___________________________ ___/ \________________________________________________ Developer Profile, Square Originally written for SonySource.com, a subsidiary of Cloudchaser Media, Inc. ________________________________________________________________________________ by Brandon "Nym" Butler Squaresoft, a name that's become synonymous with role-playing titles of the utmost quality, is just one of the many companies that set out to bring innovation in an otherwise stagnant entertainment industry. In a way, it's rather ironic how a game developer formerly on the verge of bankruptcy has become one of the most, if not the most, dedicated team of role-playing and adventure game developers on the planet today. My ultimate goal in writing this article is to reveal Square's past, revel in their present and show you what's in store for the future. With that, I'll leave you to read one of the most comprehensive Squaresoft exposés online. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Business Locations --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japanese Offices: Square Co. Ltd. Arco Tower 1-8-1 Shimomeguro Meguro, Tokyo 153-8688 North American Offices: Square Electronic Arts L.L.C. 6060 Center Drive Suite 100 Los Angeles, CA 90045 European Offices: Square Europe Ltd. Walmar House 296 Regent St. London W1B 3AW Contact Information: Website: www.squaresoft.com E-Mail: support@squaresoft.com Telephone (Japan): 03-5496-7117 Telephone (USA): (714) 438-1708 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Game History --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) Deep Dungeon III Yuushihano Tabi (Trip of Brave Warrior) (Import) Final Fantasy Final Fantasy II (Import) Final Fantasy I-II (Import) Final Fantasy III (Import) Hanjuku Hero (Poor with English Hero) (Import) JJ (Import) King’s Knight Rad Racer (Highway Star) Rad Racer II (U.S. Only) Square’s Tom Sawyer (Import) Teguzaa (Import) World Runner Famicom Disk System Akuusenki Raging (Raging History of the Skies of Asia) (Import) Apple Town Monogatari (The Apple Town Legend) (Import) Cleopatra no Mahou (Cleopatra’s Evil Treasure) (Import) Deep Dungeon Madousenki (Military History of Demon Cavern) (Import) Deep Dungeon II Yuushino Monshou (Brave Warrior’s Crest) (Import) Hao-kun no Fushigina Tabi (Hao’s Mysterious Journey) (Import) Jikaishounen Met Mag (Magnetic World Boys Meet Mag) (Import) Kariin no Tsurugi (Karin’s Sword) (Import) Moonball Magic (Import) Suishouno Ryuu (The Crystal Dragon) (Import) Tobidase Oosakusen (World Runner) (Import) Game Boy Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu) Final Fantasy Legend I (Makaitoshi SaGa) Final Fantasy Legend II (SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu) Final Fantasy Legend III (SaGa 3: Dekisorano Nahamono Kanketsuhon) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Famicom) Aa, Sekaiyo Hanjukunare (Um, the World is Half Mature!!) (Import) Alcahest (Import) Bahamut Lagoon (Import) Breath of Fire (developed by Capcom, published by Square) Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy IV (II in U.S.) Final Fantasy V (Almost Final Fantasy Extreme, cancelled in U.S.) Final Fantasy VI (III in U.S.) Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest Front Mission (Import) Front Mission: Gun Hazard (Import) Live-A-Live (Import) Romancing SaGa (Import) Romancing SaGa 2 (Import) Romancing SaGa 3 (Import) Rudra no Hihou (Rudra’s Secret Treasure) (Import) Secret of Evermore Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) Seiken Densetsu 3 (Legend of the Holy Sword 3) (Import) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars Treasure Hunter G (Import) Super Famicom Satellaview Chrono Trigger: Character Library (Import) Chrono Trigger: Jet Bike Special (The Jonny C. Bad mini-game) (Import) Chrono Trigger: Music Library (Import) Radical Dreamers (Text Adventure, basic plot of Chrono Cross) (Import) Sony PlayStation Another Mind (Import) Brave Fencer Musashi (Brave Fencer Musashiden) Bushido Blade Bushido Blade 2 (Bushido Blade Ni) Chocobo Collection (Import) Chocobo Racing Chocobo Stallion (Import) Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon (Import) Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 (Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon 2) Chrono Cross Chrono Trigger (Import) Cyber-Org (Import) Dice de Chocobo Einhander Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring Final Fantasy I + II (Import) Final Fantasy IV (Import) Final Fantasy V (Import) Final Fantasy VI (Import) Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII International (Import) Final Fantasy VIII Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy Anthology (Final Fantasy Collection, sans FF