Square Enix establishes casual gaming brand in Japan

by Griffin McElroy on Aug 2nd 2008 11:35AM

While it may seem bizarre to think that Square Enix, developer of some of the deepest narratives to ever grace our video game libraries, would decide to travel the road less Peggled, the RPG juggernaut recently launched a new casual gaming brand named "Pure Dreams" in Japan. This joins their "DS Style" line of casual games, which offers players traveling tips as well as advice on choosing wine at a restaurant. We usually just ask the waiter, but they really love their DS Lites in Japan.

The first two blockbusters sliding down the Pure Dreams chute are both based off of popular licenses in Japan -- Snoopy DS: Let's Go Meet Snoopy and His Friends! lets the player create their own member of the Peanuts gallery and play minigames with their hydrocephalitic neighbors, and Pingu's Wonderful Carnival is also a minigame collection, based off of the popular Swiss stop-motion series. We absolutely cannot wait to see Peppermint Patty's limit break.

Source

Tags: casual, DS, ds-style, Japan, pingus-wonderful-carnival, pure-dreams, snoopy-ds, square-enix

Reader Comments (83)

Hey, this is good news. Opening up a new studio to do this means that the market really is expanding, but isn't cannibalizing the existing "core" market.

This dosnt look like proof that the market is expanding to me. Just looks like Square Enix catering to a market that has been here since the beginning, kids.

Yeah this new studio could be for entry level game designers that still have things to learn. Then once they are more experienced they can progress and develop core games.

"developer of some of the deepest narratives to ever grace our video game libraries"

Lets not go too over the top with the hyperbole, McElroy.

This looks interesting, but I'll have to have more than titles to form an intelligent opinion. But anything that drags Square out of the RPG dungeons can only be a good thing, I suppose. And I like the DS, which helps.

and it starts...Nintendonald's casual influence on major third party devs/publishers. the beginning of the end for this great industry? i hope not. come on Sony/MS, take Nintendonald's down before its too late.

fanboys dont realise the greater implications of the success of DS and Wii...dont tell me that i didnt warn you so when you fav core games are delayed and/or cancelled because Squeenix thought it was a better idea to focus on DollHouse for Wii.

It's adorable! It's like he has a Notepad file on his desktop so he can just copy and paste the same comment to every article. :3

Wii Dollhouse will always be more compelling than Final Fantasy DCLXVI. If it wasn't for TWEWY, a DS title, I would have lost all hope for Squaresoft

Squaresoft hasn't existed since 2003.

Personally, I would love to have Final Fantasy CVXII. Why? They're good stories. They have no links together and each is entirely different from the next. The characters are unique to each game (if they weren't, why would people like some games and hate the others?) - The worlds are unique, the situations are unique, and usually they have really good music and production values.

I suppose if you don't like stories and just want sandbox games to run around without structure, GTA 4 is more your form. Personally I think Final Fantasy still has plenty of amazing titles left before the franchise retires.

Good stories? Compared to an average book Final Fantasy stories are a complete joke. Here's a synopsis: there's a reluctant hero, he's challenged, he rises to the challenge, someone close betrays him/her, there's a tragic death near the end; the end. There's nothing more. Really, the idea the FF games have great stories is the greatest of fallacies.

"Wii Dollhouse will always be more compelling than Final Fantasy DCLXVI"

LOL...lets just say, not to the vast majority of core gamers. however, im sure even you could agree that The World Ends With You will always be more compelling than Dollhouse.

different crap is still crap buddy.

@ Lord Bowser

Too bad that story description could also fit the plot line of GTA IV.

It's a fairly universal, classical plotline, but Square has always done a good job at telling it.

I AM A MASSIVE TROLL, PLEASE ASK ME TO LEAVE JOYSTIQ!

Okay, two things:

1) I think it's been established that GTA4 was a criminal disappointment. All those early review scores shows that gaming critique has a lot of ethical issues to sort out, mainly its scandalous practice of Payola.

2) Why is my first comment being voted down? I didn't say anything negative or inappropriate. I said this Squaresoft move was a good thing. I don't understand.

Think your first comment got voted down because people dislike jaded negative gamers. Just my guess.

And there is no story that exists that isn't borrowing or influenced from something else with a lot of similarities between the two. Your "average book beats out any Final Fantasy" is BS anyways. I read a few books a month and FF stories beat the majority of the books I read. Why?
1) FF builds character relationships better 98% of any book, movie, or game I know.
2) They build a very massive, immersive world that feels complete.
3) There are so many moments in every FF to date that stand out as a defining moment in storytelling.

7 - Sephiroth's turning, Aerith's death
8 - Squall getting impaled at the end of the first disc, Squall popping into space to save Rinoa, Irvine freezing on the first disc.
9 - Zidane's lonely walk after realizing what he is
10 - Yuna's dance, Tidus chasing after Sin, Wakka's final game.
12 - Vaan's first encounter with Basch, everything with Balthier, Fran's frenzy when the mist is burning

----

Dunno, I guess I feel pity for you if the powerful moments of Final Fantasy do nothing for you. Sucks that you can't find enjoyment in a very well done piece of entertainment.

I'm sorry Jeepers, 'cuz while I agree with you, those moments were hardly what I'd call 'powerful'...

God, how you contradict yourselves. You're ALWAYS going around whining about how casual games are killing the industry, and yet you act as though making casual games takes effort, so much that devs would opt to set aside their epic games to 'concentrate' on the casual ones...

God damn, you're a moron.

