/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1917367]

Defunct companies you wish were still around.

[Anonymous No.1917372]

This.

NOT Squenix

[Anonymous No.1917373]

Maybe they should have taken their translations more seriously.

Anyways, anyone who doesn't say Looking Glass Studios or Westwood is objectively wrong.

[Anonymous No.1917395]

>>1917372
THIS THIS THIS

[Anonymous No.1917432]

>>1917372
Enix also, for that matter.

That said, it's not really fair to blame the merger for Squaresoft going downhill. They were already selling out after appealing to graphics whores when they saw people that before then didn't care for RPGs swoon over the cutscenes in FFVII. The FF series was already going downhill when Amano was replaced by Nomura after FFVI, and of course when Sakaguchi stopped having direct involvement in the design of the series after FFVII.

Look at the games Square was producing just prior to the merger. It was all crap like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X, and FF Tactics Advance that clearly appealed to a different base of fans from earlier works.

[Anonymous No.1917439]

>>1917367
Dunno if this counts, but I really wish Nintendo and Rare were still together.

[Anonymous No.1917443]

>>1917432
Are you fucking serious? FFT was pretty good and so was FFX.

[Anonymous No.1917449]

>>1917367
Factor 5

[Anonymous No.1917453]

>>1917439
I agree

[Anonymous No.1917456]

>>1917443
FFT was great. But I was talking about FFTA.

And FFX was terrible. I hated that game. The story and characters took themselves far too seriously, Tidus was whiny and obnoxious, the dialog was full of pseudo-intellectual claptrap, the characters were boring and uninteresting and their designs were shit, and the game was FAR too easy.

[Anonymous No.1917476]

>>1917456
The game was easy, but I didn't mind the characters. But anyways every FF is easy man.

[Anonymous No.1917480]

>most gaming kids these days: "who?"

[Anonymous No.1917485]

>>1917443
FFT is awesome. FFTA is not awesome... still fun I guess though.

FFX is absolutely ridiculous. Replay it some time. I replayed it very recently, and it's downright laughable during almost every single part the game tries to take itself seriously. The dungeons are all just long hallways, zero exploration involved. The combat system is absurdly easy, once you figure out the gimmick each boss has. It's just a bad game, and is a decent marker for when Final Fantasy stopped being a good franchise.

[Anonymous No.1917515]

>>1917480
>70's and 80's

Thanks bro. Not feeling that old anymore.

[Anonymous No.1917518]

>>1917480
>>1917515
God you two are fucking old. Look at the bright side, you two probably aren't virgins, compared to 99% of /v/ and maybe /vr/ you're superior human beings.120

[Anonymous No.1917519]

>>1917485
I think for a handled game FFTA is way better than most.
And I'd have to say if you don't like FFX casting and story than you don't like FFVIII much. I enjoy 8 and 10.

[Anonymous No.1917530]

>>1917480
I started playing the C64 version of Temple of Apshai Trilogy last night. Good times.

[Anonymous No.1917531]

>>1917367
Despair.

[Anonymous No.1917534]

>>1917372
>>1917432
It was the competition between Enix and Square kept games from both companies great back in the day not to mention it leading to many new innovations and IPs.
Then Square/Sakaguchi made a gigantic fuck-up with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Enix was basically nice enough to allow Square to merge with them and save their asses. The result is that since there now isn't anyone to directly compete with Square half of SE they can get away by releasing half-asses shit that only sells with it's name alone nowadays.

The Enix half of SE has been less affected by this for a simple reason: Enix has always been more of a publisher and almost all their games have actually been developed by smaller outsourced teams like Quintlet, Tri-Ace and Level 5.

Personally I think I actually miss Enix or should I say Quintlet/Tri-Ace more than SquareSoft for the sole reason of most of their games were more unique compared to SquareSoft's "better" offerings.

[Anonymous No.1917538]

>>1917534
>No competition

What about Bamco and Atlus? Their RPGs are up there now.

[Anonymous No.1917542]

>>1917518
I'd give back my virginity if it meant these studios would still be around.

[Anonymous No.1917547]

>>1917519
FFVIII is also shit

[Anonymous No.1917553]

>>1917373
Looking Glass was phenominal

>>1917538
Atlus isn't defunct

[Anonymous No.1917579]

[Anonymous No.1917584]

>>1917373

WD was riding a new high in the late PSX era with a glut of newly translated games and a dedicated fanbase. The only thing that killed WD was Victor Ireland.