IV) Final Fantasy Chronicles (Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger) Final Fantasy Collection (Import) (Final Fantasy IV, V and VI) Final Fantasy Origins (PS rerelease of Final Fantasy I and II) Final Fantasy Tactics Front Mission 2 (Import) Front Mission Alternative (Import) Front Mission 3 iS: Internal Section (Import, Cancelled) Legend of Mana (Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana) Parasite Eve Parasite Eve II Racing Lagoon (Import) SaGa Frontier SaGa Frontier II Soukaigi (Dual World Affair) (Import) Threads of Fate (Dewprism) Tobal No. 1 Tobal 2 (Import) Vagrant Story Xenogears Sony PlayStation 2 All-Star Pro Wrestling (Import) The Bouncer Driving Emotion Type-S Final Fantasy X Gekikuukan Pro Baseball: At The End Of The Century 1999 (Import) Kingdom Hearts Unlimited SaGa (Import) Nintendo Gamecube Final Fantasy, Crystal Chronicles Game Boy Advance Final Fantasy Tactics Advance WonderSwan Color Blue Wing Blitz Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon (ported by Bandai, licensed by Square) Final Fantasy Final Fantasy II Final Fantasy III WildCard Working Chocobo Arcade Cabinet Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring (Import) Windows-based Personal Computer Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VIII --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- People of Interest --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hironobu Sakaguchi Known as the man who pulled Square out of financial ruin and the father of the Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi is considered one of the most influential minds in the console role-playing genre today, not to mention the gaming industry at large. His accomplishments are many, especially considering his pessimistic attitude over how well his "Final Fantasy" would sell. As one of the most grounded people in the role-playing genre, Hironobu Sakaguchi is the driving force behind Square and even though he is not directly responsible for all of Square’s game projects since day one, it’s still pretty safe to say that he’s responsible for keeping the company afloat long enough to produce classic bestsellers such as Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and Vagrant Story. Portfolio (Highlights Include) 1987:: Final Fantasy 1988:: Final Fantasy II 1990:: Final Fantasy III 1991:: Final Fantasy IV 1992:: Final Fantasy V 1994:: Final Fantasy VI 1995:: Chrono Trigger 1997:: Final Fantasy VII 1997:: Final Fantasy Tactics 1998:: Final Fantasy VIII 2000:: Final Fantasy IX 2001:: Final Fantasy X 2002:: Final Fantasy XI 2003:: Final Fantasy X-2 2005:: Final Fantasy XII Yasumi Matsuno Made famous worldwide by the recent PlayStation strategy role-playing title / dungeon crawler, "Vagrant Story", Yasumi Matsuno previously worked on Quest’s Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre. He was hired by Square a few years ago to be the writer and director of Final Fantasy Tactics. After directing and producing Vagrant Story though, rumors abounded that he'd been let go after the project was complete, due to poor sales of the title in Japan, and all this despite the fact that the title was given the coveted "perfect score" from the world-renounced Japanese gaming magazine, Weekly Famitsu. These rumors eventually proved to be unsubstantiated. Portfolio (Highlights Include) 1997:: Final Fantasy Tactics 2000:: Vagrant Story 2003:: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2005:: Final Fantasy XII Nobuo Uematsu Known by many a Final Fantasy fan as the man behind the music, Nobuo Uematsu has provided many an epic musical score and strikingly memorable composition since day one. Though he did help with Chrono Trigger, as part of the Dream Project team at Square, he took a backseat to newcomer Yasunori Mitsuda*, whose fresh, catchy compositions overshadowed some of Uematsu’s best. Although some say that he has lost his musical touch over the PlayStation installments of Final Fantasy, many still think of him as one of the best in the industry. He’s currently working on the score for Final Fantasy XII. Portfolio (Highlights Include) 1987:: Final Fantasy 1988:: Final Fantasy II 1990:: Final Fantasy III 1991:: Final Fantasy IV 1992:: Final Fantasy V 1994:: Final Fantasy VI 1995:: Chrono Trigger* 1997:: Final Fantasy VII 1998:: Final Fantasy VIII 2000:: Final Fantasy IX 2001:: Final Fantasy X 2002:: Final Fantasy XI 2003:: Final Fantasy X-2 2005:: Final Fantasy XII Yasunori Mitsuda A relative newcomer to the ranks of Square, Yasunori Mitsuda made a name for himself with his Original Soundtrack for the 1995 Square release, Chrono Trigger. After his work on Chrono Trigger was complete, he worked on the downloadable Satellaview