Square Enix is the result of a 2003 merger between two video game companies (Square (known internationally as SquareSoft) and Enix, naturally). They are primarily known for their work on RPGs, and several of their franchises have gone on to sell millions upon millions across the world. Their merger was a huge event at the time. Squaresoft and Enix had been major rivals for years; both were known for their RPGs, with Square being behind the world-dominatingly popular Final Fantasy franchise, and Enix responsible for the sales-record-smashing Dragon Quest games. By combining forces, they created a game-industry juggernaut which is a force to be reckoned with, especially in the Japanese market.
Enix was the older of the two merging companies, and it found success earlier. Founded in 1975 by Yasuhiro Fukushima as the Eidansha Boshu Service Center, it changed its name to Enix Corporation in 1982, just before it entered the video game market. In 1982, Enix held the Game Hobby Program Contest, whose ten winning entries became Enix's first published games; the winning game authors included Koichi Nakamura and Yuji Horii. Enix would remain exclusively a video game publisher and depend on the cooperation of independent developers, primarily Chunsoft (the company founded by Koichi Nakamura and Yuji Horii, now Spike Chunsoft), Heart Beat (a spinoff of Chunsoft and forerunner of Genius Sonority exclusively devoted to developing Dragon Quest sequels and remakes), Quintet, Almanic (later known as Givro), Produce and tri-Ace. Enix's early games (which included some eroge) were released principally on the Japanese NEC PC-8801 and Fujitsu FM-7 computers. Though games such as The Portopia Serial Murder Case were quite popular in Japan, Dragon Quest was Enix's first game to be released internationally, under the Market-Based Title Dragon Warrior.
Square's early years were leaner; it began as a division of the software company Denyusha. In 1984 they released their first game, The Death Trap, whose modest success led them to create a few more original games, as well as technically unimpressive ports of Dragon Slayer for the MSX and Thexder for the NES. After becoming independent in 1986, Square Co., Ltd. was founded by Masafumi Miyamoto and they formed the Disk Operating Group (DOG) with six other computer game companies (Micro Cabin, Thinking Rabbit, Carry Lab, System Sacom, Xtalsoft, Hummingbird Soft) and published a variety of forgettable games for the Famicom Disk System, and were not doing too well when, a year and a half after Dragon Quest, they released an RPG called Final Fantasy. It was a major hit and formed the beginning of one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.
In 1991, Masafumi Miyamoto resigned to the presidency of Square; but he remained a major shareholder in the company.
In 1995, both companies worked on Chrono Trigger.
In 2003, as mentioned above, both companies merged.
In 2005, Square Enix acquired Taito Corporation. Taito has mostly remained independent, retaining its games' copyright and self-publishing its games in Japan, though its parent company began to publish its games (such as Space Invaders Extreme and Arkanoid DS) elsewhere (with the label "Taito - A Square Enix Company" on the cover).
In 2009, Square Enix took over Eidos Interactive (best known for Tomb Raider, and also published the PC versions of Square's Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII as well as the first of Enix's Dragon Quest Monsters games for the Game Boy Color in North America). Eidos was then merged with Square Enix's existing European subsidiary to form Square Enix Europe. Seems like a rather boring name until you look at the word they were getting at. The acquisition of Eidos also gave Square Enix ownership of Crystal Dynamics (best known for Legacy of Kain), which Eidos acquired in 1998. Crystal Dynamics is in charge of developing most Tomb Raider games since 2006, as well as any other side projects that Square Enix may not want to directly get involved in (for example, the Marvel's Avengers game). However, in 2022, the company sold most of their Western studios and franchises to Swedish holding company Embracer Group.
Shortly before the start of The New '10s, Square Enix, partly through the Eidos Interactive takeover, started publishing and even had their studios developing gritty, out-of-character shooters such as Kane & Lynch, Just Cause 2 and MindJack, and they have been publishing the Japanese localizations of Activision's games.
