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QuickJump QuickList: Top 10 non-FF overdue sequels from Square Enix

Posted Nov 25, 2007 at 02:13PM by Nicolo S. Listed in: Opinions & Analysis Tags: Square Enix, Super Mario, Chocobo, Nintendo Company Ltd., Chrono Trigger, Ratchet
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QuickJump QuickList - Image 1


Let's face it: Square Enix' current line-up of games is made up of entries from known franchises that promise good sales. Sure, we're still waiting for Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery even if we have no idea how they'll be like, but aside from those big names, the rest of Squeenix' promising games are either of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest lineage.

Back in the day, Square got its hand on platformers, fighting games, and sidescrolling shooters. Many gems were left unappreciated by mainstream gamers, while some became cult hits and are still being worshipped until today. Either way, while it's fairly reasonable why we haven't seen sequels of classics that probably won't sell millions without strong marketing, you have to wonder why Square Enix isn't taking chances instead of feeding us with remakes and spin-offs of the two premiere brands.

In this list, we'll take a look at games which deserve their sequels. Of course, we're hoping for follow-ups that do justice to their long forgotten predecessors (not you, Musashi: Samurai Legend), yet still show what current generation games are all about. Sit tight, and prepare to ride the nostalgia train!

Square classics - Image 1 Square classics - Image 3 Square classics - Image 2


Einhander
Since we're talking about classic games, this 2D space shooter seems to be the ideal first step. The story is pretty basic: it's year 2245 and the inhabitants of Earth are trying to fight off people from the Moon. Lunar city Selene employs Einhander fighters to gain an advantage, and you're one of the pilots. As usual, Square pushed visual flair to the limit and made eye-candy futuristic city backdrops where battles take place.

Gameplay is where Einhander shines, since not only do you have access to five different fighters (two are unlockable), but the unique mechanic of stealing gunpods from your enemies as replacement to the lack of power-ups makes for hectic sidescrolling action. There are around 13 gunpods to choose from including grenade launchers, beam sabers, tasers, and other usual space shooter fare.

Need we say more why it needs a sequel? Ten years have passed since Einhander was released, so with today's technology, a sequel ten times its scale will be mind-blowing.

Live a Live
Put time travel and solid turn-based strategy elements together, then you'd get Live a Live. Oh, don't forget to pepper it with plenty of humorous references across prehistoric age to the far future. You'll be playing as a caveman, martial arts master, ninja from a secret clan, outlaw in the wild west, a Ryu (from Street Fighter) wannabe, orphan with magic powers, robot, and a young warrior who wants to save the princess

The time hopping touches ancient China, feudal Japan, the old west, modern Japan, and the future. Live a Live is divided into chapters that seem irrelevant to each other, but in the end when a certain event ties everything up, you'll realize what an epic adventure you've been through. All that's left is to make a sequel since we don't get much turn-based strategy games anyway.

Ehrgeiz
If a 3D fighting game with Final Fantasy characters is announced, the world is sure to tremble and reports of fanboys suffering from seizures will skyrocket. Ehrgeiz had Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Yuffie, Zack, and even Sephiroth star in small arenas where they fought in full 3D. Square just published the console version, but developing such game today shouldn't be out of reach.

After seeing gorgeous fight scenes in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, just imagine how being able to control the face-offs will feel. Add Squall, Zidane, Tidus, and other FF characters we grew to love, then Smash Bros. Brawl will have a worthy opponent.

Having a website updated daily with new characters who'll join the mayhem will also cause hype to an entirely new level. Since Square Enix seems to have good relationships with Nintendo after developing Mario Hoops 3-on-3 for Ninty, borrowing the plumber won't hurt neither.

 Square classics - Image 2 Square classics - Image 1 Square classics - Image 1


Threads of Fate
Even as an action game with platforming tidbits, Square didn't fail to deliver an impressive narrative in Threads of Fate. Transforming into various monsters and using various magic spells in fast-paced combat was a lot of fun, making it easy for the adventures of Rue and Mint to hold a candle even to the prestigious Legend of Zelda.