text adventure*, Radical Dreamers. His first solo game composition, the Xenogears Original Soundtrack, brought a broader, more ethnic approach to his composition and expanded his musical horizons. His most recent work for Square, Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack, has earned him even more respect from his colleagues and he promises more revolutionary soundtracks when he begins work on Sony’s PlayStation 2, which will allow for Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound encoding and improved sound compression. Portfolio 1995:: Chrono Trigger 1996:: Radical Dreamers* 1998:: Xenogears 1999:: Chrono Cross 2000:: Shadow Hearts (for Midway) 2001:: Tsuganai: Atonement (for Atlus) 2002:: Xenosaga, Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (for Namco) 2005:: Chrono Break Yoshitaka Amano The artist responsible for Sandman: The Dream Catchers, Hero: Legend of the Future, and many other illustrated works and Japanese manga is also the main man behind the character designs for Final Fantasy I-VI, and though he took a backseat to newcomer Tetsuya Nomura for VII and VIII*, he still contributed a few pieces of artwork for the titles and made his long-awaited return in Final Fantasy IX. And while he will be taking a backseat once again for installments X, X-2 and XI**, there’s a very strong possibly of him returning for the production of Final Fantasy XII when it begins in mid-2002. Portfolio (Highlights Include) 1987:: Final Fantasy 1988:: Final Fantasy II 1990:: Final Fantasy III 1991:: Final Fantasy IV 1992:: Final Fantasy V 1994:: Final Fantasy VI 1997:: Final Fantasy VII* 1998:: Final Fantasy VIII* 2000:: Final Fantasy IX 2001:: Final Fantasy X** 2002:: Final Fantasy XI** 2005:: Final Fantasy XII Tetsuya Nomura The young artist responsible for the much more modern approach to character design in Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X. His style is markedly different from that of Yoshitaka Amano, the series’ former visionary of characterization. On top of designing every character in Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X, he also designed the characters for Parasite Eve, its sequel Parasite Eve II, Brave Fencer Musashi and Dewprism, known in the U.S. as "Threads of Fate", as well as contributing his character designing talents to Square and Dream Factory's PS2 production, The Bouncer. He made his directorial debut in Squaresoft's recent Disney-themed action RPG, Kingdom Hearts, and is set to direct the title's immediate follow-up as well. Portfolio 1997:: Final Fantasy VII 1997:: Parasite Eve 1998:: Brave Fencer Musashi 1998:: Final Fantasy VIII 1999:: Threads of Fate (Dewprism) 1999:: Parasite Eve II 2000:: The Bouncer 2001:: Final Fantasy X 2002:: Kingdom Hearts 2003:: Final Fantasy X-2 2004:: Kingdom Hearts 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Projects --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2003:: Completed Merger with fellow Japanese RPG conglom Enix. 2003:: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Game Boy Advance) 2003:: Final Fantasy XI (Sony PlayStation 2) 2003:: Final Fantasy XI (Sony PlayStation 2) 2003:: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (Nintendo Gamecube) 2003:: Final Fantasy X-2 (Sony PlayStation 2) 2004:: Unlimited SaGa 2004:: Kingdom Hearts 2 (Sony PlayStation 2) 2005:: Final Fantasy XII (Sony PlayStation 2) 2005:: Chrono Break --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Development Teams & Subsidiaries --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digicube [http://www.digicube.co.jp] Japanese publisher of almost every Square produced product ever made. Dream Factory [http://www.dreamfactory.co.jp] The team responsible for making many of Square’s newly established fighting games and action brawlers, such as the original Tobal No. 1, its import-only sequel Tobal 2, Ehrgeiz, and recently, The Bouncer. Electronic Arts Square L.L.C. The Japanese branch of the joint venture between Electronic Arts and Square. Responsible for publishing Electronic Arts titles in Japan, since May 1st, 1998. Disestablished in the first quarter of 2003, in favor of a merger with Enix. This contract agreement changes the name of the joint venture to "Square Enix." Escape [http://www.escape.co.jp] The team responsible for a majority of Square’s driving or racing games, such as Racing Lagoon and Driving Emotion Type-S, Escape is one of Square’s less appreciated development subsidiaries. Kusana A Square business subsidiary. I’m not quite sure how they fit into the equation of Square’s business model, but I’m sure whatever they do is very important to the development process. Positron Another Square business subsidiary. I’m not quite