Tokyo RPG Factory was established by Square Enix approximately a decade ago in order to recapture the magic of the “golden age” of role-playing releases. However, following the launch of three titles – I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear, and Oninaki – the subsidiary has been absorbed into its parent company, and will henceforth cease to exist as an individual entity.
Effectively, this means the company has been dissolved, although Square Enix is framing it as a kind of merger, whereby it remains the only entity to survive. It’s perhaps not an enormous surprise: despite its bold ambitions, Tokyo RPG Factory never quite managed to match the charm of the RPGs it was established to replicate, and released a trio of middling titles as a result.
We awarded I Am Setsuna a solid 7/10 upon its release, but neither Lost Sphear nor Oninaki could conjure a score greater than a 6/10. While enjoyable enough in their own ways, none of the three titles really stood out in a crowded market, and it’s likely Square Enix didn’t want to commit to a fourth title, hence the studio’s effective disbandment.
[source gamebiz.jp, via gematsu.com]
Comments 17
Picked up all three of these titles this past year, as heard some good things after their inclusion on Extra… still to actually try them though.
Sad news but in this current climate, there is little room for passion projects unfortunately.
It's definitely a shame but I don't think this experiment really paid off. I think indie games like Sea of Stars etc are also doing what this studio was founded to do.
So Square have taken on the staff as well? If so then I suppose this works out as they can still help Square develop their lesser known AA titles.
Square's own HD-2D line kind of fills the gap Tokyo RPG factory was set up to fill, so i expect the staff will be migrated onto supporting those titles going forward
I guess this is also explains why those games are being pulled from the subscription service.
Understandable but a shame nonetheless. And like others are saying this void is being filled by many indie rpgs and Square's own HD-2D rpgs.
I'd highly recommend Oninaki if anybody hasn't played it. Not a perfect game, the combat is incredibly repetitive, but it's world and story were really well done imo.
Currently playing Oninaki. It's such a mediocre game... Everything about it. I just want to finish it and be done with it. The concept was decent but everything else, not so much. Not sure if it's due to the tiny budget.
I enjoyed all three of their games but they never came close to fulfilling their mission statement.
Hopefully the team finds success elsewhere in SE
Wow, was thinking about the studio yesterday and how it must be close to announcing a 4th title. Guess not now. Square Enix only has 4 development studios now and Taito, are they streamlining for a acquisition
I enjoyed these games they were pretty fun 😄
Given what they were set up to do you expect games like Octopath or Triangle Strategy to have come from Tokyo RPG Factory. But the games they did put out never set the world on fire so this move makes sense.
I bought all 3 and never finished any of them.
These are game that could get a 2nd life if placed on PC Game Pass. Especially now that the Rog Ally and Legion GO exist.
Still unfortunate. The consolidation trend continues.
That is quite a shame I really liked this studio games
Problem with these games is that they really didn't live up to their potential.
I Am Setsuna could have been so much more, but just really didn't make a good entrance nor impression. If I'm not mistaken its entire soundtrack for example was done entirely on a piano. Maybe I have it mixed up with one of the others, but that was one of the bigger turn offs to the game for me. It couldn't convey the emotions it needed to through using a piano exclusively. Don't get me piano can hit a large range, but try comparing doing the combat theme from FF7 exclusively on a piano like they did with Advent Children for Tifa's fight in the church, it doesn't hit anywhere near as hard. Let's look at sadder scenes, usually strings are thrown in, but they are absent, relying on hard notes of a piano. This was just one problem that kind of turned me away. Story didn't exactly get off to a strong start and the game play was a little soft.
Overall this is not good news. Tokyo RPG Factory was a cool name. I feel like they needed more to reach a higher bar that Square Enix tends to strive for. Maybe this was a budgetary thing or the staff being overly artistic.
Oninaki had potential too, but seemed like it was pushed out the door too early. I enjoyed the game, but it needed more time.
Lost Sphere... .just seemed to suffer in the same ways I am Setsuna did.
This really should have been a studio to surpass the works of Octopath Travel ander Triangle Strategy, they probably should have brought those teams into consult with.
I didn’t even realize Tokyo RPG Factory was still around. The only game of theirs I ever finished was I Am Setsuna, when it came out. Wasn’t mind-blowing, but it showed some promise. I was so excited for Lost Sphear when that came out, because it seemed to expand on all the things that were limited in Setsuna, but I got about 20-30 hours in before realizing that I just did not care. Never even tried Oninaki. Team Asano did everything better, with the exception of naming their games.
This is really bad news I want more independent studios not every small crammed into one big corporation.
Be it Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo or any other Publisher it takes away the smaller more niche games and streamline it for the standard customer.
Palworld shows it that they can do more with 6,5 million then a Nintendo with decades of experience and money. Or Starfield with a 200 million budget to make a mediocre game.
Let's hope that Palworld won't be won't get sued for for stealing assets that have been copied with AI and mixed up. As stabile as it is technically compared to Pokemon is quite shamefull towards triple A with their massive budgets.
But in the end it feels wrong that some have to create their stuff and let AI copy and mix it up it just feels wrong and bad.
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