[Anonymous No.1917617]

Can we at least attempt to discuss companies other than Squaresoft/SquareEnix? Or at least can we attempt to not shit up this thread with "My FF is better than yours!!!11!" bullshit?

A defunct company/genre I miss is Impressions Games and their city building games.

[Anonymous No.1917676]

SNK

[Anonymous No.1917684]

>>1917367
I would crawl trough a mile of shattered glass for a new rouge squadron game.

[Anonymous No.1918084]

Bullfrog
Westwood
Factor 5
Rare before MS bought them out
Origin
Looking Glass Studios
Square before the Enix merger
Free Radical

[Anonymous No.1918104]

>>1917456
>the game was FAR too easy
Welcome to JRPGs.

[Anonymous No.1918134]

Empire Interactive tanked after Martian Gothic didn't do well in sales.

>>1918084
The M&A binge of the 90's was brutal. Hasbro Interactive earns just as much blame as EA and Activision in terms of destroyed studios. There are people still bitter over X-Com: Alliance.

[Anonymous No.1918546]

>>1917443
>and so was FFX.
Nope. Last good FF was VII, it went all moody hair/belt simulator after that. IX was a poor attempt at trying to prove to everyone they were still the same company they always were.

[Anonymous No.1918582]

Both old and new (quit to Pachinko).

[Anonymous No.1918587]

May as well be dead.

[Anonymous No.1918603]

>>1918546
>what are opinions

[Anonymous No.1918604]

They're all dead. The game industry is dead. This shit is depressing.

[Anonymous No.1918613]

>>1917367

[Anonymous No.1918637]

>Shinu ga yoi

right? ;__;

RIGHT???

[Anonymous No.1918638]

>>1918587
You left out the 'mega'

[Anonymous No.1918642]

>>1918604
Pretty much this. I can't remember the last time a game came out and I said "I gotta fucking have that"

[Anonymous No.1918645]

>>1917531
Oh god, the pain. Pls make it stop...

As much as all of these kicked out some stuff i loved, psygnosis slays me. Fuck sony for closing 'studio liverpool, neeerr' i'm never gonna have any new wipeout fixes... I mostly miss the amiga genreation names here though, especially bitmap brothers. Fucking chaos engine was boss, and so were speedball and gods.

[Anonymous No.1918649]

>>1917531
>Sir-Tech
>Infocom
>SSI

[Anonymous No.1918654]

>>1918642
Far and few between these days. Enjoying the wii u games so far though. On PC there's dota 2. Lots of indie game but I'm not big on those.
Honestly activision started my dislike for modern games and ea sealed it with bf3 being shit and finally bf4 being unplayable. Will never preorder a game again thanks solely to ea.

[Anonymous No.1918659]

>>1917373
This. Working Designs should be commended for their dedication to bring things over that would have otherwise never made it (and going the Origin route when it came to packaging), but their translations were always iffy at best.

[Anonymous No.1918665]

>>1918654
Yeah, I really like engaging story and well done rpgs. Those don't exist anymore. Really blows.
On another note, I'm pretty drunk and browsing ebay, what rpg should I buy. NES-snes- or ps1.

[Anonymous No.1918697]

>Newt, where are they?

They're dead! All Right? Can I go now?

[Anonymous No.1918701]

>>1918665
you can get engaging stories in a modern videogame, but they seem to come at the expense of actual videogaming. i can name countless examples of actually brilliant synergies of game/story, but i guess the media thinks we need more arseblows like Last Of Us.

[Anonymous No.1918709]

[Anonymous No.1918739]

Sunsoft.

Apparently the company still exists, they just haven't released a game since the N64/PSX generation.

All their games were incredibly well made.

[Anonymous No.1918740]

>>1917367
> all those shiny games cases and manuals

Love you OP.

[Anonymous No.1918742]

>>1918701
Well I enjoyed mass effect series and stuff like lost odyssey. But idk I guess there just isn't much charm or anything innovative or captivating anymore that makes me say "wow"

[Anonymous No.1918745]

Maxis

[Anonymous No.1918750]

>>1917432

I think it has more to do with Toriyama being given responsibility than any of those guys stepping away.

By all accounts the guy is the biggest fucking idiot on the planet.

