Square Enix Games That Totally Flopped Hard

The video game medium owes a lot to Square Enix. Created from the merger of Square and Enix in 2003, the conglomerate has been responsible for many iconic franchises. Square brought Final Fantasy to the world, turning it into a household name. Meanwhile, Enix had Dragon Quest, a celebrated JRPG franchise in its own right. The genre wouldn't be where it is today without Square Enix paving the way. Furthermore, the company has branched out in the past few decades. Now it publishes other major franchises, like Tomb Raider, Just Cause, and Deus Ex.

But in Square Enix's time as a developer and publisher, it has been responsible for some real stinkers. Some of its games have been subject to poor reviews, poor sales, or the unfortunate mix of both. A few of these games have been lost to the annals of time, while others flopped so horribly that they're still remembered in infamy.

Join us as we take a look at some Square Enix games that totally flopped.

Things didn't get better for the World of Mana franchise after Children dropped on the Nintendo DS. The shadow of Secret of Mana loomed over every game before and after it, and nothing really lived up to those expectations. Heroes of Mana producer Koichi Ishii tried to attract a new crowd by adding an entirely different genre to the table: real-time strategy.

Unfortunately for Ishii, the consumer market in Japan at the time wasn't ready to embrace RTS games. He knew this, and he had hoped Heroes of Mana would be the game to break the mold. Instead, it fell to the wayside without penetrating the market in any meaningful way, despite the producer's confidence and good intentions.

"It is our belief that we succeeded in creating a highly playable and enjoyable RTS for the DS, and we are confident that we provided the users who did play it with a new, innovative experience," Ishii said in an interview with Cubed3. "However, people can be wary of the unknown, and perhaps the lack of exposure the RTS genre receives in Japan caused some hesitation."

Internationally, the game wasn't well received either, earning mostly mixed reviews, according to Metacritic. The weak reception was most apparent when Square Enix revealed its results in the first half of fiscal year 2007. Across the board, Heroes of Mana ranked low on number of units sold both in Japan and North America.

Nier might be the most unorthodox choice to put on this list. By all accounts, it failed upon launch. It had an average of 68 on Metacritic for PlayStation 3, and many critics found that it didn't benefit from the sum of its parts. All the various mechanics were jarring and hard to grasp, and many bemoaned the graphics, which weren't that great even for the time.

Even game director Yoko Taro admitted to Nier's faults. In an interview with Polygon in 2015, he didn't exactly have high praise for his game. "The way I look at original Nier, it's like your mom's home cooking," Taro said. "It may not be great, but it's OK. You're comfortable with it."

In Japan, two versions of the game were released at the same time: Nier Gestalt for the Xbox 360 and Nier Replicant for the PS3. They were both nearly identical, although Replicant's protagonist was younger, and he tries to save his sister. Replicant sold surprisingly well in Japan, moving 60,000 copies in its first week. Gestalt, on the other hand, was the version that made its way around the world, suffering from poor sales and middling reviews. Needless to say, it didn't seem like a game that would have a sequel that would go on to sell more than 4 million copies.

In 2015, Square Enix announced that it formed a new development house named Tokyo RPG Factory. The first game the studio would work on was mysteriously dubbed Project Setsuna, which would, obviously, be an RPG. The game went on to be released under the name I Am Setsuna, which cemented the studio's main purpose: to prey upon people's nostalgia for the old-school JRPGs of yesteryear.

I am Setsuna's battle system evokes flashbacks of the classic game Chrono Trigger. Even the ability "X-Strike" makes a return. Everything about its user interface felt like a 1990s JRPG brought into the modern day. It released in 2016 to admirable reviews, leveling out at 74 on Metacritic for PlayStation 4. Most reviewers enjoyed the many homages to the games of the past, but some criticized it for not doing much more than that.

However, Tokyo RPG Factory suffered some hefty losses after the release of I Am Setsuna. Despite the fair praise and focus on nostalgia, the studio posted a 244 million yen loss (roughly $2.4 million) just two weeks after the game went on sale. This is after the game sold more than 60,000 copies in its first week in Japan. Things haven't gotten much better for Tokyo RPG Factory since then.

If you don't remember The Quiet Man, we can't blame you. The name says it all. The game received a surprise announcement at E3 2018 via a flashy trailer. In it, everything was filmed in live action. We saw the main character carrying a brown paper bag down an alley, and suddenly, some thugs appear out of nowhere. The protagonist points at his ear, miming that he can't hear them. Then everything shifts into 3D rendered cutscenes, with the words "SILENCE RINGS LOUDEST" interlaced between some fighting scenes.

It was mysterious, and the perspective of a deaf main character was something new and exciting, especially from an industry giant like Square Enix. When it finally released in November 2018, though, no one expected how terrible the game would be. Receiving an abysmal 29 on Metacritic for PlayStation 4, the game was panned for its awful design choices, particularly surrounding the narrative.

The protagonist, Dane, can understand other characters despite his deafness. However, since the game cuts out all the audio in the first playthrough, you, the player, most likely can't understand anything. The Quiet Man received a patch one week after release that added the audio, but it only worked after you beat the game once. Between these obtuse cutscenes lie some brain-dead combat sequences. At every step of the way, this game challenges players to not engage with it, and for all intents and purposes, it succeeded.

Unlimited SaGa is the ninth entry in the the SaGa franchise, which has been around since the first game's release on the original Game Boy in Japan in 1989. When it launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2002, it did well in Japan, selling more than 196,000 copies in the first week alone. By the middle of 2003, it sold more than half a million copies, earning it a Gold Prize from Sony. So why would a game like Unlimited SaGa be on this list?

Well, a majority of this success was confined to the shores of Japan. Beyond its borders, Unlimited SaGa failed to impress anyone. On its Metacritic page, not a single one of the 26 curated reviews gave the game a positive score. The average score sits at 45. Many Western reviewers criticized the game's overly complex mechanics.

The combat in Unlimited SaGa involves a reel system, as if you were playing a game of slots and betting on pure chance. Exploring the world is done through a board-game-like user interface that was obtuse. As a holistic package, the game had no merits, leading to a nearly universal dislike of the title.