If the DS has anything to show us, it's that a system that appeals to both gamers and casual gamers can exist on the market and allow both kinds of developers to make more than enough money.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD, THE GAMES FOR THE NEXT YEARS WILL BE NOTHING BUT PEGGLE AND BEJEWELED CLONES.

I mean, really, REALLY? do you really thing that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByPcQBveWOA

God, Lord Bowser, do you even like ANY games? I have never seen a positive comment from you regarding any new game.

You've never ventured into a Mortal Kombat article, have you, Saria? According to him, we're in the Age of Brawl *chuckles*

More casual focus doesn't mean they're diverting resources from the stuff that they're already making money off of

This is going to happen everywhere, so get used to it

All i know for sure that he likes is Brawl, TWEWY, and Space Invaders Extreme

Well, Subspace Emissary really is the epitome of compelling storytelling, I must admit.

But seriously, Lord Bowser, if Square doesn't deliver good storytelling in games, who does? I would like to be pointed towards these people and purchase their warez.

Only in SSE could you see a conflict between Sheik and Fox, where Sheik leaps atop a flying Arwing and tears Fox straight from the cockpit, and they land and are about to continue the duel, only to be halted by Peach offering Tea to both as a truce

Yeah, cos the Gameboy, GBA, Master System, Genesis and all the other consoles have NEVER had loads of games for kids on them!!!!

I can't believe game developers are trying to cater to children! Its the end of the world!!!

Pikachu's fist in Subspace has a more coherent storyline than any Final Fantasy.

Way to make it obvious that you haven't played many FF games, Lord Bowser! Jesus Christ, you're jaded.

Alright... That's at least twice with "Nintendonalds" in one week. Where do you come up with this? I thought it had to do with McDonalds / Nintendo's WiFi Connection relationship, but I was way off.

Please explain.

aint it obvious? let me guess, you're a blonde...

Does anyone get it? Does the term "Nintendonalds" actually carry such a significant weight that it can be thrown around in nearly any situation involving a game on a Nintendo platform? Or, is it some catch-all term you coined regarding your disdain for Nintendo and / or McDonalds?

Brunette every day of the week, jackass.

lol, you STILL dont get it...and you actually think blondes ARE dumb lol nice one, you should dye your hair white cuz you're giving brunettes a bad rep when it comes to basic intelligence.

Aw, Curmeo. I actually like your posts and vote you up, regardless of what you may say, but you're crossing the line into the bullying and that ain't right.

Don't be unkind.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/30/gta-chinatown-wars-site-hints-at-nintendo-wfc-features/

This might shed some light on this matter.It also explains my other comment.

Honeslty, whether you agree with it or not, the comparison is rather obviousd, Xoviet.

McDonalds outsells nearly everyone, including most restaurants with much better food, by selling cheap food to the masses. Nintendo is currently outselling everyone by selling cheap/shallow games to the casual masses. Again, whether you agree with that or not is beside the point, but the comparison is obvious.

I think Curmeo may be the dumb blonde for coming up with such a completely stupid and terrible pun. Shame on you. Shame.

It had absolutely nothing to do with me agreeing or disagreeing with anything, I was simply asking for an explanation... As it was not obvious to me. Maybe it's because I'm genuinely stupid, but whatever. All I wanted was an explanation of the term, I'm glad it took four bullshit posts to finally get one, and from a third party nonetheless. Thank you.

i can field this one:

curmeo is not very intelligent so he/she (lets face it, he) relies on one instance of supposed wit.

Unfortunately, he doesn't get how retarded it sounds (seriously, say "Nintendonalds" out loud) and so persists in using it. This has the effect of making him look more moronic with each usage.

Think that pretty much covers it.

For those that don't know, Curmeo is 15 years old.

All discussion with him should end now.

xoviet chik im sorry for being rude

Curmeo 2.0 says

"Blonds are too stupid to understand the economics of video games, to know what the market shares of the big game companies are, they dont understand what a real game is, all they want to do is play a game that's fun, how stuiped is that, stuiped blonds"

Nintendonals, thats to long, you need something thats short. Like Phony of Micro$oft.

Whoa, blonde jokes? What grade are we in, here? And Curmeo, you've never explained the Nintendonald's yourself...other people like Vidikron have lent explanation and drawn the correlation between the two corporations, but I doubt Curmeo himself really thought through before coining something that just sounded "catchy" to him, so I am completely there with you, Xoviet. I don't know why you're getting bashed for asking a real question.

Saria the cat i invite you to go thru my comment history, both Curmeo and Curmeo 2.0 so you finally shut the hell up about me not thinking through what Nintendonald's means.

Curmeo 2.0 says

"casual games insult my intelligence, and killed my mother."

"Nintendonals, thats to long, you need something thats short. Like Phony of Micro$oft."

How about NinDo?

how about nintenD'oh

The Peanuts characters need to be in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Nothing says "heartless" like Lucy and the football gag.

"Charlie Brown attacks football"
"Miss"
"Charlie Brown goes flying"
"Charlie Brown loses 12 HP"
"Linus attacks with security blanket"
"Football loses 20 HP"
"Football goes down!"
"Charlie Brown reaches Level 'still-a-loser'."

Obviously Nintendo is to blame for this, Nintendo is to blame for everything wrong with the industry!

Of course they're to blame for this if anyone wants to throw blame around. Unless you think this would have happened 5 years ago...

Don't your fingers get tired from typing that in every article, Nintendo related or not? I like me some Nintendo just as much as the next guy, but sarcastically pointing that out daily is on the same level with actually meaning it. Let it go, man.

God, 4MyFriends is getting as fucking lame/repetitive with his posts as Curmeo has gotten.

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Square Enix establishes casual gaming brand in Japan

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