sure how they fit into Square’s business model either, but I’m sure whatever they do is essential to the game development process. Solid A Square programming subsidiary. I’m pretty sure they handle development and programming issues. Obviously, this makes them an essential part of Square’s overall business structure... Square Co. Ltd. [http://www.square.co.jp] Considered to be the global headquarters of Square, Square Co. Ltd. in Kyoto, Japan is also the place where a vast majority of Square’s game software is developed and then published. Square Electronic Arts L.L.C. The American branch of the joint venture between Electronic Arts and Square. They’ve been responsible for publishing every Squaresoft title in North America since May 1st, 1998. Disestablished at the beginning of Square's 2003 fiscal year, in favor of a merger with Enix Co. Ltd. This contract agreement changes the name of the joint venture to "Square Enix U.S.A." Square Europe, Ltd. [http://www.square-europe.com] The European branch of Squaresoft. They recently struck a deal with publisher Infogrames and SVG Distribution to distribute their games, translated into languages other than English, such as, Italian, French, German and Spanish, throughout greater Europe. Due to the merger between Square Co. Ltd. and Enix Corporation, this venture currently continues operation under Square Enix Europe. Square Next The subsidiary of Squaresoft that handles the development of geometry and texturing tools for programming games and researches hardware necessary for developing games on advanced graphical platforms, I think. Square Pictures, Inc. The film making firm recently founded in order to produce the multi-million dollar Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Funded primarily by Columbia/TriStar Pictures, a subsidiary of Sony, the film flopped at the box-office, causing the studio to not only liquidate Square Pictures assets, but the transfer the few remaining crew members to other studios. One group of former Square Pictures employees has designed a Matrix-themed short for Warner Brothers, entitled "The Final Flight of the Osiris", to be released on the upcoming Warner Brothers release "The Animatrix." Squaresoft [http://www.squaresoft.com] Not only the U.S. branch of Square Co. Ltd., Squaresoft has actually made and helped produce games for its Japanese parent company for years. Its first American development effort came in the form of Secret of Evermore, which did poorly despite its unique style and approach. It is also responsible for hiring any American talent needed to produce CG sequences, polygon models, etc. that cannot be handled by internal teams at Square Co. Ltd. Also largely responsible for the fast and fairly accurate English translations that we receive. Square Sounds Obviously the team that develops the sound effects, orchestrated music and compositions for Square’s various game projects. Composers Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda and Hitoshi Sakimoto all spend a majority of their sound and music development time in this subsidiary. Square U.S.A. [http://www.squareusa.com] Based out of Honolulu, Hawaii, Square U.S.A. is responsible for recently working on much of Square's Final Fantasy IX and the Square Picture film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Square Visual Works The company subsidiary responsible for producing many of Square’s high-quality full-motion video sequences, they recently worked on Parasite Eve II and Final Fantasy IX, among others. Squartz As the quality assurance subsidiary of Square Co. Ltd., they’re responsible for making sure Square’s productions are as refined and debugged as they can be. I guess we can blame them for the import Final Fantasy VIII's buggy save system. =| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Independent Contributors --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lightweight [http://www.lightweight.co.jp] The development team responsible for Square’s innovative Bushido Blade series. Unfortunately, they’ve since left Square Co. Ltd. to publish their next project, an original title for the PlayStation 2 called "Kengo: Master of Bushido", on Crave Entertainment's label in North America. Namco Hometek [http://www.namco.co.jp] As the co-developer of the Arcade / PlayStation fighting title, Ehrgeiz, Namco severed their ties with Square after Ehrgeiz failed to impress both Arcade gamers and PlayStation owners alike. Along with Tetsuya Takahashi's recently-formed Monolith Software company, Namco has inherited the rights to Square's Xenogears franchise, releasing "Xenosaga Episode I, Der Wille zur Macht", the very first of six planned episodes in the Tetsuya Takahashi-written space