Square Enix is also a manga publisher, continued from its Enix days. Its published works include Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater and O-Parts Hunter, and a variety of manga based on its video game properties. Their monthly magazines are the Gangan titles.
Around the late 1990s and first half of the 2000s, quite a few of Square's key members left. Writer Masato Kato went freelance, as did composers Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu; Testuya Takahashi and a large portion of the Xenogears and Chrono Cross team formed Monolith Soft, which initially was owned by Namco until they were sold to Nintendo around 2007; Kameoka Shinichi and Kouji Tsuda of the Mana series founded Brownie Brown, another first party subsidiary of Nintendo, while Mana series creator Koichi Ishii became president of Nintendo-affliated company Grezzo in 2007. As for Hironobu Sakaguchi, he founded Mistwalker.
Pre-merger games:
Games by Square
- Alpha
- The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner (published by Acclaim in the U.S. as 3-D Worldrunner)
- Bahamut Lagoon
- The Bouncer
- Brave Fencer Musashi
- Bushido Blade
- Chrono Trigger
- Radical Dreamers
- Chrono Cross (developed by a team that would later become Monolith Soft)
- Cruise Chaser Blassty
- The Death Trap
- Ehrgeiz
- Einhänder
- Final Fantasy series
- Front Mission series
- Hanjuku Hero
- Kingdom Hearts series
- King's Knight
- Live A Live
- Mana Series (Seiken Densetsu in Japan)
- Parasite Eve
- Racing Lagoon
- Rad Racer
- The SaGa series
- Secret of Evermore (published and developed entirely by Squaresoft USA)
- Threads of Fate (Dewprism in Japan)
- Tobal series
- Treasure Hunter G
- Treasure of the Rudra
- Vagrant Story
- Xenogears (developed by a team that would later become Monolith Soft)
Games by Enix
- The 7th Saga
- ActRaiser
- Brain Lord
- Bust a Groove (called Bust-A-Move in Japan, but that title was given to Puzzle Bobble in some other countries)
- Dark Half
- Dragon Quest series (called Dragon Warrior in North America until the rights to that name were procured in 2005)
- E.V.O.: Search for Eden
- The Fear
- Fortune Street series
- Grandia Xtreme
- Illusion of Gaia
- Mischief Makers
- Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (Only for North America via SNES)
- Paladin's Quest
- The Portopia Serial Murder Case
- Rakugaki Showtime
- R.A.D: Robot Alchemic Drive
- Robotrek
- Segare Ijiri
- SoulBlazer
- Star Ocean
- Suzuki Bakuhatsu
- Terranigma
- Valkyrie Profile
- Wonder Project J
Post-merger games:
- Balan Wonderworld (developed by Balan Company)
- Bravely Default (co-developed with Silicon Studio)
- The Centennial Case
- Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter
- Deadman's Cross
- The Dio Field Chronicle (co-developed with LANCARSE Ltd.)
- Drakengard, Drakengard 2 and Drakengard 3 (developed by Cavia and Access)
- Dungeon Encounters
- Elevator Action Deluxe
- Forspoken
- Grandia III
- Harvestella
- I am Setsuna (developed by Tokyo RPG Factory)
- Infinite Undiscovery (the trademark and part of the copyright are held by Microsoft)
- The Last Remnant
- Left Alive
- Lord of Arcana
- Lost Sphear (developed by Tokyo RPG Factory)
- Mario Hoops 3-on-3
- Mindjack
- Moon Diver
- Nanashi no Game
- NieR (developed by Cavia)
- NieR: Automata (co-developed by PlatinumGames and the director of the original game)
- Octopath Traveler
- Oninaki (developed by Tokyo RPG Factory)
- PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
- Project Sylpheed
- Radiata Stories
- Sigma Harmonics
- Spelunker World (PlayStation 4; developed by Tozai Games)
- Spelunker Party (PC, Nintendo Switch; same developer)
- Thexter Neo
- Triangle Strategy
- Voice of Cards series (developed by Alim)
- The World Ends with You
- X-Squad (developed by Square EA)
- Yosumin!
