In spite of a lot of early successes on the 3DS – Theathrhytm: Final Fantasy, Bravely Default, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and Dragon Quest VII – Square Enix mysteriously dropped support for the handheld pretty fast and went all in on smartphones instead. However, now it seems they have realized just how excellent and profitable the 3DS can be for high end games.
“Most people would probably go with Naoki Hanzawa and Amachan, but personally, I was most impressed by how smoothly Monster Hunter sold,” says Akitoshi Kawazu, a high ranking Square Enix developer behind games such as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Romancing SaGa. “I felt that Monster Hunter showed me the true powers of the Nintendo 3DS.”
He is talking about the 3DS’s insanely profitable market for high end games, unlike any handheld that came before. Monster Hunter 4 is just one such example – other games of this category include Square Enix’s own Dragon Quest VII, and Nintendo’s Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Pokemon, and The Legend of Zelda games.
Hopefully, this means a renewed effort from Square Enix on the handheld.