though I'm mostly thinking of Nanashi no Game, which I personally really enjoyed.

And even that one's kind of an rpg. Okay, it's a Survival Horror game featuring a fictional cursed RPG game.

Square and Enix really liked the RPGs. Guess the popularity of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest seeped on them decades ago then.

Edited by AbsoluteRainbow on Feb 20th 2024 at 1:58:12 AM

More like it's the one thing they seem to be able to do well. They clearly want to do stuff besides RPG's. No one likes being pigeon-holed.

But they're just so bad at it.

Edited by M84 on Feb 20th 2024 at 3:00:06 AM

Actually looking over SE's full output... they really haven't branched out very much if you only look at the main company. I'd say they're more consistent with their RPG titles than otherwise, but they do have a few successes there. Square Enix Europe is where most of the non-RPG games come from, and they're actually decently successful with them

Stuff like Tobal/Ehrgeiz were good. And there's Einhander.

Funnily enough, I just realized that Square Enix did somewhat recently develop and publish a game that isn't the standard RPG faire: PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, which is also a horror game like Nanashi no Game (though they have different gameplay styles).

Not going to lie, I wouldn't say no to Square Enix doing more horror games.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Feb 20th 2024 at 5:07:50 AM

I wouldn't say no to a new Einhander game or something like it.

In today's episode of Wha Happun?, Matt talks about the time Final Fight had a fighting game.