Other works
Western developed- Children of Zodiarcs** (developed by Cardboard Utopia)
- Circuit Superstars** (developed by Original Fire Games)
- Dungeon Siege III (developed by Obsidian Entertainment, franchise bought from Gas Powered Games)
- Forgotton Anne** (developed by Through Line Games)
- Gyromancer (collaboration with PopCap Games)
- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
- Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
- Murdered: Soul Suspect (developed by Airtight Games)
- Order Of War
- Outriders
- PowerWash Simulator** (developed by FuturLab)
- Quantum Conundrum
- Supreme Commander II (in collaboration with Gas Powered Games)
- The Quiet Man (collaboration with Human Head Studios)
- Tokyo Dark** (developed by Cherrymochi)
- The Turing Test** (developed by Bulkhead Games)
collaborations
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (developed by Square, published by Nintendo)
- Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (developer; published by Nintendo)
- Mario Sports Mix (same as above)
Mobile games provided by Square Enix
- Chaos Rings series (iPhone and Android)
- Drakerider
- Dragon Quest Tact
- Grimms Notes
- Grimms Echoes
- Gate of Nightmares
- Knights of the Crystals
- NieR Re[in]carnation
- Pop Up Story
- Song Summoner (iPod)
- SINoALICE
- Schoolgirl Strikers
- Various Daylife
Online games provided by Square Enix
- Concerto Gate
- Cross Gate
- Dragon Quest X
- Fantasy Earth Zero
- Final Fantasy XI
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Starwing Paradox
Licensed Games
- Quantum of Solace (Except DS)
- Blood Stone (Except DS)
- Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel
- Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse Of The Crimson Elixir
- Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl Who Succeeds God
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Daughter of the Dusk
- The Walking Dead: Season One
Games published by Eidos and its subsidiary labels
- Batman: Arkham Asylum (released only for all countries except Japan)
- Conflict (published by former parent company SCi)
- Deus Ex
- Fear Effect
- Gex
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Hitman (after the release of its definitive edition, other releases are done by WB games.)
- Just Cause
- Kane & Lynch (for all countries except Japan, with Part 1 published by Spike)
- Legacy of Kain
- LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
- Life Is Strange: (although Dontnod Entertainment mostly worked on the game)
- Marvel's Avengers
- Mini Ninjas
- Project: Snowblind
- Shellshock 2
- Sleeping Dogs (2012)
- Startopia
- Thief (2014)
- TimeSplitters
- Tomb Raider:
- Tomb Raider Trilogy (Legend + Anniversary + Underworld)
- Tomb Raider (2013)
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Total Overdose
- Urban Chaos
- Urban Chaos: Riot Response
- Warzone 2100 (now open-source)
- Whiplash
Square Enix games that were cancelled:
- Alien Reign
- Ambrosia Odyssey
- Catacombs
- Chocobo Racing 3D
- Dice de Chocobo
- Final Fantasy 3 Remake (Wonderswan only)
- Final Fantasy Fortress
- Grand Champion’s Rally (Playstation only through Aques)
- Gun Loco
- Project Dropship
- Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur
- Silent Chaos
- Vampire Hunter
Western-developed games published by Square Enix in Japan:
- Agents of Mayhem
- American McGee's Alice
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Battlefield 1942
- Call of Duty (post-Call of Duty 3)
- Diablo (1997) (through Square EA)
- Diablo III (for consoles except Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer)
- EverQuest II
- Global Operations (through Square EA)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Game Boy consoles only through Square EA)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Game Boy consoles only through Square EA)
- Overwatch
- Quake III Revolution (through Square EA)
- Quantum of Solace (except for DS and PC)
- Blood Stone (except for DS)
- RollerCoaster Tycoon (through Square EA)
- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
- Singularity
- Shogun: Total War
- Stitch: Experiment 626 (through Square EA)
- Tropico 5
- Tropico 6
- Warlords Battlecry (through Square EA)
Eastern-developed games published by Square Enix in Europe:
Eastern-developed games published by Square Enix in Oceania:
Square Enix's Gangan Comics imprint:
- ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.
