Square - The biggest ho in the RPG world.
History
| Square Co. Ltd. released their first title in Japan, a shooter/action game, on December 19, 1985. Like most everything in Nintendo's 8-bit reign, it sold well enough to make a tidy profit. This spurred the new company on to develop a few more games, including Rad Racer, The Adventures of 3-D World Runner, and King's Knight. With the early success of their games, Square decided to support the Famicom Disk System by creating a joint venture company with various other development houses. This joint venture was called the Disk Original Group, or DOG for short. They went on to release several obscure games for the Famicom Disk System in Japan. |  3D World Runner |
 Final Fantasy  Final Fantasy III | Unfortunately for the then small company, the joint venture DOG wasn't quite as successful as was hoped, and in 1987 they were desperately searching for a game that would bring them back to life. After seeing the incredible sales and popularity of Enix's RPG Dragon Quest, Hironobu Sakaguchi believed Square could make a game that was bigger and better than Dragon Quest. Square's entire development staff was set to work on this game. Sakaguchi banked the company's life on the one game. He would call it Final Fantasy. Released for the Famicom Entertainment System on December 18, 1987, it was everything Sakaguchi dreamed it would be, and more. The original Final Fantasy revolutionized the genre with the ability to set up your own party, and its deep and lengthy quest. Five years after the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States, Nintendo of America decided to localize Square's Final Fantasy in an attempt to give the genre a kick-start in the country. Thanks to the massive promotion from Nintendo's vastly popular magazine Nintendo Power, the sales of Final Fantasy took off in the United States. Meanwhile, in Japan, Final Fantasy II had torn up the sales charts a year before, and Square was on the verge of releasing a third sequel on the venerable console. These two sequels never saw the light of day in the western market. |
| As the popularity of the NES waned, the ever-more powerful Super NES, and the portable Game Boy systems provided new arenas for Square to make their games. The second trilogy of Final Fantasy games was released over the lifespan of the SNES. Although Final Fantasy V's western localization, Final Fantasy Extreme was never released, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI were released as Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III respectively in the states. For the five year duration of the console's life, Square developed well over a dozen games. Although virtually all the games released were RPGs (or Strategy-RPGs), there were exceptions to the rule. One such exception was the sequel to the Game Boy game Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana. Called the Seiken Denetsu series in Japan, these games favored real time battles over the classic turn-based fare. Although the game was very popular in the west, its sequel Seiken Denetsu 3 never saw the light of day outside of Japan. One of the last games Square developed for a Nintendo system was the Nintendo-published Super Mario RPG. Ironically, at a time when it seemed that the alliance between Square and Nintendo couldn't get any stronger, the first signs of tension sprang forth. Due to these tensions, Super Mario RPG was never released in the PAL territories. |  Final Fantasy V  Super Mario RPG |
 Final Fantasy VII  Tobal 2 | Shortly before the release of Nintendo's N64, Square announced to the world that they were jumping ship to Sony's new system, the Playstation. Citing their inability to fulfill their vision for future RPGs on the console's cartridge format, Square went on to become quite possibly the biggest influence of the 32/64-bit generation. As soon as Square released Final Fantasy VII on Sony's console, gamers flocked en masse to Sony's side, and where the public went, so too did the other third parties, leaving Nintendo behind. Square, in what seems to be a tradition, released the third trilogy of Final Fantasy games on the Playstation. All three were released under their original names, as Sony saw fit to restore the broken chronology of the series. Although many say that Square's departure from Nintendo marked the decline in the quality of their games, there is no doubting that the company experienced its greatest growth and success under Sony's wing. Branching out into numerous genres, including shooters (Einhander), fighters (Tobal series, Ergheiz), and racers (Chocobo Racing). Creating new talent, and buying them out when necessary (e.g. Quest), Square used their newfound strength to diversify as much as possible. |
Future Prognosis
| Although Square has teased gamers with the idea of jumping ship to Microsoft or Nintendo, they have confirmed that the fourth trilogy in the Final Fantasy series will be arriving on Playstation 2. Also, seemingly abandoning the lucrative Game Boy Color (and now, Game Boy Advance) market, they have re-made the first three games in the Final Fantasy series for the Wonderswan Color. Wherever Square goes, and whatever they decide to do next, their loyal fan base continues to grow, assuring them a solid, successful spot in the industry for the foreseeable future. |  Final Fantasy X |
Current Relationship with Nintendo
| Although the relationship between the two giants is strained at the moment, there are signs of possible reconciliation. Recent rumblings within the third-party reveal that their plans for a portable remake of Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI may not be technically feasible on the Wonderswan Color. As such, the only viable alternative is Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. Unfortunately, Yamauchi stated that Square would not be developing games for the Game Boy Advance in the foreseeable future. While many believe that Yamauchi is retaliating for Square's betrayal to Sony years ago, others see it as a tactical move. They believe that Yamauchi is holding out for Square to sign up for development of GameCube games in addition to adding its lineup to the GBA library. |  Hiroshi Yamauchi |
What Should Nintendo Do About Them?
| The massive popularity of Square would be an incredible boon to Nintendo. Although it doesn't have quite as much clout as it did in the last generation, it is still a powerful force in this industry. While many Nintendophiles are angry that Yamauchi denied Square the opportunity to make GBA games, one must realize that the GBA is in no need of Square's games to be successful. As it is already poised to take over the monopolistic hold its two predecessors held, Nintendo has no real need of Square in the GBA market. Square's games are needed on the Nintendo GameCube, and while Yamauchi continues to dangle the cash cow that is the Game Boy Advance in front of Square's gaping maw, there may yet be a chance that they will take the bait. |  Game Boy Advance |
