They've lost their soul

Nevermind the logos, what even are those titles? All the current ones sound like working titles they forgot to change to something more interesting before release

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Can't talk about the others, but that's kinda what happened with Triangle Strategy. It was presented as "Project Triangle Strategy" when it was first announced, and the title was officially a working title.

Then it was officially released as "Triangle Strategy"

I think something similar happened with Bravely Default, but not sure about that

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- Are you sure you're not thinking of Octopath Traveler? That was the first game with that engine and they presented it as a working title when first announced.
  
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I can't believe they were all real lmfao 😂

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I think it's not a coincidence that they're all by the same team at SE.

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Seriously wtf is bravely default!?

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- Bravely Default was the first of its kind, it gets a pass. Considering it started off as yet another spin-off of Final Fantasy, it's better that they tried to distance themselves from FF because it very much isn't FF*.
  
  It was definitely a gimmick to go with naming the game after the mechanic. But they've definitely gone too far with the others. Octopath and Diofield are at least unique words, though Octopath Traveler is equally as on the nose as Bravely Default, oCtO = 8
  
  There's no excuse for the other two, Triangle Strategy was literally the working title when the game was announced and then they lazed out and didn't change it. Meanwhile Various Daylife is an atrocity of a game title.
  
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- The original game and sequel are some of Square’s best offerings, it’s on the 3DS - got mine back in the day to play them!
  
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- Better than the Cowardly Alternative.
  
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- All I know about it is that the soundtrack is absolutely banging
  
  Also it's a decade old so it should be on the left side really
  
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There's something they really used to get about nailing a level of mysteriousness in old titles that's just not replicated.

"Chrono" is an adjective that vaguely relates to time, and an object called a "Chrono Trigger" sounds like a curious time-related artifact. Notably, there's a layer there, the name isn't "Time Artifact"
"Final Fantasy" evokes a strong feeling with the word "Final", and has nice alliteration.
"Legend of Mana" is using all normal words, but Mana is such a fantasy concept it could mean a lot of things.
Drakengard is a made-up word, but it's memorable for being related to known words - "Dragon Guard".

But:
Bravely Default, while trying to push the two main game mechanics, shoves an adverb against a non-verb being used as a verb, and evokes no conceptual idea of the world or story.
Diofield is just a made-up word, and inclusion of the term "Field" is not promising.
Even if "Octopath" is going for something coy with the "8" relevance, and the 8-letter word containing the protagonists' initials, it's another made-up word, and "Traveler" is more over-focused on the characters than the journey/world.

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Why put work into making a title when you already have a working title * taps forehead *

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It started because people begged them to keep Octopath Traveller as the title. It was the working title, and meant to be changed.

So now they're doing simple titles as a thing.

1

Had to look up Various Daylife, I was sure that one was made up, but apparently not

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Really? Not "Triangle Strategy"?? That was the one I thought was obviously fake.

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- That one I actually remember from its reveal with the working title Project Triangle Strategy
  
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- It sounds like it should be a sequel/spin-off of Geometry Wars.
  
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The Nintendo Direct I saw it in was particularly hilarious, because there were like 4 other farm/RPG games. Dunkey made a video about it even, though that might have been happening with other directs.

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I don't think logo design is enough to claim they have lost their "soul". Aren't Bravely Default, Octoparh Traveler, and Triangle Strategy pretty well liked and reviewed? And have some cool innovations on narrative and mechanics?

I won't say that the logo design and naming convention isn't off-putting, but it only reflects a current style, not the games themselves.

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They do still make good games, but that's despite squenix.

3
They do still make good games, but that's despite squenix.

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Everything on the left prior to 2003 (which looks like everything on there other than Dragon Quest IIRC) was just SquareSoft. They began going downhill in the spring of 2003 when they actually merged with Enix.

IMO, Dragon Quest is the only game Enix made that was actually worth a shit and it still paled in comparison to the likes of Final Fantasy. It sucks that instead of Square elevating Enix, it just feels like Enix drug Square down.