[Anonymous No.1918754]

>>1918740
Was going through my ps1 collection last weekend and I had pause and admire the art for Raystorm, Raycrisis, and Thunder Force V. So shiny.

[Anonymous No.1918759]

>>1918739
Yeah, except for the games that were western developed but for some reason it said "Sunsoft", like Aero the Acrobat or all those shitty Looney Toons shovelware.

[Anonymous No.1918772]

>>1918742
i'm with you there. Mass Effect was a great universe, even if it wasn't always a great story or game. imagine if it was something like NVN2 and the wealth of modules available.

[Anonymous No.1918807]

[Anonymous No.1918847]

>>1918772
Mass effect could have some wonderful branch offs just using their universe really

[Anonymous No.1918985]

>>1917538
>Bamco
the two Dark Souls games are the only good RPGs they've published
>Atlus
weeaboo shovelware clearing house

[Anonymous No.1918993]

I miss their simulators so much. That and their Masters series. and Darklands.

[Anonymous No.1919169]

>>1918134

Love Dreamweb.

[Anonymous No.1919190]

Remember when this was a thing

[Anonymous No.1919225]

>>1918739
>>1918759
They made some stuff during the late 90s, including Galaxy Fight, Waku Waku 7 and that one Blaster Master sequel for the PS nobody played. From my understanding, video games was just a side business to Sunsoft and not their primary thing.

>>1918709
>>>/v/

[Anonymous No.1919245]

Back in MY day, Origin was a company, not EA's version of Steam.

And they made the best games ever.

RIP Origin.

[Anonymous No.1919247]

>>1919190
Yeah, but only because every other post in the thread already said that.

[Anonymous No.1919948]

Exxos, Lucas Arts, Adeline, Infogrammes.

[Anonymous No.1919969]

>>1919948
>Adeline

[Anonymous No.1919979]

Doom babbies.

[Anonymous No.1920259]

Technos.
You guys have completely forgotten about Technos.
Wish I had some booze to drown my sadness.

[Anonymous No.1920273]

>>1920259
Technos is still "alive"

As I recall the staff went to Million, then they became Mircale Kidz or something down the line? They released another Super Dodgeball game on the Xbox 360.

Also, how did they go out of business? They were a prolific developer and the Kunio series seemed to be huge in Japan.

[Anonymous No.1920362]

>>1917480
fucking leprechauns.

[Anonymous No.1920375]

>>1918587
And now Blezshwinkskty went off and formed a new studio.

I wouldn't mind if he makes a new Unreal successor.

[Anonymous No.1920385]

>>1920273
no originality? All I ever hear about from technos is about the kunio and double dragon games.

[Anonymous No.1921186]

>>1917367
I feel that in the GBA era, Atlus was basically Working Designs but better. Look at their work with Summon Night, Super Robot Wars, and Rivera. They did about the same deal without the things that led to WD biting the dust.

>>1917372
also pic related.

[Anonymous No.1921191]

>>1917432
Honestly Enix's properties fair better than Square's in the merger. DQ games aren't fucked over nearly as badly upon porting for example.

[Anonymous No.1921201]

>>1917531
>T17
>dead

[Anonymous No.1921316]

>>1921201
This. Last I checked they're still making things, though financially they're worse for wear.

[Anonymous No.1921327]

Never forgive, never forget.
EA will pay some day.

[Anonymous No.1921346]

>>1917617
Zeus was the shit. I miss sims of back then in general.

[Anonymous No.1921354]

>>1921327
>tfw that happened to Nox

[Anonymous No.1921367]

RIP

[Anonymous No.1921517]

For me, it would hae to be ATD (Attention To Detail). I don't think they're still around, seeing that I can't find any info on them anywhere. They worked alonside Activision and Psygnosis to make my two favorite PS1 Games, Blast Chamber, and Rollcage, Respectivley.

[Anonymous No.1921658]

>>1917531
Come back Psygnosis! I want another Colony Wars!

[Anonymous No.1922265]

>>1918642
Danganronpa 2 came out the other day and I was pretty excited for that.

[Anonymous No.1922324]

>>1921658
this guy knows. Colony Wars was the fucking SHIT

[Anonymous No.1922376]

>kill the dragon

[Anonymous No.1922656]

>>1917534

This, and I miss Enix more than Squaresoft.

