Did the Squaresoft Enix Merger Kill Final Fantasy?

In today's episode we look at the history of the Square Enix merger of 2003 that absorbed the renowned JRPG developer Squaresoft, and forever changed the trajectory of their flagship titles, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Here we look at some of the notable personnel past and present and the respective impacts they had on the Final Fantasy anthology and the direction of Square Enix as a business. Individuals such as Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Hisashi Suzuki, Yoichi Wada, and most recently president Takashi Kiryu who has recently taken leadership of Square, have each shaped the fortunes of Final Fantasy through their leadership style and creative direction. We also look at the comparatively different business models of the former companies Enix, which as a publisher primarily acquired IP rights and shopped development, and Squaresoft which was an in-house developer creating their own JRPG IPs, and how these collided in 2003 to create quite a weird hybrid company; and one that has consistently sought to break into the western market by buying up properties such as Eidos interactive (including Crystal Dynamics), and their IPs such as Tomb Raider, Hitman, Legacy of Kain, and Deus Ex. And also the weird approach to bespoke games development such as building homegrown engines like Crystal Tools and Luminous Engine... finally we consider what impact this has had on subsequent Final Fantasy games from their earliest releases together; Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII, up to the present day with Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

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