Also, wtf is "Various Daylife?" That one sounds more like it could be a competitor to The Sims and not a JRPG. lol

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Looking into it, that's apparently pretty much what Various Daylife is, a life sim of some kind. Sitting at "Mostly Negative" on Steam, as well.

2
I think your opinion on Dragon Quest might be a bit unpopular. Its a very popular franchise in Japan specifically and I have personally always liked it better than Final Fantasy.

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- It still feels funny to me that I enjoy games that were ostensibly inspired by Dragon Quest (eg, Yakuza: LAD) but never those games.
  
  "It's a slime! You know, the things that are always the first enemy in any JRPG?"
  "...No? Do you mean specifically this one old JRPG?"
  
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Pretty meh meme, the latest ones are all the same dev team while the older ones are different teams with very different projects. Just look at the recent Mana game announcement, or KH4, etc. Kind of misleading for the sake of rousing up people.

Just feels... a bit "Kids these days...", ya know. Darn millennials and their simple fonts.

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No no no, it's not hip to make fun of millennials anymore. It's the zoomers we're mocking.

7

Parasite Eve needs a remake. Such an underrated gem.

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One of the first games I remember being genuinely freaked out by. RE remakes are killing it. Silent Hill 2 remake is hugely anticipated. Parasite Eve's time is coming.

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- There was a promo video for the original game on a demo disk I had as a kid. That shit gave me nightmares.
  
  2

I was so obsessed with FFVII and so really hyped for the upcoming FFVIII I bought Brave Fencer Musashi mostly because it came with a FFVIII demo disc.

Funny thing, FFVIII ended up disappointing me, and Brave Fencer Musashi grew on me quite a bit; I still give it a playthrough every couple of years. Even bought the sequel but that one didn't quite have the same charm.

5

Yeah, really like Musashi, been awhile since I played it

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Ah, Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, and Valkyrie Profile, those bring me back.

5

L͟O͟R͟E͟M͟

I͟P͟S͟U͟M͟

4

I think the biggest thing here is that older games also had to have curb appeal.

They had to stand out from the dozens of other boxes on the shelves at Electronics Boutique and the little video game department in larger stores like Sears where they were all often stacked like books, where the only things to differentiate them was the color of the box and logo art.

Now most games don't even have an option to buy a physical media copy and instead it's all online.

At this point, a bigger concern that title visual appeal is making it easily readable by OCR programs, so that some AI knows what it's looking at.

4

I must ask - are these real? I know Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler but rest of them sound like jokes on jRPGs. Singularity Exhibition anyone?

4

I know Triangle Strategy and Various Daylife are real too.

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I must ask - are these real?

Yes, all the game titles in the image are real.

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This happened with a lot of brands. Just look at these brands It’s just a shitty trend.

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This image is biased.

All logos here are made artificially monochrome (ebay, Google still remain coloured, etc.). Revolut has broken its R into 2 pieces in 2023. AirBnB and Microsoft logos include now their symbols, not only wordmarks (and they are omitted in this image). Spotify still uses its "beams".

Yes, some brands went (more) bland - especially Pinterest, Google and ebay.

For fashion: Burberry has returned to its knight in 2023. And some fashion brands go against this trend - 2017 Zara wordmark is more complicated than before.

BTW, even on this image I can see, that former Revolut and AirBnB logos look like knock-overs of each other. Both used even shades of blue xd

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The names are terrible too. Bravely default was decently enjoyable but octopath traveller being stupidly expensive and not very enjoyable after trying it has made me not bother with every other game name printed in that title template.

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Not familiar with the titles on the right are this the font style names or actual game names?

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The actual names. There has been a minimalist trend lately.

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I haven't played any of theae games, but I can appreciate a simple and legible logo.

The new game names are dumb, but so we're most of the old ones anyways.

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