Cease & Desist Letter

[Happy-Dude]

In regards to the guy who translated some Japanese Squaresoft games in the 90's and wound up getting invited over as opposed to burned at the stake I may be able to shed some light on that. When that happened the company as he said was still SS. However when they merged with Enix to become Square Enix it was actually Enix that became the parent company if I'm not mistaken. It's kinda how we now have Activision Blizzard and yet the parent company is Blizzard. Some of their titles are still made under the old Activision label for simply the fact that people know the name but for all intents and purposes Guitar Hero is made by Blizzard.

What does this mean? Simply this: with Enix in control of Square it's a different group of people you are dealing with. As a result they may not be as easygoing as the Squaresoft of old. Hence the C&D.

Ugh... This sometimes gets me slightly pissed :'( ... You mean it was the company behind Dragon Quest that got the upper management range rather than the people behind Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy?!? ... Damn, its true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Enix ...

Still, any news updates? Is there anyway we can post a publicity/ press page that complies links/ stories from various site at one single page? (It's a good idea to also put them at the petition page too; and also, why not mention the petition to the sites?)

[Mikisho]

yeah, I can't remember where, but I remember reading that after Final Fantasy The Spirits Within bombed, Squaresoft just kind of went broke.  Eventually Enix just bought the company, but was nice enough to ttell the general public that it was a Merger more than anything.  So really, the company is CALLED Square-Enix, but it is just Enix.  The company that didn't try gaining profits off of their titles by lying to their fans (No offence square >_>).  That also sheds some light.  Why is everybody saying they hate Square when it's really Enix that sucks?  Square was amazing up until FF:SW.  Anywho, now I'm rambling so the post eeeennnnnnnds...... now.

[RySenkari]

Enix = the same jerks who wouldn't release Terranigma in the United States after it got an English translation and was released in Europe.

Yeah, I can get behind bashing Enix.

[Happy-Dude]

yeah, I can't remember where, but I remember reading that after Final Fantasy The Spirits Within bombed, Squaresoft just kind of went broke.  Eventually Enix just bought the company, but was nice enough to ttell the general public that it was a Merger more than anything.  So really, the company is CALLED Square-Enix, but it is just Enix.  The company that didn't try gaining profits off of their titles by lying to their fans (No offence square >_>).  That also sheds some light.  Why is everybody saying they hate Square when it's really Enix that sucks?  Square was amazing up until FF:SW.  Anywho, now I'm rambling so the post eeeennnnnnnds...... now.

Hehe, my god, that is enlightening. I for one thought Dragon Quest was lesser known than Final Fantasy; keeping the Square name most definitely reinforces (and boosts) the company's prestige with the titles... So, the irony of it, Final Fantasy was the game that saved them, but it was also the franchise that crippled them...

And now, Chrono may very well bring yet another revelation... (If only things work out and there becomes a strong backing... Some people just don't understand fully that it is something like User Generated Content -- based off something else, that is.)

It also sheds some light on why Square Enix neglected CT a bit... Because they're not truly Squaresoft...

EDIT::
Alright, some misconceptions, but as far as I can see... The company changed after the merger.... Still produced some nice quality games, but also neglected the *needs* of its customers.

[Mikisho]

Just thought you guys might like to know I sent an email to CTV news about our little project here.  Will they do our story? Probably not...  But it would have bugged me if I hadn't, since it crossed my mind the other day, and I've been thinking about it since.  If I did something wrong (which really wouldn't surprise me) feel free to scold me...

[Chrono'99]

Woah woah woah, so much misconceptions in the last few posts...

Square Enix is one entity. There's no parent or child company as in Blizzard (well, Taito and Eidos are child companies, but that's not relevant here). After the merger, the 8 production teams of Square were retained and the 2 production teams of Enix were retained. Yoichi Wada was the president of Square before the merger (since around 2001 or so IIRC) and he became the president of Square Enix following the merger. The president of Enix became the vice president of Square Enix.

Also, the merger discussions started way before the commercial failure of FF: The Spirits Within. It wasn't that movie that made Squaresoft want to merge with Enix. It's quite the contrary. Both companies already wanted to merge and Enix almost changed their mind when they saw how bad the movie bombed (they didn't want to merge with a company that lose money). Though as we know, both parties eventually agreed to merge anyway.

Enix = the same jerks who wouldn't release Terranigma in the United States after it got an English translation and was released in Europe.

Enix of America didn't even exist anymore at the time of Terranigma's Japanese release. In Europe, the only reason it got English and European language translations is because Nintendo of Europe did the localization job there.

[Mikisho]

ahhh, good to know.  I think I read what I typed above from Gamefaqs somewhere.  Maybe Wikipedia, which isn't too surprising.

[Heian]

Hi folks; long time follower of the project, first-time poster.

I'm the one who made the "Squaresoft was not always thus" comment on Slashdot -- and I'm very happy to see people quoting it here!  Yes, they really did recruit me after seeing my work on the web, and this was about a decade ago when ROMs and emulators were somewhat scarier -- can I get in trouble just for possessing one of these things!? -- than they are now (my computer wasn't even powerful enough to run them).  Some people had been wanting to put my scripts into ROM hacks, and I was trying to talk those people out of it because I didn't want Squaresoft thinking I was connected to piracy.  I was on the "buy the real cartridge, print out my script, and read it as you play the original" side.

But it turned out that all my fears were unfounded, as they had nothing but praise for the stuff I'd done; they were really happy to see the fan base on the internet, and they gave me free copies of a few of their games so that I could see what previous translators had created.

The group that I met with was, I think, eventually disbanded in favor of a Hawaii-based team of some kind.  I ended up graduating and becoming a translator in a much more boring industry. 