opera. Bird Studios [http://www.birdstudios.co.jp] After handling the character designs for the Super Famicom hit, Chrono Trigger, Akira Toriyama and Bird Studios also developed original characters for both Tobal No. 1 and its spectacular sequel, Tobal 2. After a somewhat short alliance with Square, Akira Toriyama returned to Enix to design Dragon Quest VII’s characters, while Bird Studios contributed animated cutscenes to the PlayStation remix of Chrono Trigger. No word yet on whether the Chrono series will see his return in the recently announced follow-up to Chrono Cross, "Chrono Break." Disney [http://www.disney.com] Shortly after announcing a tentative deal to produce a role-playing game set in an undisclosed Disney franchise, both Square and Disney stunned the world again by announcing Kingdom Hearts at the 2001 E3, a title which would place original characters designed by Tetsuya Nomura in a wide variety of Disney universes. A follow-up to the original Kingdom Hearts has been officially confirmed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company History --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyone who's been playing video games for as long as I have (since the NES, at least) should already know how Square got their start in the industry, but for those of you who aren't exactly "in the know", I'll elaborate a bit. Square Co. Ltd. was a small video game software publishing/developing company that was down on its luck. After the rather lackluster sales of their few Nintendo titles, such as World Runner, King's Knight and two titles in their Rad Racer series, their CEO was about to call it quits and just disband the company altogether. It was Chapter 11 for the would-be software giant, until a man named Hironobu Sakaguchi stepped forward. Hironobu Sakaguchi had a simple, yet brilliant idea. His plan was to capitalize on the popularity and success of Enix's famous Dragon Quest series (known in North America as Dragon Warrior), by making a title much like it, but with a more challenging level of difficulty and a level of playability and customization that was yet unseen in the field of role-playing games, or RPGs for short. Thinking that he would likely never work in the gaming industry again, Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to call the title "Final Fantasy". Unbeknownst to him, his "last" game would become a flagship series for the company, launching them swiftly back into safe financial territory. The company known as Square was here to stay, all thanks to a simple last ditch effort. Square went on to publish numerous titles for both the Nintendo and Game Boy, including Final Fantasy II (an NES game which brought about the series' first real congruent, notable storyline and never made it stateside), Final Fantasy III (an NES game which also never made it stateside), Seiken Densetsu (known here as Final Fantasy Adventure), the Game Boy SaGa titles (which we know as Square and Sunsoft's Final Fantasy Legend series). When Nintendo's second home console, the Super Famicom (known as the Super Nintendo in North America) hit, they released what is arguably their grestest lineup for any console ever, including Final Fantasy IV (II here, brought the series into the 16-bit realm), Live-A-Live (a strange title that had you playing a variety of people in different time periods) Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (ack!), Final Fantasy V (SNES game, made its official way stateside in Final Fantasy Anthology), the Romancing SaGa series (none of which ever came stateside), Secret of Mana (or Seiken Densetsu II), Final Fantasy VI (III here, became one of the most popular Final Fantasies stateside), Chrono Trigger, Seiken Densetsu 3 (which didn't make it stateside, despite its excellence), Secret of Evermore (the first American developed Square RPG) and, finally, Super Mario RPG (the first and only role-playing title ever programmed and co- developed by both Shigeru Miyamoto and Square)... whew. Anyway, at this point, Square began designing and planning the game that would be known to the public as Final Fantasy VII. With more than three years between the sixth and seventh installment, the folks at Square had quite a bit riding on the latest in their flagship series. However, it wasn't until Nintendo announced its intention to go with a high- density cartridge format for their next system, then dubbed the Nintendo Ultra 64, that Square announced its intention to develop for a relatively new contender for console domination, Sony's very own PlayStation. The decision was met with both anticipation and disapproval from the gaming public at large. Some wondered how Square, a company so used to telling its stories on the