The young boy is a powerful doll who can collect monster coins to earn powers of his adversaries, while the girl has a wide arsenal of magic categorized under different classes and types. With this concept alone, it's easy to come up with something that can possibly overshadow Ratchet & Clank.

Chocobo Racing
Say what you want, but Chocobo Racing was a boatload of fun. We all know what they say about being a Mario Kart rip-off, but would you rather have abysmal attempts at kart racing games with characters we have no idea about? Definitely not.

Chocobo Racing had poor reception, but it was very enjoyable. You get to race as that cute white mage, the menacing behemoth, or unlock Cloud and Squall to unleash their special skills on the track. Power-ups, or rather magic stones in this case, get more powerful if you go for the same types. Otherwise, it's possible to carry more than one stone so you can save the good stuff for tight situations. Now all we need is to see this in high-def glory.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Put silly "save the princess" stories aside and place Square at the helm of a Mario game, then you'll get Super Mario RPG. The king of sidescrolling platformers going 3D in a new kind of adventure was indeed surprising, yet undeniably entertaining. Mario and Bowser teamed up for the first time along with other characters from Mario's universe to engage in combat they've never seen before.

The result was fantastic, and left us craving for more. They'd say the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series suffice as follow-ups, but we'd rather have Square handle a true sequel to the brainchild of the tandem with Nintendo. Just don't do any crossovers because noses will bleed.

Square classic - Image 1 Square classics - Image 1 Square classics - Image 1


Parasite Eve
No, the supposedly upcoming mobile game does not count. Parasite Eve and its sequel are, without a doubt, among the best survival horror games we've played. It goes without saying that we need Aya Brea in full current gen glory, what with all the powerful consoles out there that can make it happen. We'd even dig it if it's for the Nintendo Wii, given it'll have controls that do justice.

Square perfectly combined action-packed survival horror with RPG elements, covered it in a very mysterious plot, and many were left stunned. While Aya is more than capable to dispatch a genetically engineered monster or two, Parasite Eve had enough scares to fit into the horror part. To top it all, the game also offered a very memorable cinematic experience. Parasite Eve 3 should happen - on consoles, that is.

Chrono Trigger
After killing Lavos in every possible way, it's sad that Chrono Trigger doesn't have a full sequel yet. Much props go to Chrono Cross for being one of the best RPGs we've seen in the PlayStation era, but it was substantially different from its predecessor. We're looking at a full blown continuation of Crono's adventure, but we can settle with a big scale RPG alternative that spans different time periods.

Just like other fans, we're dying to see at least a remake of 65,000,000 B.C. and other eras the mute hero traversed. Chrono Trigger depicted the world in so many perspectives, from the post-apocalyptic hell to the booming version of the Kingdom of Guardia, that we simply can't sit back and believe Square will deprive us the pleasure of seeing Crono's world reborn.

Vagrant Story
It's hard to fathom why we're yet to hear about Vagrant Story even now that there's the Ivalice Alliance. The only reason acceptable for leaving Yasumi Matsuno's masterpiece in the dust is if he doesn't want it touched. Either that, or today's Square Enix is afraid to fall short in front of fans hungry for Ashley Riot.

Vagrant Story was one of a kind for its genre, but it didn't fail to suck the players into a deep narrative. While gameplay was strong since the focus was on dungeon crawling and puzzle-solving, the plot wrapped up satisfyingly. Sure, the spirit of Ivalice Alliance lives on in Final Fantasy XII and the much awaited FFXII: Revenant Wings, but after that, our fingers are crossed for Vagrant Story 2.