[Anonymous No.1922895]

>>1921367
nevr 5get

[Anonymous No.1922898]

I don't really wish Working Designs were still around, but I'm glad they did exist, as they helped prove that import games could sell over here. Now the Japanese producers themselves do it (like NIS, for example).

Without Working Designs we would definitely never have gotten Lunar 2 and some other great titles.

[Anonymous No.1922906]

[Anonymous No.1922914]

What was this company's deal? They only published like a half-dozen games before they pulled out. Apparently they still exist as a music publisher in Japan. Who is Live Planning credited in most of their games? Is that an older name for KAZe? Did KAZe eventually become DigiFloyd?

[Anonymous No.1922924]

>>1917372
>>1917534
>>1922656

Thanks Sony.

[Anonymous No.1922928]

It's not because they made lots of high-quality games, but because Plok! and the Solstice series will never get a re-release. The current copyright holders of Software Creations' stuff don't want to.

>tfw no Tin Star remake on the Wii that uses motion controls

[Anonymous No.1922929]

>>1922924
Sony didn't force Squaresoft to bankrupt themselves with their shitty cgi movie, bro.

[Anonymous No.1923457]

>>1922924
Sony didn't cause that.

Actually a lot of devs and game series that were on the PS1 are now completely gone, but it was still not Sony's fault for the most part.

[Anonymous No.1923887]

>>1922324
It was my fucking child hood right there! In the morning before school, I turn my PS1 to play the game and tear the Navy a new one in the Sol System.

[Anonymous No.1923990]

>>1919948
>Infogrammes
Thanks a fucking lot, Atari.

[Anonymous No.1924006]

>>1923990
They rocked my world.

[Anonymous No.1924019]

>all this enix love

My niggas.

[Anonymous No.1924034]

>>1917367
Working Designs has no place anymore. They were awesome back in the day since not a lot of cool JRPGs were being translated to the west in the 90s, but today pretty much every RPG worth playing sees a domestic release. Victor Ireland tried to rekindle the spirit of WD with Gaijinworks but nobody cared.

[Anonymous No.1924043]

Yes, great, Working Designs. I want my JRPGs to have more Fabio references.

[Anonymous No.1924061]

>>1918985
>are the only good RPGs they've published

You shitting on my SRW?

[Anonymous No.1924069]

>>1917432
At the risk of sounding vain as fuck, it was really the art style that finally killed FF for me. I didn't like 10's more fantastic designs much, but at least there was still a lot of things grounded there.

And then 12 hit, I took one look at the protagonist and decided this was no longer the series for me. I don't expect Beef McHueg to be the MC or anything, but I don't really care to play as an angsty teenager really. Meg Ryan before that was pushing it, but Vaan went completely off the deep end.

Maybe this sort of character design was always the attempt in previous games but I simply didn't see it because the detail was much lower than what was done in the PS2 era. I mean, looking back at the Amano art, that's not how I pictured FF6's cast at all.

[Anonymous No.1924071]

>>1924043
And gay jokes! Oh, and wrestling references; turns out I CAN smell what Barlow.........is cooking!

[Anonymous No.1924079]

I'd like to have seen GAU Entertainment make a few more games before they merged into Nextech. They really pushed the Genesis to the limits with the few games the made for it.

[Anonymous No.1924243]

>>1917367
>Ctrl+F Hudson
>0 found
Jesus christ.

[Anonymous No.1924249]

>>1917553
>Atlus isn't defunct

>just persona and shovelware

[Anonymous No.1924469]

>>1924069
I agree with you on the later FF designs but I have to say that I would have loved to see a game that actually looked like Amano's artwork.

[Anonymous No.1924490]

>>1922929
>>1923457

Those companies made a deal with the devil so they can avoid Nintendo entirely, to be free. They opened Pandora's box in exchange for freedom. They had a few good years, but after that they started falling apart. The weak died, while the strong started to rot away. They're rotten to the core now, impossible to redeem or recover.

[Anonymous No.1924497]

>>1924249
>just persona and shovelware
You really don't pay attention to anything they develop do you

[Anonymous No.1924935]

>>1917531
>Westwood
>Interplay before the evil clone that we have today.
Wait, why is Blizzard on there?
>Black Isle - Same shit as Interplay, bastard children. Everyone worth a shit from BI is either in Obsidian or inXile.
>Lucas Arts
>New World Computing
Right in the feels, anon.

Right in the fucking feels.

My fucking childhood.