More details by e-mail if you like.  Zeality? Agent 12?  I'd rather not type any real names here.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Cool!  I saw that comment!

WELCOME TO THE COMPENDIUM!

[Enigma Outlaw]

Hehe, my god, that is enlightening. I for one thought Dragon Quest was lesser known than Final Fantasy

Well the only reason why Final Fantasy has outsold Dragon Quest worldwide is because DQ was never very big here in the states. In Japan the DQ series is a bigger seller overall than FF. In fact if you want to know how big that series is in Japan consider this. When a new FF comes out it's just a normal day. When a new DQ comes out it will sometimes effectively shut work down because people will be calling out and waiting hours in line to get it. It's damn near a national holiday whenever a new DQ is released.

As I said before Final Fantasy ranks high because it has always had worldwide numbers to back it up. As of 2007 FF sold about 80 million worldwide. Dragon Quest never was big in the US until the more recent games. In Japan DQ is the third best selling game series of all time coming behind only the Mario series and the Pokémon series. Worldwide numbers for DQ are about 47 million. Here's the shocker......43 out of 47 million were in Japan alone. A few years back one of the big Japanese video game mags did a Top 100 list for their 20th anniversary issue. While FF10 and FF7 were 1st and 2nd respectively the DQ series had 8 games on that list and every single one was in the top 35 with DQ3 and DQ8 taking 3rd and 4th.

As for why no new Chrono here's the main issue. It's not a matter of Enix is in control and has no love for the series. The problem is everyone is off doing their own thing and several of the people involved with Chrono Trigger have said that for them to do another Chrono that most of the key members would need to be involved. Last I heard Sakaguchi was still tied up and busy with FF11 and Mitsuda has pretty much said it's a matter of politics. Mitsuda has also gone on to say that Kato has to be on board if a new game were to be made. Personally the way I read that is no Kato=no Mitsuda.

Ok this post has admitedly been slightly off topic so I leave you on this note:
The Better Business Bureau has graded Square Enix as being a C+.....not exactly 100% horrible but not a shining ray of light either :-/

[kid123]

  Uh oh ... my first post. I do hope it turn out well

Is there anyway for the story to get intention by Japanese media especially Famitsu.
The fact that Famitsu is the most respected Japanese video games magazine could be some sort of help here.

[Happy-Dude]

Uh oh ... my first post. I do hope it turn out well

Is there anyway for the story to get intention by Japanese media especially Famitsu.
The fact that Famitsu is the most respected Japanese video games magazine could be some sort of help here.

That's actually a really good idea!! (Though, I don't know what kind of attention it will attract since from what I understand Chrono isn't big in Japan.

Also, maybe get some word out to GamePro, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameTrailers, and even 1Up?

EDIT::
Here's Famitsu's contact page: http://www.famitsu.com/docs/info.html
(Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.famitsu.com%2Fgame%2Fnews%2F1213478_1124.html&sl=ja&tl=en&history_state0= )

[thesnake383]

Uh oh ... my first post. I do hope it turn out well

Is there anyway for the story to get intention by Japanese media especially Famitsu.
The fact that Famitsu is the most respected Japanese video games magazine could be some sort of help here.

That's actually a really good idea!! (Though, I don't know what kind of attention it will attract since from what I understand Chrono isn't big in Japan.

Also, maybe get some word out to GamePro, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameTrailers, and even 1Up?

EDIT::
Here's Famitsu's contact page: http://www.famitsu.com/docs/info.html
(Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.famitsu.com%2Fgame%2Fnews%2F1213478_1124.html&sl=ja&tl=en&history_state0= )

Google is terrible at translating. I suggest you get into contact with Berri or use Excite: http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/

[HadesKane]

I hope this isn't some breach of protocol, my apologies if so.  I just posted this in another thread then realized the bulk of the conversation was here, so cross posting...
-------------------------------------------------------

Despite having had no interest in this release whatsoever, I really hate seeing it end this way and my best wishes go out to anyone who was involved in this project.

I've grown increasingly more concerned with fan projects making a big deal prior to their release.  I wonder how matters might have progressed had the old CT remake, and something like CE been completed prior to any publicity, and basically quietly released.

I also wonder how much ground they have to stand on in regards to CE basically just being a patch, but I'm not really qualified to really give any sort of opinion on that one way or the other.

This ordeal, however, does make me a bit more concerned and rethinking my attitude that fan works that don't seek to exhaustively recreate one of Square's games and that don't pose any sort of threat are under the radar and fall under the general umbrella of fan works that most companies don't seem to mind.

You see, I've been working on my own "fan project" for several years now.  It is predominately based on Final Fantasy, but there is significant Chrono influence throughout.  Some of the major systems are highly influenced by Chrono systems, and about 25% of the game world is directly influenced by areas from Chrono Trigger and Cross.  The game is a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) which is basically a text-based, online, roleplaying game.  Without any direct graphical elements and everything done through descriptions, I hope we're fine, but I'm growing increasingly more concerned.  I've started compiling a list of terms in order to switch Square copyright terms over to if there ever ends up being a problem.  It also gives me pause on how 'known' I would like my project to be.  Obviously, the more known we are, the more players we are and the more successful the game is, but... the more likely we'll be noticed and shut down.

So yeah, as someone who has spent years working on a project out of love for the games they've provided us with, I can certainly sympathize with what you guys are going through.

Good luck moving forward.

[FaustWolf]

Given that your project sounds like it won't be immediately recognizable in name or in appearance, sounds like you'd be fine releasing, then doing a bit of viral advertisement on Youtube. However, Square Enix probably wouldn't take a second look at any fan project until fruition and release became a surefire thing.

EDIT: Although maybe I'm wrong on that, because Chrono Trigger Remake didn't have any more complete than just a few proof-of-concept videos. It's really hard to determine.