Xenogears - Image 1 Xenogears - Image 1 Xenogears - Image 1


Xenogears
Fanboys embrace Xenogears like it's the best game ever, and for a good reason. Big robots, animated scenes, convoluted plots - what more can you ask for? By the time you beat this game, you'd have a pretty good idea of psychology and the ideas of Freud and Jung. There may have been too many conversations, but if you have more patience, all is good.

Disregarding the Xenosaga series as actual installments to Tetsuya Takahashi's creation is no easy task, but as things go, arguments whether the trilogy Namco Bandai produced is canon or not won't stop soon. The best option, obviously, is to bring Xenogears back from the grave and give us hardcore RPG fans our fix.

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10 Comments


Sort by:
   by NeilR - 9 days ago
 » certainly can't disagree..
Hard not to agree with these titles. Of all mentioned, I'd have to say Vagrant Story 2 would be the sweetest.

   by Shadownet - 9 days ago
 » Vagrant Stroy 2 FTW
nuff said...

   by Fiska - 9 days ago
 » Einhander for sure
Holy crap, I still love this game. Wish it could get a decent sequel. I'd buy it immediately.

   by pinbi7 - 9 days ago
 » ...
wait a minute,sure lets pick titles that allready have sequels oe even a serie of their own (parasite eve 1&2,chrono trigger,Xenogear,super mario RPG) or even crappy clones(chocobo racing) and let s forget about real classics that changed the way we play games

heres MY list

Square
1. 3D adventures of world runner
2. Rad Racer
3.Romancing Sa-ga(ok maybe sa-ga does have enough sequel but we hardly see them in the us
4.Bahamut Lagoon
5.Tobal
6.Treasure Hunter G
7.Front Mission
8.Bouncer (good idea, badly executed) make it better this time


Enix
1.Actraiser
2.SoulBlazer
3.EVO
4.Wonder Project J
5.Terranigma
6.Star Ocean


   Re: CHUCKINGROCKSATSPACESHIPS - 9 days ago
 »  pinbi7 I Agree
Where are the Enix games? The Actraiser games are freakin awesome even today. Badass music and crazy action. The story is trippy.
Out of the Square bunch, I think Rad Racer would be pretty cool to remake. Okay ok there are a bunch of good games that still have potential for great continuations and I hope they do go back to these especially the Enix games.
   by NayusDante - 9 days ago
 » ...
Technically, Chrono Trigger never had a proper sequel, but Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross were a sidestory set in the same timeline. Cross even has cameo appearances by Crono, Lucca, and Marl in such a context that another time-travel adventure involving the original team would make perfect sense. Chrono Break is still a possibility, but it's just going to take forever before the team reunites.

   by JackBeNimble - 9 days ago
 » Ehrgeiz
Ehrgeiz is called FF dissdia


   Re: Kaden - 8 days ago
 » Yeah
They already have an FF based SSMB game coming, in ff: Dissidia on the PSP. granted, its on PSP and not a console sadly.

the rest of the list, I like. :D

   Re: Advertising -


   Re: Kaden - 8 days ago
 » yeah #2
I am agreeing with JackbeNimble btw.
   by Karuto - 8 days ago
 » Xenogears and Chrono Trigger
Sequels to either of these would be GREAT! I mean, Chrono Trigger did have two attempts at remakes in Chrono Resurrection and CT Remake, but both were shut down from Cease & Desist letters by Square-Enix, which is a real damn shame. However, perhaps this means they're working towards a sequel, and if so, I would be very excited for something like that. I mean, even if they came out with something like Radical Dreamers or Chrono Cross, I'd be just as happy.

And Xenogears happens to be my favorite game of all time. The storyline, the characters, the gameplay (especially the combo battle system) were all intricately perfect. Supposedly, Episode 6 of the Xenosaga series was supposed to be Xenogears (you could see the character Cain shown in Xenogears in XenoSaga Ep. 3), but that obviously never came to fruition. Hopefully they reconsider in the future and pull out a direct sequel to Xenogears. There is still a lot of storyline to be had there!



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