History Gush / SquareEnix

** Easily one of the most fascinating (and confusing) concepts for a video game I've heard of. I may have never owned any [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation PlayStations]], but that's never stopped me from watching hours and hours of cutscenes. The games for the Nintendo handhelds may be considered "not as good" to some, but that never stopped me from trying them out. Although I didn't grow up with Kingdom Hearts, I did grow up with Disney-- in fact, it defined my childhood. I love the idea of saving and exploring my favorite childhood movie universes; it fills me with nearly as much nostalgia as those lucky bastards who actually did grow up with the series. After playing Kingdom Hearts, I always have a sudden urge to go binge-watch some Disney movies.

* In a genre that has stagnated a little, 2010's ''VideoGame/NieR'' is a much needed breath of fresh-air. While the gameplay is subpar and it's lacking polish in some areas, it makes up for this in spades by having a completely unique, highly memorable cast, arguably one of the greatest localizations of any Japanese game ever (with surprisingly natural dialogue and unusually good voice-acting for the most part), an amazing use of game mechanics as storytelling in several ways (Ending D is one of the most powerful moments of any game I've ever played, period), one of the best soundtracks in video game history. The game completely avoids, subverts, deconstructs, and parodies so many aspects of not only [=JRPGs=], but games, in a way that is completely engaging from beginning to end. Even in the areas that it's strongest I don't think it's perfect, but I feel comfortable calling it one of the best JRPG narratives of all time, easily above most of the other games SE themselves have done, even if that's in part because of SeinfeldIsUnfunny. Even the weakest link in the game, the main character, still works in a way that a lot of movie characters do, in that he's not the most complex character, but still very sympathetic and likable, with good relationships with the other characters, especially Yonah. Most [=JRPGs=] usually don't even achieve THAT. It's rather surprising that cavia, a studio known for making mostly terrible/mediocre low-budget games (with one that was [[{{VideoGame/Drakengard}} still arguably bad but at least pretty interesting]]), actually had it in them to create a game that had this much soul in it. When the sequel to the game was announced in 2015 with literally a dream team of talent I'd want working on my dream JRPG, I almost cried. The fact that SE was willing to fund both ''Drakengard 3'' and that game, with such an all-star development team, shows that they are not nearly as bad as some people think they are, because they still have artistic ambitions that matter to them beyond simply making money.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' needs more recognition in the West for just how much of a trailblazing franchise it really is. [[note]]It's up there with ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' in terms of being an iconic and influential legacy franchise, which makes the ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' crossover between the two make perfect sense.[[/note]] It's not just the progenitor of the [[EasternRPG JRPG]], it's the franchise that got the ball rolling on storytelling becoming more of a focus in mainstream gaming at a time when the industry was defined by reflex-based NintendoHard action games designed for arcades with nothing more than [[ExcusePlot excuse plots]] for narrative. To quote [[TheWikiRule The Dragon Quest Wiki]]:

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' needs more recognition in the West for just how much of a trailblazing franchise it really is. [[note]]It's up there with ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' in terms of being an iconic and influential legacy franchise, which makes the ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' crossover between the two make perfect sense.[[/note]] It's not just the progenitor of the [[EasternRPG JRPG]], it's the franchise that got the ball rolling on storytelling becoming more of a focus in mainstream gaming at a time when the industry was defined by reflex-based NintendoHard action games designed for arcades with nothing more than [[ExcusePlot excuse plots]] for narrative. To quote [[WikiRule The Dragon Quest Wiki]]:

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' has its flaws, like everything else. I won't deny that- heck, even I'm getting frustrated with Creator/SquareEnix for not being consistent with the canon. But the series has still been fun to play for me, and even though the retcons get irritating and the Nobodies needed to be explained better I even enjoy the story. It's Disney without being overly kiddy (definitely a dose of sugar and light, yes, but not overly dumbed down or TastesLikeDiabetes) and that makes my inner child {{squee}}.

** The thing is, Disney's brand of feel-good ''isn't'' the TastesLikeDiabetes kind, really, and the fact that Mickey Mouse works so well as a BadassLongcoat proves it. The ''Kingdom Hearts'' franchise reminds us all of why we like Disney movies in the first place.

