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 for American audiences.

It wasn’t until the boom in the mid 90s of the genre that both companies would see massive success in America. But that doesn’t mean neither created epic, amazing games, and Japan took ample notice.
Games like Chronotrigger and the Mana series from Squaresoft and the Dragonquest series, 7th Saga, Actraiser, and Ogre Battles from Enix were amazing games that still saw US release and critical acclaim from an underfed audience.

It was however the 32-64 bit generation that really saw the boom of these companies’ fortunes overseas and the expansion of the genre into the mainstream. Enix released Dragon Quest VII for the Playstation console as their only entry in the series, but it did finally make a triumphant return to America along with games like Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean II, all of them fan and critical favorites. The company remained mostly under the radar though, relying not only its games sales (and remember, in Japan Enix was a monstrous success) but on Manga sales of series like Full Metal Alchemist a massive success in its own right.

Squaresoft however began to churn out massive titles on a constant basis, bringing Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, and X within five years along side titles like Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, and Kingdom Hearts. The company was on a role. But, unfortunately some of their ventures were not as successful as others. After the failed outing of their feature film debut in Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within, a massively expensive endeavor, they saw a sharp downturn in profits and were faced with tough times.

After a near buyout by Sony itself, Squaresoft stabilized for a while and eventually accepted a buyout offer from Enix in 2003. The new company would be dubbed Square Enix Co, Ltd. and in the end would place many of Squaresoft’s venerable elite among the upper ranks.

The company however soon went silent as production was stifled by the merger and combining of two massive gaming studios. Major releases were hard to come by for almost two years as the company adapted to the new structure, but eventually an explosion of occurred as all of the long rumored projects began to surface along with a few new ones.

One thing that the newly formed company had little to no problem doing was expanding on established brand names. Something Squaresoft had shied away from for years, the newly formed company decided it was alright to start utilizing their established dominance through existing brands like Final Fantasy VII and Dragonquest. The Final Fantasy VII gravy train soon started to roll as the Advent Children CG film was debuted at the Venice Film Festival in 2004.

Later that year the long awaited Dragon Quest VIII was released and the next year saw the newest entry in the Kingdom Heart series, soon followed by Final Fantasy XII. As the company has settled into its rhythm so to has its production. Portable versions of many final fantasy games have arrived, as well as a slew of Final Fantasy VII sequels and ports of Enix’s Valkyrie Profile as well as a sequel. The company plans even more for the coming years with three new entries in the Final Fantasy series for Final Fantasy XIII, a new Dragon Quest and a DS only sequel to Final Fantasy XII.

It’s been a long and windy road, but the world’s RPG giant is still going strong and now with the forces of not one but two of the biggest franchises in Japanese gaming, they have the strength to keep going strong.