- Akame ga Kill!
- Aoharu × Machinegun
- Arachnid
- Arakawa Under the Bridge
- As Miss Beelzebub Likes
- Bamboo Blade
- Barakamon
- Beast Tamer
- Bitter Virgin
- Black Butler
- Blast of Tempest
- Blattodea
- A Certain Magical Index
- Cahe Detective Club
- The Case Study of Vanitas
- Caterpillar
- Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!
- Choubu no Shinobi
- Chronicles of the Going Home Club
- The Comic Artist and his Assistants
- Corpse Princess
- Daemons of the Shadow Realm
- Daily Lives of High School Boys
- dear
- Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
- Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Goblin Slayer
- Guilty Crown
- Happy Sugar Life
- Haré+Guu
- He Is My Master
- Hero Tales
- High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World (manga adaptation)
- Higurashi: When They Cry (manga adaptation)
- Hinowa ga Crush!
- The Holy Grail of Eris
- Horimiya
- Hyakuen!
- I Think Our Son Is Gay (Originally a webcomic, but printed under the Gangan brand)
- I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
- Ibitsu
- Im: Great Priest Imhotep
- Immoral Guild
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
- The Irregular at Magic High School
- Kakegurui
- Kikō Majutsushi-Enchantā (Enchanter)
- Magical Circle Guru-Guru
- Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka
- Mahoraba
- The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious
- Majo no Shinzou
- Megalomania
- Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun
- Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (manga adaptation by Kamui Fujiawara)
- The Morose Mononokean
- Murciélago
- Mushoku Tensei: Eris Sharpens Her Fangs
- My Bride is a Mermaid
- My Clueless First Friend
- My Dress-Up Darling
- Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok
- Nabari no Ou
- Nagasarete Airantou
- Nameless Asterism
- Natsuiro Kiseki
- Nicoichi
- Nightmare Inspector
- No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!
- O-Parts Hunter
- One Week Friends
- Ore ga Akuma de, Aitsu ga Yome de
- PandoraHearts
- Pani Poni
- Ragna Crimson
- The Record of a Fallen Vampire
- The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World
- Rose Guns Days
- Saki
- Scumbag Loser
- Sekirei
- Shindere Shoujo to Kodoku na Shinigami
- Shinigami-sama ni Saigo no Onegai wo
- Shinigami-sama to 4-nin no Kanojo
- Shitsurakuen
- Smoking Behind The Supermarket With You
- Soul Eater
- Spiral
- Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included
- Sumomomo Momomo
- Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town (manga adaptation)
- Talentless Nana
- Tentai Senshi Sunred
- A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School!
- Today's Cerberus
- Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
- Tokyo Underground
- Tripeace
- Twin Signal
- Übel Blatt
- UFO Princess Valkyrie
- Umineko: When They Cry
- Until Death Do Us Part
- Val × Love
- Vermeil in Gold
- The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess
- Violinist of Hameln
- Wagnaria!!
- Watashi No Messiah Sama
- Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle
- Yandere Kanojo
- Zombie Loan
Produced films:
- As Square Pictures:
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- The Animatrix ("Final Flight of the Osiris" segment
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
- Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
- Dragon Quest: Your Story
Miscellaneous projects:
- Agni's Philosophy
- Black Butler
- Godzilla Minus One (motion capture work only)
Tropes associated with Square Enix:
- Anime Hair: Several heroes and villains have this. In fact, many of SE's games give their characters an anime-like look overall.
- Breakthrough Hit: According to composer Nobuo Uematsu, the title for Final Fantasy came about because Hironobu Sakaguchi thought it would be the last game Square would develop before it went bankrupt (it didn't). Sakaguchi himself never confirmed nor denied this story, though he did note that because of the financial issues plaguing them back then, he would have expected the game to be the last he made for the company before he had to return to college.
