Acquire appreciation thread

[UnDubious]

Any fans of Acquire Corp? To me they're an underrated developer.

For years they were know for games set in feudal Japan, with most of their games being rough gems that demand a bit of persistence but really pay off.
Their first was Tenchu, one of the original 3D stealth games. There had been many good ninja platformers before, but this was the first game were you felt like a ninja.
After Tenchu 2, they lost the franchise due to publisher shenanigans and created the Way of the Samurai series, a completely non-linear (but still narrative-driven) action adventure game. A full playthrough is like 2 hours long (it's meant to be about as long a movie), but there are at least 4 completely different main storylines and many random events to witness making different choices, so in the end I probably spent at least 15-20 hours on it. Great game. Then there's Shinobido, which was basically them doing their own Tenchu spiritual sequel, Kamizawa (where you're a Japanese thief), and Sumioni.
In a completely different register they also developed the (controversial?) Akiba's series, smaller games like Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman (stupid ass localized title), and more recently, have made pretty big RPGs under contract, like the Octopath Traveler games and Mario & Luigi: Brothership. They may not have as strong an identity anymore since Tenchu, Way of the Samurai and Shinobido are all dormant, but it's good that they're still making notable games.

 

[CG4R12I4N]

All their games are real good especially the Dou games which are one of my favorites. The only one that flunked hard is really just Samurai Spirits Sen/Samurai Shodown Edge of Destiny and that's more because people can't take 3D Samsho at the time.

 

[UnDubious]

The only one that flunked hard is really just Samurai Spirits Sen/Samurai Shodown Edge of Destiny and that's more because people can't take 3D Samsho at the time.

That was K2 LLC, not Acquire.

 

[destinyduelist]

I love this game a lot, its just silly fun. And it's sequel too.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

How can you not include Way of the Samurai series....?

 

[beefbowl]

Way of the Samurai series....?

and created the Way of the Samurai series, a completely non-linear (but still narrative-driven) action adventure game. A full playthrough is like 2 hours long (it's meant to be about as long a movie), but there are at least 4 completely different main storylines and many random events to witness making different choices, so in the end I probably spent at least 15-20 hours on it. Great game.

Yeah basic reading comprehension is strong with this one.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

This one is a real banger!

 

[CG4R12I4N]

Samuraido/Way of The Samurai, Shinobido, Kamiwaza and Sumioni are all basically one big series already.
There's also Akiba's Trip and Akiba's Beat which are really interesting plotwise and settingwise though the gameplay themselves are fucking horrendous, basically Acquire's own Neptunia.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Yeah basic reading comprehension is strong with this one.

I can't believe you also didn't add Tenchu or Akiba series..! Inexcusable

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

Tenchu 1 and 2 were really fun back in the day, but janky. I don't think I've tried other games from this publisher, besides Octopath Traveler.

I didn't know they were involved in developing the Octopath series. I thought it was an internal Square Enix project, but Wikipedia says it was "co-developed" by both companies. Not sure what that means exactly.

 

[Estein]

I would say WOTS and Shinobido by far one of the best underrated game series around,,he replayability value of WOTS series alone was it best aspect,however hard it was to acquire or trigger certain story event in that game to unlock each ending,by far the best story in WOTS probably the WOTS 2 with the mute girl storyline,WOTS 4 is fun but has worse story event all around.

 

[PrismRed]

This one is a real banger!View attachment 58751

Major improvement from the PS2 Gladiator Road to Freedom, which is pretty great itself.

 

[UnDubious]

I didn't know they were involved in developing the Octopath series. I thought it was an internal Square Enix project, but Wikipedia says it was "co-developed" by both companies. Not sure what that means exactly.

mobygames.com has the full credits, divided by companies.
It's pretty common for Japanese companies to spread the work between different developers. Roughly speaking, Square is responsible for the original idea, basic scenario, character design and overall supervision, Acquire did the game design and most programming, art, etc., and additional companies were involved as well (including extra writers and extra programmers).

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

mobygames.com has the full credits, divided by companies.
It's pretty common for Japanese companies to spread the work between different developers. Roughly speaking, Square is responsible for the original idea, basic scenario, character design and overall supervision, Acquire did the game design and most programming, art, etc., and additional companies were involved as well (including extra writers and extra programmers).

That makes sense because the concept artist is Naoki Ikushima, who is a Square Enix employee. They must've designed the game and outsourced the implementation to Acquire.