Hey guys! I was looking at my blogging schedule, and I realized how rigid it is. Yes, it kind of has to be since I’m in college and I need to keep on top of things, and the way I set of the schedule is the best way I can do that. However, I decided to cover something that I feel needs to be discussed, and that is the fact that Square Enix has gotten themselves into some risky business. Now, depending on who you are, you may see this as a good opportunity, or you might see it as a bad omen. Whatever the case may be, it’s safe to say that something has to change for Square Enix in the near future. In the recent past, rumors that Sony would be buying Square Enix started to come about, especially after SE sold three of their studios. The rumors died down for a while until Square Enix’s newest game, Forspoken, released on January 24th.

Let’s get some background on Forspoken. It was teased in 2020 by the name of Project Athia, and was actually what they used to showcase Unreal Engine 5. It looked beautiful, and fans wondered if this was a new Final Fantasy. A year later in 2021, we found that this was a new project entirely. Like most Square Enix games, Forspoken was delayed a couple times before it finally saw the light of day a couple weeks ago. I knew beforehand that this game better be good, because, according to a report in 2022, the only thing keeping Square Enix afloat (especially after the disaster that was Balan Wonderland) was Final Fantasy 14. FF14 is extremely popular, but SE will have to do better than that to stay alive.

Because of that, I was really hoping Forspoken would pull them out of the gutter. Alas, it was not meant to be. Square Enix took a giant risk with this game, because it’s a huge open world masterpiece. Er…or maybe not so much of a masterpiece as it’s supposed to be. Right off the bat, people found that it was disappointing. In fact, IGN and Steam rated it a 6/10, Metacritic gave it a 65%, and according to Google, only 30% of players actually liked the game. While I was looking at reviews, I found that a good many people did actually have a lot of fun with this game, but it just isn’t enough. Seeing these ratings for the first time shocked me, and the bad part is that they have stayed the same since the day it released.

With Forspoken labeled as a disappointment, the rumors that Sony would buy Square Enix resurfaced. As I said above, this could either be a good opportunity or it really wouldn’t be. For Xbox players (including myself), this would be discouraging, to put it simply. In my own opinion, I honestly can’t say whether or not I believe this will happen, but I can say that I desperately want Square Enix to be able to stand on their own. After all, they’ve been through worse. Back they were just Square, and Dragon Warriors (the first Dragon Quest) released, they were about to file for bankruptcy. With the money from Dragon Warriors, they were going to make one more game; Final Fantasy. Obviously, Final Fantasy ended up being popular enough to pull them back up, and the rest is history. I think at this point, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts may be the only thing that can pull them up again. For that reason, it is incredibly important for Final Fantasy 16 to do well. But with Square Enix taking the risk of giving it an M rating, only time can tell whether this will be another flop.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Let me know in the comments below!

As always, God bless y’all and have a wonderful week!

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