- Cash-Cow Franchise:
- Three of them: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts.
- Inverted with just about every western focused game they release, no matter what they sell it's simply not enough for the executives who immediately label it as having performed "below expectations" to the point where it appears nothing but a Grand Theft Auto or Apex Legends style "billion dollars a year" microtransaction laden megahit is sufficient. As an example, Square Enix thought that six million units sold of Tomb Raider (2013) was a financial disaster, even though most of the financial issues and overly high cost for the development came from their Executive Meddling and a poorly run, excessive marketing campaign. This trend culminated in Square-Enix deciding to cut their losses and sell off most of their Western franchises and studios to Embracer Group for a mere $300 million, a small sum compared to many other high profile acquisitions in the video game industry around that time.
- Fullmetal Alchemist is this for Gangan Comics.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Many games, especially the Final Fantasy series, feature amazing outfits that would give a cosplayer a run for his money.
- Japanese RPG: The company's main genre. Whichever division of JRPG they use varies from series to series.
- Killer App: Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games are these for any consoles on which they appear, to the point of being deciding factors in Console Wars. In particular, their exclusivity to Super Famicom ensured that Sega's 16-bit console would never be as competitive with Nintendo's in Japan as it was in the West, and Final Fantasy VII releasing exclusively on the PlayStation was a huge blow to Nintendo in the generation after that.
- No Export for You:
- An infamous case. For the longest time, Square didn't even have a European branch, and as such the games didn't see the light of day there until Final Fantasy VII.
- Famously, Final Fantasy in North America experienced a sudden skip of number between III and VII, thus leaving three games ostensibly missing. The truth was that there really were games missing; Square did not release II, III, and V in North America, rebranding the rest to reflect this fact; II and III actually referred to IV and VI. Between VI (that is, the North American III) and VII, however, Square moved to producing games for Sony instead of Nintendo, because of the technical limitations of the Nintendo 64, where they decided that it's best to streamline the number in spite of the fact that it didn't make sense marketing wise.
- For a long time, Square Enix did not bother to bring rereleases of their games overseas, the most notable ones being the Final Mix versions of the various Kingdom Hearts games (as the Kudzu Plot of the games factor in everything, including content added in Final Mix) but also the International editions of some Final Fantasy entries. However, this seems to have changed from 2013 onward, as they did bring them overseas for the next-generation consoles.
- One-Winged Angel: The Trope Namer coming from Final Fantasy VII. It's almost a requirement for every game to have a One Winged Angel. Square Enix even has its own folder on the trope page.
- Orchestral Version: Plenty of the games' soundtracks are mixed into orchestral versions and albums, and the advent of more sophisticated sound technology has lead to several game soundtracks that are orchestral in nature.
- Persona Non Grata: After Final Fantasy VII moved from the Nintendo 64 to the PlayStation, Nintendo held this attitude towards Squaresoft for quite some time.
- Preview Piggybacking: They have been famous for this since the PlayStation era, with lesser-known or brand-new franchises often being bundled with CDs containing demos of upcoming products (such as bundling Brave Fencer Musashi with a demo of Final Fantasy VIII), and it continues into the present day.
- Rivals Team Up: The merger between Square and Enix.
- Tech-Demo Game: The company has stated recently that all of their major titles were done just to show off. And it doesn't even stop there, as some of their niche titles get similar treatment.
- Too Many Belts: Common when Tetsuya Nomura is the character designer of a game.
- Updated Re-release: The reason their No Export for You cases are some of the most well-known.
- Word Salad Title: The company is infamous for its flashy, extremely obtuse titles, enough to have a subpage of its own.
- Zipperiffic: Once again, when Tetsuya Nomura is the character designer. The quote of this trope's page (which comes from The World Ends with You) lampshades this.
You weren't thinking of something naughty, were you? That's right! It's SQUARE ENIX!