cartridge format, would adapt to the fresh new development environment offered by Sony. However, it only took until about 1997 for the reality of the situation to take full effect. That was the year when Final Fantasy VII was unleashed on the gaming public worldwide. Contained on a massive collection of three compact discs, Final Fantasy VII represented a swift change to the series. Gone was the size restriction and unnecessary expense of the low-density cartridge format. With compact discs, Square could put not only more gameplay, but better looking graphics, more textures, more sprites, and even a few computer-rendered full motion video sequences, which allowed the story and characters to come to life unlike ever before... Square also went on to publish many titles in genres other than role-playing after the monster success that was Final Fantasy VII, including Tobal No. 1 (a fighter), Bushido Blade and its sequel (sword fighting titles), Final Fantasy Tactics (a strategy title designed by several ex-Quest members, the folks responsible for Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre), SaGa Frontier (ack!), Einhänder (a shooter), Parasite Eve (a modern "cinematic RPG"), Xenogears (a supposedly "controversial" role-playing title) and Brave Fencer Musashi. Quite a few failed concepts and cancelled projects came and went, including graphic adventure, Another Mind, mind-blowing shooter, Internal Section (which allowed you to play to your choice of audio CD) and the excellent import-only (D'oh!) Tobal 2. However, after a brief bout with developer's block, Square pulled the next big thing out of their hat. However, after finishing Final Fantasy VII, the development teams sought to improve the current formula of the series by adding better graphics, more textures, crisper environments and a vastly altered form of the typical Final Fantasy battle engine. Final Fantasy VIII, which was a major departure from the series' fantasy roots, was released in September of 1999 and marked the first title in the series to have smaller menus, life-size characters and a more modern storyline. After the eighth installment in their flagship series, Square released several smaller, low-key titles, such as the Chocobo games, which were geared more towards little kids. It wasn't until the year 2000 that things really started to pick up. Square promised to deliver seven titles within the year, and deliver they did. SaGa Frontier 2, Front Mission 3, Vagrant Story, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve II and Final Fantasy IX all made it stateside within the year and, for the first time, role-playing and adventure fans were actually overloaded with titles to play... By the end of January 2001, Square released Driving Emotion Type-S, their first racing title for the PlayStation 2. And by the end of March, we saw the domestic release of the cinematic action-packed PS2 brawler, The Bouncer. And in the months that followed, we saw not only the import (July 2002), but also the domestic release (December 2002) of the long-awaited Final Fantasy X, which arguably innovated the series yet again, much in the way that Final Fantasy VII did in 1997, with quite a few firsts for the series, including real-time facial expressions, motion captured movements, and even voice acting. Beyond that, we saw the release of Square's second major joint venture, the first role-playing game produced by both Square and Disney called Kingdom Hearts in Japan in March 2001, and in North America in September 2002. The game placed Tetsuya Nomura's original character designs for a boy named Sora alongside the likes of Donald, Goofy and other classic Disney characters, and Nomura himself in the director's chair, for the first time. At the beginning of the fiscal year 2003, Square and Enix finalized a complete merger of their respective companies into a formidable conglomerate now known as "Square Enix." Current stockholders then received roughly 81-87 yen per share when compared with each 100 yen share of Enix. The merger was approved by all involved and it was agreed that Square flagship series "Final Fantasy" and Enix flagship series "Dragon Quest" would remain mutually exclusive. In the year 2003, Square is set to have quite a full plate. Their last Electronic Arts-published title, "Final Fantasy Origins" will mark the end of an era for the now-infamous RPG company, with the newly joint venture Square Enix now readying to publish the likes of Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and the historic first direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy X-2, due out in North America in November 2003. It looks like Square fans can rest assured, as this is only the beginning...