by Anthony Chatfield

Created on: February 14, 2007   Last Updated: April 12, 2007

Square-Enix has over the course of the last 20 years or so become the established leader in the realm of Japanese RPGs, those being the stat-builder, story-centric games that play more like a visualized book than a hack and slash video game. The genre is big business though, especially if you do it right as the market is dangerously anemic, plagued by poor entries from all corners of the video game world. Games that don't tell an intriguing story, offer poor visual graphics, or present battle systems that your NES would laugh at don't thrive in this business.\

Square Enix has done just the opposite by crafting some of the deepest, best written games ever made for a variety of consoles and making RPG gaming what it is today. From the Dragonquest brand name to the ever present Final Fantasy, RPGs are what they are because of the work done by Squaresoft and Enix, and now Square-Enix.

The Company now known as Square Enix was originally two different companies, competitors really, in the RPG market. Enix was founded in 1975 as a manga and video game company, and was mostly known for it's Dragon Quest products. The original Dragon Quest was released in 1986 in Japan, followed by six more entries in the series before the buyout of Squaresoft. The Dragon Quest series, while not as popular in America is the best selling game series of all time in Japan, far outselling any of its competitors. The gaming company releases most new major releases on weekends now because of Dragon Quest and the resultant low attendance at school and work when a new game was released.

Squaresoft's history started a couple of years later than Enix's but took a very similar route. Started in 1986 to craft video games in the newly formed home gaming market, Squaresoft was on the verge of bankruptcy within months. So they took the last of their finances and pushed them into one last ditch effort to create Final Fantasy. The game was a critical and commercial smash and the publisher was reborn as one of the big names in RPG gaming.

Much like Enix, the Squaresoft product was watered down and often ignored in America. While America received Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games, they were often altered or renamed to meet the US market. Dragon Quest was renamed Dragon Warrior and released in the US to a small and underground following. Similarly, Final Fantasy was the only NES game released by Squaresoft in the US, the next Final Fantasy not arriving until Final Fantasy IV was renamed Final Fantasy II

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>