*** Fair enough. It still bears repeating: Disney =/= TastesLikeDiabetes. [[Film/HighSchoolMusical Most of the time.]]

*** The way the aforementioned ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' has the Hero character grow from a child to an adult over the course of the story and has you play out important milestones in his life, including [[spoiler:the death of his father]], getting married (to a female love interest of your choosing), having children, and [[spoiler:becoming king of his homeland]]. There's also the way it plays with the previous games' narrative conventions by making this Hero character [[spoiler:not the legendary hero and not part of that bloodline, instead making his wife the latter and their son the former (though he's still of a unique bloodline himself)]].

*** The way the aforementioned ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' has the Hero character grow from a child to an adult over the course of the story and has you play out important milestones in his life, including [[spoiler:the death of his father]], getting married (to a female love interest of your choosing), having children, and [[spoiler:becoming king of his homeland]]. There's also the way it flips the script of the previous games' narrative conventions by making this Hero character [[spoiler:NOT the legendary hero and NOT part of that bloodline, instead making his wife the latter and one of their children the former]].

** The next set of games, the more loosely connected Zenithian trilogy, is where those experiments with structure and narrative are most prominent; with each game putting its own distinct spin on familiar JRPG concepts (some of which the series itself had [[TropeNamer introduced]] and/or [[TropeCodifier codified]] in the Erdrick/Loto trilogy). Be it the way ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' gives the party members their own introductory chapters (including a neat little PerspectiveFlip that sees you working as a shopkeeper with pay) before having them come together to form the party, the way it has you fight through each phase of the final boss' OneWingedAngel transformation, or the way Chapter 6 in the remakes [[spoiler:effectively gives the game an alternate ending]]. The way the aforementioned ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' has the hero grow from a child to an adult over the course of the story and has you play out important milestones in his life, including [[spoiler:witnessing the death of his father]], getting married to a female love interest (of your choosing), and having children of his own. Or the way ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' starts InMediasRes with the party already formed and fighting what appears to be the final battle against the BigBad- ''[[CurbStompBattle AND LOSING HARD]]''; segueing into the game's unique take on a light world/dark world set up and featuring a moving amnesia plot from a time when such stories had yet to become tiresome clichés in gaming. Considering how light the Erdrick/Loto trilogy was on the actual storytelling, it makes sense that Yuji Horii and co. focused on beefing up the series' narrative elements with this set of games. That they did it in such a fun, interesting way with each game is the icing on the cake.

** The next set of games, the more loosely connected Zenithian trilogy, is where those experiments with structure and narrative are most prominent; with each game putting its own distinct spin on familiar JRPG concepts (some of which the series itself had [[TropeNamer introduced]] and/or [[TropeCodifier codified]] in the Erdrick/Loto trilogy). Be it the way ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' gives the party members their own introductory chapters (including a neat little PerspectiveFlip that sees you working as a shopkeeper with pay) before having them come together to form the party, the way it has you fight through each phase of the final boss' OneWingedAngel transformation, or the way Chapter 6 in the remakes [[spoiler:effectively gives the game an alternate ending]]. The way the aforementioned ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' has the hero grow from a child to an adult over the course of the story and has you play out important milestones in his life, including getting married to a female love interest (of your choosing) and having children of his own. Or the way ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' starts InMediasRes with the party already formed and fighting what appears to be the final battle against the BigBad- ''[[CurbStompBattle AND LOSING HARD]]''; segueing into the game's unique take on a light world/dark world set up and featuring a moving amnesia plot from a time when such stories had yet to become tiresome clichés in gaming. Considering how light the Erdrick/Loto trilogy was on the actual storytelling, it makes sense that Yuji Horii and co. focused on beefing up the series' narrative elements with this set of games. That they did it in such a fun, interesting way with each game is the icing on the cake.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' needs more recognition in the West for just how much of a trailblazing franchise it really is. [[note]]It's up there with ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' in terms of being an iconic and influential legacy franchise, which makes the ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' crossover between the two make perfect sense.[[/note]] It's not just the progenitor of the [[EasternRPG JRPG]], it's the franchise that got the ball rolling on storytelling becoming more of a focus in mainstream gaming at a time when the industry was defined by reflex-based NintendoHard action games designed for arcades with nothing more than [[ExcusePlot excuse plots]] for narrative. To quote the [[WikiRule The Dragon Quest Wiki]]: