Square Enix PR and the Law of Inverse Importance

The Law of Inverse Importance states thus: the more splashy Square Enix gets about a game announcement, the less exciting the actual game is.

Example: When a new Final Fantasy comes out, all its official site might have is a simple logo to start. But Square Enix’s latest game was announced via a teaser site with Yahoo!, promising a game that would “make history” in Japan and was left up for some time, encouraging visitors to Tweet about it and garnering attention. Viewers wondered: could it be a Dragon Quest MMO? A Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy crossover? What could this history-making game BE?

It turns out that Square Enix WILL make history with the game…literally: it’s a web-based game set in the Warring States (Sengoku) era of Japan, titled Sengoku IXA. It’ll be free, and playable on Yahoo!– perhaps sort of a historical version of Farmville or something along those lines, but with a visual component.

The Sengoku era is, of course, home of a quite a few Japanese games, including (but not limited to):

…Et cetera. In other words, this is going boldly where most large video game companies in Japan have gone before. Sigh.

Then again, the idea of Square Enix giving away a game for free might be considered “historical” in nature.

Gia Manry is a professional writer based in San Francisco, CA. She likes being followed on Twitter and can also be contacted via her website.