Square

Square began in 1983 as the game-software division of a power-line-construction company, the brainchild of Masafumi Miyamoto, who envisioned games made by small teams of specialists rather than lone programmers. It was spun off as the independent Square Co., Ltd. in 1986. Its early computer titles struggled, and by 1987 the company was reportedly near collapse.

That desperation produced its salvation. Designer Hironobu Sakaguchi poured everything into what he assumed would be his last project, naming it Final Fantasy. The 1987 NES RPG was a hit that saved the company and launched a franchise that would come to define an entire genre. Successive entries — especially Final Fantasy IV, VI, and the epoch-making Final Fantasy VII in 1997 — married sweeping narratives, memorable characters, and cutting-edge presentation. Final Fantasy VII in particular, with its lavish pre-rendered backgrounds and cinematic ambition, made Japanese RPGs a global phenomenon and helped sell the PlayStation to a Western mainstream.

Square's talent roster was extraordinary. Beyond Sakaguchi, it fostered composer Nobuo Uematsu, artist Yoshitaka Amano, and designers who produced Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, and the Kingdom Hearts collaboration with Disney. For a stretch in the 1990s, a new Square RPG was practically synonymous with the state of the art.

The company overreached with the 2001 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a technically ambitious CGI movie whose box-office failure inflicted heavy financial damage. Weakened and seeking stability, Square merged in April 2003 with its longtime rival Enix — the publisher of Dragon Quest — to form Square Enix, ending its life as an independent company.

Though Square as a standalone entity is gone, its legacy is towering: it did more than any other studio to elevate the Japanese RPG into a prestige form and to prove games could deliver emotional, novelistic storytelling. Final Fantasy remains one of gaming's flagship franchises, and the merged Square Enix continues to build on the catalog Square created.